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Introduction

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Book cover Perceptions of the Holocaust in Europe and Muslim Communities

Part of the book series: Muslims in Global Societies Series ((MGSS,volume 5))

Abstract

The way people think and feel about the systematic murder of European Jewry – today commonly termed as the Holocaust or the Shoah – is changing over time. The erosive effect of time seems unavoidable, but, as Alvin Rosenfeld has accurately demonstrated in his recent book “The End of the Holocaust”, perceptions of the Holocaust are often distorted by certain cultural pressures and values (Rosenfeld 2011). They are also influenced by the collective identity and, particularly in Europe, by the role the respective country played during the Holocaust. Among other factors, the forms of commemoration of the Holocaust differ depending upon whether major segments of the society were perpetrators, bystanders or victims; whether the country collaborated with National Socialism in the murdering of Jews or not; or if the country fought against Germany. The same is true on an individual level: even distant family members who had a role in the Holocaust can have a significant impact on how their children and grandchildren think and talk about the Holocaust. However, there is a particular culture of remembrance and even to some degree “Europeanisation” concerning the commemoration of the Holocaust (Leggewie 2009).

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Notes

  1. 1.

    In the French-speaking sphere, the term Shoah is usually used to designate the Jewish genocide perpetrated by the Nazis. The term Holocaust is preferred by most scholars in the English-speaking sphere with all of its implicit religious meanings regarding sacrifice for and to God. Both terms are alternately used throughout this collection, depending upon the respective origin of the author of each article. In September 2011, the term Shoah was the focus of an intense polemic in the French media: is it or is it not the right word?

  2. 2.

    Secondary antisemitism is a term coined by Peter Schönbach (1961) which is understood as the psychological phenomenon that the mere presence of Jews can remind non-Jews of the Holocaust and their feelings of guilt which then in turn produces negative sentiments against Jews. The Israeli psychiatrist Zvi Rex is often quoted with the phrase, “The Germans will never forgive the Jews for Auschwitz” (Broder 1986).

  3. 3.

    In Germany, 39% of the general population said in 2005 that they are not well informed about “the time before 1945”, 40% said so in the UK and 24 % in France (IMAS International 2005). A poll commissioned in 2009 by Miramax and the London Jewish Cultural Centre showed that only 37% of 11–16year olds in Britain knew that the Holocaust claimed the lives of six million Jews, with many drastically underestimating the death toll. Some of the results were published by The Telegraph on March 9, 2009.

  4. 4.

    A report for the French government for 2010 confirmed that antisemitic attitudes are often voiced by Muslim students and “can be manifested during lessons about the genocide of Jews” and are often related to anti-American attitudes (Haut Conseil à l’intégration 2011, 94). Difficulties of Holocaust Education due to antisemitic attitudes among Muslim students were also mentioned in a study in Britain (The Historical Association 2007, 15).

  5. 5.

    The Muslim Council of Britain has repeatedly and explicitly boycotted the national Holocaust Memorial Day commemoration in the UK. See Michael Whine’s chapter in this volume (Chap. 4).

  6. 6.

    See Mehmet Can’s, Karoline Georg’s and Ruth Hatlapa’s chapter in this volume (Chap. 12).

  7. 7.

    Such an essentializing and effectively racist view is conveyed by a few authors such as Hans-Peter Raddatz (2007), see Widmann 2008.

  8. 8.

    For a debate on the role of Arab Muslims during the Holocaust, see: Satloff (2006), Cüppers and Mallmann (2006), Nordbruch (2009), Metzger (2007).

  9. 9.

    In le Monde.fr on September 27, 2006, Benjamin Stora estimated that there were 300,000 “indigenous” people in the Army of Liberation who landed in Provence, making up 23% of the total (Stora 2006).

  10. 10.

    See also Litvak and Webman (2009) and Bali (2009).

  11. 11.

    Some of the antisemitic articles and cartoons in Vakit have been documented in Kreuzberger Initiative gegen Antisemitismus (2004).

  12. 12.

    Surveys show higher levels of antisemitic attitudes among Muslims compared to non-Muslims in Europe (The Living History Forum 2004, 45, 135–136; The Pew Global Attitudes Project 2006, 42–43; Brettfeld and Wetzels 2007, 274–275; Elchardus 2011; Frindte et al. 2012, 245–247). For a debate on anti-Jewish attitudes among Muslims in Europe and “new antisemitism”, see also Jikeli (2012), Bergmann and Wetzel (2003), Klug (2003), Wieviorka (2007).

  13. 13.

    For example, in France, since the 1960s: the cases of Rassinier, Faurisson, Garaudy and recently, Dieudonné.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre National de la Recherche Scientif Sociologie, rue Pouchet 59-61, 75017, Paris, France

    Joëlle Allouche-Benayoun

  2. International Institute for Education and Research on Antisemitism, Highland Road, Highland Court 15, SE19 1DR, London, UK

    Günther Jikeli

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  1. Joëlle Allouche-Benayoun
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  2. Günther Jikeli
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Correspondence to Joëlle Allouche-Benayoun .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. IIBSA, Highland Road, Highland Court 15, London, SE19 1DR, United Kingdom

    Günther Jikeli

  2. , Sociologie, Centre National de la Recherche Scientif, rue Pouchet 59-61, Paris, 75017, France

    Joëlle Allouche-Benayoun

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Allouche-Benayoun, J., Jikeli, G. (2013). Introduction. In: Jikeli, G., Allouche-Benayoun, J. (eds) Perceptions of the Holocaust in Europe and Muslim Communities. Muslims in Global Societies Series, vol 5. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5307-5_1

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