Reference Type: Journal Article
Author: Moldovan, Raluca
Year: 2012
Title: Considerations on the Holocaust. Between memory and history
Journal: Buletinul Centrului, Muzeului şi Arhivei Istorice a Evreilor din România
Issue: 14-15
Pages: 275-300
Language: English
Keywords: Jewish minority, history, historiography, recollection, holocaust, holocaust survivors, historical sources, memories
Abstract: (En) This paper dealing with the relationship between the history and the memory of the Holocaust starts by discussing an issue pertaining to the way in which the meaning of this term has expanded to designate a symbol of universal evil (the "Holocaust") residing in the so-called "cosmopolitan memory". This shift marks the relevance that it continues to have in the present day and age.
Cosmopolitan memory is a type of memory that transcends "ethnic and national boundaries"; in the particular case of the Holocaust, it is the "shared memories [of this event]" that provide the basis for this cosmopolitan memory. The question that Levy and Sznaider try to address is whether an event such as the Holocaust can be remembered outside the ethnic and national boundaries of its victims and perpetrators by people who have no direct connection to it. By providing an affirmative answer to their premise, they claim that "memories of the Holocaust facilitate the formation of transnational memory cultures, which in turn have the potential to become the cultural foundation for global human rights politics". The emergence of such a cosmopolitan memory would be impossible in any other historical age but that of globalisation, simply because the vehicle for its appearance is specific to a collective memory forged by the means of mass culture (cinema, television, Internet).
URL: http://www.csier.jewishfed.ro/public_html/documente/buletine/buletin14-15.pdf