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1.

On melancholy in Benjamin’s thought on history, see Raymond Barglow, “The Angel of History” (1999).

2.

This passage of Walter Benjamin’s 1940 essay, “Theses on the Philosophy of History,” was first published in English in the collection Illuminations (1969; edited by Hannah Arendt and translated by Harry Zohn). Many translations, with small variations, are now circulating. Below is the full passage as translated by Dennis Redmond: “There is a painting by Klee called Angelus Novus. An angel is depicted there who looks as though he were about to distance himself from something which he is staring at. His eyes are opened wide, his mouth stands open and his wings are outstretched. The Angel of History must look just so. His face is turned towards the past. Where we see the appearance of a chain of events, he sees one single catastrophe, which unceasingly piles rubble on top of rubble and hurls it before his feet. He would like to pause for a moment so fair [verweilen: a reference to Goethe’s Faust], to awaken the dead and to piece together what has been smashed. But a storm is blowing from Paradise, it has caught itself up in his wings and is so strong that the Angel can no longer close them. The storm drives him irresistibly into the future, to which his back is turned, while the rubble-heap before him grows sky-high. That which we call progress, is this storm.” www.marxists.org/reference/archive/benjamin/1940/history.htm (accessed January 9, 2019).

3.

Emphasis in original.

4.

Similar to my wording of “enclaves of sameness,” Daniel Bar-Tal and Dikla Antebi speak of the “siege mentality” of communities that have established a sense of collective and competitive victimhood. Such a mentality contributes to a lack of empathizing with the suffering of others (“Siege Mentality in Israel” 1992).

5.

Most translations use the phrase “to stay” here for the German word verweilen. Dennis Redmond (see note 2) translates it as “to pause for a moment so fair.” I chose “to linger” as an alternative.

6.

See Krondorfer, Reconciliation in Global Context (2018); ibid. “Unsettling Empathy: Intercultural Dialogue in the Aftermath of Historical and Cultural Trauma” (2016); “Interkulturelle Erinnerungsarbeit als offener Prozess” (2013a); “Interkulturelle Begegnungsprogramme zum Holocaust” (2010); and Remembrance and Reconciliation (1995). Psychologist and scholar-practitioner Herbert C. Kelman, who has worked in the field of conflict resolution since the 1970s (especially in the Israeli-Palestinian context), describes the kind of “problem-solving workshops” he and a team of social scientists have offered as “microprocesses” in a “private space in which politically involved and often politically influential . . . members of conflicting communities can interact in a nonbinding, confidential way.” Kelman conceives of these workshops as providing “opportunities to penetrate each other’s perspectives; to explore both sides’ needs, fears, priorities, and constraints; and to engage in joint thinking about solutions” (“The Role of National Identity in Conflict Resolution” 2001, 198). There is overlap between Kelman’s and my approach in terms of essential components, such as safe spaces, confidentiality, exploring of perspectives, and attention to needs and fears. But there are also differences. My approach is broader and less focused on solution outcomes. It is not limited to conflict resolution settings for politically influential members. Rather than “thinking about solutions,” as Kelman puts it, my facilitation encourages participants to explore and imagine alternatives to current stalemates.

7.

Though often used synonymously, there is a difference between “intergroup” and “interpersonal” interactions and dialogue. Whereas “intergroup” refers to individual members of one group interacting with individual members of another group, “interpersonal” refers to interactive contact on the basis of personal relationships. As Miles Hewstone and Rupert Brown put it, both terms relate to “actions of individuals” (rather than social or institutional bodies), though “in one case [interpersonal] they are the actions of individuals qua individuals, while in the other [intergroup] they are the actions of individuals qua group members” (“Contact Is Not Enough” 1986b, 14; emphasis in original). See also Miles Hewstone and Ed Cairns, “Social Psychology and Intergroup Conflict” (2001); Rupert Brown and John Turner, “Interpersonal and Intergroup Behavior” (1981); and Henri Tajfel and John Turner, “An Integrative Theory of Intergroup Conflict” (1979). When working with groups in conflict, we are clearly talking about “intergroup” dialogue and interactions.

8.

For the dark side of empathy, see Chapter 4 in this book.

9.

Television appearances and coverage include CBS’s “Sunday Morning with Charles Kurault” (November 13, 1988), Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR3), Südwestfunk (SWF3), and Hessischer Rundfunk (HR3). For two essayistic pieces, see Esther Röhr, “Steine sind wie Zeit: Das Jewish German Dance Theater” (Religion Heute 3/4 1989), and Lisa Green, “Jewish German Dance: Jenseits der Sprachlosigkeit” (tanz aktuell: Zeitung für Tanz und Theater 4/VI June 1989). A sample of newspaper reviews includes The Jewish Times (May 1, 1986), The Jewish Exponent (February 27, 1987), Frankfurter Rundschau (October 29, 1988; November 12, 1988), Berliner Volksblatt (November 3, 1988), taz Berlin (November 11, 1988), Nürnberger Zeitung (November 15, 1988), Allgemeine Jüdische Wochenzeitung (December 12, 1988), The Pittsburgh Press (March 30, 1989), The Philadelphia Inquirer (April 2, 1989), Greenwich Time (May 3, 1989), Wiesbadener Tagesblatt (June 16, 1989), Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (June 20, 1989), Offenbach Post (June 20, 1989), and taz (July 17, 1989).

