18th Annual Powell-Heller Conference for Holocaust Education:
“More Than Dust: Reclaiming LGBTQ+ Voices of the Holocaust”
November 4-6, 2026
Thanks to the generosity of donors this event is free and open to the public.
Pacific Lutheran University will host the 18th annual Powell Heller Conference from November 4–6, a gathering dedicated to challenging traditional archives to recover the intimate histories of queer and marginalized histories of the Holocaust. This year’s conference, titled “More Than Dust: Reclaiming LGBTQ+ Voices of the Holocaust,” focuses on LGBTQ+ experiences of the Holocaust. We are honored to welcome historian Anna Hájková as our Raphael Lemkin speaker. Her book, People Without History Are Dust: Queer Desire in the Holocaust, serves as the foundation for this year’s programming. As Dr. Hájková argues, “thinking about the marginalized can help us to develop a less judgemental, more inclusive past” – a project we aim to collectively engage in during our time together.
The conference features a special theater performance and a film screening alongside its academic components. Attendees will hear from leading international scholars in the field, including Laurie Marhoefer and Samuel Clowes Huneke, as well as a workshop from educators at The Pink Triangle Project and pedagogy sessions from educators at Yad Vashem. Through theater, film, keynote lectures, and panel discussions, participants will discover new methodologies for confronting historical erasure, ultimately reshaping how we archive, remember, and honor the Holocaust.
PLU’s mission to support the education of our students and larger community on issues of diversity and justice are intimately connected to the study of the tragedy of the Holocaust. Students can see that marginalization of a minority group, such as the Jews of Nazi Germany, can lead to life-threatening situations culminating in one of the world’s modern genocides. Issues of distortion and denial make the process of reconciliation and healing less likely and serve as an insult to the memory of all those whose lives were destroyed in the Holocaust.