Holocaust Consciousness in Contemporary Britain

334 Pages·2014·1.976 MB·English

by  Andy Pearce

Holocaust Consciousness
in Contemporary Britain
The Holocaust is a pervasive presence in British culture and society. Schools
have been legally required to deliver Holocaust education, the government
helps to fund student visits to Auschwitz, the Imperial War Museum’s per-
manent Holocaust Exhibition has attracted millions of visitors, and Brit-
ain has an annually commemorated Holocaust Memorial Day. What has
prompted this development, how has it unfolded, and why has it happened
now? How does it relate to Britain’s post-war history, its contemporary
concerns, and the wider “globalisation” of Holocaust memory? What are
the multiple shapes that British Holocaust consciousness assumes and the
consequences of their rapid emergence? Why have the so-called “lessons”
of the Holocaust enjoyed such popularity in Britain? Through analysis of
changing engagements with the Holocaust in political, cultural and memo-
rial landscapes over the past generation, this book addresses these ques-
tions, demonstrating the complexities of Holocaust consciousness and
refl ecting on the contrasting ways that history is used in Britain today.
Andy Pearce is Lecturer in Holocaust and History Education at the Centre for
Holocaust Education, Institute of Education, University of London. He is also
the Reviews Editor for Holocaust Studies: A Journal of Culture and History.
Routledge Studies in Cultural History
1 The Politics of Information in 8 Making British Culture
Early Modern Europe English Readers and the Scottish
Edited by Brendan Dooley and Enlightenment, 1740-1830
Sabrina Baron David Allan
2 The Insanity of Place/ The Place 9 Empires and Boundaries
of Insanity Rethinking Race, Class, and
Essays on the History of Gender in Colonial Settings
Psychiatry Edited by Harald Fischer-Tiné
Andrew Scull and Susanne Gehrmann
3 Film, History, and Cultural 10 Tobacco in Russian History and
Citizenship Culture
Sites of Production From the Seventeenth Century to
Edited by Tina Mai Chen and the Present
David S. Churchill Edited by Matthew P. Romaniello
and Tricia Starks
4 Genre and Cinema
Ireland and Transnationalism 11 History of Islam in German
Edited by Brian McIlroy Thought
From Leibniz to Nietzsche
5 Histories of Postmodernism Ian Almond
Edited by Mark Bevir, Jill Hargis,
and Sara Rushing 12 Israeli-Palestinian Confl ict in the
Francophone World
6 Africa after Modernism Edited by Nathalie Debrauwere-
Transitions in Literature, Media, Miller
and Philosophy
Michael Janis 13 History of Participatory Media
Politics and Publics, 1750-2000
7 Rethinking Race, Politics, and Edited by Anders Ekström Solveig
Poetics Jülich, Frans Lundgren and Per
C. L. R. James’ Critique of Wisselgren
Modernity
Brett St Louis 14 Living in the City
Urban Institutions in the Low
Countries, 1200-2010
Leo Lucassen and Wim Willems
15 Historical Disasters in Context 23 Disease and Crime
Science, Religion, and Politics A History of Social Pathologies
Edited by Andrea Janku, Gerrit J. and the New Politics of Health
Schenk and Franz Mauelshagen Edited by Robert Peckham
16 Migration, Ethnicity, and 24 Critical Perspectives on
Mental Health Colonialism
International Perspectives, 1840- Writing the Empire from Below
2010 Edited by Fiona Paisley and
Edited by Angela McCarthy and Kirsty Reid
Catharine Coleborne
25 Old World Empires
17 Politics of Memory Cultures of Power and
Making Slavery Visible in the Governance in Eurasia
Public Space Ilhan Niaz
Edited by Ana Lucia Araujo
26 The Afterlife of Used Things
18 Neutrality in Twentieth-Century Recycling in the Long Eighteenth
Europe Century
Intersections of Science, Culture, Edited by Ariane Fennetaux,
and Politics after the First World Amélie Junqua and Sophie Vasset
War
Edited by Rebecka Lettevall, Geert 27 Holocaust Consciousness in
Somsen, and Sven Widmalm Contemporary Britain
Andy Pearce
19 Americans Experience Russia
Encountering the Enigma, 1917 to
the Present
Edited by Choi Chatterjee and
Beth Holmgren
20 A Social History of Disability in
the Middle Ages
Cultural Considerations of
Physical Impairment
Irina Metzler
