Project MUSE - The Holocaust and American Public Memory, 194

Holocaust and Genocide Studies 17.1 (2003) 62-88
The Holocaust and American Public Memory, 1945-1960
San Diego State University
Abstract: Until the 1960s, many scholars assert, most Americans'
awareness of the Holocaust was based upon vague, trivial, or inaccurate
representations. Yet the extermination of the Jews was remembered in
significant ways, this article posits, through World War II accounts,
the Nuremberg trials, philosophical works, comparisons with Soviet
totalitarianism, Christian and Jewish theological reflections, pioneering
scholarly publications, and mass-media portrayals. These early postwar
attempts to comprehend the Jewish tragedy within prevailing cultural
paradigms provided the foundation for subsequent understandings of
that event.
 
Between the end of the war and the 1960s, as anyone who has lived

Related Keywords

United States , Germany , Austria , Russia , Majdanek , Lubelskie , Poland , University Of Chicago , Illinois , United Kingdom , Riverside Park , New York , California , San Diego , Berkeley , Oswiecim , Malopolskie , Garden City , Egypt , Glencoe , Oswego , Frankfurt , Brandenburg , Union Theological Seminary , Cambridge , Cambridgeshire , Chicago , Japan , University Of Washington , Washington , German Church , Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , Hiroshima , Boston , Massachusetts , Columbia University , Canada , Beechhurst , Birkenau , Hessen , Northwestern University , Israel , Harvard University , Holocaust Museum , Bedford , Dallas , Texas , France , Syracuse University , Warsaw , Pl67 , Palestine , Americans , West Germany , Russian , Germans , New Yorker , Britain , French , Great Britain , Soviet , German , British , State Of Israel , Israeli , Russians , Japanese , American , Telford Taylor , Milton Steinberg , Max Horkheimer , Stephenj Whitfield , Martin Jay , Franklin Littell , Nostra Aetate , Franklinh Littell , William Odwyer , Germaine Bree , Milton Mayer , Europe Jews , Hilene Flanzbaum Baltimore , Douglasm Kelley , Michael Morgan , Samuelh Flowerman , Jennifer Golub , Howard Fast , Peter Novick , Alvinh Rosenfeld , Bernhard Olson , Gordon Allport , Adolf Eichmann , Edwardt Linenthal , Mary Berg , Joseph Kraft , Milton Himmelfarb , Norman Bentwich , Jean Paul Sartre , Ernst Pawel , Hersh Rasseyner , Edwardh Flannery , Tim Cole , Zbigniewk Brzezinski , Otto Preminger , Marie Syrkin , Deborahe Lipstadt , Gordonw Allport , Elie Wiesel , Albert Camus , Bartleyc Crum , Mathew Lon Weavor , Leonard Dinnerstein , Hannah Senesh , Clark Kinnaird , Edward Crankshaw , Stanley Elkins , Gerda Weissmann Klein , Eva Fleischner , Alan Mintz , Koppel Pinson , Eva Reichmann , Roberth Abzug , Morrism Faierstein , Robert Abzug , Europe Syracuse , Alan Bullock , Roman Vishniac , Joseph Hirsch , Jules Isaac , Abraham Nasatir , Carlj Friedrich , John Hersey , Williaml Shirer , Marc Dollinger , Joseph Tenenbaum , Alan Louis Charles Bullock , Johnk Roth , Georgel Becker , Zev Garber , Isaac Schwarzbart , Michael Phayer , Viktore Frankl , Gerald Reitlinger , Jews Cleveland , Los Angeles , Henryl Feingold , Arthur Gilbert , Cardinal Richard Cushing , Lucy Dawidowicz , Joel Spaeth , Sharonr Lowenstein , Hugh Nissenson , Williamj Bosch , Jamesw Parkes , Lawrence Baron , Michaelr Marrus , Hannah Arendt , Samuel Flowerman , Thomas Sugrue , Albertm Hyamson , Richardl Rubenstein , Renae Cohen , Philip Friedman , Cynthia Ozick , Stephenr Haynes Westport , Abraml Sachar , Arthurd Morse , Max Weinreich , Alvinh Rosenfeld Bloomington , Walter Laqueur , Edithn Savath , Douglas Kelley , Bernharde Olson , Deborah Lipstadt , George Stevens , Davidm Szonyi , Davids Wyman , Michael Maccoby , Chaim Grade , Abraham Joshua Heschel , Paul Tillich , Olga Lengyel , Dalia Ofer , Ada June Friedman , Robertc Kimball , Max Weinreich Hitler , Rosemary Ruether , Charlesy Glock , Michael Marrus , Franklind Roosevelt , Barbie Zelizer , Normang Finkelstein , Alvin Rosenfeld , Millard Lampell , Anita Shapira , Stanleym Elkins , Jeffrey Shandler , Rolandg Usher , Eugen Kogon , Elisabeth Young Bruehl , America Seattle ,