Why 1938 Matters Today with Frank Mecklenburg

Interviewing for Jewish History Matters, Jason Lustig discusses LBI's 1938Projekt., with Director of Research, Frank Mecklenburg.

Frank Mecklenburg joins Jason Lustig to discuss the Leo Baeck Institute‘s 1938Projekt (1938 Project). Lustig and Mecklenburg talk about the project and its objectives, what kind of history it tells us about the transformations over the course of 1938, and about the importance of learning from the past: How we can comprehend daily life under the Nazi regime, how such “normalcy” illustrates how authoritarian regimes consolidate their power and marginalize elements of the population, and how we can identify parallels between the past and today’s international crises of refugees and discrimination against minorities and immigrants. The LBI’s 1938Projekt, by posting one item each day that relates to what happened on the exact day eighty years ago, illustrates the past and also presents a demand for us to think about what’s happening today too.