Language:
German
Year of publication:
2005
Titel der Quelle:
Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaft
Angaben zur Quelle:
53,4 (2005) 345-355
Keywords:
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Influence
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Commemoration
Abstract:
States that the universalization of the Holocaust began in the 1990s, with the fall of the communist regimes of Eastern Europe, when Jewish organizations demanded that privatization also include restitution of Jewish property. Soon this demand was extended to all the countries of the West, former Nazi collaborators, neutrals, and Allies alike. It was pushed not only by mostly American Jewish organizations and lawyers on behalf of the victims, but backed by the American government, which appointed Stuart Eizenstat "Special Representative of the President and Secretary of State for Holocaust Issues". Eizenstat urged that justice for the victims of the Holocaust, the "unfinished business" of the 20th century, should be taken care of before the next century began. He insisted that the issue was not merely financial but, above all, moral and cultural, and had implications for Holocaust memory and for international protection of human rights in the future. These implications were taken up by international organizations and conferences, in particular the Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust. Thus the Holocaust has become a universal symbol, warning the world against indifference to persecution and genocide.
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