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Holocaust Memory in the United States - Coggle Diagram
Holocaust Memory in the United States
Americanisation of the Holocaust
Process by which US has turned an event that was not of its own making into an event of its own; process by which the genocide has become popularised.
Adaption of the Holocaust to dominant American ethos
Goodness
Innocence
Optimism
Liberty
Diversity
Equality
Downplaying dark sides of life
Emphasis on saving power of individual conduct
Holocaust constructed in terms that promote
Individualism
Heroisation
Moralisation
Idealisation
Universalisation
'Civil religion' of happy-ending and redemptive meaning
'Hollywoodisation' of the Holocaust
Periodisation
1950: Anne Frank
1967-1973: Six Day War and Kippur War
1960-1961: Eichmann Trial
1978-1979: Holocaust and USHMM
1993: Schindler's List and opening of USHMM
1950s:
According to Novick
'Between the end of the war and the 1960s [..,.] the Holocaust made scarcely any appearance in American public discourse, and hardly more in Jewish public discourse'
Cold War + Totalitarianism + Germans from enemies to allies, USSR from allies to enemies + Persecution of political opponents link connecting Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union = Holocaust 'wrong tragedy'
At the height of Cold War, fear of organised Jewry that remembering Holocaust could be seen as anti-German and pro-Soviet. Holocaust remembered by the Communists - not a good association in the 1950s.
According to Mintz
'Holocaust consciousness not part of American Jewish experience because it impeded their Americanzation: need to avoid distinctiveness'
1950s American liberalism was about saying that everyone was the same - Jews not wanting to stick out of that image. Not a good idea to emphasis the past suffering of your group
According to Baron
'Not true that the Holocaust was not talked about. If Americans did not understand the Holocaust in the ways they do today, it does not mean they lacked awareness of the event or repressed the memory of it.'
Argued with Mintz in a journal about Holocaust Studies. The Holocaust was talked about just in different ways than it is today. Merit to both claims.
The Diary of Anne Frank
Novick: Rare exception - success from the get go. 'What captured audiences in the 1950s [was] Anne's 'universalism' [...] together with her luminous optimism.' This was already there in the published version, but especially in the stage adaptation of it. Framed in a way that was more in line with the American ethos.
Mintz: 'The diary succeeded in overcoming the natural American resistance to reading about unhappy things because it steered clear of the horror and because it stressed the commonality of human experience rather than the distinctiveness of the victims.' The Frank family were very assimilated. Easier to identify with victims like the Frank family. Steers clear of the horror because it stops when they get arrested.
The 1960s and 1970s:
Eichmann Trial
Major watershed
TV coverage extended over a period of several months and embraced news reportage, public affairs broadcasts, documentaries, and docudrama.
'Focused less on Nazi crimes and more about human psychology and morality' - Jeffrey Shandler
The 1960s: The Pawnbroker
American Jewish culture
1967 Six Day War cause of new closeness between American Jews and Israel: offered narrative of holocaust and redemption. Was the turning point. Rhetoric about annihilating Jews and Israel.
1973 Kippur War left much stronger sense of insecurity. Israel caught by surprise and almost lost it.
Broader American culture
Most tended to side with Israel as compensation for past suffering - especially in 1967.
Vietnam War - very contested in the US.
Psychology of evil
Split between Jews and Afro-Americans in civil rights movement - issues of identity, which made it easier to think in terms of identity politics
1978: Holocaust
Novick: 'Without doubt the most important moment in the entry of the Holocaust into general American consciousness' - not doubt that he is right.
9 hour long Holocaust journey seen through eyes of upper-middle-class German-Jewish Weiss family and failed lawyer and SS officer Erik Dorf. Dorf becomes a sort of Eichmann. Members of the Weiss family in all relevant Holocaust sites.
Doneson: the environment was ripe for a film like Holocaust. Holocaust presented as Jewish event but with universal significance that made it relevant to all Americans.
1977: Roots on ABC. About slavery - speaking to African-American Community and was extremely successful.
Moment: for Jews, watching Holocaust a quasi-religious event. Aired week before Passover, last episode on 35th anniversary of Warsaw ghetto uprising: liberation from Egyptian slavery and Jewish resistance. Was discussed in schools. Lots of good publicity.
Wiesel: a film about Sobibor is either not a picture or not about Sobibor
1993
Schindler's List
The ultimate Holocaust film
But does have a Nazi rescuer - Schindler is focus, who profited from the slave labour
Story of survival
Criticised by Holocaust scholars
Jim Hoberman: feel-good entertainment about the ultimate feel-bad experience of the 20th century
The opening of the USHMM (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum)
Carter did not want to lose the Jewish vote after selling fighter jets to Saudi Arabi
Point of view of liberators
US failed Jews but liberators and refuge for survivors
Destruction and rebirth: redemptive closure
Holocaust as negation of American values