Trauma and holocaust video testimony : the intersection of history, memory, and judgment in the interview process

This article analyzes video testimonies recorded at the Jewish Holocaust Museum and Research Centre in Melbourne,Australia, which address the highly complex and sensitive issue of “privileged” Jews. The so-called privileged Jews include prisoners in the Nazi-operated camps and ghettos who held positions that gave them access to material and other benefits, while compelling them to act in ways that have been judged detrimental to fellow inmates. Although the issue of “privileged” Jews has been largely neglected, it relates to a crucial facet of the Holocaust and has vast implications for its aftermath. The ethical dilemmas facing these victims may be closely linked to what Lawrence Langer has termed choiceless choices, which challenge conventional notions of “judgment” and “responsibility.” This problem is also the primary subject of Auschwitz survivor Primo Levi’s essay titled “The Grey Zone,” which is arguably the most influential essay ever written on the Holocaust. Levi argues that one should abstain from judging individuals who confronted such extreme circumstances, positioning prisoners with “privileged” positions at the threshold of representation and understanding. However, moral evaluations of “privileged” Jews have a strong impact on Holocaust testimonies, whether these were constructed during the war or recorded long after the survivors’ experiences. The examples of video testimonies explored in this article reveal that this is particularly the case when interviewees are former “privileged” Jews and interviewers are themselves Holocaust survivors. The article argues that when confronted with such an emotionally and morally fraught issue, judgment may itself be seen as a “limit of representation.”

Negotiating memory and identity : the Hyde Park Holocaust Memorial, London

In 1983, 38 years after the end of World War II, Britain gained its first public memorial dedicated solely to victims of the Holocaust: the Hyde Park Holocaust Memorial Garden. Organized by the Board of Deputies of British Jews, this campaign revealed the ways that memorialization of the Holocaust in Britain during the 1980s was cross cut with issues of identity, memory and history. In attempting to restore the «biography» of the memorial, this paper examines the way the memorial's relationship with its potential locations is important in the making of meaning and shows how debates over the perceived appropriateness of the sites were structured by, and in turn structure, various discourses concerning Anglo-Jewish identity.

Discourses of regeneration in early twentieth-century Britain : from Bedlam to the Imperial War Museum

This paper examines the building that presently houses the Imperial War Museum, investigating the transformation of the archetypal ‘mad space’ of the Bethlem Royal Hospital into what has been described as the ‘biggest boy’s bedroom in London’. Following recent concerns in human geography with Imperial cities, it highlights the differing ways in which this transformation embodies a number of themes of degeneration and regeneration in early twentieth-century Britain.

Democracy building in post-Saddam Iraq : 'historical memory' and 'primitive democracy'

Iraq’s long and complex past has played a particularly poignant role in establishing and legitimating the various political movements that have ascended to power since the nation state was first created by the British in the early 1920s (Davis, 2005b). For example, the installed Hashemite monarchy that ruled Iraq until the 1958 revolution utilised their ancestral connection to the Prophet Muhammad to legitimate their claim of being the rightful legatees of the Arab lands, while later Saddam Hussein invoked the power of Iraq’s Mesopotamian past to build nationalism and unite the people against ancient enemies such as during the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s.What is problematic about these examples of ‘historical memory’ in Iraq is that they have also been used to justify a series of autocratic and despotic regimes that have attempted to quash Iraq’s civil society and curtail any semblance of democratic reform. However, this paper argues that such ‘historical memories’ may well be useful in reinvigorating the Iraqi public sphere and enabling the transition from despotism to democracy. To do this, this paper focuses on the ancient Mesopotamian practise of ‘Primitive Democracy’ and argues that reinvigorating such histories may serve to legitimate and promote democratic governance within Iraq.

Heritage of war

The Heritage of War is an interdisciplinary study of the ways in which heritage is mobilized in remembering war, and in reconstructing landscapes, political systems and identities after conflict. It examines the deeply contested nature of war heritage in a series of places and contexts, highlighting the modes by which governments, communities, and individuals claim validity for their own experiences of war, and the meanings they attach to them.

From colonizing violence in South America to the United States’ Civil War, the Second World War on three continents, genocide in Rwanda and continuing divisions in Europe and the Middle East, these studies bring us closer to the very processes of heritage production. The Heritage of War uncovers the histories of heritage: it charts the constant social and political construction of heritage sites over time, by a series of different agents, and explores the continuous reworking of meaning into the present.

