FROM MEMORY TO MEMORIALIZATION

The ICMEMOHRI 25th Anniversary Conference marks a milestone for ICOM’s International Committee for Memorial and Human Rights Museums.

It will bring together museum professionals, scholars, human rights advocates, and memory workers to explore how sites of memory transform personal and collective remembrance into sustainable public memorialization. As first-hand witnesses fade, ethical and meaningful representation becomes ever more urgent, especially in times of shrinking civic space and rising authoritarianism.

In Vienna, reflections will include the city’s anti-fascist struggles, Jewish exile, Roma and Sinti persecution, forced displacement, concentration camps, and Austria’s complicity in Nazi crimes. The conference will also engage with sites and institutions addressing contemporary human rights issues, including places dedicated to the documentation of state violence, alongside global examples such as the Spanish Civil War and the International Brigades. These histories remind us that memorial museums must preserve memory while actively defending human dignity and human rights today.

Lectures / Workshops Location:

Vienna Wiesenthal Institute (VWI), Rabensteig 3, 1010 Vienna

Felicitas Heimann-Jelinek, Chair ICMEMOHRI, Conference Chair

Barbara Thimm, Jill Vexler, Jane E Klinger, Lea Fink, Ophelia León, Program Committee

You can download the program HERE