CHAPT E R Fo uR
BEYOND AuscHWITZ? E uRo rE 's
TERRORSCAPES IN THE AGE OF
PosTMEMORY
Rob van der Laarse
"Orange visies Auschwitz!" reacis a Durch newspaper headline on June
6, 2012, shorrly before rhe start of rhe Union of European Foorbali
Associatien's (UEFA) Championship in Poland and U k raine, referring ro
rhe visir of rhe narional foo rbaH team ro rhe Nazi concemrarion camp
in Poland . The young, international sponsmen were deeply moved when
entering rhe gare of Auschwitz I and walkingalong rhe ramp ofBirkenau.
Some players called ir an "unbelievable" and "indescribable experience,"
an impression confi rmed by phorographs made by invired press agencies.1 Inreresringly, on ly a monrh ea rl ier during rhe commemorarions of
rhe Second World Wa r in rhe Netherlands on May 4-5, a comparable
media hype occu rred when rhe well-known deejay and arrist Ruud de
W ild went ro Auschwitz wirh his crew. T he idea had come up shordy afrer
Holocaust Memorial Day, January 27, wirh a "sponraneous" call-our during his weekly radio broadcast. Whi le charring wirh one of his sidekicks,
De Wi ld rold his lisreners rhar h is nine-year-old daughrer had asked h im
whar he knew abour Anne Fra nk. Never having visired rhe Amsterdam
Anne Frank House, rhis made him rhink: "Shameful, I've nor even been
in a concentratien camp. And I've clone really every thing!" Expla ining
his own ignorance by an u nwillingness toshare his emorions "wirh an old
mister wirh 200 medals purri ng down a flora! wrearh," he made a decision.
De Wi ld phoned an enrhusiasric star of rhe popular Dutch TV soap series
Good Times/Bad Times and asked her to join him on a visit ro Auschwitz,
"if you dare," while suggesri ng rhat her agenda warehers would now think:
"Weil, Camp Auschwitz, rhar's nor something ro say no ro!" 2
Entering rhe icon ie gate of Eu rope's hean of darkness and crossing rhe
still existing symbolic menral border of rhe Tron Curtain seemed ro have
72
I
ROB VAN DER LAARSE
become a rrend among Western Europe's rich and famous. This might
cerrainly be regarcled as a success for the so-called Stockholm Declararion
of rhe International Forum on the H o locaust of January 2000 in which
44 world leaders declared rhe Shoah w be the main challenge of Western
civilizarion, suggesred rhat its cruelty and magnitude should be "forever
seared in our collecrive memory," and vowed thar new genoeides should
be prevenred by research, educarion, and remembrance ro "plant rhe seeds
of a better future amidst the soil of a bitter past." Five years later rhe UN
General Assembly supporred rhe mission of rhe Task Force for International
Cooperarion on Holocaust Educarion, Remembrance, and Research (ITF)
wirh rhe recommendarion of an annual Holocaust Remembrance Day
on January 27, rhe day of rhe Red Army's liberarion of Auschwitz, which
seems ro have become an important agent in rhe rransnarionalizarion of
rhe Holocaust. 3
Yer Auschwirz's role as rhe universa! symbol of rhe Holocaust was for
a long time nor as obvious as one mighr rhink. In contrast ro rhe earlier Sovier discovery ofMajdanek on July 23, 1944, Auschwirz's liberarion
did nor attracr much attenrion, while nowadays January 27 still has no
relarionship ro rhe Jewish-Israeli calendar of Holocaust remembrances. 4
Indeed, resrimony ar rhe firsr Nu remberg Trial (1945-1946) as well as rhe
Polish Auschwitz Trial (1947) poinred ro the significanee of AuschwitzBirkenau's gas chambers, and the camp figured prominenrly in whar
mighr be regarcled as rhe firsr Holocaust movies and novels such as Wanda
Jakubowska's film Ostatni etap (The Last Stage, 1947) and Primo Levi's
wirness story Se questo è un uomo (JfThis Is a Man, 1947). onetheless,
during the Cold War the Polish State Museum in Auschwitz (1947) was
basically considered ro be a communist propaganda site. Of course Elie
Wiesel 's Night (1960) and the Eichmann trial (1961-1962) broughr
Nazi Germany's largest Jewish dearh camp back inro Western memory,
but Auschwirz's iconic meaning as the Holocausr's paradigm camp ciared
really from the American TV miniseries Holocaust (1978), Alan]. Pakula's
Hollywood movie Sophie's Choice (1982), and C laude Lanzmann's French
documenrary Shoah (1985).
Alrhough the Age of rhe Exrremes, rerrorized by Nazism, communism,
and civil war, seems ro have finally ended with the fall of rhe Berlin Wall,
rhe shock of the Srebrenica massacre in 1995 opened rhe public's eyes ro
the possibility that hisrory does repear irsel f. The unusual cal! for military
inrervenrion, framed in Western Europe and the Unired States from rhe
perspecrive of rhe arrociries of the Nazi concenrrarion camps, was sympromaric for rhe new symbolic role of rhe Holocaust. While rhe memorializarion of rhe Firsr and Second World War had developed up ro rhen
mosrly a long narional and ofren nationalist Iines, rhe Yugoslav War of rhe
EUROPE'S TERRORSCAPES IN THE AGE OF POSTMEMORY
I 73
1990s saw rhe European Union embrace rhe Holocaust memory boom
as a mnemonic policy grounded by rhe assumprion of a painful, unique,
and sha red past of universa! value. Following rhe earlier developmem of
narional war and resisrance museums, most Western European counrries
have si nce rhe 1990s esrablished Holocaust museums, memorials, and
commemoration sites, and implemenred compensarion laws for families
of Holocaust vicrims and survivors. Hence, rhe dynamic of Holocaust
memory is roored as much in European experience as iris in rhe globalized
mediarization, universalization, or Americanizarion of rhe Holocaust. As
such, rhe Auschwitz paradigm strengrhened nor only rhe European Union's
inward consolidarion but even more irs eastward expansion, because afrer
rhe EU's enlargement between 2004 and 2007 from 12 ro 27 member
srares rhe recognirion of rhe Holocaust as a collecrive, painful past also
functions for this New Europe as an entry ticket ro a supposed "European
communiry of memory."5
Yer how European is rhis communiry? Remarkably, whi le celebriries
of Western Europe discover rhe easr during rheir Holocaust rravels, rheir
Easrern European counterparts are questioning rhe Western dominanee
over Europe's collecrive memory. Thus on March 15, 2012, more rhan
200,000 Hungarians were proresring in Budapesr, led by rheir young
Prime Minister Vikror Orbán and wirh rhe support ofhundreds of Polish
and Lirhuanian narionalists, againsr whar they called a Western "international occuparion." Similar ro rhe Hungarian revolr of 1848 againsr
rhe Habsburg Empire and rhe 1956 revolr againsr Sovier occuparion,
rhe Hungarian masses now seem ready for a revolr againsr rhe European
Union! "Hungary will nor be a colony of the EU," was rhe headline for
an asronished Durch jou rnalisr's ncwspaper artiele on rhc Hungarian teader's Budapesr speech. 6 Orbán's fierce message is nor only rhat the center of
Europe has moved ro the East, but also that the time has come for Easrern
Europe's srrong Christian nations ro rescue the weak and decaying continent from its Western, humanist degeneration. This geopolitical shift is
reflecred in the 2008 Prague Declaration on European Conscience and
Communism, which-as an alternative ro the Stockholm Declarationdemands of the European Union the "recognirion of Communism as an
imegral and horrific part of Europe's common hisrory," rhe "acceptance
of pan-European responsibiliry for crimes commirred by Communism"
tobedealt with in rhe same way rhe Nu remberg Tribunal did with Nazi
crimes. Ir also asks for rhe esrablishmenr of August 23-rhe day of rhe
signing of the Molorov-Ribbenrrop Pact-as a day of remembrance for
rhe vicrims ofborh Nazi and Communist rotalirarian regimes comparable
ro Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27? This so-called double
genocide doctrine was adopted one year later by a European Parliamem
74 I
ROB VAN DER LAARSE
resolurion rhar reeommencis a "Day of Remembrance for rhe victims
of Sralinism and Nazism" and declares rhe crimes of communist terror
and occuparion ro be as important as rhe Holocaust for Europe's collecrive memory. Though rhe origin of rhis reinvenred roralirarianism thesis
goesback ro Václav Havel's dissident humanism, afrer irs adoprion wirh
German Chrisrian Demoeratic support by rhe leaders of rhe Viségrad
Group narions (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia), ir
seems now ro have been hijacked by nationalist and populist poliricians
in Central Europe and rhe Baltics wirh a much less pto-European agenda.
