Does authenticity matter? Discuss in relation to sites of memory in at least two countries.

Transcription

1 Does authenticity matter? Discuss in relation to sites of memory in at least two countries. 1

2 2 As historical events tumble with increasing rapidity into an irretrievable past, commitment to remembering them in the present becomes ever important. And no events necesitate remembrance more than those which we vow never to repeat; seventy years on, and the commemoration of the lives of the five to six million Jews murdered by the Nazis and 2 their allies between 1933 and 1945, is a crucial and ongoing process. 1 our Today, sites of memory, former sites of destruction, museums, and commemorative monuments, form a key component in this memorialisation process. Defined by their shapes, functions and locations, they employ both education and emotion, with the ultimate aim to imbue us with their embodied memories. In Germany, the nation of perpetrators and their descendants, Holocaust memorial work has become a tortured, self-reflective, even 3 paralysing preocupation. Whilst thousands of miles away, the memory of the Holocaust is 4 no less prominent in America, where the event loom[s] large in popular culture. A 5 memorial to the Holocaust now stands in each of America s major cities. However, how we choose to represent the events of the Holocaust at these sites of memory remains a contentious issue. This focus of this essay will be on an authentic representation of the Holocaust; a representation that replicates or reflects the real events themselves. 6 In the eyes of many, concrete reminders of the Holocaust, authentic artefacts, ruins and relics, provide the most effective windows to the past. Since the wake of the atrocities, victims and liberators alike have built memorials to the Holocaust at the very sites where atrocities took place. And today, former concentration and death camps, as preserved spatial 1 Pierre Nora, Les Lieux de mémoire (Version translated into English; New York, 1996), p. 1 2 Johan Åhr, Memory and Mourning in Berlin. On Peter Eisenman s Holocaust- Mahnmal (2005), Modern Judaism 28 (2008), pp , p James E. Young, The Texture of Memory. Holocaust Memorials and their Meaning (New Haven, 1993), p Peter Novick, The Holocaust and Collective Memory: the American Experience (London, 2001), p. 1 5 Greig Crysler, Abidin Kusno, Angels in the Temple: The Aesthetic Construction of Citizenship at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Art Journal (Volume 56, 1997, Issue 1), pp , p Tim Cole, Selling the Holocaust: From Auschwitz to Schindler: How History is Bought, Packaged and Sold (New York, 2000), p. 187

3 3 remnants of the Nazi regime, continue to provide perhaps the most authentic sites to understand and reflect on the Holocaust. Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site in Germany is a key example. Nonetheless, as memorialisation of the Holocaust becomes a global, collective phenomenon, notions of authentic memorialisation are expanding. Thousands of miles away from the sites of destruction, curators are now conjuring authentic Holocaust experiences within the reconstructed context of the museum. At the United States 7 Holocaust Museum Memorial, Washington D.C, an entire Concentration Camp universe has been reconstructed through artefacts and replicas. And finally, there are a growing number of memorial sites that do not rely on historical evidence at all, but rather, conjure an authentic experience of the Holocaust through figurative and abstract public art. George Segal s public sculpture The Holocaust in San Francisco, and Peter Eisenman s Berlin Holocaust Memorial are two key examples. In light of these three distinct notions of authenticity, and examining four sites of memory, this essay will ask: Does an authentic representation of the Holocaust matter? And in other words, is an authentic representation key to conjuring memory? Whilst I am aware that sites of destruction, museums, and commemorative monuments often co-exist at a given site, I propose to examine each of them as a separate entity. By exploring authenticity on a spectrum, beginning with the most typically authentic, the preserved sites of destruction, and ending with typically the most inauthentic representations, memorials in the abstract, I hope to show that whilst typically authentic sites of memory can yield effective memories, so too can those deemed less authentic. And further still, that the mechanics of a memorial perhaps need not be authentic at all to imbue us with their memories. Authentic preservation: sites of destruction 7 Ibid., p. 161

