Language:
English
Year of publication:
1998
Titel der Quelle:
Sociological Perspectives
Angaben zur Quelle:
41,3 (1998) 519-540
Keywords:
Holocaust denial
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Influence
Abstract:
An earlier version was presented at the "Ethics after the Holocaust" conference, University of Oregon, May 1996. During the past two decades, the Holocaust has become "Americanized"; it has become a salient part of the American imagination, and it is now an "atrocity tale" having wide cultural resonance in the USA. Two factors have promoted this phenomenon: the collapse of communism, which precipitated a search for another "evil empire", and the use of Holocaust rhetoric and imagery by some social movements in the USA. Two kinds of appropriation can be discerned: metaphor creation, exemplified by the rhetoric of lesbian/gay activists; and revisionism, exemplified by conservative Christian rhetoric. The latter tends to depict Christians and Christianity as the primary victims of Nazism. Jewish Holocaust survivors are disturbed because this phenomenon causes trivialization and de-Judaization of the Holocaust. Their anxiety is justified; however, the Holocaust belongs both to Jewish and to human history, and its memory may be used by non-Jewish groups.
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