In post-war occupied Germany, British and American Christians encountered Jews who had survived the years of Nazi persecution. In liberated concentration camps and Displaced Person centres, through interfaith campaigns and the immigration movement to Mandate Palestine, army chaplains, relief workers, and interfaith activists listened to survivor testimony. They witnessed the rebuilding of Jewish community life, debated their understanding of antisemitism, and advocated causes which could shape the future of Jews in Europe and elsewhere.

This lecture will explore some of these unique stories of Christian-Jewish encounters in the wake of the Holocaust. It will ask what Christians understood of Nazi persecution at this early stage, how they defined antisemitism, and how they responded to what they witnessed. In doing so, a new approach to the history of Christian-Jewish relations will be suggested. In the post-war existence of particular places such as Bergen-Belsen, before the Church and the theological academy fully acknowledged what would become understood as the Holocaust, encounters with Jewish survivors forged some Christians' understanding of Jewish experiences and influenced the first grassroot examples of a post-Holocaust Christianity.

This event is part of the celebration of Inter Faith Week at the University of Southampton.