What are the forces of contingency, agency and political power that produce, define and sustain the heritage of war? How do particular versions of the past and particular identities gain legitimacy, while others are marginalised? In this book contributors explore the active work by which heritage is produced and reproduced in a series of case studies of memorialization, battlefield preservation, tourism development, private remembering and urban reconstruction. These are the acts of making sense of war; they are acts that continue long after violent conflict itself has ended.

On memory, affect and atonement : the Long Tan memorial cross(es)

This article analyses the history of the Long Tan Memorial in Vietnam in order to open up a space for engaging with the memorialisation of war as something that can go beyond nationalistic sentimentality and create a space for more complex political and social engagements. In doing so I am concerned with exploring the value of an approach to heritage significance that prioritises relationships between places and peoples rather than authenticity and originality. I explore this question by making use of the fact that the Australian War Memorial has borrowed the original Long Tan Cross now in the custodianship of the Dong Nai Museum for a special exhibition to commemorate the Vietnam War. The Australian Vietnam Volunteers Reconstruction Group, who has official custodianship of the replica cross at the Long Tan Memorial site in Vietnam, has expressed disquiet over the loan. I use the Acting Director’s reply to the AVVRG’s Chairman to open up a discussion about the differences in meanings between these two crosses, what underlies these and how we might theorise them in order to open up an understanding of war heritage that recognises its potentials and its limitations.

Exhibit review : Focus on strangers: photo albums of World War II, Stadtmuseum, Jena, Germany, 2011

Focus on Strangers: Photo Albums of World War II is based on a collaborative research project conducted by two German universities (Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg and Friedrich Schiller Universität Jena) and was conceptualized in cooperation with four German city museums in Oldenburg, Munich, Frankfurt, and Jena. While the exhibition continues a tradition of museological projects examining Germany’s war history, such as the Wehrmachtsaustellung, which provoked fi erce public debate, Focus on Strangers moves beyond most conventional approaches in a signifi cant way. Th e exhibition pays tribute to the recent development in which private traces of memory have become part of the public perception of history, in this case the history of World War II.

The collective memory and challenges of feminism

Includes bibliography

In memory of Pedro Vuskovic

For those of us who shared many years of friendship and professional collaboration with Pedro Vuskovic, the news of his recent death in Mexico has been the cause of great sorrow, not only because of the circumstances of his death, following a cruel disease that gradually sapped his physical -but not intellectual- strength, but also because it signifies the loss of a great Latin American, of a teacher who helped shape so many generations of young people in our region, and of a companion during so many days of intellectual strivings and political struggle. Pedro joined the Commission in 1950, shortly after its birth as an institution. For nearly 20 years he served it brilliantly in a professional capacity, with his career in ECLAC culminating in the position of Director of the Development Division. He played a crucial role in structuring and disseminating the thinking of ECLAC during a time when the very air teemed with the ideas and concerns of a pleiad of gifted economists and social scientists. These were the post-war years, the 1950s and 1960s, when we all had to "construct" Latin America. Pedro Vuskovic laid many of the bricks in that collective theoretical and political edifice which has been of such importance to the countries of the region. Concurrently, he served as a professor in ECLAC and ILPES training programmes while at the same time teaching classes at the schools of economics and sociology at the University of Chile and the School of Economics at the University of Concepción. When he left ECLAC, Pedro plunged wholeheartedly into the academic world, serving as the Director of the Institute of Economics of the University of Chile, and then went on to claim a position at the forefront of Chilean politics. In November 1970 he was named Minister of Economic Affairs by President Salvador Allende and in June 1972, took over the cabinet-level position of Executive Vice President of the Production Development Corporation (CORFO);, where he served until September 1973. When political events carried him into exile in Mexico, which generously welcomed him as it did so many other Latin Americans who faced similar problems, Pedro carried on his valuable academic work, first at the Economic Research and Teaching Centre (CIDE);, where he directed the Institute of Economic Studies of Latin America, and later at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in the Humanities at the National University of Mexico (UNAM);, where he was named to the position of Coordinator for a programme on poverty and development options in various countries of Latin America. Although he will be remembered for his important political role, Pedro's work as a scholar and as an economist deserve special mention. He was a brilliant speaker, at the same time both methodical and incisive, who mastered his subjects with great wisdom and intellectual breadth, and he derived a special joy from being with young people, from providing them with intellectual stimulation and receiving it from them in turn. The many generations of Latin American students who were fortunate enough to have him as a teacher can attest to this. Pedro Vuskovic brought to his work as a researcher and teacher a deep sense of political and social responsibility which moved him to espouse the cause of Latin America 's poor and dispossessed, whose position he had come to understand very early on in his life through the many studies he carried out in this area while at ECLAC. He was tenacious in upholding his ideas and principles, he lived in accordance with them, and he championed them in all the forums open to him, in both the political and academic worlds, to the end of his days. His friends and colleagues also remember his geniality, his sense of humour and great personal warmth -traits which were coupled with an unshakable loyalty to his principles and values. Our farewell is deeply felt; Pedro Vuskovic has left us a legacy of memories and lessons that we will always hold close to our hearts. On behalf of his friends and colleagues, Jacobo Schatan, former Director of the Joint ECLAC/FAO, Agriculture Division

