Abstract
At this moment as the youngest of the survivors are now in their eighties and nineties, when the Holocaust is making the transition between living memory and historical memory, this chapter examines decade by decade the paradox that the further the Holocaust recedes into history the larger the event looms.
It grapples with the public understanding of the Holocaust in literature, television, and film, in trials and scholarship, in Museums and public events as well as political life. It also considers what it is about the events we now call the Holocaust that gives it a distinct place in contemporary consciousness among Jews and the non-Jewish world.
It also explores the prominent role that remembrancer of the Holocaust has played in the identity of American Jews with a distinct emphasis in the post 1967 war period and the constancy of such a role in Jewish identity as distinct from the fluctuating role that Israel has played in Jewish identity. Furthermore, it examines Holocaust denial, falsification, minimalization, trivialization, and politicization. Issues such as restitution and reparations are considered. It also examines Holocaust envy as the Holocaust has become a negative absolute in American society, an anchor for the understanding of this paradigmatic twentieth century evil. It concludes that the issue is no longer whether the Holocaust will be remembered but how it will be recalled and transmitted to future generations.
Kenneth Keniston once argued that in the social sciences true objectivity can only be achieved when the author informs the reader of his/her subjective prejudices and allows the reader to compensate accordingly. I am writing of events I witnessed firsthand (1) having served in 1979–80 as Deputy Director of the President’s Commission on the Holocaust (under President Jimmy Carter with Elie Wiesel as chairman); (2) having authored the President’s Commission’s Report to the President; and 3) having returned to build the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC (as Project Director from 1987–1993 and then as Director of its Research Institute). I was also President and CEO of the Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, which took the testimony of 52,000 Holocaust survivors and liberators and I have developed Holocaust museums in several American cities (including Skokie, IL, Cincinnati, OH and Dallas, TX), Mexico City, and Skopje (Northern Macedonia). I am currently working on museums in Bucharest and Warsaw. I have also produced and served as an interviewer or historical consultant on some two dozen Holocaust films. I believe that I have assessed this work objectively, but the reader should be informed and beware.
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Notes
- 1.
Note: In the National Jewish Organizations chapter of this volume the reader can find a listing with contact information of North American Jewish organizations that deal with the Holocaust. A later chapter lists many of the museums and memorials.
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Berenbaum, M. (2022). America and the Holocaust: Reflections on Three Quarters of a Century and the Development of Holocaust Consciousness in American Society. In: Dashefsky, A., Sheskin, I.M. (eds) American Jewish Year Book 2021. American Jewish Year Book, vol 121. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-99750-2_3
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