Abstract Title: Remembering the Shoah through space within major cities. An Was-West comparison of Museums and Memorials dedicated to the Holocaust. Examples of Paris, New-York, Washington, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, Budapest, Berlin and Warsaw.
Abstract:
The Shoah was both a cultural and demographical anihilation and thus stands unprecedented in the history of mankind. Wether created in the aftermath of World War II, the Six-Day war, or more recently after the fall of the Iron Curtain, all Museums and Memorials are part of complex and diverse political, economical, geopolitical and social frameworks. They also stem from and interact the will and agendas of various individuals or groups.
How do Eastern and Western European cities look at this painful past ? How do they exhibit it within their Museums and Memorials? Those Museums and Memorials were created to keep alive the memory of the Holocaust and pass it to the next generations. But where and in what kind of urban spaces were they built? Who visit those places?
Is an East-West perspective appropriate to look into such topics as metropolisation; ways and means to enhance an heritage and encourage a specific form of tourism focused on that heritage; or, last but not least, genocide awareness and education.
This paper will provide some answers to those several questions.