Microstructure of epitaxial thin films of the ferromagnetic shape memory alloy Ni 2 MnGa

Gegenstand dieser Arbeit ist die Präparation und die ausführliche Charakterisierung epitaktischer Dünnschicht-Proben der Heusler Verbindung Ni2MnGa. Diese intermetallische Verbindung zeigt einen magnetischen Formgedächtnis-Effekt (MFG), der sowohl im Bezug auf mögliche Anwendungen, als auch im Kontext der Grundlagenforschung äußerst interessant ist. In Einkristallen nahe der Stöchiometrie Ni2MnGa wurden riesige magnetfeldinduzierte Dehnungen von bis zu 10 % nachgewiesen. Der zugrundeliegende Mechanismus basiert auf einer Umverteilung von kristallographischen Zwillings-Varianten, die eine tetragonale oder orthorhombische Symmetrie besitzen. Unter dem Einfluss des Magnetfeldes bewegen sich die Zwillingsgrenzen durch den Kristall, was eine makroskopische Formänderung mit sich bringt. Die somit erzeugten reversiblen Längenänderungen können mit hoher Frequenz geschaltet werden, was Ni2MnGa zu einem vielversprechenden Aktuatorwerkstoff macht. rnDa der Effekt auf einem intrinsischen Prozess beruht, eignen sich Bauteile aus MFG Legierungen zur Integration in Mikrosystemen (z.B. im Bereich der Mikrofluidik). rnrnBislang konnten große magnetfeldinduzierte Dehnungen nur für Einkristalle und Polykristalle mit hoher Porosität („foams") nachgewiesen werden. Um den Effekt für Anwendungen nutzbar zu machen, werden allerdings Konzepte zur Miniaturisierung benötigt. Eine Möglichkeit bieten epitaktische dünne Filme, die im Rahmen dieser Arbeit hergestellt und untersucht werden sollen. Im Fokus stehen dabei die Optimierung der Herstellungsparameter, sowie die Präparation von freitragenden Schichten. Zudem werden verschiedene Konzepte zur Herstellung freistehender Mikrostrukturen erprobt. Mittels Röntgendiffraktometrie konnte die komplizierte Kristallstruktur für verschiedene Wachstumsrichtungen verstanden und die genaue Verteilung der Zwillingsvarianten aufgedeckt werden. In Verbindung mit Mikroskopie-Methoden konnte so die Zwillingsstruktur auf verschiedenen Längenskalen geklärt werden. Die Ergebnisse erklären das Ausbleiben des MFG Effekts in den Proben mit (100) Orientierung. Andererseits wurde für Schichten mit (110) Wachstum eine vielversprechende Mikrostruktur entdeckt, die einen guten Ausgangspunkt für weitere Untersuchungen bietet.rnDurch die spezielle Geometrie der Proben war es möglich, Spektroskopie-Experimente in Transmission durchzuführen. Die Ergebnisse stellen den ersten experimentellen Nachweis der Änderungen in der elektronischen Struktur einer metallischen Verbindung während des martensitischen Phasenübergangs dar. Durch Messen des magnetischen Zirkulardichroismus in der Röntgenabsorption konnten quantitative Aussagen über die magnetischen Momente von Ni und Mn getroffen werden. Die Methode erlaubt überdies die Beiträge von Spin- und Bahn-Moment separat zu bestimmen. Durch winkelabhängige Messungen gelang es, die mikroskopische Ursache der magnetischen Anisotropie aufzuklären. Diese Ergebnisse tragen wesentlich zum Verständnis der komplexen magnetischen und strukturellen Eigenschaften von Ni2MnGa bei.rn

