Language:
German
Year of publication:
2006
Titel der Quelle:
Zwischen Erinnerung und Neubeginn
Angaben zur Quelle:
(2006) 178-195
Keywords:
Bubis, Ignatz,
;
Walser, Martin,
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Influence
;
Jews History 1945-
;
Collective memory
Abstract:
Argues that there was a discrepancy between the importance assigned to the Holocaust and its memory by the Jewish and non-Jewish participants in the Walser-Bubis debate, which focused on the construction of a new, collective German identity. In Walser’s view, the Jews and their specific experience had to be excluded from the new German "we" in order for the Germans to reestablish themselves as a "normal people". Bubis, on the other hand, wanted to include the Jews and the Holocaust in collective German memory. The relationship between the Jewish and non-Jewish Germans turned into the central issue of the debate. Concludes from this that identity models always develop in dialogue with others. The relational character of identities became exceptionally clear in the Walser-Bubis debate, since the Jewish and the "German" identity models were both construed in relation to the Holocaust. The two identity models were connected to, but also separated from each other by the Holocaust, which was experienced very differently by Jews and non-Jews. The debate showed that the success of a dialogue between Jewish and non-Jewish Germans depends on their ability to relate to each other’s experience of the Holocaust.
Note:
Another version appeared in "Konzeptionen des Jüdischen" (2009) 380-398.
URL:
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