In rhar sense one may say rhar De Wild's fascinarion for an Easrern
"Auschwitz experience" and Orbán's fear of a Western cu lrural occuparion perfecrly iI lustrare rhe Holocaust dissonances between rhe Easr and
rhe Wesr. 8 For while Easrern Europe presentsirself as suffering from rwo
regimes of rerror lasring from 1939 ro 1989, Western Europe only suffers
from a self-proclaimed "guilr of narions" afrer replacing irs heroic war
and resisrance narrarives wirh rransnarional memory works.9
So we may ask: is nor rhe European Union's and ITF's miSSion of
Holocaust educarion, remembrance, and research as srrongly, politically,
and erh ical ly biased as rhe Prague Declararion? And whar abour rhe use,
misuse, and abuse of the Holocaust or Auschwitz paradigm by presenrday poliricians, media personaliries, and memory makers? Pur differendy,
is rhe Holocaust paradigm really all-embracing, universa!, and global, or
should ir be undersrood as a dominant narrarive, compering wirh orher war
experiences, mnemonic spaces, and memories? lndeed camps and memorials ofren reil compering srories abour rhe meaning and lessens of rhe
rwemierh-cenrury "age of exrremes" ro different, if nor conflicring herirage
communiries. 10 As I will show, rhe EU's call for shared va lues nor only
demonstraces rhe successof Holocaust memcrials and museums in arrracring new visitor groups butiralso demonstraces rheir appeal ro new victim
groups, somerimes even perceived as perperrarors in rhe eyes of orhers.
Mediated Visibility, Memory, and the Politics of Heritage
Ma rianne Hirsch has labeled as "postmemory" the visual atrraction of
vicrim phoros for a second, postwar generation wirhout living memories
of rhe camps. Following Jan and Aleida Assmann's conceprualizarion of
rhe transmission of"communicative memory" embodied within the family into "culrural memory" srored in archives and communicated through
literature, museums, and performances, Hirsch suggesrs a comparable
development for the mediaeion of war experiences. This public transmission of embodied experience should be best mediared by phoros of
people rhar "can persist even after all pa'rticipants and even rheir familial
EUROPE'S TERRORSCAPES IN THE ACE OF POSTMEMORY /
75
descendants are gone." The specific "fluidiry" of pomaits, private phoros, and
personal objecrs would, according ro her, be made possible by the power of
rhe familial gaze ro shape the visiror's abiliry ro murually undersrand and
idenrify, as exh ibi ted in new memorial museums "like the Tower of Faces
in rhe US Holocaust Memorial Museum." 11 Alrhough rhe rower in the
Washington DC museum might nor be as familial as its name suggests,
si neerheupper portrairs are invisible ro visirors, the presenration of faces
of lost Jewish inhabiranrs of one massacred Lithuanian village is astrong
device for anyone whowants ro imagine rhe impact of rhe Holocaust on
a human scale. As such, rh is impl icit reference to the long "forgotten"
Easrern European "Holocaust by huilers" mighr workas powerfully as rhe
piles of human hair and shoes of rhe anonymous dead in rhe showcases
at Auschwirz's State Memorial Museum in Oswiçcim. 12 Nonerheless, I
would stress rhe equally important role of rhe historie locarion irself for
mnemonic insrallarions ar in situ memcrials such as rhe entire 1.9 square
kilometer complex of Auschwitz I and Auschwitz !I in Birkenau. Here
more rhan porrraits alone, rhe mediared interaction of phoros, objecrs,
and places produces srrong, embodied identifications of present visirors
wirh past vicrims by pervasive, sparial experiences. 13
Using rhe emorional narrarive of rhe family's photo album for public
display, Holocaust museums and memcrials have become popular desrinarions especially fora younger generation wirhout personal memories ofwar.
Harold Marcuse noresthar rhe largesr group of firsr-rime camp visirors ar
rhe former Bavarian concentratien camp of Dachau around rhe turn of rhe
millennium were "rhe 1989er children of rhe 1968er parenrs," visiting rhe
memorial camp fora personal experience of "rhe War as hisrory," known
only from school, film, and relevision. 14 G rowing up wirh publ ic wirness
srories rransformed inro visual, mediarized memory, rhe second- and rhirdgenerarion visirors have a powerful influence on rhe staging and resraging
of Holocaust sires. 15 While many traces of past violence have been lost,
some of these painful places haunted by rhe past have been "rediscovered"
by a new generation rhrough rhe mediaeion of phorography, literature, fi lm,
and new media. Postmemory in rhar sense is closely relared ro rhe logic of
globalized visibiliry in the media age. 16 Cenrered around the Holocaust,
as Levy and Sznaider nored, rhe mnemonic pracrices of the global age are
ofren sparially localized in herirage sites shaped by rhe culrural dynamic
of rhe rourist gaze. 17 Transferming locarions inro desrinarions, rhey reeonscruer rhe past for present needs by giving historica! objecrs and places a
second life as herirage. lnstead of simply showing rhings, these desrinarions produce "glocal" Holocaust experiences, compering with each orher
by stagi ng authenriciry for rhe rourist marker. 18 Beyond rheir funcrion
as rourist desri narions, however, Holocaust sites are also appropriared by
76 I
ROB VAN DER LAARSE
herirage communiries, varying from survivor groups ro complete narions.
The crucial significanee of Holocaust sites is rherefore rheir value for idenriry polities, strengtherring as well as transeending old local boundaries
and narional borders in a context of Europeanizarion and globalizarion.
But as the product of war and conflict, herirage seems concesred almosr
by definirion: rhe samesites ofren rell different srories for different people.
Thar in rhe former European landscapes of Nazi occuparion more and
more conrradicrory experiences and memories are absorbed into rhe orbir
of rhe Holocaust narrarive should rherefore nor obscure how many painful
and "difficulr" memories have been silenced and "forgotten."
A firsr case in point is Polizei-haftlager Froslev (Po lice Prison Camp
Fmslev) in Sourhern Jutland near rhe Danish-German border. Promored as
"an unambiguous memorial ro German occupation and Danish resistance,"
in contrast ro whar visitors mighr expecr, rhis camp had never been a brural
Nazi concentrarion camp, let alone a Jewish transit or dearh camp. Unlike
No rway, Belgium, or rhe Netherlands, Denmark had never been officially
occupied. The Danish all-party, unity government srepped down only in
1943, after which the country was informally governed by rhe German
Foreign Office. The Wehrmachr sentabout 1,700 Jews, Com munists, and
"asocial" persons ro Neuengamme and other German concentrarion camps,
but as aresu lt of the government's "polities of negotiation," the -Danessucceeded in prevenring rhe deporration of several thousand resistance fighters, most ofwhom were imprisoned from 1944 near rhe -German-border
in Fmslev, which was run by rhe German Securiry Police in Denmark. 19
When Fr0slev was rransformed inro a memorial to Danish resisrance in
1969, rhe memorial museum silenced irs postwar funcrion as an internmem
camp. Renamed Hrhus or Faarhus (1945-1949), ir was reused immediarely afrer rhe war to imprison collaborators under the aegis of rhe former
resisrance movement by rurning former prisoners into camp guards. Like
in orher countries, horror tales about rhe severe erearment of former fascisrs and collaborators were soon circulating. In the Danish case, however,
these postwar "losers" combined a "wrong" ideology with an oppressed ethniciry, since most of rhem belonged to rhe German minoriry of Sourhern
Jutland (Norrhern Schleswig), where one-fifth of rhe male popularion feil
vicrim to a legal "purge." Although many of these Volksdeutschen (erhnic
Germans living beyond the borders of the Reich) had hoped for a German
Anschluss l;>y border correction during the Third Reich, they oppose still
today rheir postwar treatment as "rraitors" by arguing rhat Denmark had
never been officially occupied! 20 So Fr0slev, rhe heroic symbol of narional
resistance, became as Farhus a painful symbol of exclusion. Alrhough afrer
aredesign in 2013 rhe museum is telling the postwar story in an ourbuilding, rhe competing narrarives of Fmslev/Färhus are still integrated wirhin
EUROPE'S TER RORSCAPES IN T HE ACE OF POSTMEMORY
I 77
rhe powerfu l message of rhe site, framing rhe German-Danish minarity's
oppression of 1945-1949 in rhe context of irs wartime Nazificarion and
collaboration.
