Auschwitz: History, memory, commemoration

To commemorate the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp by the Red Army, we are publishing a special feature bringing together texts published in K., dealing with the history and memorial challenges surrounding this place which symbolizes, more than any other, the horror of the Shoah. In particular, you’ll find a reflection on antisemitism “because of Auschwitz”, a clandestine manuscript written by Jewish prisoners of the camp who were already worried about the way in which the representation of the Shoah would be distorted, and several contributions confronting precisely these distortions and the difficulties in constituting a memory of the genocide.

 

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A Yiddish Text from Auschwitz. An Underground Manuscript.

 

Abraham Levite & David Suchoff – Published May 26th, 2022

 

During the last days of the Auschwitz camp, Abraham Levite and a group of Jewish deportees conceived of the Collection Auschwitz. The only thing that has come down to us is the introduction to this anthology project, which aimed to bring together a series of clandestine texts written by Jewish deportees in the camp. K. publishes excerpts from this incredible testimony, and an essay by David Suchoff in which he has gathered biographical information on Levite, reconstructed the story of the manuscript and analyzed the project.

 

 

>>> Read Abraham Levite & David Suchoff’s article

 

 

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“Secondary” or “Auschwitz-related” antisemitism

 

Bruno Quélennec – Published November 10th, 2021

 

The plethora of charges made against Jews requires a constant reworking of the concepts used to characterize these phenomena. In recent years, the notion of “secondary antisemitism” or “guilt-rejecting antisemitism” has thus been invoked to characterize new forms of anti-Jewish hostility that relate to the Holocaust in order to deny it, relativize it, reverse the responsibility for it, etc. The text by the philosopher Bruno Quélennec for K. aims to clarify this major idea for the understanding of contemporary antisemitism.

 

 

>>> Read Bruno Quélennec’s article

 

 

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When Wikipedia Distorts the Holocaust. Interview with Shira Klein and Jan Grabowski.

 

Ewa Tartakowsky – Published September 21st, 2023

Historians Shira Klein and Jan Grabowski have published an important article on the distortions of the history of the Holocaust — particularly in Poland — present on a large number of Wikipedia pages. They analyze the practices of certain Wikipedians, those volunteers who contribute to the editing of the open encyclopedia, who aim to minimize, omit or even deny a series of historical facts; in particular those that affect the image of a victimized and heroic Poland, with a large number of Righteous who saved Jews during the war. Interview conducted by Ewa Tartakowsky.