CrossCurrents

We are part of an international team of academics that organized in late March 2014 a trip of 27 Palestinian students to Auschwitz in Poland—the first such trip for Palestinian students to that memorial of Nazi crimes against humanity. A parallel trip was also organized for 30 Israeli students to visit two refugee camps in the West Bank established as a result of the 1948 Palestinian Nakba. These trips are part of a trilateral transdisciplinary project “Hearts of Flesh‐Not Stone” funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). As scholars, we are interested in the dynamics involved in “experiencing the suffering of the other” within existing conflict situations and how such experiences impact feelings of empathy and, ultimately, reconciliation.

The Holocaust is profoundly meaningful for Jewish identity and a constant referent in discourse on the present Palestinian–Israeli conflict. Thus, we are interested in examining whether there is something to be learned by having Palestinians travel to and witness Auschwitz—the memorial to Jewish suffering at the hands of Nazi Germany. The learning to be gained is much more complex than a binary “yes it helps” or “no it does not”. Rather, we hope to learn specific and subtle ways that such experiences can be more helpful or less helpful for opening people's hearts to empathy, tolerance, peace and reconciliation.

Even given the enormous efforts required to accomplish this project trip, we also recognize that we must be humble in the claims we can make based upon the data collected during such an endeavor. We are really at the beginning in this work; meaningful and demonstrable theses will require a great deal of further research based upon any learning achieved. Participants' insights and reflections nevertheless offer us immensely valuable information—this adds to the less tangible but also quite meaningful opportunities we had to learn by personally listening to the Palestinian student participants while we were together in Poland.

Project members foresaw difficulties when we planned the trip to Auschwitz and despite many difficult logistical, financial, and political challenges, we remain hopeful regarding the possibility of this trip contributing to a model for groups within ongoing conflicts to experience the suffering of the other as a means for reconciliation. Our aim is to find specific and scientifically‐supported insights about how to structure future experiences to positively influence willingness for reconciliation.

Palestinian public reaction to our trip to Auschwitz was anticipated, but we were surprised by the way the story first entered the media, the way it was picked up in the Arab press and the social networks, and also by the intensity of the criticism. We regret that press attention impacted our Palestinian student participants, but nevertheless, this aspect of the experience remains relevant and worthy of reflection.

We prepared and conducted the experience in an open way consistent with academic practice, and we also spoke with members of the press under the condition that no mention of our actions would be released before we had all returned to our home communities. The goal was to allow our participants the opportunity to experience the memorial without any outside pressure. As academics used to the quiet of university halls, we were astonished by the way different communities interpreted and reacted to various media reports about the trip. Sadly, much media attention has been on the negative reception in the Palestinian community, and especially on the animosity directed against Professor Mohammed Dajani, the Palestinian project leader with a long history of supporting Holocaust education (and one of the authors of this article). That said, it is worth mentioning that there has also been a great deal of public support from all over the world. This positive feedback is deeply appreciated.

We continue to maintain hope as both academics and also members of communities affected by the conflict. This hope is indeed buoyed by our accompanying the students as they witnessed evidence of what Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas only four weeks after our trip described “the most heinous crime in history”. This was a political act deserving recognition and support.

Principles guiding our experience

The...