We were all in the resistance": Historical Memory of the Holocaust and Second World War in the Netherlands"
2020-07
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We were all in the resistance": Historical Memory of the Holocaust and Second World War in the Netherlands"
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2020-07
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“‘We Were All in the Resistance’” examines contested cultural memories of the Second World War and the Holocaust through an analysis of the monuments, museums, educational programs, and commemoration ceremonies that shape memorial culture in the Netherlands. Focusing on moments of tension and debate, my dissertation explores how victim-centered organizations, state institutions, and the local and national government interact with one another and the public on the development of new memorial spaces. Employing the concepts of collective and cultural memory, I examine the impact of sites and spaces of memory on both Jewish and non-Jewish understandings of the occupation period and Dutch identity. Through an analysis of the discourse surrounding these public spaces, my dissertation highlights the importance of representations of the past in supporting or condemning national narratives of Dutch resistance and victimhood during the Second World War. The first three chapters delve into debates and controversies over sites of memory within the Netherlands. The first chapter explores the dynamics surrounding different forms of monuments and their impact on interpretations of Jewish persecution and Dutch complicity. The second chapter looks at Jewish responses to an exhibit at the former transit Camp Westerbork on the internment of Dutch collaborators and National Socialist members (NSB) in 1945. The next chapter, “Memory in Crisis”, traces the narratives emerging out of public discussions on the character of the yearly May 4th Dodenherdenking (National Remembrance Day). Lastly, I examine the various public educational programs and initiatives that specifically center Jewish experiences and their role in educating the public about Jewish lives prior to and during the Holocaust. This chapter showcases the multiple layers of memory that exist in the contemporary landscape of the Netherlands and how these spaces encourage acknowledgment of the complexity of Dutch memory politics. Each chapter utilizes interviews and oral histories with members of the Jewish community, children of resistance members and former NSB members, museum staff, and educational program directors in order to pinpoint how public spaces have enabled the transmission of specific wartime histories and how these groups shape, push back against, or embrace national narrative of the occupation. While “‘We Were All in the Resistance’” analyzes the tensions inherent to Dutch memorial culture, the project is ultimately a commentary on the complex nature of European Holocaust memory. Despite the large numbers of Jews deported from the Netherlands during the Holocaust, the Dutch are rarely recognized as having collaborated with the Third Reich. This dissertation not only complicates the resistance narrative central to all Western European nations but forces a closer look at the ways in which Western European countries used a narrative of collective victimization in order to rationalize the development of European Union. By highlighting how Holocaust commemoration has become integral to EU values, my dissertation illustrates the strategic selectivity of Holocaust memory within European societies.
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University of Minnesota Ph.D. dissertation.July 2020. Major: History. Advisors: Anna Clark, MJ Maynes. 1 computer file (PDF); xiv, 248 pages.
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Contreras, Jazmine. (2020). We were all in the resistance": Historical Memory of the Holocaust and Second World War in the Netherlands". Retrieved from the University Digital Conservancy, https://hdl.handle.net/11299/241758.
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