A second case in point concerns rhe Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen
concentration camps locared in rhe former Easr Germany. Already in
1995 Sa rah Farmer nored that their post-1989 reconfiguration was bei ng
planned by West German curators and historians. Owing to the complex
postwar dynamics of memory, she argues, these site-based memcrials
de mand d ifferent hermeneutic approaches rhan the usual war museum. 21
Parrizia Violi similarly points to t he active role of "trauma site museums"
in the memory politics of postconflict societies because "trauma sites are
in rhis respect much more powerful semioric devices rhan any orher kind
of memorial site, si nee rhey al ready exist as genu ine signifiers and testimon ials of rhe past inscribed in rhe urban landscape, and deeply embedded
in rheir wider historica! and culrural conrexr." 22 Yet ofren local meanings
and contrasring representarions of the past among d iffere nt communiries
remain wirhin rhe framework of a powerful, Western-authorized herirage discourse, embodied by official insrruments and institutions such
as Un ired Nations Educational, Scienrific, and Cultural Organizarion's
(UNESCO) World Herirage Convention (1972) and rhe above-mentioned
Stockholm Declararion. 23 While mosrly "forgorren" in West Germany in
rhe firsr decades afrer rhe war, Nazi concenrrarion camps became heroic
sites of antifascist resisrance in Easr Germany. Afrer rhe collapse of rhe
GOR, however, rhey were rransformed into sites of arrocity according to
rhe Western Holocaust paradigm. I n addirion rhis vicrim-orienred narrarive soon came ro include more rh an only Holocaust vicrims. Afrer rhe
discovery of mass graves in rhe surroundi ng foresrs in Buchenwald and
Sachsenhausen, communist and Jewish spokespeople for Nazi vicrims
were challenged by a compering commemorarive group of spokespeople for
rhe prisoners killed in rhe camps under Sovier adminisrrarion afrer 1945.
Camparabie ro the vicrim perspecrive of Denmark's German mi noriry,
rhe relarives of these vicrims (former perpetrarors in rhe eyes of rhe Nazi
vicrims) were claimi ng in rhe 1990s access ro ''rheir" sites of commemorarion. Only afrer years of bitter rivalry a historica! cammission (dom inared
by Western Germans) recommended a sparial separation of rourings on
these samememorial sites fo r Holocaust and communist vicrims and rheir
relatives. Indeed, rhis might be considered a first step on rhe road ro a
European recogniti on of the crimes com mi tred by communism.
Similar confromations, though along other historicallines, have raken
and are taking place in many fermer Nazi concemration camps inside and
outside Germany, often resulting in sparial and hierarchical competieion
among vicrim groups, wirh Jewish Holocaust vicrims at the highest and
78 I
ROB VAN DER LAARSE
postwar imernees and posrcolonial residems ar rhe lowesr rank. In many
Western European counrries a blurring between rhe caregories of heroes,
vicrims, and perperrarors has occurred. In Denmark, for example, Lars
Breuer and Isabella Marauschek nore rhar in the media rhe 1990s victims'
perspecrives have recently broadened ro include hererofore unrepresented
groups in the national master narrarive of a heroic moral narion, such as
former Easrern Front volumeers and Danish Narional Socialists. 24 In rhe
Netherlands as wel! rhe official "Nationaal Comité 4-5 Mei" supported
a similar broadening of rhe caregory of Durch war victims cammemorared on Remembrance Day, May 4, ro all fallen soldiers fighring against
and with the Germans. However, the boywhowon the Committee's war
poetry competition in 2012 with an empatheric poem dedicated ro an
uncle whodiedas a Waffen-SS foreign volunteer at rhe Eastern Front had
ro wirhdraw afrer pub! ie protest. The role of rhe 23,000 Durch Waffen-SS
volunteers, who ournumbered all other non-German soldiers in rhe Nazi
war against rhe "Judeo-Bolshevik conspi racy," is simply incomprehensible
as victimhood in rhe Western Holocaust narrative. 25 T h is might also
explain why the only monument to rhe Durch SS is located in Estonia,
the Baltic country where also in 2007 rhe communist national liberry
monumem of 1945, rhe so-called Bronze Soldier of Tallinn, was relacared rogerher wirh rhe remains of some Red Army soldiers ro a Russian
war cemerery. orwirhsranding EU and US proresrs, Esron ian narionalists had erecred a counter monument, relocated in 2005 ro rhe privarely
owned Museum of Fighr for Esron ian Freedom in Lagedi, cammemorating "their" fallen soldiersin a bronze bas-relief of a freedom fighter wirh a
German Stahlhelm and machine gun .26
If publicopinion is still strongly divided on the issue of cammemorating national "rrairors" and Holocaust "perpetrarors" as legirimate victims,
Durch-German commemorations at the grass roots level are hardly criticized. Such "reconciliarions" conform ro rhe European memory politics
of shared values but are still unrhinkable ar former camp sites where-in
contrast ro museums and symbolic monumenrs-specific place-bound
memories are at stake. Thus many second-generation "war children," emotionally attached to places marked by the foorsteps of rheir lost relatives,
cannot accept rhe idea of being confronted at such shrines of their family's idemiry with competing victim groups such as rhe Durch "ch ildren
of wrong parenrs," meaning former collaborators, who present rhemselves
in the media as still nor being "liberared" 65 years afrer rhe WarY And a
recent proposal of some rhird-generarion German hisrorians ro rransform
Fr0slev into a bi-narional, Danish-German memorial site, likewise would
nor make sense if ir ignores the compering memories attached ro the conflicred site. 28 Neirher Buchenwald's alternative commemorarion of Nazi
EUROPE'S TERHORSCAPES IN THE AGE OF POSTMEMORY
I 79
and Sovier vicrims nor Fr0slev's choice ro rel! rhe story of Farhus in one of
its outbuildings wil! be able ro reconcile different, if nor opposing, memories of "victimhood." Therefore, rhe present direcror of the Fr0slev Camp,
H enric Skov Kristensen, srates that no marter whar poliricians propagare
abour shared values and human righrs educarion, museums should opr for
authemiciry and rru rh-fi nd ing. 29 Visirors and victims must simply accept
rhar bistorical research is nor meant nor able ro bridge rhe gap between
compering narratives of a complicated and painful past. But what about
the museum's active role in Denmark's politics of memory? This hardly
seems compatible with bistorical criticism, and even if it might be true,
as Kristensen rhinks, thar in the future the question of authemiciry wil!
become more important than the question of who owns rhe place,30 rhe
rules of authenriciry have always been dictared by rhe politics of idemity
because ir really marters if one resrores a barrack according ro its funcrion
and appearance in or after rhe Nazi occupation.
