Representing Genocide: The Holocaust as Paradigm?

281 Pages·2016·3.28 MB·English

by  Rebecca Jinks

REPRESENTING GENOCIDE
Comparative Genocide
Series Editor Devin O. Pendas
Global in scope, Comparative Genocide is a series of research
monographs and advanced level course texts dedicated to
exploring the history of genocide.
The volumes included examine well-known case studies,
such as the Holocaust and Rwanda, along with examples of
genocide that are documented less frequently, such as
Guatemala and East Timor.
The series is built around the premise that genocides take place
in transnational contexts and that even seemingly ‘domestic’
genocides cannot be adequately understood without reference
to regional and global factors, be it the influence of external ideologies,
the role of diasporic communities or the geopolitical security situation.
REPRESENTING GENOCIDE
The Holocaust as Paradigm?
Rebecca Jinks
Bloomsbury Academic
An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
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BLOOMSBURY and the Diana logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
First published 2016
© Rebecca Jinks, 2016
Rebecca Jinks has asserted her right under the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced
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can be accepted by Bloomsbury or the author.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: HB: 978-1-4742-5694-0
ePDF: 978-1-4742-5696-4
ePub: 978-1-4742-5695-7
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Jinks, Rebecca, author
Title: Representing genocide : the Holocaust as paradigm? / Rebecca Jinks.
Description: London ; New York : Bloomsbury Academic, 2016.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015043349 | ISBN 9781474256940 (hardback) |
ISBN 9781474256964 (epdf)
Subjects: LCSH: Genocide–History. | Genocide in mass media. |
Holocaust. | BISAC: HISTORY / Holocaust. | HISTORY / Modern / 20th Century.
Classification: LCC HV6322.7 .J56 2016 | DDC 364.15/1–dc23 LC record available at
http://lccn.loc.gov/2015043349
Series: Comparative Genocide
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CONTENTS
List of Illustrations vi
Acknowledgements vii
Introduction 1
1 Recognizing genocide: the ‘genocidal imaginary’ 27
2 Explaining genocide: representations of the
origins and perpetrators of genocide 67
3 Witnessing genocide: western protagonists in the
theatre of genocide 105
4 Resolving genocide: representations of the aftermath 139
5 Responding to genocide: attitudes and
platitudes 185
Conclusion 227
Bibliography 230
Index 263
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
1.1 Tuol Sleng Museum of Genocidal Crimes, Phnom Penh,
Cambodia. 52
1.2 Martha Mukabaganwa, Gikongoro Prison, 2000. b. 1960.
Part of the local authority. Sentenced to death, plans to appeal.
© Robert Lyons. 62
2.1 Permanent exhibition of the AGMI, Yerevan, Armenia. 86
4.1 Still from My Neighbor, My Killer. Photo courtesy Anne
Aghion/Gacaca Productions. 155
4.2 Case at the Potočari Memorial Museum, Srebrenica,
displaying the biography of Abdurahman (Dahmo) Delić,
together with his spectacles and their case, found with
his body at the Čančari-Kamenica Zvornik mass grave in 1998. 158
4.3 Path to three secondary mass graves near Blječeva not far
from Bratunac, autumn 2004. © Christian Schwager. 161
4.4 The decaying ruins of a traditional Armenian house
are seen in Gaziantep, Turkey. © Kathryn Cook. 163
4.5 Eugénie N. © Alain Kazinierakis. 168
4.6 Eugénie N. Still from Keepers of Memory. Image courtesy
of Eric Kabera. 168
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would first like to thank my colleagues and friends who have shaped my work,
supported me throughout the process, and read drafts of the manuscript – most
especially Dan Stone and Helen Graham, but also Daniel Beer, Cathie Carmichael,
Justin Champion, James Connolly, Richard Deswarte, Robert Eaglestone, Jens
Meierhenrich, Richard Mills, Dirk Moses, Rudolf Muhs, Andy Pearce, Lars
Waldorf, Zoë Waxman and my anonymous reviewers.
For my research in Armenia, I benefitted greatly as a Raphael Lemkin Scholar
at the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute, where Asya Darbinyan was a
friend and translator throughout my stay and has remained so. For my research
in Cambodia, Bosnia and Rwanda, I received generous funding from the Friendly
Hand charitable foundation.
I am grateful to Anne Aghion, Kathryn Cook, Eric Kabera, Alain Kazinierakis,
Robert Lyons, Simon Norfolk and Christian Schwager for their consent to my
using their images, and Robert Jinks for his help with my own.
Friends have dealt with my general absenteeism in various ways, for which I
thank them: Helen, Jess, Mel, Philly, Sam, Andy, James, Martina, Maddy, Rebecca,
Laurence and Millie. I would particularly like to thank those who accompanied
me on my field trips.
Finally, I’d like to thank my parents, for their love and support, and their
constant encouragement.

INTRODUCTION
[T]he Holocaust has become the pre-eminent symbol of evil in the modern
world, encouraging other groups to copy its vocabulary and imagery,
while sometimes contesting its significance … Representation of the past
and present can thus become a contest … In so doing, they trivialize the
Holocaust and the unique suffering of the group they represent.
David B. MacDonald1
[F]ar from blocking other historical memories from view in a competitive
struggle for recognition, the emergence of Holocaust memory on a global
scale has contributed to the articulation of other histories … Ultimately,
memory is not a zero-sum game.
Michael Rothberg2
Almost two decades into the twenty-first century, the Holocaust appears as
a cornerstone of contemporary Western culture: ubiquitously memorialized
in stone, film and print, it occupies a central place in our consciousness of the
past. Whether or not one agrees with Alon Confino that we are reaching the
end of a stage in Holocaust consciousness stretching from the mid-1970s to the
present, he is surely correct to observe that the (often moralizing) battles over
Holocaust memory make sense only within a memory culture that has accepted
and internalized the essential place of the extermination of the Jews in European
history.3 Although Confino is largely referring to the memory battles fought within
the arena of Holocaust memory (over the ‘dangers of forgetting’, and what might
constitute ‘sufficient memorialization’), as my two epigraphs show, battle is also
being done over the place of Holocaust memory within wider memory cultures,
between those who make reference to the Holocaust when articulating their own
histories of oppression and suffering, and those who jealously guard against this
1. David B. MacDonald, Identity Politics in the Age of Genocide: The Holocaust and
Historical Representation (Abingdon: Routledge, 2008), p. 15, 196.
2. Michael Rothberg, Multidirectional Memory: Remembering the Holocaust in the Age
of Decolonization (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2009), p. 6, 11.
3. Alon Confino, ‘A World without Jews: Interpreting the Holocaust’, German History
27:4 (2009), pp. 531–59: especially 531–4.