The Memory Boom

Public commemoration of the Holocaust and the spread of the ‘memory boom’ is preserved not only by political figures, but also by the impact of the media. Cultural historian Andreas Huyssen stated that in the face of technology, museums and monuments immortalised the Holocaust more effectively in a “culture dominated by the fleeting image of the screen.” This drive for the permanence of the Shoah in Germany’s national history is visible through exhibitions, television documentaries and films, namely, the famous ‘Crimes of Wehrmacht’ exhibition which toured Berlin in 1995 and 1999. This focussed on the planning and implementation of annihilation against Jews and other victims of war according to organisers Hannes Heer and Gerd Hankel. The exhibition

Others included a two hour colour film on World War Two realised October 2000 and larger international success like ‘Schindler’s List’ 1993. Berlin is the clearest example of the ‘memory boom’ in the 1990s. For instance, the building of monuments increased from two built in 1979 to twenty by 1994. The Jewish Museum in Berlin (Fig. 3) attracted 350,000 visitors in the first 2 years of its opening (1999-2001). Technology merely facilitated attempts of the public to engage with Germany’s recent past with a freedom previously denied under the communist regime in the East. The increase in memorials, exhibitions and documentaries portray the strength of public interest towards the Holocaust memorial project. Exhibitions like the ‘Crimes of Wehrmacht’ were rebooted in the early 2000s and German films such as ‘Auschwitz’ (2011) prove the project continues to this day to head in an increasingly strong and well-supported

Historian Alan Confino highlights the dangers of increased emphasis on the holocaust at the cost of overshadowing the rest of 20th century German history. This argument is supported by articles such as ‘A Past that Refuses to Pass’ published in the conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 1986 by historian Ernst Nolte. He endeavoured to argue that the actions of the Nazi regime were no different than other mass murders. This built on his earlier work hinting at comparisons between Auschwitz and American action in Vietnam. This quite radical stance was part of a bigger debate named Historikerstreit born out of later 1980s Western German scholarship. On the other side of this debate remained survivors such as Elie Wiesel who believed the Holocaust could not be overstated, “Auschwitz [used as a metaphor for the Holocaust in general] is a watershed event, a before and an after; after Auschwitz, nothing can ever be the same again”. This view was based on the premise that the Holocaust is the “ultimate event” a unique and mysterious event that will never cease to fascinate future generations. It is no coincidence this debate had reached newspapers like the Frankfurter and Die Spiegel simultaneously with the ‘memory boom’. The battle between historians, survivors and journalists over the importance of the holocaust has