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The Holocaust in Eastern European Memory and Politics after the Cold War

Michlic, Joanna B. and Rudling, Per A. LU (2025) p.256-284
Abstract
ocusing particularly on Poland and Ukraine, with less detailed considerations of other parts of eastern Europe, this chapter examines the politicization of Holocaust memory in the post-Cold War period. An attempt to forge a new, postcommunist identity in eastern Europe also entailed an evasion of wartime reality. The all too real suffering of Poles or Ukrainians during the Second World War was conflated with, or even substituted for, the extermination of east European Jews. The tragic reality that collaboration was commonplace among non-Jewish Poles or Ukrainians was denied. Even more strikingly, Poland and Ukraine tried to use the power of the state to craft a new, revisionist mythology about the past in which Poles and Ukrainians were... (More)
ocusing particularly on Poland and Ukraine, with less detailed considerations of other parts of eastern Europe, this chapter examines the politicization of Holocaust memory in the post-Cold War period. An attempt to forge a new, postcommunist identity in eastern Europe also entailed an evasion of wartime reality. The all too real suffering of Poles or Ukrainians during the Second World War was conflated with, or even substituted for, the extermination of east European Jews. The tragic reality that collaboration was commonplace among non-Jewish Poles or Ukrainians was denied. Even more strikingly, Poland and Ukraine tried to use the power of the state to craft a new, revisionist mythology about the past in which Poles and Ukrainians were rescuers, Jews were largely absent (or even blamed for their own murder), and only Germans did anything bad. This revisionism was part of a revived nationalism that sought to ground new, postcommunist, often authoritarian regimes in a comforting mythic history. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
publication status
published
subject
keywords
holocaust, Memory, Ukraine, Antisemitism, Jedwabne Massacre, Law and Justice Party, Lithuania
host publication
The Cambridge History of the Holocaust : Volume IV: Aftermath, Outcomes, Repercussions - Volume IV: Aftermath, Outcomes, Repercussions
editor
Jockush, Laura and Pendas, Devin O.
pages
29 pages
publisher
Cambridge University Press
ISBN
9781108839396
9781108990172
DOI
10.1017/9781108990172.013
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
08e917bc-9060-461e-afe9-20d0b74dfb71
date added to LUP
2022-02-18 11:11:09
date last changed
2025-05-20 14:28:03
@inbook{08e917bc-9060-461e-afe9-20d0b74dfb71,
  abstract     = {{ocusing particularly on Poland and Ukraine, with less detailed considerations of other parts of eastern Europe, this chapter examines the politicization of Holocaust memory in the post-Cold War period. An attempt to forge a new, postcommunist identity in eastern Europe also entailed an evasion of wartime reality. The all too real suffering of Poles or Ukrainians during the Second World War was conflated with, or even substituted for, the extermination of east European Jews. The tragic reality that collaboration was commonplace among non-Jewish Poles or Ukrainians was denied. Even more strikingly, Poland and Ukraine tried to use the power of the state to craft a new, revisionist mythology about the past in which Poles and Ukrainians were rescuers, Jews were largely absent (or even blamed for their own murder), and only Germans did anything bad. This revisionism was part of a revived nationalism that sought to ground new, postcommunist, often authoritarian regimes in a comforting mythic history.}},
  author       = {{Michlic, Joanna B. and Rudling, Per A.}},
  booktitle    = {{The Cambridge History of the Holocaust : Volume IV: Aftermath, Outcomes, Repercussions}},
  editor       = {{Jockush, Laura and Pendas, Devin O.}},
  isbn         = {{9781108839396}},
  keywords     = {{holocaust; Memory; Ukraine; Antisemitism; Jedwabne Massacre; Law and Justice Party; Lithuania}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{05}},
  pages        = {{256--284}},
  publisher    = {{Cambridge University Press}},
  title        = {{The Holocaust in Eastern European Memory and Politics after the Cold War}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/9781108990172.013}},
  doi          = {{10.1017/9781108990172.013}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}