Center for European Studies
2018 Rothman Faculty Summer Fellow
Romeyn studies the intersection of Holocaust memory and migration politics in the Netherlands. She argues that one way the presence of migrants and their descendants is problematized is through the supposed lack of a “shared” past, in particular WWII and the Holocaust. In the Netherlands, and in Europe in general, the Holocaust has been redeemed as the crucible for moral values upon which European and Dutch identity is based. The anti-migrant discourse deems migrants and in particular Muslim migrants incompatible with these values. Holocaust education therefore has become a “test” for Muslim belonging.
On the one hand, there are a number of initiatives that actively try to include migrant and their descendants in Holocaust memorialization and the moral landscape it signifies. But an alarmist discourse about resistance to Holocaust education and antisemitism due to anti-Israel sentiments among Dutch Moroccan youth has focused much attention on Holocaust educational initiatives in schools with high concentrations of minority students.
Romeyn analyzes the curriculum of one such initiative that attempted to connect the Holocaust to the Middle East conflict. She also argues that the single minded focus on antisemitism among Muslim youth constructs antisemitism as a foreign “import” from the Middle East and fails to address antisemitism among Dutch alt-right movements.