Holocaust Memory and the Cold War

Even before World War II had ended, survivors, historians, writers, and artists tried to make sense of the Holocaust. To do so, they relied on belief systems and narratives that, as the bloc confrontation intensified, were increasingly shaped by Cold War thinking. Foregrounding the Cold War's role in shaping Holocaust memory, this book highlights how the global conflict between East and West influenced research, legal proceedings, and collective as well as individual memories of the murder of European Jews. Contributions focusing on different parts of the world reveal commonalities, differences, and entanglements between Eastern and Western memories of the Holocaust. Examining Holocaust memory from various disciplinary perspectives, the authors highlight the many ways in which scholars, writers, artists, and survivors both countered and contributed to dominant narratives shaped by oppositional ideological stances. While such distinct ideological positions often mattered greatly, at other times a shared interest in bringing perpetrators to justice, commemorating victims, and providing testimony to the atrocities committed against Europe's Jews led to cooperation and exchange across the Iron Curtain.

Auteur

Anna Koch , University College, London, UK; Stephan Stach , Robert Havemann Society - Archive of the GDR Opposition, Berlin, Germany.

Texte du rabat

The Western understanding of the West as the democratic "Free World" and the East as totalitarian and repressive continues to impact how scholars evaluate efforts to commemorate the Holocaust in East and West.
This book discusses the emergence and development of Holocaust memory during the Cold War looking at both sides of the Iron Curtain. It brings together contributions focusing on different parts of the world, from the Soviet Union to Europe, Israel, and the US, that reveal commonalities, differences and entanglements between Eastern and Western memories of the Holocaust. While some of the case studies analyze the impact of the Cold War divide on national societies, others show how Holocaust memory became a battlefield of the bloc confrontation, but also how efforts to commemorate the Shoah enabled transnational cooperation across the Iron Curtain.
Drawing from a wide range of sources and methodological approaches, the articles in this book will enhance our understanding of the construction of Holocaust memories and at the same time add to our knowledge of the far-reaching and long-lasting impact of the Cold War.