4 4 Today, 70 years on from the initial memorials built to mark these sites, former concentration camps are still priveleged symbols of Nazi atrocities. As 8 spatial remnants of the Holocaust where the atrocities once took place, a visit to these sites suggests the most 9 authentic experience of all. People go to these sites to see what it was like, because they 10 evoke an impression of pure, unmediated history. Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial 11 Site in Germany is one of the most heavily memorialised sites of all. Today, museum and commemorative monuments coexist, yet it is precisely the land on which they have been built at the root of legitdachau s commemorative worth. 12 such as this represent a unique opportunity as memorialising sites. Many agree with Sion, that locations Certainly, at this vast and fenced-off location, memorial legitimacy is gleened through the authenticity of the historic place, and memory is shaped by the land itself. Because place does not have to be artifcially created, concentration camps persay are original spatial remnants of the Nazi regime, and their role as unintended memorial[s] 15 imbues them with a certain pure authenticity: at every step visitors are impacted by the realisation that 16 here, where I am now, people were killed. As sites of memory, these locations are 17 highly charged. Yet, whilst empty spaces can prove haunting in themselves, 18 authenticity at Dachau is also yielded by structural relics and artefacts, although there is a commitment to minimal reconstructions or stagings. According to Sion, ruins are the most ideal architecture for 8 Isabelle Engelhardt, A Topography of Memory: Representations of the Holocaust at Dachau and Buchenwald in Comparison With Auschwitz, Yad Vashem and Washington (Brussels, 2002), p Young, The Texture, p Crysler, Kusno, Angels in the Temple, p Bill Niven, Chloe Paver (eds.), Memorialization in Germany since 1945 (London, 2010), p Laurie Beth, Ethical Spaces: Ethics and Propriety in Trauma Tourism, in Bridgitte Sion (ed.) Death Tourism: Disaster Sites as Recreational Landscape (Calcutta, 2014), p. 9 35, p Engelhardt, A Topography, p Ibid., p Engelhardt, A Topography, p Ibid., p Clark, Ethical Spaces, p Ibid., p. 22

5 5 trauma memorials to inherit as they provoke the right emotions. 19 Certainly, with an 20 emphasis on remaining traces, and by ensuring that only authentic sites are included, attention is drawn to emotionally resonant auras. 21 Many of the original buildings at Dachau still stand, and serve as visual testimonies to how the camp might once have looked. Housed within these structural relics, artefacts help to heighten our reflection on the past: piles of the thousands of shoes and clothes confiscated from the Jewish inmates promise an 22 otherwise lost three-dimensionality. Visitors are emotionally impacted that these are 23 real, authentic piece[s] of the past. In many ways, our understanding of the Holocaust relates to how we experience this authentic place. Sion believes that visitors may even come to sites of destruction as 24 pilgrims in a heightened state of awareness. At Dachau, entering through the original entry 25 gate on the West side, visitors traverse the exhibition as newly entering prisoners. Passing by the Service building, where once incoming prisoners were forcibly shaven and showered, one is able to ponder how it might have felt all those years ago. And no structure conjures the memory of the Holocaust more perhaps than a visit to the crematoria: coming face to face 26 with this structure, it serves as a magnet for all emotions of horror and dismay. With all its emotional charge, the former concentration camp has the potential to powerfully imbue visitors with the memories of the Holocaust. However, perhaps surprisingly, this authentic concentration camp experience is not without its commemorative limitations. It may be is precisely that these former sites of destruction 19 Ibid., p Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site Visitor Website, 21 Harold Marcusse, Legacies of Dachau: The Uses and Abuses of a Concentration Camp (Cambridge; New York. 2001), p Engelhardt, A Topography, p Omer Bartov, Chambers of Horror. The Reordering of Murders Past, in id., Murder In Our Midst. The Holocaust, Industrial Killing, and Representation (1996), pp , p Clark, Ethical Spaces, p Marcusse, Legacies of Dachau, p Insa Eschebach, Soil, Ashes, Commemoration: Processes of Sacralization at the Former Ravensbrück Concentration Camp, History and Memory (Vol. 23, No. 1, Spring/Summer, 2011), pp , p. 136

6 6 masquerade as an objective representation of reality 27 that dooms them to fall short. 28 Imbued with their aura of the real thing where history happened, they invite us to 29 mistaken the debris of history, for history itself. Some visitors, particularly children, may even mistaken the reality of camp memorials for the reality of the actual death camps, which 30 would be both dangerous and schizophrenic. Yet the majority of visitors will likely feel disappointment, because a closer examination of the memorial site reveals a pretence of 31 verisimilitude. Many of the buildings are in fact inauthentic reconstructions. Barracks have been rebuilt to a much higher standard than the originals, whilst the sites of others have been marked by low cement curbs, misleading visitors into thinking that this is how they once 32 would have looked. Other are left unconvinced that this is an authentic experience at all. Subtle additions, like the rose bush that marks the plot of ground where thousands of prisoners were lined up and shot, seem to appropriate the authority of the original events. 33 Whilst the well-swept, gravel walk ways are telling indicators that this is a representation and not a reality. And nothing shatters the authentic experience of the crematoria more than the sign that tells us it opens 9 to The decision of curators to avoid representing the less horrifying elements of the camp, like the canteen and prisoner infirmary, has led Marcusse to accuses Dachau of a 35 inauthentic dirty camp narrative. Whilst Sion comments on how reconstructed bunk houses are in any case too clean to evoke the horror of the actual conditions. 36 Curators at Dachau were clearly of the opinion that minimization of relics is the condition for yielding a maximum of meaning, yet for many, this reduces Dachau to an antiseptic experience that sheds little light on the past events themselves. 27 Bartov, Chambers of Horror, p Cole, Selling the Holocaust, p Young, The Texture, p Engelhardt, A Topography, p Marcusse, Legacies of Dachau, p Ibid., p Engelhardt, A Topography, p Young, The Texture, p Marcusse, Legacies of Dachau, p Clark, Ethical Spaces, p Volkhard Knigge in Kathrin Hoffamn-Curtius, Susan Nurmi-Schomers, Memorials for the Dachau Concentration Camp, Oxford Art Journal, (Vol. 21, No. 2, 1998), pp , p Young, The Texture, p. x

