Jacksonville Public Library

Yellow star, red star, Holocaust remembrance after communism, Jelena Subotić

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

illustrationsmaps

index present

non fiction

Yellow star, red star

bibliography

1090842356

Jelena Subotić

Holocaust remembrance after communism

Yellow Star, Red Star asks why Holocaust memory continues to be so deeply troubled--ignored, appropriated, and obfuscated--throughout Eastern Europe, even though it was in those lands that most of the extermination campaign occurred. As part of accession to the European Union, Jelena Subotić shows, East European states were required to adopt, participate in, and contribute to the established Western narrative of the Holocaust. This requirement created anxiety and resentment in post-communist states: Holocaust memory replaced communist terror as the dominant narrative in Eastern Europe, focusing instead on predominantly Jewish suffering in World War II. Influencing the European Union's own memory politics and legislation in the process, post-communist states have attempted to reconcile these two memories by pursuing new strategies of Holocaust remembrance. The memory, symbols, and imagery of the Holocaust have been appropriated to represent crimes of communism. Yellow Star, Red Star presents in-depth accounts of Holocaust remembrance practices in Serbia, Croatia, and Lithuania, and extends the discussion to other East European states. The book demonstrates how countries of the region used Holocaust remembrance as a political strategy to resolve their contemporary ontological insecurities--insecurities about their identities, about their international status, and about their relationships with other international actors. As Subotić concludes, Holocaust memory in Eastern Europe has never been about the Holocaust or about the desire to remember the past, whether during communism or in its aftermath. Rather, it has been about managing national identities in a precarious and uncertain world. -- Provided by publisher"The book explains how contemporary Holocaust remembrance practices in Eastern Europe are used to deal with various state insecurities, and not remember the Holocaust"-- Provided by publisher

The big gray truck -- The politics of Holocaust remembrance after communism -- At the Belgrade fairgrounds -- Croatia's islands of memory -- The long shadows of Vilna -- The stakes of Holocaust remembrance in the twenty-first century