The Failure of Silence and the Manipulation of Memory: How Spain's pact of oblivion has failed to rid the country of its troubled past

This thesis is an analysis of Spain’s development from dictatorship to democracy in light of the trauma that it endured during the Spanish Civil War of 1936 – 1939 and the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, which lasted until 1975. Drawing from the work of Maurice Halbwachs and Pierre Nora, this thesis seeks to use the concepts of collective memory and lieux de mémoire to analyze what role memory has played in Spanish society from 1939 to the present day. Theanalysis begins with an overview of the Spanish Civil War and Franco’s ensuing dictatorship in order to establish an understanding of the trauma endured by Spain and its people. Of importance will be the manner in which the presentation of history became manipulated anddistorted under Franco as the dictator sought to control the country’s collective memory. With this background in mind, the thesis then turns to analyze how the memory of Spain’s past has affected the country’s development in two eras: during its transition to democracy in the 1970s and in the present day. Of central importance is the pact of silence that was established during the transition to democracy, which was a tacit agreement among the Spanish people to notdiscuss the past. This pact of silence still clouds Spain’s memory today and affects modern discourse concerning the past. Yet it is clear that Spain has not been reconciled to its past, as the provocation of history inevitably results in tension and controversy. The central contention of this thesis is that the pact of silence that surrounds Spain’s past has not eliminated the trauma of the Civil War and dictatorship, as demonstrated by the controversy stirred up by people, groups and places in the present day. This contention has repercussions for the study of history as a whole, as it indicates that the past cannot be muted in order to achievereconciliation; rather, it suggests that we must engage the past in order to be reconciled to it.

Isolated Islands? Memory of the Holocaust in Formal and Non-Formal Education. The Case Study of Post-Communist Poland

Existing studies revealed several conflicts around the memory of the Holocaust in Poland: between understanding the need to teach about the Holocaust and indifference toward anti-Jewish graffiti; a conflict around the perception of Polish help to Jews; and the competing images of Polish and Jewish suffering during World War II. Those conflicts will be addressed in the paper as reflecting educational gaps in the Polish education system (lack of bad memory). This paper will look at the consciousness of young Poles, in terms of attitudes toward Jews, the Holocaust and memory of the Holocaust. The data presented are the preliminary results of the author’s longitudinal study „Attitudes of Young Poles toward the Jews and the Holocaust”. Quantitative and qualitative studies include field studies and participant observation of educational projects in Tykocin, Treblinka, Warsaw, Lublin, Bodzentyn and Kielce. The paper will present some components of the development of education about the Holocaust in Poland. There is a need to evaluate the attempt to bring back the memory of Jewish neighbours in some of the states of Central and Eastern Europe, a process with an ongoing effort to renovate monuments, destroyed cemeteries and synagogues. The number and scope of such initiatives in Poland indicate that civic institutions and individuals are intensifying their efforts to teach their fellow citizens about the Holocaust, however their impact should be assessed in detail.

The Berlin Republic. Evolution of Germany's politics of memory and German patriotism. OSW Point of View, August 2009

Important changes have occurred in recent years in the attitude of a majority of the German elite towards the history of the 20th century and the political identity built on collective memory. Until recently, the sense of guilt for the crimes of the Third Reich and the obligation to remember were prevalent. While these two elements of Germany's memory of World War II are still important, currently the focus increasingly shifts to the German resistance against Nazism and the fate of the Germans who suffered in the war. Positive references to Germany's post-war history also occupy more and more space in the German memory. In 2009, i.e. the year of the 60th anniversary of the Federal Republic of Germany and the 20th anniversary of the fall of Communism, the efforts of German public institutions concentrate on promoting a new canon of history built around the successful democratisation and Germany's post-war economic success. The purpose behind these measures is to build a common historical memory that could be shared by the eastern and western parts of Germany and appeal to Germany's immigrants, who account for a growing proportion of the society.