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Commemorating from a distance: the digital transformation of Holocaust memory in times of COVID-19
Author(s): Ebbrecht-Hartmann, Tobias
Date: 2021
Topics: Holocaust Memorials, Holocaust Commemoration, Coronavirus/Covid, Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial, Social Media, Internet
Abstract: The severe restrictions on public life in many countries following the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic specifically affected Holocaust memorials and museums in all parts of the world, especially in Europe and in Israel. These measures posed a significant challenge, because contemporary forms of Holocaust commemoration are particularly based on the personal experience of presence at museums and historical sites. In contrast to the experience of distancing in face of the COVID-19 pandemic, establishing the presence of the past is thus a crucial element of contemporary Holocaust commemoration. This article explores the relationship between presence and absence, proximity and distance, guided commemoration and online engagement by critically analyzing digital activities of Holocaust memorials and museums in response to the pandemic. It argues that in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Holocaust memorials began experimenting with the potential of social media for Holocaust memory. These experiments finally accepted the ongoing generational change and reacted to significant previous shifts in media consumption that were already affecting Holocaust commemoration.
Philosemitism in contemporary German media
Author(s): Dekel, Irit
Date: 2022
Topics: Philosemitism, Media, Main Topic: Other, Attitudes to Jews, Jewish - Non - Jewish Relations
Abstract: This article examines the performance of philosemitism in contemporary Germany through media representations of Jews in 2014–2020. It claims that philosemitism is practiced in Germany as a routine accomplishment of civility. It is performed in three interconnected social domains: institutional, where state institutions declare their commitment to protecting Jews as a religious minority; group, where the contingent relations between love for the Jews and exclusionary statements about them appears, mostly in casting Jews as both strange and unknown and embraced; and individual, where individuals exhibit positive sentiments toward Jews as an ideal collective, while contemplating what and who they are. It further suggests that in performing philosemitism German society examines and articulates its relations to Holocaust memory, to minorities and to the resilience of the German democracy.