Language:
Italian
Year of publication:
2005
Titel der Quelle:
Storia della Shoah
Angaben zur Quelle:
I (2005) 813-849
Keywords:
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Historiography
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Personal narratives
;
World War, 1939-1945 Collaborationists
Abstract:
Deplores the conditions of collective memory in present-day Eastern Europe, where Jews, who constituted a substantial part of the population, and the Holocaust have almost no place in the memory of Ukrainians, Poles, Belarusians, and Lithuanians. Even more deplorable is the present state of Western and Israeli historiography on the events of the Holocaust in Eastern Europe. Despite the fact that archives are open, scholars continue to focus on German perpetrators, and to some extent on the fate of Jewish victims, but neglect the complicated issue of relations between Jews and non-Jews and the role of local populations in the Holocaust. Argues that, due to many factors, the Holocaust in Eastern Europe was very much a communal genocide and left a greater imprint on these countries than on Western Europe. Illustrates this with the popular perception and representation of the Holocaust in the Ukrainian town of Buchach. Deplores, also, the persistent neglect of victims' testimonies on the part of Holocaust scholars. Linking Holocaust research in Eastern Europe to general Holocaust research, and linking the history of the Holocaust to local histories of Eastern European countries, are challenges for the new generation of historians.
Note:
Appeared also in the compact edition: "Storia della Shoah; la crisi dell'Europa, lo sterminio degli ebrei e la memoria del XX secolo. Vol. II" (2006) 419-459. Appeared in English as "Eastern Europe as the site of genocide" in the "Journal of Modern History" 80,3 (2008) 557-593.
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