Eastern Europe as the Site of Genocide

In many parts of contemporary Eastern Europe one finds today innumerable sites from which vast chunks of history have been completely erased. Those who remember or know of this vanished past find very few physical traces on the ground. Crucial bits of evidence are missing--the sites of the killing,...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of modern history 2008-09, Vol.80 (3), p.557-593
Main Author: Bartov, Omer
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Communism
Contemporary Issues in Historical Perspective
Eastern Europe
European history
Genocide
Historic buildings & sites
Historiography
Holocaust
Jewish history
Jewish peoples
Killing
Massacres
Memory
Nazism
Regional analysis
Research methods
Research trends
Social impact
Trials
World wars
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:In many parts of contemporary Eastern Europe one finds today innumerable sites from which vast chunks of history have been completely erased. Those who remember or know of this vanished past find very few physical traces on the ground. Crucial bits of evidence are missing--the sites of the killing, the houses and property of the deported, the bodies of the murdered. The memory of Jewish life and death in many towns and cities in Eastern Europe is therefore detached from the sites in which life was lived and murder perpetrated. Here, Bartov outlines some of the main issues entailed in this conundrum concerning the relationship between memory and site, documentation and forgetting, professional conventions and historical responsibility. He believes that the Holocaust--including its postwar memory and the new socioeconomic conditions it produced through extermination and deportation of populations as well as massive property transfer--has had an incomparably greater overall impact on Eastern Europe than on Western and Central European countries.
ISSN:0022-2801
1537-5358
DOI:10.1086/589591