Surreal Geographies: A New History of Holocaust Consciousness
Book Launch
On February 10 2025, the Leiden Jewish Studies Network convened a lively roundtable and catered reception at the Faculty Club to celebrate the launch of Dr. Kate Brackney’s new book, Surreal Geographies: A New History of Holocaust Consciousness (University of Wisconsin Press, 2024), winner of the George L Mosse First Book Prize in the History of European Culture, Sexuality, and Ideas.
Kate Brackney is a staff member of the Institute for History at Leiden University. Her book recovers a forgotten archive of Holocaust representation. Through a wide selection of art, literature, and other media, Dr. Brackney shows how portrayals of Jewish victims and survivors have shifted over time from an otherworldly 'Planet Auschwitz' to the spare, intimate spaces of eye-witness interviews that characterize Holocaust remembrance today. In so doing, she demonstrates that the Holocaust has been understood not only through canonical works of documentary realism and postmodern fragmentation so often described by other scholars but also through an alternative, surreal mode of meaning making. By tracking long-term, transnational shifts in the aesthetic conventions of Holocaust remembrance, the book reveals the slow cultural processes by which victims of genocide have been enframed as fully human, 'grievable lives' beyond survivor communities.
The roundtable included commentary by three outstanding guests. Prof. Eva Pfanzelter, head of the Digital Humanities Research Centre and Deputy Head of the Institute of Contemporary History at the University of Innsbruck, joined the discussion during her Visiting Professorship in Central European Studies at Leiden University. Zoe Roth also contributed to the roundtable offering her insights from the book 'Formal Matters: Embodied Experience in Modern Literature' (2022) and the project 'The Anaesthetics of Politics: Fascism, Form, and Aesthetic Experience'. Lastly, Prof. Frank van Vree, author of many books, professor emeritus of the History of War, Conflict and Memory at the University of Amsterdam, Cleveringa Chair at Leiden University, and a former director of the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, contributed his knowledge and insights to the discussion.
The event, alongside the introduction and promotion of Dr. Brackney’s new book, has gathered the members and friends of Leiden Jewish Studies Network and beyond, contributing to strengthening the community and building professional relationships. The Leiden Jewish Studies Network is looking forward to hosting similar successful events in the future.