Centering the Sonic: Sound Mediation in Holocaust Memory, Memorials, and Museums

Abstract

While a great deal of scholarship has critically assessed Holocaust texts, films, and photographs for decades, scholars have largely overlooked music and sound. Musicologists and historians have made substantial contributions to understanding music during the Holocaust and how it functioned within the social makeup of the camps, yet on the role of sound and music within Holocaust memorial forms remains underexamined. In this dissertation, I examine the processes by which sound, music, and vocal affect are employed and ascribed to modes of Holocaust memory and how these applications in turn shape how that memory is received. A connecting thread throughout all my case studies is that these sonic elements are not necessarily considered the primary mode of mediation—at least by their curators—and that the sonic component is secondary to the overarching mode of memory. Overall, my findings demonstrate that despite largely being overlooked in scholarly discussions regarding Holocaust memorial representation, sound mediation is very present and drastically shapes a visitor’s engagement with each experience.