Laurien Vastenhout whatishappeningnow What is Happening Now?

Laurien Vastenhout (1991) studied Holocaust and Genocidestudies at the University of Amsterdam and graduated from a Research Master in History at the same university. During her studies, she has worked for Stichting 4 en 5 mei Amsterdam and the Jewish Historical Museum. Currently, she is doing PhD research at the University of Sheffield (United Kingdom) on the functioning of the Jewish Councils of The Netherlands, Belgium and France during the Second World War. In addition, she is Associate Researcher at the NIOD Institute for War- Holocaust and Genocidestudies. Her main interests are Jewish History, anti-semitism and the Holocaust. For whatishappeningnow.org she will focus on the tensions in Israel, contemporary anti-Semitism and the memorialization of the Second World War.

Articles
- HDP x WHN: Oorlogstoerisme
  This event is in Dutch. Aankomende maandag 23 april organiseert What is Happening Now? in samenwerking met Huis De Pinto en de Amsterdamse alumnivereniging Holocaust en Genocidestudies een thema-avond over ‘Oorlogstoerisme’. Tijdens deze avond zullen What Is Happening Now-leden… Continue Reading →
- Politicised Tourism: What You Need to Know Before You Book a Tour to the Holy Land
  By Laurien Vastenhout – The last time I visited Israel, and in particular the various religious sites throughout the country, I was once again struck by the vast number of organised group tours. Groups of people, singing religious… Continue Reading →
- Populist rivalry: Trump’s impact on the future and politics of Israel
  Trump speaking at CPAC 2011 (creative commons). By Laurien Vastenhout After a period of disbelief and evasive responses, the world now has to face that Donald Trump is President of the United States. To the extent possible,… Continue Reading →
- Event Review – ‘Rooms of Humanity’
  By Laurien Vastenhout & Arja Oomkens On September 19th we visited ‘Rooms of Humanity’, an interactive and experimental exhibition which theatre directors Ilil Landboss and Giselle Vegter made especially for this evening. The promise to address the complexities of… Continue Reading →
- Film Review: Im Labyrinth des Schweigens – “The Disclosure of a Disturbed Past”
  By Laurien Vastenhout and Marieke Zoodsma – It was not the handsome leading actor on the promotion poster of the film Im Labyrinth des Schweigens (Labyrinth of Lies) that stirred our young historians’ blood. This was rather caused by… Continue Reading →
- The Future of Israel: The Impediments of the Upcoming Elections
  By Laurien Vastenhout – After the Charlie Hebdo attacks in France, Benjamin Netanyahu encouraged European Jews to settle in Israel. Not only because he considered it to be their sole homeland but also because, due to increasing anti-semitism in Europe, the… Continue Reading →
- “We Are You”: The Meaning of the Holocaust in Israeli Identity and Politics
  By Laurien Vastenhout – By After the ‘march of unity’ of world leaders in Paris on the 11th of January, which was a response to the terrorist attacks on both the French newspaper Charlie Hebdo and the Jewish grocery store… Continue Reading →

Definitioner

Diaspora Jews

Diaspora is Greek for 'dispersion'. Diaspora Jews refers to those Jews living outside the land of Israel. The Hebrew word is Tefutsot.

Shoah

The biblical word Shoah (which has been used to mean “destruction” since the Middle Ages) became the standard Hebrew term for the murder of European Jewry as early as the early 1940s. The word Holocaust, which came into use in the 1950s as the corresponding term, originally meant a sacrifice burnt entirely on the altar. The selection of these two words with religious origins reflects recognition of the unprecedented nature and magnitude of the events. Many understand Holocaust as a general term for the crimes and horrors perpetrated by the Nazis; others go even farther and use it to encompass other acts of mass murder as well. Consequently, the Hebrew word Shoah is often used to refer to the persecution of European Jewry exclusively (in other languages as well).

Benjamin Netanyahu

Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu (Oct, 21 1949) is an Iraeli politician and the current Prime Minister of Israel. Political party: Likud, the major center-right political party in Israel.

Holocaust

This was the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators. "Holocaust" is a word of Greek origin meaning "sacrifice by fire." The Nazis, who came to power in Germany in January 1933, believed that Germans were "racially superior" and that the Jews, deemed "inferior," were an alien threat to the so-called German racial community. During the era of the Holocaust, German authorities also targeted other groups because of their perceived "racial inferiority": Roma (Gypsies), the disabled, and some of the Slavic peoples (Poles, Russians, and others). Other groups were persecuted on political, ideological, and behavioral grounds, among them Communists, Socialists, Jehovah's Witnesses and homosexuals.

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