Living with the Legacy of the Holocaust

Since the early 1980s there has been a drasticincrease in commemorative activities dedicated to thememory of the Holocaust and its victims. This book investigates the influence of thehistory of the Holocaust and the politics of memoryon German democracy and national identity. Byevaluating the historiography of the Holocaust thehistory of the politics of memory since 1945 andthree contemporary case studies during the 1990s(The Goldhagen Controversy Revisited TheWalser-Bubis Debate and The National HolocaustMemorial in Berlin) the nature functions effectsand political divisions of the politics of Holocaustmemory are examined in relation to questions ofnational self-definition identity and democracy. Itis examined to what degree the political and social responsibility to the legacy of the Holocaustrepresents a constitutive element of theself-understanding of post-1945 German democracy. This cultural analysis should be useful to studentsof German history politics and society or anyoneelse interested in the history of the Holocausthistoriography or the politics of memory.