Dissertation
The Holocaust in Russian Life: New Perspectives on Soviet Jewish Memory
Washington State University
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
01/2021
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7273/000002424
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/120562
Abstract
Jews living in the Russian Federation present historians with new collective memory narratives about the Holocaust that help understand the effects on its creation, transmission, and infusion over time. This study compares sources from three generations of Jewish families, their history, and memory sharing to understand the shape of Holocaust memory in Russia’s Jewish communities. By examining materials from the Soviet government about the Great Patriotic War and testimony from survivors on both sides of the iron curtain, a new image appears to explain what the survivor generation in Soviet Russia remembered about the Holocaust. Their children endured periods of heightened anti-Semitism in the 1960s and 1970s. They decided to conceal their Jewish identity from the youngest generation in this study. Their omission interrupted the transmission of Holocaust memories to the youngest participants in this research. Now, as young adults, this third-generation seeks to reclaim their Jewish identity and Holocaust memory from sources outside of the Russian Federation. In doing so, they created a new collective memory paradigm – memory infusion. This concept occurs when the interactions between public and private spheres of memory collide with an external variant that supersedes the traditional collective memory transmission described by theorists Maurice Halbwachs and Paul Connerton. Rather than the conventional familial and community transmission occurring in the Russian Federation, the scope and scale of Holocaust memory present in these participants’ testimony outline how it changed within the Soviet Union and now emerge as something entirely new today.
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Details
- Title
- The Holocaust in Russian Life: New Perspectives on Soviet Jewish Memory
- Creators
- Karl Krotke-Сrandall
- Contributors
- Brigit A Farley (Advisor)Raymond C Sun (Committee Member)Steven D Kale (Committee Member)Norman Naimark (Committee Member)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- History, Department of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 225
- Identifiers
- 99900606754501842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Dissertation