10.

These programs are described in more detail in my book Remembrance and Reconciliation (1995).

11.

The Bibliodrama movement is not limited to one particular method but open to a great variety of approaches, depending on the expertise and creativity of the facilitator. See Krondorfer, Body and Bible: Interpreting and Experiencing Biblical Narratives (1992; translated into Korean in 2008). Among the many publications, see Hildrun Keßler, Bibliodrama und Leiblichkeit (1996); Gerhard Marcel Martin, Sachbuch Bibliodrama (1995); and Peter Pitzele, Scripture Windows (1998).

12.

Hagiodrama is the creative encounter with stories from the history of Christianity unfolding in group processes; sutradrama is the creative encounter with texts and vignettes from the Buddhist scriptural traditions unfolding in group processes. See Krondorfer, “Werkstattbericht: Bibliodrama und Sutradrama” (2008b).

13.

The association is called The Study Group on Intergenerational Consequences of the Holocaust, formerly PAKH. According to their website, it was “founded in 1995 by Jewish and non-Jewish German members, most of them psychotherapists. It is open to all persons who are interested in a better understanding of conflicts in the context of politically and individually motivated violence.” http://pakh.de/EN/index.html (accessed January 11, 2019). The group’s publications include Liliane Opher-Cohn et al., Das Ende der Sprachlosigkeit (1998), and Beata Hammerich et al., “A Reflection on the Dialogue Process Between Second Generation Descendants of Perpetrators and of Holocaust Survivors in Germany” (2009).

14.

The Olga Lengyel Institute for Holocaust Studies and Human Rights (https://www.toli.us/).

15.

The artist is Karen Baldner; see Krondorfer, “From Pulp to Palimpsest: Witnessing and Re-Imagining through the Arts” (2013b). Since 2004, our work has been exhibited in solo and group shows in numerous venues. See also Baldner’s website, http://karenbaldner.com/the-jewishgerman-dialogue-project.html. Our collaboration is described in more detail in Chapter 10.

16.

The organization is Friendship Across Borders (FAB). Founded in 2003, FAB is, according to its website, “a non-governmental peace-organization, in which Germans, Palestinians and Israelis work together. Our principle activity is to train young adults in mutual understanding, respect and acceptance through their own personal transformation, so that they become ‘Peace-Carriers’ in their societies. In the framework of trilateral dialogues, FAB promotes peace between Palestinians and Israelis and contributes to reconciliation between Germans and Jews.” http://www.fab-friendshipacrossborders.net/en/ (accessed January 11, 2019).

17.

Located at the campus of Northern Arizona University, the Martin-Springer Institute was founded and endowed by Ralph and Doris Martin in 2000. Doris Martin (née Szpringer) was born in Bedzin, Poland, and survived the Holocaust. The institute attends to the experiences of the Holocaust in order to relate them to today’s concerns, crises, and conflicts. With educational and public programs that promote the values of moral courage, empathy, reconciliation, and justice, it fosters dialogue on local, national, and international levels. See http://nau.edu/martin-springer and Facebook.com/MSIatNAU.

18.

The workshops and interactive seminars I offer can last from a few hours to several days, and in some cases, weeks. The ideal group size for such intergroup, intercultural, and sometimes intergenerational encounters is twelve to eighteen participants, but I have worked with fewer people and with groups of forty and more participants.

19.

The rule of not being able to identify individuals applies to the readers of this book. It does not apply in the same way to people who participated in particular programs since they might remember specific scenarios and people I am describing in these chapters.

20.

Individual participants can, of course, choose to speak publicly or to the media as long as this does not happen during the sessions themselves. See, for example, the video link to interviews with Palestinian and Israeli participants of the Eighth International Seminar “Touching Borders,” a workshop I conducted in 2015: www.fab-friendshipacrossborders.net/en/ (accessed June 4, 2019).

21.

Since I am engaging various fields of inquiry, which are themselves dependent on transdisciplinary scholarship (such as trauma studies, memory studies, reconciliation studies, peace and conflict resolution studies, and studies in empathy), I have consulted a wide range of disciplines, including history, sociology, social psychology, philosophy, international relations, literary studies, art history, religious studies, psychoanalysis, political science, anthropology, humanities, and gender studies.

22.

My footnotes will provide the reader with the necessary sources and references; they also indicate discrepancies in the usage of particular terms and concepts.

23.

When I am quoting from personal correspondence shared with me—often via email—I have occasionally made editorial corrections concerning grammar, spelling, syntax, and length.

24.

The 2018 Third Global Forum Against the Crimes of Genocide was organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia. Invited participants included a select group of international scholars, representatives of the UN and European Human Rights commissions, directors of memorial museums, and NGO practitioners.