The Riga Forum is a logical continuation of the project dedicated to the history of the Holocaust – the conference „Holocaust museums and memorial sites in post-communist countries: challenges and opportunities”.

It is a platform that unites two projects – the 5 th international Holocaust conference and the 2 nd roundtable dedicated to the contemporary problems concerning tolerance. The event is organized by the European Tolerance Center, the Community “Šamir”, the Riga Ghetto Museum and the European Center for the Development of Democracy. The goal of the forum – forming a comprehensive international society of professional experts on the questions of tolerance, xenophobia, radicalism and hate crimes and raising attention of the international community to the problems of tolerance existing in Europe today.

The forum will be organized into two parts.

The first part will be dedicated to the history of the Holocaust. The participants of the conference will emphasize the importance of the preservation of the memory of the Holocaust in countries with controversial historical memory, as well as uncover hidden resources and discuss the characteristics of Holocaust and tolerance education. The following sessions are planned according to the program:

• The characteristics of teaching about the Holocaust

• Collaborationism during the Holocaust • The study of forced labor in its various forms as a central instrument of NationalSocialist policy

• Forced Germanization

The second part will be dedicated to the contemporary problems of tolerance, mainly – the changes in legislation, ethnic minority-related legal defense practices, the activity of radical groups and the statistics of hate crimes in the member states of the OSCE. Applications for participation in the forum should include an abstract and a report about one of the suggested topics. Information: by e-mail rigaconference2017@gmail.com, subject: “FORUM” The application deadline is May 1, 2017 (application form: https://goo.gl/forms/ Cf932G48A0afmszd2) The working languages of the forum will be English and Russian. A synchronous translation will be provided. Accommodation and catering will be provided by the organizers throughout the duration of the conference.