The 20th century was marred by a string of disasters: world wars, the Holocaust, Soviet Communism, terrorism, mass exile. Despite the slogan of “Never Again,” collective wrong-doing continues. So, what do nations owe themselves and others at present when they have committed great atrocities in the past? What should we expect of governments by way of acknowledgement, repair or reparations to address past sins? These questions focus on how we can or should deal with the past, and what we can learn from the past.

As James Baldwin commented, “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” We will look at the very divergent ways that nations such as Germany (formerly West and East), Japan, Russia, Poland, Canada, and the United States have confronted (or ignored) serious wrong-doing, and the way that contemporary agendas have helped to shape these responses.

Date: Wednesday, February 3, 2027

Times: 6:00PM Central, 7:00PM Eastern, 4:00PM Pacific. For those in Europe the time is 12:00AM in London on February 4.

Location: Zoom Video Conference

About Dr. Gene Homel

Gene Homel has taught history and politics since 1973 at universities and colleges in Ontario and British Columbia. He holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from the University of Toronto and has written and presented extensively on history and culture. He is a former chair of the liberal studies department at the British Columbia Institute of Technology.\

Photo Credit: Käthe Kollwitz, "Never Again War", 1924, chalk and brush lithograph,  Kollwitz Museum Köln, Inv. Nr. 70300/97004, Public Domain.