Competing Narratives in "Conflict Time"
lf Western herirage professionals are staging (or are willing ro stage)
compering srories ar the sa me site by means of sparial redesigns and routings
thar inregrare different memory groups and artracr new visirors ro former
camp sites, such "mulridirecrional" experimems are still umhinkable in
many Easrern European, postconflict socieries.31 Nor having experienced
decadesofWestern Holocaust educarion, Hollywood movies, or a German
model of com ing to rerms wirh rhe past (Vergangenheitsbewältigung), former com munist counrries are still wimessing memory wars, which-in
contrast ro most Western coumries-might equally be undersrood as
afterlives of violence as wel! as preludes ro violence. Such was cerrainly
rhe case during rhe 1990s Yugoslav war, as rhe example of Jasenovac
Memorial M useum mighr show. In rhis former Usrasa concentrat ion camp
(1941-1945) known as rhe "Auschwitz of rhe Balkan"- a complex of sarellire camps spread over 200 square kilomerers including rhe nororious Srara
Gradiska concenr rarion camp in rhe C roarian borderland of Slavonian
Krajina-approximately 80,000 ro 100,000 people were killed according
ro current records, including at least ca. 47,000 Serbs, 10,000 ro 13,000
Jews, 6,000 ro 10,000 Roma, and 6,000 ro 12,000 CroarsY This is a large
number rhar nonerheless conrrasts sharply wirh rhe alleged 500,000 ro
800,000 Serbs, Jews, Roma, and "antifascisrs" killed rhere, according ro
the fo rmer communist regime and ro many Serbs still roday.33 Thus rhe
almost sacrosanct number 700,000 for Serbian nationalists is nowadays
projeered on large sereens in Gradina Donja, anorher part of] asenovac's
former killing fields across rhe Sava Riverin Republ ika Srpska. 34
8o I
ROB VAN DER LAARSE
Alrhough such an up- and downgrading of Nazi vtcnms, or more
generally inflaring of one's own dead and reducing rhe numbers of orhers,
is rypical for many camp narratives in postcommunist Easrern Europe, the
exposure of erhnic violence had nor been rypical for Tiroism. Tiro's early
postwar policy of"brorherhood and unity" was aimed ar silencing and forgerring by purring hisrory on ice. Cleansed of all irs barracks,] asenovac's
pasroral memorial park expressed the bloody past of rhe Ustasa camps
in "Tiro sryle," as does Bagdan Bogdanovié's impressive Srone Flower
monument (1966), symbolizing light and hope wirhout any explicit reference ro rhe horror and terror ar rhe historica! camp site. The Memorial
Museuro's firsr permanent exhibirion, which was opened ro the pubtic in
1968, prioritized rhe eperation of rhe Ustase camp with rhe help of artifacts, documems, and mail sent by prisoners. There were no phorographs
of corpses, massacres, knives, or other attribures used for killing. Duringa
visie by a delegation of the Serbian Academy of Arts and Science in 1985,
however, rhere were complaims that the exhibition did nor show "some
firsr-class documems." Shordy thereafrer, on rhe eve of the Yugoslav war,
the] asenovae Memorial Museuro's policy of memory changed complerely
when its "crue srory" was presenred in a new permanent exhibition (1988)
thar explicirly showed torture and slaughrered human boclies in detail on
a frieze conraining large-format phorographs. 35 The permanent exhibirion
was accompanied by a travelling exhibition, "The Dead Open rhe Eyes of
rhe Living" (1986-1991), which in a visual narrative camparabie ro the
Allies' "shock rherapy" in farmer Nazi Germany for the first time revealed
the cruelty of the azi crimes. Ir aimed ro show Nazi war crimes ro soldiers at army barracks of the Yugoslav People's Army by means of hundreds of pboros of massacres and dead bodies, shot at] asenovae and orher
sites during rhe Holocaust and arranged according ro rules of propaganda
insreadof educarion. 36 According ro NarasaJovicié, rhe currenr direcror of
]asenovae Memorial Museum, rhe 45,000 doeurnenes of the Inrernarional
Criminat Tribunal for the farmer Yugoslavia in The Hague indicate rhe
traveling exhibitien's populariry at Serbian military bases in rhe late 1980s.
Milosevic and many orher war criminals menrioned it intheir testimonies
ro jusrify their acrions. When rhey saw "what rhey [the Usrasa] did rous,"
rhey responded in rerms of whar Tony Judr bas labeled rhe power of the
"rhey-did-it-ro-us" model by claiming: "rhey committed war crimes, and
now iris rhe other way around!" Relaring maps wirh camparabie locarions
of rhe 1980s exhibirions and rhe 1990s "rape camps," JoviCié suggesrs a
direer link between rhe harred evoked by rhe phoros of dead boclies in
Jasenovac and Croatia's Homeland War (1991-1995).37
More rhan merely sympromaric of exisring rensions, rh is concesred
"trauma site museum" played an acrive role in rhe ensuing conflicts.
EUROPE'S TERRORSCAPES IN TI-IE AGE OF P OSTMEMORY
I
81
The Museum became rhe focus of what anrhropologisr Sref Jansen calls
"memory-cenrered narrarives of disram pasrs," paradoxically shared by
Serbs and Croars, both playing rhe card of historie trauma wh ile claiming ro have "liberared " rhemselves "forever" from a "rhousand years of
oppression."38 Violaring t he 1954 Hague Convention fo r rhe Proreetion of
Culrural Properry in rhe Evem of Armed Conflict, fi rsr Franjo Tudrnan's
Croarian army and rhen paramilitary Serbs from the rebellious Republ ic
ofKrajina occupied]asenovae Memorial Museum in fall 1991 , and finally
rhe Croarian military surge of Operation Storm (1995) "l iberared" rhe
site. Jasenovac was by rhen severely damaged; part of irs loored colleerion was raken ro Bosnia and later sold ro rhe Unired Srares Holocaust
Memorial Museum (USHMM), and another part was transporred by
Serbs ro Belgrade. T hus the Belgrade Museum of Genocide Vicrims
(1992) presenred in 1997 rhe exhibition "] asenovae-A Sysrem of Ustase
Death Camps" ro prove the "genocidal rendencies of rhe Croarian people,"
accompanied by a 122-page catalogue wirh many phoros and documenrs
from the original Jasenovac collecrion. 39 If Serbs were raking revenge for
the "Serbian Holocaust" of 1941, Croats were raking revenge for whar rhey
called the "Croatian Holocaust" of 1945. For when] asenovac's "truth" was
revealed in the late 1980s, at al most the sametime the long tabooed "truth"
abour Serbian Cherniks and rhe massacre of surrendered Ustase, Bosnian,
and Slovenian troops in the Carinrhian refugee camps of Bleiburg and
Viktring in May 1945 were debated and commemorated for the first time.
After rhis rhe shame ofjasenovac was replaced in Croaria by a new vicrim
perspective cenrered on Bleiburg, and according ro Croarian revisionists,
the number of deaths should have been far higher than rhat of]asenovac,
now downgraded ro 35,000, even though Tudman-as a farmer parrisan general-distanced bimself from rhis "numbers game" by claiming
an equal number of 50,000 dearhs for bath camps. In rhe 1990s Ausrrian
Bleiburg became Croaria's new national commemoration site, visired by
families openly dressed in Ustase uniforms. 40
So how does one present the Holocaust in rhis kind of museum? How
does one present trauma without producing anorher terrotscape and
genocide? W h ile borh sicles accused each orher of genocide, rhey also
affered new chall enges for historica! debare and the politics of reconciliation. Since 2002 bath Belgrade's Genocide Museum and Jasenovac
Memorial Museum have disranced rhemselves from nationalist revisionism. In parricular afrer rhe Tudman era in Croatia rhe German approach
ro Vergangenheitsbewältigung has become a model in rhe Europeanization
of its politics of memory. 41 After being redesigned under Croatian managemem and reopened in 2006, Jasenovac Memorial Museum found the
answer abour how ro rrear a compl icared and concesred past in ITF frames:
82
I
ROB VAN DER LAARSE
it presems srories, objecrs, and images so rhar rhe public can fee! and
comprehend "rhe rerror of rhe crimes" by srressing rhar rhey were com mitred against "rens of rhousands of individuals" rather rhan presenring an
anonymous "mass ofbones and blood." In contrastro rhe former ideological manipularion of numbers and photos, rhe Museum no longer shows
images of dead boclies to its visitors in order to prevent a spiral in which
"vicrims of one war crime be utilized ro incire anorher." Awarded international prizes for irs design and educarional projects and supporred by rhe
Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem as wellas rhe USHMM in
Washington, it now seeks to evoke a visitor's idemificarion with "victims
as individuals" whom one can look in rhe eyes by means of porrrait photos and personal and family names, "rather rhan just an anonymous mass
reduced co rhe group term 'vicrims."" 2
Yet why h as rhis "Europeanized" museum been criticized nor only
by Serbs but also by Western commentators? Despite irs support from
rhe USHMM, even the ITF has condemned rhe Jasenovac Memorial
Museum's "individualization of victimhood" because ie neglecrs ideological backgrounds, rhe erhnic idemiry of victims and perpetrators, and
reprises rhe earl ier negleer of rhe sire's hisrory in rhe spirit of Bogdanovié's
symbolic Srone Flower (Figu re 4.1). The di rector of the Sirnon Wiesenthal
Center in Jerusalem described rhe new exhibition in 2006 as "postmodern
fog," and rhe German ambassador in Croaria had advised Jovicié earlier
"co show the historica! events as truthfully and tangibly as possible" in
order to prevent a repericion ofhisrory, because a younger generation wirhout familial memory of the Holocaust would nor be able co understand
what had happened rhere by looking at an abstract stone flower.43 These
Western organ izarions seem to agree with rhe C roatian-Jewish aurhor
Julija Kos. According to her 2010 "Informarion letter to rhe ambassadors
about poor Exhibirions on Jasenovac Museum," she had been replaced as
a member of the M useum's governing council by "a more obedient member" because of her critica! interview in Novi List under rhe title "Such a
museum in Jasenovac should be closed," immediately after rhe opening
in 2006. Demanding changes in rhe permanent exhibirio n, she quored in
her open letter four years later rhe presidenrs of rhe Jewish communiries in
Serbia and in Croaria, who in 2007 and 2009 publicly procesred against
che diminishing of "che rrurh abouc che Usrashe regime" as "jusc one step
from denying of the crime done in Jasenovac.'" 4
In my view this is a good example of "dyschroni a." Using porrrait
pbotos as a rechnique for visitors' idemificarion, the Jasenovac Memorial
Museum imporred a successful Western model of representation. However,
it is che product of a specific postwar dynamic of Holocaust memory, one
chac becomes highly concesred in a postconflict society where every story is
EUROPE'S TER RORSCAPES IN T HE AGE OF P OSTMEMORY
Figure 4.1
I 83
Bogdan Bogdanovié's Srone Flower monument (1966).
