It’s paradoxical, to say the least, to observe that the “duty of remembrance” (to the victims of the Shoah) is exalted on all sides, while at the same time Jews are vilified in its very name…
On the one hand, the age mobilizes its compassion in memory of the damned of Auschwitz; on the other, the Jews – and Israel in particular – are suspected of exploiting yesterday’s martyrdom for today’s ideological and financial ends…
There, the Jews are victims. Here, and now, they would in turn become culprits – or even executioners or accomplices of executioners, as can be seen every day in the media documentaries triggered by events in the Middle East.
It is this paradox, this “perverse logic” and propitious to the most perilous delusions, that Shmuel Trigano explores in this lucid and radical essay.
And his analyses are sure to fuel a debate that concerns, in equal measure, a painful past and an uncertain future.
Translations of The borders of Auschwitz: the ravages of the duty to remember
In Hebrew, Resling, 2016
Gvulot Auschwitz. Niskei Hovat Hazikarone
גבולות אושוויץ, נזקי חובת הזיכרון