Representing the Holocaust: German and American Museums In

REPRESENTING THE HOLOCAUST: GERMAN AND AMERICAN MUSEUMS IN COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE A thesis submitted To Kent State University in partial Fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts By Alyssa R. Cady August, 2016 © Copyright All rights reserved Except for previously published materials Thesis written by Alyssa R. Cady B. A., The Ohio State University, 2014 M.A., Kent State University, 2016 Approved by Richard Steigmann-Gall, Ph.D., Department of History, Masters Advisor Kenneth Bindas, Ph.D., Chair, Department of History James L. Blank, Ph.D., Dean, College of Arts and Sciences TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS...............................................................................................................iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.............................................................................................................v INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1 CHAPTERS Page I. “ANTI-SEMITISM: THE PORTRALYAL OF ANTI-SEMITISM BY GERMAN AND AMERICAN MUSEUMS”......................................................................................18 Introduction........................................................................................................................18 Origins of Anti-Semitism...................................................................................................19 Anti-Semitism in the Middle Ages....................................................................................27 Anti-Semitism and the Enlightenment...............................................................................31 Modern Anti-Semitism......................................................................................................34 Anti-Semitism and World War I........................................................................................37 Anti-Semitism during the Third Reich..............................................................................40 Conclusion.........................................................................................................................44 II. “JEWISH RESISTANCE: THE REPRESENTATION OF JEWISH RESISTANCE DURING THE HOLOCAUST IN THE GERMAN AND AMERICAN MUSEUMS”...49 Introduction........................................................................................................................49 Jewish Resistance during the Holocaust............................................................................52 German Museums and their Presentation of Jewish Resistance........................................58 American Museums and their Presentation of Jewish Resistance.....................................65 Placement within the Museums.........................................................................................72 Conclusion.........................................................................................................................75 iii TABLE OF CONTENTS (CONTINUED) III. “CONCLUDING MESSAGES OF THE HOLOCAUST EXHIBITS: AN ANALYSIS OF THE CONCLUDING MESSAGES IN THE GERMAN AND AMERICAN MUSEUMS”.............................................................................................................................79 Introduction........................................................................................................................79 Liberation...........................................................................................................................80 Aftermath of the Holocaust................................................................................................88 Concluding Messages of the Museums..............................................................................99 Conclusion.......................................................................................................................103 CONCLUSION............................................................................................................................106 BIBLIOGRAPHY........................................................................................................................112 iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The completion of this thesis was made possible with the support of many people. First, I would like to thank my advisor, Dr. Richard Steigmann-Gall, for his dedication of time and his guidance throughout this process. With your direction, I was able to organize my thoughts and ideas into a coherent final product. I would also like to thank my committee members, Dr. Shane Strate and Dr. Mindy Farmer, for the time they spent reading drafts and providing feedback. Your advice was immensely appreciated, and your involvement in both the researching and writing process of this project was invaluable. On a more personal note, I would also like to thank my colleagues and family for offering support and encouragement. With the help of my peers, I grew as a scholar throughout my time at Kent State University and stayed focused and sane during the research and writing process. And finally, thank you to my family, especially my parents, for your love and support while I worked on this project. v INTRODUCTION In the last generation, public memorialization of past tragedies has increased like never before. The Jewish Holocaust and the extreme tragedy it brought stands in the middle as perhaps the most commemorated of these tragedies. This increasing frequency of Holocaust memorials and museums both across Europe and in the United States is part of a larger cultural phenomenon of memory, resulting in a landscape of varied and complex Holocaust commemoration.1 Some, such as Daniel Levy and Natan Sznaider, assert that the Holocaust is the leading event in invoking global memory and a universalist message of human rights; while others, like Jeffry Alexander, argue that “the intensifying momentum to memorialize the Holocaust indicates a deepening institutionalization of its moral lessons and the continued recalling of its dramatic experiences rather than to their routinizaiton and forgetting.”2 How is such a terrible and inhumane act represented and why would it be beneficial to include such a narrative in public history? Are there different approaches to displaying this type of history across the world? Why has the Holocaust received so much attention in the museum sector? The same reasons it has received decades of historical study and analysis: it represents an unprecedented level of violence that begs to be researched and remembered. Museums relay this information to the public in a unique and tangible way, with the goal of instilling awareness in visitors of the dangers of the Holocaust and the incidences preceding the event so there will never again be a similar experience. 1 Dan Stone, “Memory, Memorials and Museums,” The Historiography of the Holocaust (New York: Palgrave McMillan, 2004), 510. 2 Ibid., 524. 1 This thesis will explore the comparative historicization of Holocaust memory in Holocaust museums in the United States and Germany. Starting in the 1990s, the United States witnessed a process of public commemoration of the Holocaust through the establishment of new museums and public memorials. At roughly the same time, Germany similarly witnessed the building up of a network of new memorials and museums, particularly in Berlin and Frankfurt. These museums represented a new phase of memorialization that went beyond the maintenance of concentration camps like Dachau and Sachsenhausen. This thesis will explore how different national cultures of remembrance are reflected in these new American and German museums. How do the respective national memories of the two countries effect their museum Holocaust exhibits? Does the role that each country played in the Holocaust affect how each country presents the Holocaust? How do different perceptions of race and religion impact how these museums define anti-Semitism? How does each museum define anti-Semitism, and how do these definitions reflect on questions of continuity and change in the long history of Jew-hatred leading up to the Holocaust? Do differing narratives of suffering, endurance and agency inform differing approaches to questions of Jewish resistance in these museums? And do differing national narratives of triumph and defeat inform differing depictions of the end of the Holocaust? This study will compare four different museums – two German, two American – that have not previously been the subject of monographic, comparative investigation: the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum; the Holocaust Museum Houston; the Jewish Museum Berlin; and the Jewish Museum Frankfurt. The oldest of these, the Jewish Museum Frankfurt, was opened in 1988; the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum opened a few years later, in 1994. The 1980s memory wars, following America’s loss in the Vietnam War, influenced the platform surrounding the development of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Even 2 though it has never been a part of the mall, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is very much a part of memory wars in the 1980s, one which saw the self-effacing, anti- triumphalist, humble quality of the Vietnam memorial heavily attacked. The desire to present a “win” for America is thus reflected in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. My work will develop their findings further by analyzing these museums in broader comparative context. In doing so, I intend to explore the ways in which different

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