The "Wave of Smears“ in 1959/1960

Authors:

Details

Location

Hamburg, Germany

Date

2015

Focus

Antisemitism, Education, Hate Speech, History, Holocaust

Medium

Awareness Campaign, Education

Article

The “Wave of Smears“ in 1959/1960 in the city of Hamburg illustrated how latent Antisemitism can escalate in a democratic society within a few days. This project raises awareness of covert Antisemitism, educates about the history of hateful graffiti in Hamburg and develops teaching materials.

The project consists of four major steps:

  1. Exploring the incidents in Hamburg through archival research, police records, press photos, interviews with contemporary witnesses etc.,
  2. Developing substantial educational materials in an appealing design,
  3. Presenting the findings and the materials in a panel discussion with experts on Antisemitism as well as with history teachers and historians,
  4. Publishing the findings in a scientific journal.

Download their teaching materials (in German) here.

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