Sou ra: Photograph b)' Damir Kalogjera, 2003. © Jasenovac Memorial Sice.
disrrusred. We are, in ocher words, dealing wirh contrasring historica! and
educational approaches to presenring conflicred pasts in a museum context. Whi le Western memorial museums such as rhe Police Prison Camp
Fmslev and Buchenwald concemration camp use, or claim to use, competing historica! narrarives co challenge aurhorized national resistance myrhs
by imegrating new vicrim groups, rhe] asenovae Memorial Museum seems
co adopt rhe EU's pol icy of shared values to prevent new ech nic harred.
84
I
ROB VAN DER LAARSE
Nonerheless, the reason why Hirsch's norion of postmemory-as transmirrer
of familial values ro pub! ie, cultural memory by means of porrrairs-has
nor been very successful in bridging rhe gap herween former vicrims and
new visiror groups is direcdy relared ro rhe politica! need for a "dehisroricization" of rhe genoeidal past under rhe umbrella of a Europeanizarion or
universalizarion of rhe Holocaust. This might also be rhe reason why Narasa
Matausié, a spokesperson for Jasenovac Memorial Museum, denies in her
pub! ie reacrion ro J ui ij a KoS's criricism any influence ofYad Vashem and rhe
USHMM, for these museums "were nor built at che crime scene," and their
exhibitions are rherefore of a "different nature" rhan "the comemporary
museum presenration of rhe crime" attempred at Jasenovac.45 As a result,
rhe museum claims to present "che trauma of]asenovac" in a scholarly, cultural conrexr by focus i ng nor only on stories abour rhe Holocaust but "abour
all crimes commirred as a resulr of narional, religious or politica! inroleranee
during rhe exisrence of rhe Independent State of Croaria.'>4 6 Confromed
with rhe question of how ro present a painful herirage, Croatian professionals, like rheir colleagues in Denmark and Germany, choose to esrablish
"clear, indispurable facrs." Opposing decades of ideological manipularion,
however, rhey opr roseek uuch only in rhe individualizarion of vicrims, nor
in rhe presemarion of forensic evidence of the mass killi ngs, nor by moving
beyond Bogdanovié's abstract flower and rerhinking rhe museum's own role
in Yugoslav memory politics and the 1990s conflicts. In orher words, rhe
mechanisms of postmemory are used to silence traumatic memories in rhe
interest of reconciliarion; but as the progressive Croarian wrirer Slobodan
Snajder nores, what works for the Berlin Holocaust Memorial does nor
necessarily work for a concesred concentration camp-and a much better
inspiration for Jasenovac chan Yad Vashem or the USHMM mighr have
been posr-1995 BuchenwaldY
This brings us back to Sarah Farmer's argument rhar, because of rhe
dynamics of memory, sice-based memorials demand different museological approaches rhan "normal" memorial museums. Precisely because ir
ignored competing memories wirh regard to historica! evems, rhe role,
morives, and background of vicrims and perpetrarors, and above all sparial
evidence of what happenedar rhe still exisring crime scenes, rhe] asenovae
Memorial Museum lost contact wirh irs herirage communiries. This is
rhe case nor only for chose Serbs unwilling ro accept rhe downgrading of
"rheir" marryred vicrims, it is equally rhe case for Jewish survivors and
rheir relatives who insist on rhe antifascist paradigm. Thus, on his visie ro
Jasenovac in 2010 Israeli Presidem Sirnon Peres explicirly referred ro rhe
silenced photos of dead boclies and che Usrasa way of killing while staring
rhar rhis camp differed from all orhers "because it was nor only for Jews"
and because of "rhe level of bruraliry as wel!." Rcferring ro rhe infamous
EUROPE'S TERRORSCAPES IN THE AGE OF POSTMEMORY
I 85
Usrase knife, wh ich was no longer exhibired after 2006, he added thar ir
was "unimporranr if one person or 100,000" died in rhis way. Forgerring
all policies of shared values, Peres claimed rhar] asenovae was "a demonstrarion of sadism.'>4 8 This speech-preceding C roaria's enrry in rhe European
Union-signaled rhe ongoing sensiriviries in rhe unavoidable parh of
Croatian-Israeli rapprochemenr. In rhe process of inrernarionalizarion
Bleiburg lost irs fu ncrion for Croaria's politics of memory, and] asenovae
once again was of crucial imporrance. Ir harks back ro rhe election of rhe
liberal dissident Srjepan Mesié as president in 2000, afrer which Croaria
broke with rhe Car holic nationalist puriry politics of rhe Tudman era and
declared irself a modern, independent narion wirh no conneetion ro rhe
fascist Usrase state whose symbols and uniforms were prohibired in pub! ie.
