Memory in Action: New Ethics of Engagement with Holocaust Memory

Abstract

When one comes to or passes by a place of memory, one enters the realm of engaging with public remembrance that is considered ethical, or simply put, good. The role of this place, of visiting and of experiencing it, is usually clear; thus we see in the recent two decades, as Leggewie and Meyer (2005) note, politicians and intellectuals speaking in favor of accidental remembrance, or everyday remembrance that will, willy-nilly, make one engage with oneself and others, and with the past. This centrality of ethical remembrance, however, is rather new (Margalit 2002), and shifts the focus from the unethical and unruly deeds to the good deed of, first, facing and then engaging with the past. There have been shifts in ethical theory which complement the move from rejecting the unethical deeds into enabling ‘many ethics’ that challenged and transformed the universalistic, subject-centered and exclusionary intellectual bias of traditional ethics. As Zapf summarizes: ‘Instead of a unified system of knowledge and belief, plurality, diversity and heterogeneity have been foregrounded as new ethical orientation’ (2008: 172). Zapf maintains that de-hierarchization, process and cross-cultural openness and dialogue are the new leading ethical values. That such a shift has already occured in the memorial is clear on two counts. First, in the new focus on ethical engagement with the past and the ability to assess one’s dealing with the past in moral terms which are performed and mirrored in the site.

Take some time and go through the Field of Stelae in all possible directions. What exactly do you see? What do you hear when you close your eyes? What do you sense when you touch the stelae? Make some notes for yourself about your observations and feelings.¹