21 Race, Science, and the Nation
Reconstructing the Ancient Past in
Britain, France and Germany
Chris Manias
22 Identity, Aesthetics, and Sound
in the Fin de Siècle
Redesigning Perception
Dariusz Gafi jczuk
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Holocaust Consciousness
in Contemporary Britain
Andy Pearce
NEW YORK LONDON
First published 2014
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group,
an informa business
© 2014 Taylor & Francis
The right of Andy Pearce to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs
and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Pearce, Andy, 1981- author.
Holocaust consciousness in contemporary Britain / by Andy Pearce.
pages ; cm. — (Routledge studies in cultural history ; volume 27)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Holocaust, Jewish (1939–1945)—Historiography. 2. Holocaust,
Jewish (1939–1945)—Study and teaching—Great Britain. 3. Holocaust,
Jewish (1939–1945)—Foreign public opinion, British—Great Britain.
4. Public opinion—Great Britain. 5. Collective memory—Great
Britain. I. Title.
D804.348.P43 2014
940.53'180941—dc23
2013046877
ISBN13: 978-0-415-83593-0 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978-0-203-48421-0 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by IBT Global.
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
1 Introduction:
British Holocaust Consciousness—from Past into Present 1
PART I
Education
2 ‘Holocaust Education’, but Not as We Know It 37
3 The Holocaust in the Curriculum 60
PART II
Memorialisation, Musealization, Commemoration
4 ‘Private’ Spaces of Memory?:
Hyde Park and the Holocaust Centre 89
5 The Imperial War Museum’s Holocaust Exhibition 108
6 Holocaust Memorial Day 133
PART III
The Cultural Hinterland
7 A Cultural ‘Turn’ 165
8 Cultural Tensions 186
viii Contents
9 Postscript 210
Notes 233
Selected Bibliography 289
Index 317
Acknowledgments
Fittingly, perhaps, this is a book with a long and convoluted history. It
has developed out of both research and various professional experiences,
meaning there are a host of people who have in some way or another helped
make this book a reality.
You never forget a good teacher, so the cliché goes; I have been lucky
enough to be taught by, to have taught alongside, and to have observed
some extremely gifted individuals. My interest in the Holocaust developed
in earnest fi fteen years ago after taking an undergraduate course. It was
led by Dan Stone, who would subsequently supervise my postgraduate
research as an MA and PhD student. It was an absolute privilege to study
and develop under such a talented scholar and attentive tutor. I am also
very grateful to the tutelage of other academics from Royal Holloway who
taught me as an undergraduate, as a postgraduate on the superb interdisci-
plinary MA Holocaust Studies, or off ered valuable insights during my doc-
toral work. Particular thanks then to David Cesarani, Robert Eaglestone,
Barry Langford, Peter Longerich, Rudolf Muhs, and Zoe Waxman.
As this book has emerged from dissertation to thesis to monograph I
have had the good fortune to share ideas and valuable conversations with
various scholars and thinkers. For this I am grateful to Matt Boswell, Mark
Donnelly, Olaf Jensen, Becky Jinks, Tony Kushner, Tom Lawson, Paul A.
Levine, Pat Thane and Cecilia Stokholm Banke. A number of the above
have also been kind enough to invite me to speak at conferences and semi-
nars, giving me a priceless forum to develop my ideas. To this list can be
added Lucy Bond, Rick Crownshaw, Jean-Marc Dreyfus, Victoria How-
arth, Gary McCulloch, Jessica Rapson and Jonathan Webber.
My research has benefi ted immeasurably from discussions with many
individuals who have been directly involved in the history this book recon-
structs. For being generous with their time and gracious in their inter-
est my sincere thanks to Sir Andrew Burns, Michael Darlow, Suzanne
Bardgett, Trudy Gold, Lord Greville Janner, Shirley Murgraff , Michael
Newman, Karen Pollock, Laurence Rees, Martin Smith, Stephen Smith,
and Jack Straw MP. Like any academic, I am much obliged as well to
staff in libraries and archives, including: Royal Holloway, Senate House,