Language:
English
Year of publication:
1993
Titel der Quelle:
Radical History Review
Angaben zur Quelle:
56 (1993) 5-20
Keywords:
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Influence
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Commemoration
;
Holocaust Remembrance Day
Abstract:
An expanded version of a speech delivered at Princeton University on Yom Hashoah 1992, with the intention to respond to critiques of his book "Why Did the Heavens Not Darken?" (New York: Pantheon, 1988). Discusses the problem of selective remembering and selective forgetting in the process of developing the collective memory of the Holocaust (called "Judeocide"). Argues that the memory of Auschwitz has become overly static and undialectical, with the accent almost exclusively on the barbarity of the Nazis and the degradation and suffering of the victims. The horrors of Auschwitz should be read with a view to discerning political contexts. Discussing aspects of shaping and transmission of the collective memory of the Holocaust, contends that Yad Vashem was based on a sectarian and narrow conception. Both memory and history tend to be used and misused for political ends. There is a need to "desectarianize" and "re-universalize" the memory of the Jewish victims by illuminating it with contextual and homologic history.
Note:
Appeared also in "Der Umgang mit dem Holocaust; Europa - USA - Israel", 1994, and in "Science, Mind and Art", 1995.
URL:
Locate this publication in Israeli libraries
Permalink
