Memory Between the Local, the National, and the Transnational: A Study of Holocaust Commemoration in America, Britain, Germany, and Italy in the Twenty-First Century

Abstract

The first two decades of the twenty-first century have witnessed a significant shift in the ways that we engage with painful historical events and understand their pertinence to the present day. At times, this has meant the development of more critical reflection on national history and efforts to recognise the legacies of complicity in persecution and inequality in the present day. At others, however, such memory narratives have resulted in a prioritisation of a positive depiction of national actions that resist acknowledgement of guilt and complicity. As a consequence of this changing engagement with the past, public memorial sites in general have increasingly been at the centre of public debate. In this thesis, I begin by examining the development of the field of memory studies. I add to existing understandings of the field in three phases by suggesting that since approximately 2010, there is a growing tendency towards reflexivity within transnational memory theories. Whereas in the early twenty-first century there was a great deal of optimism regarding the potentially transformative effect of transnational or global commemorative activity, I find that more recently greater weight has been given to the national container in shaping memory activity. I then examine the development of reflexive memory activity with reference to the commemoration of the Holocaust in the US, Britain, Germany, and Italy. In each context, I explore the representation of the Holocaust in a range of public memory sites, including museums, memorials, monuments, and archives. In my analysis, I not only explore transnational and national factors, but also focus extensively on local influences, highlighting the meaning of locality specific to each nation and how this, in turn, is positioned within ostensibly transnational memory patterns. Overall, I find that in each of these contexts, over the course of approximately the past decade local and national factors have disrupted the idealism of transnational memory identifiable in the early twenty-first century. The divisive political movements, societal frictions, and the particularities of their respective memory cultures have all contributed to a reorientation of Holocaust memory towards local and national concerns.