Conference article

“Imagined Communities” in contemporary Holocaust Exhibitions of the 1990s

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Published: 2012-01-17

ISBN:

ISSN: 1650-3686 (print), 1650-3740 (online)

Abstract

Remarks on the crisis of representation have not adequately tackled the problem of how the genocide of millions of Jews and the ensuing damage for millions of Europeans might be presented within the frame of museum-based exhibitions after the end of the cold war. Since the eighties; the ongoing musealization of the history of the Holocaust has merged with a flourishing memory culture. Moreover; postmodern reflections upon the event that used to be called ”Holocaust” have already become part of the current museum culture. Memorial sites; Holocaust narratives and iconic images of previous press campaigns get connected in various curatorial efforts to mediate the past within a post-traumatic museum landscape. This paper examines the merging of history and memory of the Shoa within the frame of the new hybrid called ”memory museum”. My comparative analysis is focussed on two widely discussed exhibitions that were opened around 2000 to create a (trans-) national collective memory of the Shoa for a contemporary museum audience.

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Citations in Crossref