This policy conrinues under rhe currem social demoeratic presidem Ivo
Josipovié who warned in 2011 againsc "arrempts ro drastically reduce or
decrease rhe number of] asenovae vicrims," while prime minister Jadranka
Kosor insured rhar "rhe C roarian governmem decisively rejecrs and condemns every arrempr ar historica! revisionism and rehabilirarion of rhe fascist ideology, every form of roralirarianism, exrremism and radicalism.'>49
Posing as "rhe son of a Tiroisr parcisan," Josipovié also expressed his "deep
regret" for Tudrnan's support of rhe Croar-Bosnian war and even visired
wirh rhe leaders of Republika Srpska and Bosnia rhe "Serbian" memorial
site ar Sijekovac rhar commemorares rhe 1992 killing of around 50 Serbs
by Croat and Bosnian army units. Croatia's presidem a lso wem ro Israel in
2012 to apologize for rhe Jews killed by rhe C roatian Usrase regime during rhe Second World War, rhereby suggesting a furrher suengrhening of
the Israeli-Croar ties wirhin rhe context of lsrael 's need for peace wirh rhe
Palesrinians. 50
Borh Peres's and Josipovié's veiled messages about the silencing of
"orhers" indicare rhat nor on ly Europe's politica! imegrarion but also
Israel's existence is based on rhe assumption of shared collecrive memories of a common traumatic past. Yet at rhe same time rhe assumprion
of rhe Holocaust as a common experience, and hence as a basic part of
Europe's posewar idenriry, raises serious objecrions. As we have nored, at
many former rerrorscapes rhe violent realiry of rhe Holocaust was a complex phenomenon rhat srill generaces conflicring emorions and compering
narrarives. At traumatic sites in Jutland, Croaria, and hundreds of other
places, from official war memorials to "forgorren" traces, people experience what Brirt Baillie in her research on rhe Dudik Memorial at Yukovar
(Croatia) labels "chronocemrism," referring ro a specific norion of time as
"conflict rime.'' 51 Conflict time has an exrremely long staying power rhar
will porentially never end and can be reawakened by sudden conflicrs afrer
long periods of forgetring. T his is how old narnes ereare new meanings
86 I
ROB VAN DER LAARSE
by referring to traumatic momems and places. Although preseneed as
"age old," these mnemonic scenarios should nor be regarcled as legirimare,
subaltern narratives of repressed memories, but rather they can be bener
understood as dynamic conscructions of memory using "the past" for present purposes. Invented traditions co secure unique binh lands for one's kin
mediate in thar sense between familial, embodied experiences and narrarives of collective memory rhat may end up as instirutionalized master narrarives wirh a sacrosanct characrer like polirical religions. If this processof
intergenerational group formation and transnational narion building leads
in normal times co scoring memory in public instirutions, such as schools,
archives, monumenrs, and museums, in conflict time these imagined communities may claim symbolic spaces as an exclusive heritage to be defended
against any claim of "orhers."
Tenorscapes in the Age of Postmemory
Because rhe topography of Nazi and communist rerror lefr a much deeper
imprim on European memory culrure rhan generally rhoughr, we mighr
expecr rhat the EU's enlargemem si nee 2004 wirh rhe addirion of many
postcommunist narions would lead to a transformation of Europe's politics of memory. Alrhough Oswiçcim is located in Poland, rhe "shadow
of Auschwitz" is perceived less inrensely in Easrern rhan in Western
Europe. Indeed, given rhe growrh ofEuro-skepricism in Great Brirain and
orher coumries of "Oid Europe," one mighr assume reduced suppon for
a "Holocausr-centered, European mnemonic communiry."52 Such herirage conflicrs and competing memories cannor be resolved by top-down
European declarations and legal procedures because instead of reconciliarion rhey can jusr as easily feed new wars of memory. Therefore we may
bener search fora fundamenral rethinking of rhe imerpreration, presemation, and represemation of the Holocaust to be grasped from a rransnarional compararive perspecrive. Rather than assuming that the Holocaust
is a common European experience, I suggest we consid er the idea of a
fluid interaction of the hisrory, memory, and heritage of war, terror, and
accupation during Eu rope's "age of the camps." 53 We should also con si der
in our "age of posr-narionaliry" a furrher disimegrarion of old master narrarives in a cacophony of Holocaust dissonances.54 Driven by conflicts,
competition, and idemity polities, all sorrs of shattered traces of lost or
silenced terrorscapes-wherher Bleiburg, rhe Buchenwald mass graves,
or rhousands of "forgonen" Jewish grave yards-wil! be rediscovered and
broughr back imo memory as traumascapes, memoryscapes, or touristscapes.55 Besides rransnarional shared meanings rhey wiJl yield new med ia
evems and memory wars because "memory evems" such as the conflicts ar
EUROPE'S TERRORSCAPES IN THE ACE OF POSTMEMORY
I 87
Fr0slev or] asenovae are nor unique as historica! evems; rhey are reperirive,
li ke riruals or modern TV soaps, as Alexander Er kind remarked, sraged by
di rectors of memory "who lead rhe production of these collecrive evems in
rhe same way as film direcrors makerheir films."56
While some poliricians in rhe geopolirical center ofrhe fa rmer Balkan
wars show remarkable sraresmanship in bridging rhe ravines ofharred, orbers do nor hesirare ro play as usual rhe card of historica! trauma. As a result,
Europe's expansion ro rhe easr ereaces critica! rensions thar fundamemally
challenge rhe Holocaust paradigm. The enlarged conrinent seems on rhe
one hand to have gained many new terrorscapes, while on rhe other many
postcommunist srares a re neirher w i 11 ing nor able to handle rheir traumatic
war and postwar experiences in rerms of a Holocaust master narrarive.
Wirh regard ro phase differences in coming to rerms wirh past rerror and
accuparion in differem parrs of Europe, we may rherefore question the use
of Western postmemory techniques fora musealizarion of rhe Holocaust
in postconflict societies where "real" and "aurhemic" are more rhan catchworcis for a postmodern consumer's experience.57 A rouristic framing of
Nazi camps and massacres, experienced wirh a mixture of fear and courage similar to rhe whire rnan's reavel to rhe hearrlands of Africa as imagined by Joseph Conrad, seems rypical only for Western Holocaust visirors.
Mea nwhile local visitors, in parricularly in Eastern Europe, are afren dealing wirh marked ly differem emorions when visicing such places of shame
and pain. For rhem aurhemiciry is srrongly relared ro personal memories
of arrociries, a "never-ending story" of violence, and to new confromarions wirh rhe mnemonic claims of orbers who quire afren appear to be
rheir neighbors, rather rhan ro postmemory by means of personal photos,
objecrs, srories, and cravelogues of "erased" communiries. 58 Thus, as we
saw, in rhe Balkans still reeavering from rhe 1990s war, rhe past is nor a
foreign coumry but on rhe comrary still far roo familiar.
How wiJl rhis affect rhe futu re of rhe Holocaust paradigm? Th is is nor
an easy quesrion ro answer, for rhe Holocaust has changed from a historica!
trope into a moral imperarive wirh sacrosanct numbers and lessans ro draw.
To understand irs semamic power and weaknesses, I suggest we return to
Oswiçcim while at rhe same time rnaving beyond Auschwitz. Given rhe
many tensions between local war memories and a universalizing, imperialistic Western Holocaust paradigm, we should rake imo accoum rhe specificity and complexiry oflocal comexrs when speaking abour "rhe" Holocaust.
The cases 1 poim ro also demonstra re rhar a universalization oflocal srories
is accompanied by an appropriarion of such master narrat ives by sire-based
memorials siruaring rhemselves on rhe European Holocaust map. In rhis
dialecrical sense rhe plea "Auschwitz, never again," voiced by rhe dying
Marrha Weiss in rhe final scene of Ostatni etap, has become an amifascisr
88 I
EU ROPE'S TERRORSCAPES IN THE ACE OF POSTMEMORY
ROB VAN DER LAARSE
roetaphor for universa! trauma as wellas an international marketing device
for local Holocaust experiences, unrepeatable in "normal" museums. This
packaging of trauma, which relares Western and Eastern Holocaust experiences, is in my view masterfully depicted in Jáchym Topol's novel The
Devil's Workshop (Chladnou zemi, 2009) when the young Czech protagonist, the best guide of Terezin Memorial Museum, encoumers an angry
girl from Belarus who cynically suggests that he should atrract Western
rourists ro her counrry, where the devil had his largest workshop: "They
say all death camps were in Poland! That's bullshit! All the rour operators
only got tO Auschwitz! But thar's going ro change because the world never
saw camps like we had here in Belarus."59
Notes
1. "Oranje bezoekt Auschwitz," NRC.NL-in beeld, lmp://www.nrc.nl/
inbeeld/20 12/06/06/ oranje-bezoekr-auschwirz/ (accessed January 26, 20 13).
2. Margriet Oosrveen, "DJ in Auschwitz," NRC-Handelsblnd, February 3, 2012.
3. TherexrofrheStockholmDeclararionquored from rheiTFwebsire: hrtp: //www.
holocausttaskforce.org/abour-rhe-itf/srockholm-declararion.html (accessed
January 26, 2013); see also Jens Kroh, "Erinnerungskulrureller Akteur und
geschichrspolitisches Nerzwerk. Die 'Task Force for l nrernarional Cooperarion
on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research,"' in Universalisierung
des Holocaust? Erinnerungskultur und Geschichtspolitik in internationaler
Perspektive, ed. Jan Eckel und Claudia Moisel (Göttingen: Wallsrein, 2008),
156-73; and Harald Schmid, "Europäisierung des Auschwirzgedenkens?
