Memorials Flashcards
What were traditional ideas about memorials and museums?
That they were meant to be warehouses for artefacts from the past
What are ideas about memorials and museums now?
That they should be commemorative sites that arouse feelings
What does a memorial do?
Remembers
What does a monument do?
Glorifies
When was the counter monument movement?
1980s and 1990s
From when was there increased public interest in the Holocaust?
1970s and 1980s
Why are there different forms and aim of monuments?
The Holocaust affected people in different ways
Why does the Holocaust need to be represented in new ways?
Because the Holocaust represented a break from established behaviour
When were abstract memorials built?
1960s
What do counter monuments resist?
The inherent glorification of the past in memorials
Where and when were counter monuments particularly popular?
1970s/1980s in Germany and Austria
What were counter monuments meant to avoid?
The perceived fascistic connotations of monumentalism
What did Richard Crownshaw argue counter monuments represented?
The absence of victims and the rupture or wound it caused when they were torn from society
What is moral intentionalism?
The idea that old evils can be overcome by a hyper visible display of shame and guilt
What did Marouf Hasian argue about USHMM?
That it was a vehicle for americanising the Holocaust
What are the tall towers of USHMM meant to represent?
The watch towers at Auschwitz
What is issued to each USHMM visitor and why?
A passport with the details of a real Holocaust victim to invite emotional investment in the subject through identification and personification
How does USHMM argue the Holocaust was an American affair?
The Allies liberated the camps
What does USHMM argue contributed to the tragedy?
Western immigration and wartime policies
What did Appelbaum argue was one of the only ways to keep memory of the Holocaust alive?
Enforcing the emotional connection to the Holocaust
When was Majdanek turned into a museum and by whom?
The late 1940s by the Soviets
What was Majdanek meant to be?
A reminder that fascism led to violence
When was the entrance memorial opened?
July 1969, the 25th anniversary of the liberation of the camp
What is the mausoleum at Majdanek meant to evoke?
The danger of the camp because of the feeling that the monument might fall on you
What does the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes commemorate?
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943
When was the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes unveiled?
1948
When was the Museum of the History of the Polish Jews opened and where?
April 2013 opposite the Memorial to the Ghetto Heroes in Warsaw
Where is the Berlin Book Burning Monument?
On the site of the 10th May 1933 burning of books by the German Student Organisation
What does the Berlin Book Burning Monument consist of?
It is an underground monument of empty bookcases with enough spaces to hold all of the books burned
What does the inscription on the Berlin Book Burning Monument read?
“That was only a prelude, where they burn books, they will in the end also burn people.”
Why is the Berlin Book Burning Monument underground?
To represent the hidden and secret nature of the Holocaust
What is the Vienna Judenplatz Monument?
The central memorial for the Austrian victims of the Holocaust
What does the Vienna Judenplatz Monument show?
It shows shelves with the books turned inwards to show both the large number of victims and the idea of Jews as people of the book
What is beneath the Berlin Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe?
A list of all the Jewish victims of the Holocaust
What is the Berlin Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe meant to resemble?
A Jewish cemetery
What is the Berlin Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe meant to describe?
The inherent instability of Jewish life under the Nazis
Why is having a Jewish museum in Berlin odd?
Because the city voided itself completely of Jews so Jewish history can not be made to feel at home
What was the Hamburg Monument against Fascism?
A column on which people were encouraged to write their impressions and feelings. It was lowered 1m per month until it had been buried
What was the point of the Hamburg Monument against Fascism?
To encourage local debate about fascism
What is the Dutch Jewish Digital Monument?
An Internet monument to all the Jewish men, women and children who were persecuted during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands
When was a museum built at Auschwitz?
April 1946
When were some of the blocks at Auschwitz turned into national exhibits?
After 1960
How many visitors does Auschwitz receive annually?
1 million
When is Holocaust Memorial Day?
27th January
What does Holocaust Memorial Day remember?
Those killed in the Holocaust and general Nazi persecution as well as those killed in the genocides in Rwanda, Cambodia, Darfur and Bosnia
Why was 27th January chosen for Holocaust Memorial Day?
It is the date Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest killing centre, was liberated
What is Holocaust Memorial Day meant to remind people?
That genocide does not happen on its own, it happens when discrimination, racism and hatred are not prevented
What is Israel’s official Holocaust memorial?
Yad Vashem
Why did the Buchenwald Memorial originally largely focus on the Communist resistance there?
Because it was built in 1958 in Communist East Germany
What is the monumental size of the Buchenwald Memorial meant to represent?
The extent of Nazi crimes
What happened to the Buchenwald memorial after the reunification of Germany?
The conception of the memorial changed and the other inmates’ resistance was remembered as well
What was the purpose of the majority of museums and memorials before 1980?
To preserve widely shared memories and values
