Some Reflections on Transmitting the Memory of the Holocaust and its Implications, Particularly in Israel

Abstract

On March 2, 1988, the then director of the Van Leer Institute, the late professor Yehuda Elkana, published an article in Haaretz, a leading Israeli newspaper, under the title “The Need to Forget” (Elkana, Haaretz.1988;http://www.haaretz.co.il/opinions/1.1841380.). He was referring to forgetting the Holocaust (hereafter, Shoah the Hebrew name of the holocaust will be used). Yehuda’s motivation was undoubtedly complex, as he himself survived Auschwitz, but the essential thrust of his argument was moral or moral-political. He argued that the frequent references to the Shoah in all aspects of Israeli life had become a justification for policies of domination imposed on the Palestinians and for the defiant nationalism that has become familiar. Yehuda’s impassioned plea closed with the following lines: “I do not see any more important political or educational stance for our leaders than to stand up for life… rather than deal, day and night, with symbols, ceremonies and lessons of the Holocaust.” And he added: “The rule of historical remembrance must be uprooted from our lives” (cited in Segev, The seventh million. Hill and Wang; 1993).