Zum Aufsrieg des 27. Januar 1945 als 'Holocaustgedenktags' in Europa," in
ibid., 174-202.
4. See Robert Jan van Pelt, "January 27, 1945 AD I 13 Shevar, 5705 AM . A
Defining Moment in Modern European Hisrory?" (lecrure presenred ar
the conference "Remembering for rhe Future," Copenhagen, April 26-27,
2012).
5. Years befare the UN's General Assembly supporred the ITF in irs mission by
csrablishing Holocaust Memorial Day, January 27 was imroduced in France
in 1995 as a narional commemorarion day of rhe anci-Semitic crimes of rhe
Vichy regime, and unificd Germany foliowed in 1997 with a Holocaust
Memorial Day. See Aleida Assmann, "Europe: A Communiry of Memory?"
GHI Bulletin 40 (Spring 2007): 11 - 25, and her recent essay Aufdem Weg zu
einer mropäischm Gedächtniskultur' (Vienna: Pieus, 2012).
6. Marlocs de Koning, " Hongarije is geen kolonie van de EU," NRC Handelsblad
(March 16, 2012).
7. "Prague Dcclararion on European Conscience and Commun ism" (June 3,
2008), V ictims of Commun ism Memorial Foundation, http://www.victimsofcommunism.org/media/arricle.php?arricle=3849 (acccssed January
31, 2013).
8. See Rob van der Laarse, ''Archaeology of Memory: Europc's Holocaust
Dissonances in Easr and West," in Heritage Reinvents Europe, ed . Dirk
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
I 89
Callebaut, Jan Marik, and Jana Mariková. EAC Occasional Paper No. 7
(Budapest: Archaeolingua, 2013), 117-26.
Elazar Barkan, The Guilt of Nations: Restitution and Negotiating Historica!
lnjustius (New York: Norron, 2000).
Eric Hobsbawm, TheAgeofExtremes: TheShort Twentieth Century 1914-1991
(London: M iehad Joseph, 1994); see also Zygmum Bauman, "A Century
of Camps," in Lift in Fragments: Essays in Postmodern Morality (Oxford:
Blackwell, 1995), 192-205.
Marianne Hirsch, "The Generation of Posrmemory," Poetics Today 29, no. 1
(2008): 103-28, here 110-13.
Parriek Desbois, The Holocaust by Bul/ets: A Priest's journey to Uncover the
Truth behind the Murder of1.5 Mil/ion jews (New York: Palgrave Macmillan,
2008), originally published in French under rhe ritle Porteur de mémoires: Sur
les traces de la Shoah par balles (Neu illy-sur-Seine: La fan, 2007).
See David Lowcnrhal, The Heritage Crusade ttnd the Spoils of History
(Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Universiry Press, 1998); Gregory Ashworrh,
"Herirage and rhe Consumprion of Places," in Bezeten van Vroeger: Erfgoed,
Toerisme en Identiteit, ed. Rob van der Laarse (Amsterdam: Her Spinhuis,
2005), 193-206; and Paul Williams, Memorittl Museums: The Global Rush to
Commemorate Atrocities (Oxford: Berg, 2007). See a lso Laurie Berh Clark on
memorial museum objectsin chapter 8.
Harold Marcuse, Legacies of Dachau: The Uses and Abuses ofa Concentration
Camp, 1933-2001 (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Universiry Press, 2001),
402-03.
See the introduetion to De Dynamiek van de Herinnering: Nederlttnd en de
Tweede Wereldoorlog in een Internationale Context, ed. Frank van Vree and
Rob van der Laarse (Amsterdam: Beer Bakker, 2009), 7-16.
Sec Joh n B. Thompson, The Media andModernity: A Social Theory ofthe Media
(Sranford: Scanford University Press, 1995), and idem, Politica! Scandal:
Power and Visibility in the Media Age (Ma lden, MA: Blackwell, 2000).
Daniel Levy and Naran Sznaider, Erinnerzmg im globalen Zeitttlter: Der
Holocaust (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 2001), 36-39.
Sec Barbara Kirshenblarr-Gimblerr, Destination Culture: Tourism, Museums
and Heritage (Berkeley: Universiry of California, 1998); and Rob van der
Laarse, De Oorlog als Beleving: Over de Musealisering en Enscenering van
Holocaust-Erfgoed (Amsterdam: Reinwarde Academie, 2011). See also
Geneviève Zubrzycki's discussion of]ewish ghetto rourismin chapter 5.
Henrik Skov Kristensen, "Ei ne Polirik van grosser Tragweite: Die dänische 'Zusammenarbeitspolirik' und die dänische KZ-Häftlinge," Hi/fe
oder Handel? Rettzmgsbemiihungen für NS-Verfolgte. Beiträge zur Geschichte
der nationalsozialistischen Verfolgung in Norddeutschlttnd JO (July 2007):
81-94.
Henrik Skov Kristensen, "Challenges of a Memorial," in The Power of the
Object: Museums and World War 11, ed. Esben Kjeldba:k (Edinburgh:
MuseumsErc, 2009), 168-97, here 183-84.
Sarah Farmer, "Symbols That Face Two Ways: Cammemorating rhe Victims
ofNazism and Sralinism ar Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen," Representations
49 (W inter 1995): 97-119, bere 115.
go I
EUROPE'S TERRORSCAPES IN THE AGE OF POSTMEMORY
ROB VAN DER LAAR SE
22. Parrizia Violi, "Trauma Sire Museums and Politics of Memory," Theory,
Culture & Society 29, no. 1 (2012): 36-75, here 39, 70.
23. See Laurajane Smirh, Uses ofHeritage (London: Roudedge, 2006).
24. Lars Breuer and Isabella Marauschek, "'Seir 1945 isr ein gmer Däne Demokrar':
Die demsche Besarzungszeir in der dänischen Familienerinnerung," in Krieg der
Erinnmmg: Holocaust, Kollabo ration und Widerstand im europäischen Gedächtnis,
ed. Harald Welzer (Frankfun am Main: Fischer, 2007), 76--111, here 80.
25. See Edwin Meinsma, "Nederlanders in de Waffen-SS. De Policieke en Militaire
Geschiedenis van Nederlandse Waffen SS-Vrijwilligers aan her Oosrfrom,
1941-1945," MA Thesis, Groningen Univcrsicy, 2000; and Geraldien von
Frijtag Drabbe Kunzel, "The Dmch in rhe Occupied Easr and rhe Holocaust,"
Yad Vnshem Studies 39, no. 2 (2011): 55-80.
26. Inge Melchior and Oane Visser, "Voicing Pastand Present Uncerta inties: The
Relocarion of aSovier World War II Memorial and rhc Policics of Memory in
Estonia," Focanl: European journat for Anthropology 59 (20 11 ): 33-50.
27. Sec Jannie Boerema, De Kinderen van de NSB. Interviews met Kinderen van
'Foute Ouders' (Leeuwarden: Noordboek, 2010).
28. Thomas Tschirner and Melf Wiese, "Wer darf erinnern? Das Fr0slevlejren
Museum als binacionaler Erinnerungson," in Gedenkstätten und Erinnerungskulturen in Schleswig-Holstein. Geschichte, Gegenwart und Zukunft, ed. Karja Köhr,
Hauke Pererson, and Kar! Heinrich Pohl (Berlin: Frank und Timme, 2011),
95-114.
29. Henrik Skov Krisrensen, "Fr0slev 1944- 1945 I F~rhus 1946-1949: Same
Camp, Two Narrarives" (comribution ro rhe workshop '"Forgorren' War and
Occuparion Herirage: Shedding Light on rhe Darkness," McDonald Insriture
for Archaeological Research, Cambridge, UK, August 25-26, 2012).
30. Kristensen, "Challenges of a Memorial," 184.
31. Sec Michael Rochberg, Multidirectional Memory. Remembering the Holocaust
in the Age ofDecolonization (Sranford: Scan ford University Press, 2009).