7 7 Paradoxically, it is precisely the memorialisation of this site that undermines its portrayal of the authentic Holocaust reality. In the words of Engelhardt, representation is a mode of meaning production rather than a re-enactment of the past. 39 As Young explains, the sites 40 remained, blood soaked but otherwise mute, and it is the ways in which we have made these sites authenticity. talk through the addition of signs, and preservation which undermine their Of course, for many, a visit to a former site of destruction is still the closest one gets to understanding and connecting with the memory of the Holocaust. However, what I hope to have shown is that the authentic experience of a former concentration camp is not unparalleled as a window to the Nazi past. Authentic reconstruction: the Holocaust museum Now let us consider the Holocaust museum. Where former sites of destruction are authentic for the place and artefacts they preserve, museums offer a different kind of reconstructed authenticity. An emergent example is the living museum, whereby visitors can enjoy an experiential experience with history, often thousands of miles away from where the Holocaust occurred. The United States Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C opened on April 26 th 1993 and is a key example. Here, commemorative function is primarily fulfilled 41 though a multifaceted effort at mass education. Yet, more than just collect, preserve, and 42 selectively display objects relating to history, the museum attempts to tell comprehensively the story of the historical events to which their collections and displays 43 relate. Key to its commemorative function is an authentic representation of the past, 39 Engelhardt, A Topography, p Young, The Texture, p Michael Berenbaum, The World Must Know: The History of the Holocaust as told in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, 1993), p.xiv 42 Ibid. 43 Ibid.

8 8 whereby artefacts and relics, as well as full-scale reproductions of historical settings, plunge 44 visitors into an reconstructed authentic universe. Whilst Dachau deals with place, the Washington Holocaust Museum must deal with 45 placelessness. According to Horne, we create realities of various kinds which enable us to think and act. 46 At Washington, there are no ruins to preserve, and commemorative place has been created and contextualised through exhibits and architecture. Built onto the Washington Mall, it forms part of complex of memorials. Yet, in its architectural structure alone, the Hall of Witness visually alludes to the railway stations, boxcars, and concentration 47 camps associated with the Holcoaust. The truly authentic experience however occurs inside the exhibits, where a plethora of artefacts including rubble from the crematoria at Auschwitz, suitcases, toothbrushes, and Zyklon B canisters, 48 have the potential to evoke powerful notions of the past. By placing these in a narrative, these artefacts are brought to life: a shaving brush and soap thus becomes 49 a shaving brush and soap used in the Warsaw ghetto, and as Donald Horne explains, it is 50 precisely the fact artefacts existed at the time which lends them their magic. Whilst the museum has restricted itself to the use of genuine artefacts and documentary photographs with proven provenance, 51 without ruins, or original structures to conjure past reality, there is a greater need to evoke authenticity plastically and technologically. The museum boasts many life-size replicas, including casts of the Arbreicht macht frei sign from the gate at Auschwitz, and a gas chamber from Mauthausen. 52 The realistic, life-size dimensions of these replicas emulate the physical reality of the concentration camp, so that visitors are 53 transported to another world. 44 Cole, Selling the Holocaust, p Engelhardt, A Topography, p Donald Horne, Demystifying the Museum (Wagga Wagga, 1986), p Crysler, Kusno, Angels in the Temple, p Engelhardt, The Topography, p Cole, Selling the Holocaust, p Donald Horne cited in Engelhardt, A Topography, p Berenbaum, The World, p. xv 52 Engelhardt, A Topography, p Bartov, Chambers of Horror, p. 180

