Beyond memory: how Holocaust remembrance must adapt to new audiences

Cultural theorist Aleida Assmann has suggested that “communicative memory” – the kind passed directly from those who lived through events – lasts for around eighty years. At first, that sounds like an academic observation. But eight decades on from the Holocaust it feels more immediate.

We are living through the very moment she described: the point at which memory begins to slip from the hands of those who experienced it into those who did not.

As witnesses fade, memory risks fading with them

For much of the past eighty years, Holocaust remembrance has had human reference points. Survivors told of their experiences and people listened – such powerful testimonies made the past feel close. Not just something that happened, but something that was lived. We didn’t need to be told why it mattered, because we could hear it.

That closeness is now steadily and irreversibly fading, and with it comes a quiet but significant shift. Memory is no longer being handed down by those who were there, but carried by those who were not. Which raises the question of what happens to something so bound up in first-hand experience when it must rely entirely on second and third hand accounts?

For many now the Holocaust is not a central historical narrative

At the same time, the audiences engaging with that memory are changing too. Europe today is not the Europe of 1945 – it is more diverse and more shaped by global movement and exchange.

For many people now living here – including those whose families come from parts of the world where the Holocaust is not central to the historical narrative – this is a historical memory encountered later, sometimes at a distance, alongside other histories that feel closer to home.

This isn’t a problem but it does change the terms of remembrance. The idea that everyone comes to the Holocaust with the same frame of reference and sense of proximity no longer holds. What has changed is that this diversity of perspective is now more visible and more important to engage with.

Because people do not encounter history as blank slates – they bring their own experiences of conflict and injustice with them. These experiences shape what resonates with people, and what feels familiar. If Holocaust remembrance is to remain meaningful, it must make space for these different starting points in practice, not just in principle.

Walking a fine line: the delicate balance at stake

An example of this approach can be seen in the work of the Kreuzberg Initiative against Antisemitism (KIgA) in Berlin, Germany which has spent more than two decades working against antisemitism and racism in communities with diverse migration backgrounds.

Its chair and IHRA delegate, Derviş Hızarcı, has spoken about the importance of creating spaces where questions can be asked and trust can be built, rather than assuming that all audiences begin from the same historical reference points.

This is all of course a delicate balance and a fine line to tread. The Holocaust is a specific, unprecedented historical event, with its own context, its own mechanisms and meaning.

At the same time, shutting down points of connection altogether risks turning remembrance into something static – something that we observe, rather than understand. The challenge is to allow different histories to speak to each other without losing their distinctiveness.

As witnesses fade, remembrance starts with context

This is where the work of remembrance begins to shift. It becomes less about simply passing on knowledge, and more about creating the conditions in which that knowledge can be meaningfully engaged with.

That has practical implications. Remembrance efforts must increasingly begin with context, recognising that for many people – particularly adults encountering this history later in life – this is a first encounter rather than a continuation of prior knowledge. It requires approaches that are accessible without being reductive, whether in classrooms, museums or public commemorations, and that create space for dialogue rather than assuming passive reception.

Educators and guides need to be equipped to engage audiences with diverse perspectives, while maintaining historical clarity. They need to ask what their audiences already understand, what assumptions are being made about their knowledge, and how different cultural or historical contexts might shape the way this history is interpreted.

Expanding high-quality, multilingual resources, and making thoughtful use of digital testimony, will also be essential in ensuring that this history remains both understandable and human in the post-witness era.

I have been Secretary General of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) for just over a year, and it is clear there is an important role to play in navigating this transition.

By encouraging reflection on language and audience, and by fostering a culture of listening as well as teaching, we can support approaches to remembrance that are both historically grounded and responsive to the realities of contemporary societies.

Antisemitism has not disappeared

All of this matters not just because of the past, but because of the present. Antisemitism has not disappeared, nor has the potential for misinformation to distort or diminish historical facts.

If anything, these challenges have become more complex. Ensuring that people understand not only what happened, but why it matters – and why it still matters – is part of how those challenges are met.

The first eighty years of Holocaust remembrance were shaped by those who bore witness. The next eighty years and beyond will be shaped by the rest of us – by how we listen, how we teach, and how willing we are to meet people where they are, rather than where we assume them to be. That is not a lesser form of remembrance. But it is a different one. And it is already underway.

Michaela Küchler has held a range of positions in the German Foreign Service in Chile, in former Czechoslovakia and India. She also served as a negotiator for European Union enlargement and as a European policy adviser to two Federal Chancellors and three Federal Presidents.

The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) is an intergovernmental organization with 35 Member Countries, 1 Liaison Country, and 7 Observer Countries. Founded in 1998 the IHRA unites governments and experts to strengthen, advance and promote Holocaust education, remembrance, and research worldwide