Realms of Memory

The Holocaust is at the heart of German national memory culture.  From commemorative events organized on the floor of the parliament to mandatory instruction in public schools, «never again » is a much repeated refrain echoed throughout German society.  How then is it possible that Germans are unlearning the lessons of the Holocaust?  This is the contention of historian Juergen Zimmerer, renouned for his scholarship on the genocide in imperial German South West Africa.  Zimmerer argues that by making the defense of Israel, Staatsräson, or national policy based on the burden of the past, Holocaust memory is being used to stifle freedom of expression and to promote ethnonationalist thinking.  By reducing the causal factors of the Holocaust to antisemitism in the Nazi era, it becomes possible to bracket out an uncomfortable past as a problem resolved. Antisemitism can now be located either in the regressive thinking of unwanted Muslim minority communities or the horrors perpetrated by Hamas in the present.  Instead of embracing tolerance and respect for fundamental human rights, Germany is now unlearning the lessons of the Holocaust and moving towards a more intolerant, ethno-nationist future.  A conversation with Juergen Zimmerer about his book, Germany’s History Wars: Contesting Memory and Identity Today, in this episode of the Realms of Memory podcast.

How singular was the Holocaust?  Historian Juergen Zimmerer sparked a firestorm of controversy in Germany for suggesting continuity between the colonial past and the Holocaust.  Any suggestion that the Holocaust needs to be understood within a broader framework that goes beyond antisemitism and the Nazi era strikes at the heart of the German national memory culture.  Drawing from his recently published edited volume, Germany’s History Wars: Contesting Memory and Identity Today, I had the chance to talk with Juergen Zimmerer about how the singularity idea has contributed to the unlearning of the lessons of the Holocaust.  A conversation with Juergen Zimmerer, renowned scholar of the genocide in German South West Africa, next on the September 1st episode of the Realms of Memory podcast.

Jeff Olick has been one of the central figures in the making and shaping of memory studies, a burgeoning, multidisciplinary field of study drawing scholars from around the globe.  A professor of sociology and history at the University Virginia, Charlotte, I had the opportunity to engage with Jeff in a wide ranging conversation.  We talked about how memory studies and the work of Maurice Halbwachs helped him find a home in sociology for his interest in collective memory.  We discussed his work on how Germany’s political elite mastered the Nazi past, albeit with significant caveats.  He shared his thoughts on how, despite the recent backlash, American collective memory may finally be turning away from a celebratory approach to the past toward what he has labeled as the politics of regret.  A conversation with memory studies expert Jeffrey K. Olick, in this episode of the Realms of Memory podcast.

Few scholars have influenced memory studies as much as Jeff Olick.  Professor of Sociology and History at the University of Virginia, Charlotte, Jeff was co-founder and past co-president of the Memory Studies Association, the leading association for this burgeoning, interdisciplinary field of studies. His books on Germany offer pathbreaking insights into how the country’s political elites attempted to master the Nazi and Holocaust past.  The Politics of Regret, has become a reference point for explaining why countries around the globe take up the challenge of confronting shameful histories.  From the The Collective Memory Reader to the six volume, A Cultural History of Memory, Jeff has helped compile a cannon of readings and an expansive history of collective memory.  A conversation with Jeff Olick about memory studies, the politics of memory in Germany, and the prospects for the politics of regret in the United States, next on the August 4th episode of the Realms of Memory podcast.

Since the 1990s countries around the world have been building a new type of history museum.  Rather than glorifying the nation, these museums are purpose-built to spotlight the darkest and most shameful chapters in national histories.  They are inspired by a post-Holocaust, “never again,” human rights memorialization culture anchored in the belief that nations can and should learn from past wrongs.  Until recently, the United States lagged behind this trend.  Few American museums offered a critical perspective on the nation’s history of racial violence. Sociologist Amy Sodaro, an expert on museums and the politics of past violence, offers her insights on three new U.S. museums that feature the history of slavery and racial violence.  This is the subject of her recent book, Lifting the Shadow: Reshaping Memory, Race and Slavery in U.S. Museums.