Language:
German
Year of publication:
2000
Titel der Quelle:
Menora; Jahrbuch für deutsch-jüdische Geschichte
Angaben zur Quelle:
11 (2000) 119-167
Keywords:
Buchenwald (Concentration camp)
;
Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Influence
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Commemoration
Abstract:
After a brief period when Holocaust memoirs of all political and ethnic shades appeared in the Soviet occupation zone of Germany, long years of silence intervened while the East German authorities were consolidating their ideologically-binding version of the Holocaust. This finally found expression in 1958 in the dedication of the Buchenwald monument and the publication of Bruno Apitz's "Nackt unter Woelfen": Buchenwald became the symbol of communist resistance, which evolved directly into the GDR. Deviating personal reminiscences, particularly those of Jewish victims, had no place. At first East Germany tried to fit Auschwitz, also, into this pattern; but in the 1960s they found it more convenient to use it as a weapon against West Germany, where fascist murderers still occupied high positions, and the firms that had gained wealth through the Holocaust were still flourishing. This made it possible to publish works on the Jewish experience in the Holocaust, albeit with a preface linking them to the current line of attack on West Germany. After the 1960s, East German interest in Auschwitz waned, while Buchenwald remained the symbol of the Democratic Republic.
URL:
Locate this publication in Israeli libraries
Permalink
