City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 1992 The Politics of Memorialization: Creating a Holocaust Memorial Museum in New York City Rochelle G. Saidel Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/1628 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any typs of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. 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Contact UMI directly to order. University Microfilms International A Beil & Howell Information Com pany 300 North Zeeb Road. Ann Arbor. Ml 48106-1346 USA 313/761-4700 800/521-0600 Order Number 9224852 The politics of memorialization: Creating a holocaust memorial museum in New York City Saidel, Rochelle Genia, Ph.D. City University of New York, 1992 Copyright ©1992 by Saidel, Rochelle Genia. All rights reserved. UMI 300 N. Zeeb Rd. Ann Arbor, MI 48106 THE POLITICS OF MEMORIALIZATION: CREATING A HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM IN NEW YORK CITY by ROCHELLE G. SAIDEL A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Political Science in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York. 1992 C 1992 ROCHELLE G. SAIDEL All rights reserved This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Political Science in satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the^ degree of Doctor of Philosophy. [signature] Date Ashe^Arian Cha<£r of Examining Committee [signature] 3 Date Stanley Renshon, Executive Officer [signature] Marshall Berman [signature] J<£nn Mollenkopf M Joseph Murphy [signature] Frances Fox Piven Supervisory Committee The City University of New York iv Abstract THE POLITICS OF MEMORIALIZATION: CREATING A HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM IN NEW YORK CITY by Rochelle G. Saidel Sponsor: Professor Asher Arian Reader: Professor Marshall Berman This study of how government intervention affects the implementation of a project of an interest group analyzes the political processes of the 45 year impasse in completing a major Holocaust memorial in New York City. Using as a case study the 1981-1991 effort to create such a project, the study develops a new concept for analyzing long-term public- private projects. This study develops and uses a so-called Mutagon to analyze the complicated and changing political coalition that has endeavored for ten years to create a Holocaust museum. The Mutagon concept augments existing interest group theories, (e.g., iron triangle and issue network theory) which do not adequately account for: changes in political coalitions during long-term projects,' the possibility of an interest group having to deal with both a governor and a mayor; the conflicts of interest when elected officials are part of the interest group. The Mutagon concept is summarized as follows: Government policy for a long-term city-state public-private project emerges from a changing polygon consisting of the interest group, mayor, governor, and other officials. Although the Mutagon is working for closure, it may instead create an impasse because of: 1. changes within this polygon that occur over time (e.g., when a player enters or exits); 2. the top-heavy structure of a political alliance that sometimes has two heads; and 3. the complex relationship among the players. Using the Mutagon, the study also builds on existing literature on citizen participation, agenda setting, and political symbolism, by demonstrating how changes over time in a political alliance must be taken into account. The study traces the history and pre-history of the New York City project, including failed attempts since 1946 to create a major Holocaust memorial, and the emergence of the Holocaust as a "hot" agenda item for President Jimmy Carter and then for Mayor Edward I. Koch. The study also analyzes the changing stages in the Mutagon coalition, including the sharing of power between Koch and Governor Mario Cuomo, and how these changes have affected the prospects for implementation and the projected museum's image and way of remembering. Acknowledgements Without the help and encouragement of many people, it would not have been possible to complete this task. First of all, I would like to thank my advisor, Professor Asher Arian, and my reader, Professor Marshall Berman, both of whom supervised this dissertation with wisdom, keen insights, infinite patience, encouragement, and kindness. I also appreciate the input of the other members of my committee: Professors John Mollenkopf, Frances Fox Piven, and Joseph Murphy. The Menhart Spielman bequest to the City College Jewish Studies Department provided financial support, for which I am grateful. I conducted many interviews to gather information for the dissertation, and I thank the people in New York, Washington and Jerusalem who took the time to share with me their expertise on memorializing the Holocaust. They include: Dr. David Altshuler, Director of "A Living Memorial to the Holocaust-Museum of Jewish Heritage", Dr. Michael Berenbaum, Dr. David Blumenfeld, Hyman Bookbinder, Stuart Eizenstat, David Emil, Meyer S. Frucher, Benjamin Gebiner, Ellen Goldstein, Irving Greenberg, Dr. Israel Gutman, Edward I. Koch, Dr. Yitzhak Mais, Benjamin and Vladka Meed, Ernest Michel, Richard Ravitch, Herbert Rickman, Menachem Rosensaft, Irit Salmon, Julius Schatz, Rebecca Shanor, Mark Siegel, Hon. Herbert Tenzer, Shaike Weinberg, and Professor Elie Wiesel. vii I am also grateful to the following experts on the Holocaust, memorialization, and the American Jewish community who shared with me their yet unpublished works: Aviva Cantor, Dr. Sybil Milton, Dr. Yitzhak Mais, Dr. Barry Schwartz, and Dr. James E. Young. Archival research was carried out at the archives of the Jewish Labor Bund, the YIVO Archive, the American Jewish Committee library, the New York State Library, the President Jimmy Carter Library, the archives of the Warsaw Ghetto Resistance Organization (WAGRO), the offices of the Jewish Community Relations Council, and the New York City Municipal Archives. I thank the staff members in all of these institutions for their kind cooperation. In addition, I thank Marian Craig and Jim Sleeper for providing background material. I also thank New York State Senator Manfred Ohrenstein for giving me the opportunity to see first hand the activities of the New York Holocaust Memorial Commission, while I was a member of his staff. Most of all, I thank my husband, Dr. Guilherme Ary Plonski, for seeing me through this endeavor with loving and generous patience, encouragement and support; and my parents, Florence and Joseph Saidel, who have always had confidence in me and never gave up hope they would finally be able to say, "My daughter, the doctor." viii PREFACE When I chose as the subject of this dissertation the case study of the effort to create a major Holocaust memorial museum in New York City, I did so with deep personal interest in the subject and with the expectation of analyzing a successful project. I chose the topic because I have had a lifelong commitment to Judaism, and specifically, since 1977, to studying and writing about the aftermath of the Holocaust. My interest in the Holocaust solidified in 1977, when I attended one of the first Nazi war criminal hearings in the United States and spoke with survivors who were witnesses. This led to my writing many articles and a book on this specific aspect of the Holocaust.. As part of my responsibility on the staff of Senator Manfred Ohrenstein from 1981 until 1989, I organized a permanent exhibit in the New York State Museum in Albany which detailed the odyssey of Holocaust refugees who were interned in Oswego, New York, and kept him abreast of the progress on the New York City Holocaust museum project. I thus began following the project closely almost from its initiation by Mayor Koch in 1981. At that early date, and even in 1988-1989 when I chose the project as a case study for my dissertation, it seemed destined for ultimate success. However, the intricacies of the political coalition behind the museum, the changes in this coalition over time, ix and other circumstances have created problems that as yet have prevented the museum from becoming a reality. In an effort to understand why this project has been so problematic, I developed and coined the concept of the Mutagon. Studying and writing about the Holocaust and its memorialization can be depressing because of the subject matter. A study of the successful creation of a Holocaust museum, with its evocation of the history being recreated, would be heartbreaking enough.