The Body in Memorial Site Education. Contributions of Politicized Somatics to Memorial Site Education in Germany

Book excerpt: Master's Thesis from the year 2020 in the subject Pedagogy - Pedagogic Sociology, grade: 1,0, Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg, language: English, abstract: This thesis takes a look at the body in memorial site education at former Nazi concentration camps in Germany. On the subtle and not so subtle ways in which bodies are shaped by the Holocaust until today, the ways the body is nevertheless mostly overlooked in memorial site education and the pedagogical implications of recognizing the body in memorial site education. I engage the methodology of politicized somatics in the case study of memorial site education as an example of how Peace and Conflict Studies could recognize the body and somatic dimensions of peace and conflict in general. The question that this exploration of the body in memorial site education sets out to answer is: how can the perspective of politicized somatics contribute to memorial site education at former Nazi concentration camps in Germany? It is based on the hypothesis that recognizing the body could inform more holistic, multidimensional, and transformative iterations of memorial site education, and memorial culture in general.