Language:
German
Year of publication:
1999
Titel der Quelle:
Merkur; deutsche Zeitschrift für europäisches Denken
Angaben zur Quelle:
53,9-10 [Sonderheft] (1999) 911-921
Keywords:
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Influence
Abstract:
Notes that remembrance of the Holocaust has become, for Jews, a substitute religion and a source of identity. For Germans, the Holocaust is taboo in the sense of a sacred object that it is forbidden to touch. The very word "holocaust, " meaning a burnt offering to God, is a ritualistic euphemism for mass slaughter. Such a religious approach is fitting in ceremonies of commemoration, but out of place in scientific as well as everyday discourse. Criticizes the legal prohibition of Holocaust denial, and the outcry against Martin Walser's protest against the demand that Germans continue to feel responsible for crimes committed by a past generation. Many Jews, also, have expressed discomfort with their role as the priests of the Holocaust religion, and wish for more normal relations with Germans.
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