Contemporary Responses To The Holocaust

The murder of six million Jews during the Holocaust is a crime that has had a lasting and massive impact on our time. Despite the immense, ever-increasing body of Holocaust literature and representation, no single interpretation can provide definitive answers. Shaped by different historical experiences, political and national interests, our approximations of the Holocaust remain elusive. Holocaust responses—past, present, and future—reflect our changing understanding of history and the shifting landscapes of memory. This book takes stock of the attempts within and across nations to come to terms with the murders. Volume editors establish the thematic and conceptual framework within which the various Holocaust responses are being analyzed. Specific chapters cover responses in Germany and in Eastern Europe; the Holocaust industry; Jewish ultra-Orthodox reflections; and the Jewish intellectuals' search for a new Jewish identity. Experts comment upon the changes in Christian-Jewish relations since the Holocaust; the issue of restitution; and post-1945 responses to genocide. Other topics include Holocaust education, Holocaust films, and the national memorial landscapes in Germany, Poland, Israel, and the United States.

The senseless horror of the Holocaust continues to send shockwaves through history. Few would question its profound influence on post-war philosophy, morality, theological and political thinking. Yet the impact of the Holocaust on the Fine Arts, and in particular on contemporary art, has still not received the attention it deserves. This new publication accompanies a pioneering touring exhibition. It comprises a series of illustrated essays by leading experts, addressing: the art produced by victims of the Holocaust during the Holocaust; the influence of the Holocaust on artists who were not camp inmates, working during the war and in the post-war period; Holocaust memorials and their significance; and the work of a younger generation of artists, many of them non-Jews, whose relationship to the Holocaust is more oblique. Among the artists included are R. B. Kitaj, Picasso, Francis Bacon, Magdalena Abakanowicz, Christian Boltanski, Melvin Charney, Shimon Attie, Zoran Music, Susanna Pieratzki, Mick Rooney and Nancy Spero. The works selected have in common a determination not to rely on over-used visual stereotypes, nor to indulge in nostalgia, morbidity or sentimentality. Aesthetically compelling, they force us to reassess a subject all too often dismissed as overworked, and to reconsider the nature and potential of artistic activity 'after Auschwitz', as the century nears its end.

Emil Fackenheim (1916–2003), one of the most important Jewish philosophers of the twentieth century, called on the world at large not only to bear witness to the Holocaust as an unprecedented assault on Judaism and on humanity, but also to recognize that the question of what it means to philosophize—indeed, what it means to be human—must be raised anew in its wake. The Philosopher as Witness begins with two recent essays written by Fackenheim himself and includes responses to the questions that Fackenheim posed to philosophy, Judaism, and humanity after the Holocaust. The contributors to this book dare to extend that questioning through a critical examination of Fackenheim's own thought and through an exploration of some of the ramifications of his work for fields of study and realms of religious life that transcend his own.

Teaching and learning about the Holocaust is central to school curriculums in many parts of the world. As a field for discourse and a body of practice, it is rich, multidimensional and innovative. But the history of the Holocaust is complex and challenging, and can render teaching it a complex and daunting area of work. Drawing on landmark research into teaching practices and students’ knowledge in English secondary schools, Holocaust Education: Contemporary challenges and controversies provides important knowledge about and insights into classroom teaching and learning. It sheds light on key challenges in Holocaust education, including the impact of misconceptions and misinformation, the dilemmas of using atrocity images in the classroom, and teaching in ethnically diverse environments. Overviews of the most significant debates in Holocaust education provide wider context for the classroom evidence, and contribute to a book that will act as a guide through some of the most vexed areas of Holocaust pedagogy for teachers, teacher educators, researchers and policymakers.

The senseless horror of the Holocaust continues to send shockwaves through history. Few would question its profound influence on post-war philosophy, morality, theological and political thinking. Yet the impact of the Holocaust on the Fine Arts, and in particular on contemporary art, has still not received the attention it deserves. This new publication accompanies a pioneering touring exhibition. It comprises a series of illustrated essays by leading experts, addressing: the art produced by victims of the Holocaust during the Holocaust; the influence of the Holocaust on artists who were not camp inmates, working during the war and in the post-war period; Holocaust memorials and their significance; and the work of a younger generation of artists, many of them non-Jews, whose relationship to the Holocaust is more oblique. Among the artists included are R. B. Kitaj, Picasso, Francis Bacon, Magdalena Abakanowicz, Christian Boltanski, Melvin Charney, Shimon Attie, Zoran Music, Susanna Pieratzki, Mick Rooney and Nancy Spero. The works selected have in common a determination not to rely on over-used visual stereotypes, nor to indulge in nostalgia, morbidity or sentimentality. Aesthetically compelling, they force us to reassess a subject all too often dismissed as overworked, and to reconsider the nature and potential of artistic activity 'after Auschwitz', as the century nears its end.

Despite the massive literature on the Holocaust, our understanding of it has traditionally been influenced by rather unsophisticated early perspectives and silence. This book summarizes and criticizes the existing scholarship on the subject and suggests new ways by which we can approach its study. It addresses the use of victim testimony and asks important questions: What function does recording the past serve for the victim? What do historians want from it? Are these two perspectives incompatible? It also examines the perpetrators of the Holocaust, and compares them to those responsible for other acts of genocide and ethnic cleansing in the early years of the twentieth century. In addition, it looks at the bystanders--examining the complexity and ambiguity at the heart of contemporary reaction.