American Public Memory and the Holocaust: Performing Gender, Shifting Orientations

231 Pages·2019·4.966 MB·English

by  Lisa A. Costello

American Public Memory
and the Holocaust

American Public Memory
and the Holocaust
Performing Gender,
Shifting Orientations
Lisa A. Costello
LEXINGTON BOOKS
Lanham • Boulder • New York •London
Published by Lexington Books
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Control Number: 2019950376
ISBN: 978-1-7936-0015-8 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN: 978-1-7936-0016-5 (electronic)
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Contents
List of Figures vii
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
1 Claude Lanzmann’s Shoah and the Opening of Testimony Archives:
Gender and Performance in Public Memory 23
2 Schindler’s List and its “After-Affect”: Son of Saul, Spielberg’s List,
and the USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive 51
3 Is It Happening Again? How Women’s Deferred Memories Perform
Holocaust Public Memory: Ruth Klüger and the Levys 87
4 “Next Generation” Texts: Reclaiming the Body;
Reclaiming Auschwitz 121
5 Performing Gender in Local Holocaust Museums:
Memorial Spaces and Community Places 151
Conclusion 185
References 193
Index 209
About the Author 219
v

List of Figures
Figure 1.1: Ruth Elias composite scene openings (USHMM website,
Shoah Outtakes). 38
Figure 1.2: Screenshot of Filip Mueller in Shoah (Lanzmann). 42
Figure 2.1: Screenshot of Saul washing the boy’s body tenderly in
Son of Saul (Nemes). 74
Figure 4.1: Screenshot of Adolek posing in front of crematory ovens
(Broder). 127
Figure 4.2: Screenshot of one of the opening shots from Dancing in
Auschwitz (Korman). 130
Figure 4.3: Screenshot of Vera Rosenzweig: “It’s cool” in Numbered
(Doron and Sinai). 135
Figure 4.4: Screenshot of Helen Rabinowitz with her two tattoos in
Numbered (Doron and Sinai). 137
Figure 4.5: Screenshot of Grandfather Abramo and grandson Ayal in
Numbered (Doron and Sinai). 142
Figure 5.1: Dallas Holocaust Museum, outside view (Costello). 160
Figure 5.2: Holocaust Museum Houston, outside view (Costello). 160
Figure 5.3: Florida Holocaust Museum, outside view (Costello). 161
Figure 5.4: Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust, outside view
(Costello). 162
Figure 5.5: DHM and Anne Frank image in entry (Costello). 166
vii
viii List of Figures
Figure 5.6: HMH and Anne Frank image (Costello). 167
Figure 5.7: LAMOTH and Anne Frank images (Costello). 168
Figure 5.8: FHM without Anne Frank image but with Anne Frank
story (Costello). 169
Acknowledgments
This book is the culmination of several years of study. I am grateful to Geor-
gia Southern University for Educational Leave and the College of Arts and
Humanities’ Seed Grant in Spring 2015, which allowed me to jump-start this
research and visit many of the museums I include in my final chapter.
I am indebted to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the
Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies and the opportunities provided by
the Silberman Fellowship in 2012. The interdisciplinary seminar on Teach-
ing Gender and the Holocaust has been a guide for my own interdisciplinary
work. I have appreciated the accommodations made for my visits by the busy
staff at the Holocaust Museums in Dallas, Texas; Houston, Texas; Los Ange-
les, California; and St. Petersburg, Florida.
My mother has been a champion for my life as a writer and an academic
and was patient with the winding paths that got me there. Thank you to my
sister, Jeanne, and my dedicated writing group members, Dr. Doreen Piano
and Dr. Laura Carroll, who read multiple revisions of these chapters and
provided crucial insights.
I thank also my children for being part of the strong, smart “next genera-
tion” for whom I write and hope for the future.
I thank the editors, readers, and staff at Lexington Press for their vision for
and commitment to this project.
I could never have accomplished any of this work without the support and
love of my partner, Richard M. Houser, to whom I dedicate this text. You
bring joy and optimism to the world every day, and your incisive readings and
revisions of versions of this text over the years helped me bring it together,
finally. You never lost hope in me. You never let us lose hope together.
ix