Review of the National Fund Conference “Rethinking Remembrance” at the Austrian Parliament

Digital spaces open up new avenues for teaching history – yet they also carry the risk of being used to distort historical facts. On Friday, 19 June 2026, the Second President of the National Council, Peter Haubner, and the National Fund of the Republic of Austria for Victims of National Socialism hosted a high-profile conference in the National Council. Its aim was to effectively counter Holocaust denial and distortion in the digital realm and to provide new, forward-looking impetus for remembrance work.

Opening: Remembrance as a call to take a stand and act

In his opening remarks, Peter Haubner, Second President of the National Council and Chair of the Board of Trustees of the National Fund, spoke clearly about the responsibilities of the present. He interpreted the conference title as “both an objective and an invitation”. Rather than desperately trying to reinvent remembrance, the focus should be on “carrying historical facts into the present and the future with clarity, courage and determination”.

In a world where authoritarianism and geopolitical tensions are on the rise, Haubner highlighted the perils of social media, which, whilst enabling participation in online discourse, also provide fertile ground for the trivialisation of the Holocaust. The Nazi era had demonstrated the devastating consequences of dehumanisation and disregard for human dignity. It was therefore imperative that the rule of law and the protection of minorities form the foundation of our society, which must be defended on a daily basis:

“Remembrance may not be allowed to stop at commemoration – it must lead to taking a stand and acting.” Peter Haubner, Second President of the National Council

Keynote: Media literacy in a deregulated “truth market”

In his keynote address, the renowned media scholar Prof. Bernhard Pörksen (University of Tübingen) took a critical look at the frequently cited notion of a “post-factual age”. He argued that this designation falls short, was borne of resignation, and interprets current crises “hastily and negligently” as the definitive loss of a shared reality.

Instead, Pörksen described a “fundamental deregulation of the truth market”, driven by the accelerated dissemination of information at the expense of accuracy, as well as by the “misguided incentives” of exaggeration and media manipulation stemming from the “attention economy”. Ultimately, this dulled our sense of truth.

As an antidote to this, Pörksen called for a triad of education, regulation and discourse. Media literacy must go far beyond merely mastering technology and instead “be understood as a democratic cultural technique”. Alongside balanced legal measures against hate speech, he emphasised above all a fundamental democratic quality: the capacity for “inner hospitality” and “genuine listening”, in order to sincerely engage with other perspectives. Listening, said Pörksen, is the “silent superpower of communication”.

Panel discussion: The logic of outrage vs. positive narratives

In the expert discussion that followed, moderated by ORF journalist Rebekka Salzer, the journalist and author Ingrid Brodnig and communications consultant Jannis Johannmeier (The Trailblazers GmbH) discussed the role that emotions play online.

Ingrid Brodnig warned against the mechanisms of platforms, where emotionally charged content is deliberately amplified by algorithms, thereby driving polarisation. Democracy, however, she argued, is absolutely dependent on spaces “that elude the logic of ‘moral outrage’, so that compromise remains possible”. She therefore called for consistent regulation of digital platforms.

Jannis Johannmeier countered that emotions are an essential prerequisite for reaching people in the digital sphere at all and motivating them to take action. Purely factual information is often insufficient to generate attention. Instead of relying solely on counter-campaigns, he called for “developing positive narratives and harnessing emotions for democratic causes”.

International law: The individual at the centre of responsibility

Dr Ralph Janik, Assistant Professor of International Law and Human Rights at Sigmund Freud Private University, examined the legal aspects of historical responsibility as a theoretical starting point for the subsequent working groups. He traced the principle of universal jurisdiction back from a current trial in Vienna against a Syrian general to the Nuremberg Trials of 1945.

The Nuremberg trials marked a fundamental turning point in the recognition that 'crimes against humanity' are committed by specific individuals carrying out criminal orders, rather than by abstract entities. Following intermediate stages such as the Eichmann trial and the UN special tribunals of the 1990s, an international system of justice has been established. According to Janik, this system ensures that people who commit such atrocities can never feel “untouchable”.

Following Janik’s legal insights, the morning session of the conference concluded with statements from Hans Niessl, President of the Austrian Federal Sports Organisation, and Moritz Mittermann, Chair of the Federal Youth Council. They emphasised the importance of sport and young people in successful remembrance work.

The afternoon: The ‘BIG JAM’ – remembrance as a creative practice

After the theoretical input in the morning session, in the afternoon the conference transformed into an interactive future workshop, the so-called “BIG JAM”. Participants worked intensively on eight different themes: 1. Rethinking remembrance, 2. Multiplying shared ambitions, 3. Reaching out to and engaging new groups, 4. Youth in action, 5. Digital Remembrance, 6. Gamification/New media approaches, 7. Remembrance is a verb, and 8. New learning formats. During these sessions, the current state of remembrance work was analysed, current challenges were addressed, new ideas were developed and refined, and tangible prototypes for practical application were created. The results were finally presented in a dynamic “Idea Walk”.

A look ahead: The start of a shared journey

At the close of the conference, Peter Haubner, the Second President of the National Council, drew a thoroughly positive conclusion in conversation with Rebekka Salzer. He expressed his deep admiration for the vigour and enthusiasm displayed by the working groups.

For him, "rethinking remembrance" meant "not changing course, but finding new ways to reach the destination". The conference was not a one-off formality, but rather 'the start of a shared journey'. The National Fund will now review and develop the concepts drawn up in more detail, with the clear aim of driving the specific project ideas forward and putting them into practice in time for the next National Fund conference.

Links

• Content and programme of the conference "Rethinking remembrance"
• Event review on the Parliament’s website (in German)