'Why are we learning this?' Does studying the Holocaust encourage better citizenship values? Preliminary findings from Scotland

The relationship between learning about the Holocaust and the development of positive values may seem common sense but in reality there is a complex level of development and understanding. This research (which was sponsored by the Scottish Government) was designed to ascertain whether learning about the Holocaust impacts on young people's general citizenship values and attitudes; does learning about the Holocaust allow them to extrapolate from the events of the Holocaust to present day issues, such as racism and discrimination. The research followed a cohort of approximately 100 pupils (aged 11-12) who had studied the Holocaust and compared their values one year later both in comparison to their earlier attitudes and compared to their peers who had not studied the Holocaust. This paper reports the findings. As we might expect, the results were not always as predicted, particularly when it came to the pupils understanding of anti-Semitism or genocide; in general though, our core group had maintained more positive values than they had before their lessons on the Holocaust and were more positive than their peers

The Holocaust as Fiction: Derrida’s \u3cem\u3eDemeuere\u3c/em\u3e and the Demjanjuk Trial in Philip Roth’s \u3cem\u3eOperation Shylock\u3c/em\u3e

This essay investigates the representation of juridical testimony in Roth’s “confession,” Operation Shylock. Read through the theoretical lens of Jacques Derrida, specifically in terms of his Demeure, Roth’s novel suggests a new strategy for coping with the Holocaust in literature, wherein writing remains true both to the Holocaust as unspeakable and to the Holocaust as actual historical event

Making meaning and meaning making: memory, postmemory and narrative in Holocaust literature

This paper explores links between narration and memory in Holocaust literature and examines ways in which individuals construct memory and postmemory. Based on the premise that ‘All authors mediate reality through their writing...’ and taking into consideration that what we remember and how we remember is likely to have a significant impact on the narratives that we construct, this article considers the reliability of memory. It argues that whilst there is, at times, a blurring of boundaries between fact and fiction in Holocaust literature, this has little or no impact on the validity and authenticity of the narratives. In an attempt to address these issues more fully, this paper explores the notions of making meaning and meaning making, whilst considering the effects of positionality, time and trauma on memory. Key texts referred to in this discussion include Night (1958) by Elie Wiesel, All Rivers Run to the Sea (1996) by Elie Wiesel, In My Brother’s Shadow (2005) by Uwe Timm and The Dark Room (2001) by Rachel Seiffert. These texts have been chosen in order to highlight the subjectivity of memory and postmemory and to demonstrate the role that narrative plays in their construction and representation

More open to diversity? The longer term citizenship impact of learning about the Holocaust

This is the third stage of a longitudinal study that investigates the learning of the Holocaust on pupils' citizenship values. We firstly compared primary pupils' values before and after their learning of the Holocaust; and secondly tracked these pupils into secondary to compare their attitudes with their peers who had not studied the Holocaust in primary school. It involves 200 pupils from a predominantly white rural community in the West of Scotland with very few ethnic minority pupils. The core group are now aged 15-16 years and this study continues to investigate their citizenship values using a values survey. This study is of interest to those involved in citizenship education, Holocaust education, antiracist and values education

Menorah Review (No. 20, Fall, 1990)

Abba Hillel Silver, The Holocaust and American Politics: 1943-1944 -- Different Jews - One Judaism -- Book Briefing -- Rescuing Jews During the Holocaust -- Balancing -- Text and Context: The Case of American Judaism -- Book Briefing

'The Black Book: John Berryman's Holocaust Requiem'

This essay looks in detail at an unfinished cycle of Holocaust poems called The Black Book that was begun by the American poet John Berryman in 1948. The essay includes close readings of three published poems and analysis of unpublished material from the Berryman archive. It also considers Berryman's use of Holocaust testimony. Drawing on Susan Gubar's concept of 'proxy-witnessing', this essay argues that Berryman's unfinished cycle highlights some of the distinct challenges of Holocaust representation, occupying an uneasy middle ground between language and silence

'Black Phones': postmodern poetics in the Holocaust poetry of Sylvia Plath

This essay offers a fresh perspective on the Holocaust verse of the American poet Sylvia Plath, taking issue with the accusation that in her poetry she uses the Holocaust as a metaphor to figure her own personal pain. This essay offers close readings of the eccentric monologue 'Lady Lazarus' and the 'German trilogy' of 'Little Fugue', 'Daddy' and 'The Munich Mannequins'. Paying particular attention to the recurring motif of the 'black phone', this essay argues that Plath's Holocaust verse offers a self-aware response to the genocide that is identifiably postmodern in its innovative, self-reflexive treatment of history

"It´s hard for me to cope with life. With the dead it´s easier" : Dina Wardi´s book about the children of the Holocaust

Rezension des Werkes: Dina Wardi, Memorial Candles: Children of the Holocaust. London, Taylor & Francis Books Ltd, 1992. 288 pp. (Deutsche Ausgabe: Siegel der Erinnerung. Das Trauma des Holocaust – Psychotherapie mit den Kindern der Überlebenden

Charlotte Werbe, Assistant Professor of French

In this Next Page column, Charlotte Werbe, Assistant Professor of French, shares her love of cinema and the films you should watch next, as well as the text that first inspired her research on the Holocaust and the challenging but important work of translating Holocaust memoirs

Shoah in Marian Pankowski’s Literary Art

The article centers on the theme of the Holocaust in the literary works of Marian Pankowski: its sources, relations with the concentration camp theme, particular works and their poetics, as well as the aesthetic, social and political problems related to the theme of the Holocaust