This project examines how lessons derived from the Holocaust and National Socialism, such as the moral imperative to resist authoritarianism, protect Jewish lives, and uphold the dignity of all humans can shape civic engagement and resistance to contemporary anti-democratic movements and attitudes toward ongoing intergroup conflicts. The project investigates how people in historically different contexts, including Germany and Israel, draw on these historical lessons to interpret current political developments and to act in defense of democratic values and in solidarity across group boundaries.

Completed and ongoing studies

A series of preparatory studies have already provided evidence linking Holocaust-derived moral lessons to democratic engagement and intergroup attitudes:

• Study 1 – Israel (2023):
  Among opponents of the government’s judicial reform, endorsement of the resistance lesson (“one must not support totalitarian regimes”) predicted past and future protest participation and moral obligation, collective efficacy, and anger—core antecedents of collective action.
• Study 2 – Germany (2024):
  Based on qualitative interviews with 53 participants, we generated 79 Holocaust lessons and tested the extent to which 500 German respondents endorsed them. Factor analyses identified four main dimensions:
  (1) resisting right-wing extremism and authoritarianism
  (2) being critical of authority
  (3) protecting Jewish lives
  (4) protecting the dignity of all humans.
  In a demographically representative study with 504 Germans, endorsement of the resistance lesson again predicted intentions to engage in collective action against right-wing extremism through antecedents of collective action.
• Study 5 – Moral lessons and victimhood framing (2024):
  Among 602 German participants, we tested whether the lessons to protect Jewish lives and protect the dignity of all humans predicted pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian attitudes via exclusive versus inclusive victimhood beliefs regarding the suffering of Jewish people.
  Participants generally expressed stronger solidarity with Israel. The lesson to protect Jewish lives predicted pro-Israeli attitudes through exclusive victimhood, whereas the lesson to protect the dignity of all humans predicted both pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian attitudes through inclusive victimhood. These findings reveal how Holocaust-derived moral lessons operate within both particularistic and universal moral frameworks, informing contemporary understandings of solidarity and moral universality.

Together, these studies provide the first multi-context evidence that Holocaust-related moral lessons are linked not only to democratic engagement but also to patterns of empathy and identification in current intergroup conflicts. Further studies are planned to determine the long-term effects of the endorsement of these lessons and investigate their causal link to these phenomena.