32. A glass wall of rhe Jasenovac Memorial Museuro's 2006 exhibirion lists rhe
"na mes of rhe 69,842 verified vicrims so far," as compared ro rhe number of
80,000 in Nevenko Bartulin, "The Ideology ofNation and Race: The Croarian
Usrasha Regime and irs Policies cowards Mincrities in the Independem State
of Croatia," PhD diss., University of South Wales, 2006, 383, and the recem
upgrade from 80,000 to 100,000 viccims at rhe FAQpage ofJasenovac's official memorial website, hrrp://www.jusp-jasenovac.hr/Dcfaulr.aspx?sid=7619
(accessed March 6, 2013).
33. The Serbian)asenovac Research lnstirutestill estimares the number ofjasenovac's
victims at abom 800,000, including 20,000 Jews, of a rota! of about 30,000
)ews killed on the terrirory of the Independent State of Croatia by Usra5e and
Germans; Jasa Romano, "Jews ofYugoslavia 1941-1945. Victims of Genocide
and Freedom Yighters," cired from the English summary of jevreji jugoslavije
1941-1945. Zrtve Genocida I Uéesnici Narodnooslobodilaékog Rata (Belgrad:
Jevrejski Isrorijski Muzej, Saveza Jevrejskih Opstina Jugoslavije, 1980), 573-90.
hcrps:/ /vh1.nethosting.com/ ~ Iituchy/ images/j ews_of_yugos lavia_ 1941_1945.
pdf(accessed March 6, 2013).
34. See Jovan Skendzié, "'Far More Than Shameless': A Survivor Talks about
Croatia's 'Museum' at Jasenovac," interview wirh Smilja Tisma (Belgrade),
35.
36.
37.
38.
39.
40.
41.
42.
43.
44.
45.
46.
I 91
President, Organizarion of Survivors (February 5, 2007), hrrp://emperorsclorhes.com/interviewsltisma.htm (accessed January 29, 2013), and PäJ
Kolst0,"The Serbian-Croatian Controversy over Jasenovac," in Serbia and the
Serbs in World War Two, ed. Sabrina P. Ramer and Ola Lisrhaug ( Basingstoke:
Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), 226-41.
Nata5a Jovicié, "Jasenovac Memorial Museuro's Permanene Exhibirion-The
Vicrim as an Individual," Croatian lmtitute ofHistory 2, no. 1 (2006): 295-99,
here 295.
Jovicié, "Jasenovac Memorial Museuro's Permanent Exhibirion," 296; on
Allied photography, see Barbie Zelizer, Remembering to Forget: Holocaust
Memory through the Camera's Eye (Chicago: Un iversity of Chicago Press,
1998), and Frank van Vree, "Indigestible Images. On rhe Ethics and Lim irs
of Representation," in Performing the Past: Memory, History, and ldentity
in Modern Europe, cd. Karin Tilmans, Fran k van Vree, and Jay Winter
(Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2010), 257-86.
Jovicié, "Jasenovac Memorial Museuro's Permanenr Exhibirion, 295-96, and
her con tribution "Jasenovac Memorial Museum: The Vicrim as an lndividual"
(conrribution ar rhe workshop "'Forgorten War' and Occuparion Heritage:
Shedding Light on rhe Darkness," McDonald Insriture for Atchaeological
Research, Cambridge, UK, August 25-26, 2012). See also Tony Judt, "The
Past is Anorher Country: Myth and Memory in Postwar Europe," Daedalus
121, no. 4 (1992): 83-118, here 106.
Sref Janscn, "The Violence of Memories: Local Narrarives of rhe Past afrer
Ethnic C lea nsingin Croaria," Rethinking History 6, no. I (2002): 77-94.
Narasa Matausié,jasenovac. The BriefHistory (Jasenovac, undared), 65; based
on Natasa Matausié,jasenovac 1941- 1945. Logor mmi i rndni logor (JasenovacZagreb: Javna ustanova Spomen-podruéje Jasenovac, 2003).
See David Bruce MacDonald, Balkan Holocausts? Serbian and Croatian
Victim-Centered Propaganda and the War in Yugoslavia (Manchester, UK:
Manchester University Press, 2008), 160-80; and John Corsellis and Marcus
Fcrrar, Slovenia 1945: Memories of Death and Survival afier World War 11
(London: I.B. Tau ris, 2010) .
See Ljiljana Radon ie, Krieg urn die Erinnerung: Kroatische Vergangenheitspolitik
zwischen Revisionismus und europäischen Standards (Frankfurt am Main:
Campus, 2009).
JoviCié, "Jasenovac Memorial Museuro's Permanent Exhibition," 297.
Efraim Zuroffand Gebhard Wei ss quored in Radon ie, Krieg um die Erinnenmg,
349 and 362-63.
"Julija Kas sent a [sic) lnformarion lener ro rhe ambassadors abour poor
Exhibitions on Jasenovac Museum", Margelov lnstimt, hrrp: //blog.dnevnik.
h r/ margel instirure/ 20 I 0/ 04/1627415776/jul ija-kos-scnr-a-i n formation-letter-to-rhe-a mb a ssadors-abom-poor- exh ibit ions-on-jasenovac- museum. hrml
(accessed March 6, 2013).
Narasa Matausié, ''Answer ro Julija Kos' 'Jasenovac Concentrarion Camp
Today, Hisrory Re-Wrirren,'" hrrp: //www.academia.edu/1324286/Narasa_
M atausic_Answer_co _Ju Iij a_Kos_J asenovac_ Concentrat ion_Camp_T oday_
Hi srory_Rc-wricren (accessed iv!a rch 6, 2013).
Matausié,jnsenovac, 5-6 and 70.
92
I
ROB VAN DER LAARSE
47. Slobodan Snajder quored in Radon ie, Krieg um die Erinnerung, 363 and 398.
48. "Israeli Presidem Visirs Jasenovac," B92-News (July 26, 2010), hrrp: //www.
b92 .net/eng/ newslregion-arricle.php ?yyyy=20 I 0 & m m= 07 &dd =26&nav_
id=68695 (accessed January 31, 2013).
49. FoNet, "Jasenovac must nor be forgorren, C roar presidem says," b92 (April
17, 20 11), hrrp: I /www. b92 .net/ eng/ news/ region-arricle.php ?yyyy=20 11 &
mm=04&dd= 17&nav_id=73858 (accessed January 31, 2013).
50. Jonathan Lis, "President of Croaria Apologizes ro Jewish Holocaust Victims,"
Haaretz (February 15, 20 12), http:/ /www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/presidemof-croatia-apologizes-ro-jewish-holocaust-victims-1 .4 131 09 (accessed January
31, 2013).
51. Brirr Baillie, "Chronocemrism and Remembran ce as Resisrance: T he Dudik
Memorial Complex" (contribution to the workshop '" Forgorren War' and
Occupation Herirage: Shedding Light on the Darkness," McDonald Instirure
for Archaeological Research, Cambridge, UK, August 25-26, 2012).
52. Wulf Kansteiner, In Pursuit of German Memory: H istory, Television, and
Politics after Auschwitz (Athens, OH: Ohio Universiry Press, 2006), 33 1.
53. Bauman, "A Century ofCamps."
54. Rudy Koshar, From Monuments to Traces: Artifocrs of German Memory
1870-1990 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000), 287.
55. See Miehad Meng, Shattered Spaces: Encountt!ring jewish Ruins in Postwar
Germany and Poland (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Un iversity Press, 201 1).
56. Alexander Etkind, "Mapping Memo ry Evem s in rhe East Eu ropean Space,"
East Europeon Memory Studies Newsletter 1 (2010): 4-5.
57. James E. G ilmore and B. Joseph Pyne, Authmticity: What Conmmm Really
Want (Boston: Harvard Business School, 2007).
58. See Omer Ba nov, Erased: Vanishing Traces of}ewish Galicia in Present-Day
Ukraine (Princeron: Princeron Universiry Press, 2007) .
59. My translation imo English from the Durch edirion: Jáchym Topoi, De werkplaats van de duivel, trans. from rhe Czech by Edgar de Bruin (Amsterdam:
Anthos 2010), 115. For the English edition, see The Devil's Workshop, trans.
Alex Zucker (London: G ranra, 2013).
PART
II
STAGING MEMORY