9 9 However, more than anything, this is an authentic experience, whereby visitors are quite literally initiated into the role of witnesses of a horrific reality, rather than simply museum goers. 54 Standing in line for the elevators, each visitor is handed a passport containing a photograph of and some biographical information about a real person who lived during the Holocaust. This is their exhibition twin, and by the end, they will learn if this individual lived or died. The elevator itself evokes a freight car, or perhaps even the inside of 57 a gas chamber, whilst an overhead speaker plays the testimony of an American soldier who has just liberated a concentration camp. Exiting the elevator, visitors find themselves standing at the edge of a pit of naked and half dressed bodies, its life-sized dimensions allowing them to physically look down on this bloodshed. 58 Meanwhile, documentary 59 material plays Naked women led to execution shot, spasms, collapse ; which may be 60 one of the most powerful aspects of the exhibition of all. Yet in all its authentic reconstructed realism, how effective is this approach to visitor s understanding of the past events? To be sure, not everyone is convinced by reconstructed attempts at a Holocaust reality. Some struggle to see past the plastic rhetoric 61 characteristic, whilst others argue that through pure merit of being displayed, artefacts 62 become removed from history in the very process of embodying it. For others, it is specific artefacts which offend: the controversy surrounding whether or not a large quanitiy of human hair should be displayed or not highlights the moral implications of authentic displays. Whilst these remains may appear well-placed in a concentration camp setting, in the museum context they often provoke more offense than understanding. Thus, the history itself risks being outstripped by the authentic reproduction. Bartov believes that the experience appeals too much too the senses and the emotion and neglects 54 Cole, Selling the Holocaust, p Engelhardt, A Topography, p Berenbaum, The World, p Crysler, Kusno, Angels in the Temple, p Ibid., p Alvin Rosenfeld cited in Englehardt, A Topography, p Bartov, Chambers of Horror, p Ibid., p Engelhardt, A Topography, p. 42

10 10 the role of intellect, 63 whilst the director of the Holocaust Memorial Yad Vashem, Shalmi Bar-Mor, was offended by The horror show on offer 64. By playing the atrocity for thrills warns Sion, they threaten to move the spectator away from contemplation. 65 Indeed, the kitsch, hard-hitting portryal of horror in this exhibit may well be an inappropriate step too far in our appeal to be authentic. Onlooking a pit filled with the scantily clad corpses of victims 66 may border on the voyeuristic. For some, the approach trivialises the events. Walking through a clean, somewhat rickety-freight car, Bartov tells us, does not evoke empathy for the real events themselves but rather with a nicely reordered reproduction. 67 The museum has also been accused of leaving visitors with an unrealistic feeling of redemption as they leave, for example, of the 558 identity cards issued, 298 victims survive and 260 are killed, giving an unrealistic impression of the scale of murder. Whilst the museum claims to offer a disturbing and 68 personally upsetting experience, many would contend this. It is however the suggestion that visitors can, through this simulated experience, empathise with the fate of 6 million murdered Jews that is perhaps most contentious of all. Adopting the identity of a victim may feel more artificial than authentic, and raises the issue of whether or not this is morally correct. Selling makes the crucial point that walking through a Holocaust museum is not to experience the Holocaust. 69 His specticism alludes to many of the limits of this reconstructed reality. The Holocaust museum shows that an authentic experience is not solely defined by former sites of destruction themselves. The museum can bring the events to life in a powerful way through genuine artefacts and replicas. However, this reconstructed notion of authenticity nonetheless has its limits in engaging us with the past. 63 Bartov, Chambers of Horror, p Ibid., p Clark, Ethical Spaces, p Engelhardt, A Topography, p Bartov, Chambers of Horror, p Berenbaum, The World, p Cole, Selling the Holocaust, p.182

11 11 Authentic symbolism: figurative and abstract artistic monuments And so, we come to the last section of this essay which will explore an entirely distinct authentic representation of the Holocaust. Quite apart from commemoration through the preservation or display of authentic fabric of the events, nations have also turned to the medium of art. The Holocaust artistic memorial evokes memory through symbols and forms. 70 Many consider that these memorials offer a fuller emotional identification with the past. Indeed, as mnemonic structures, they hail a new genre of commemorative art, viewers beyond themselves to an understanding or evocation of events that lead[s] Unlike at museums or sites of destruction, symbolism offsets the use of artefact or historical evidence, and the focus moves to an understanding of the past yielded through reflection, rather than education. Whilst many monuments exist at sites of destruction, or within a museum, there are an increasing number being situated independently, in public spaces. These artistic memorials do not offer a literal Holocaust reality that can be touched or walked on, but have the potential to conjure a condition resembling an authentic experience in our heads. Although, this does not mean that some artistic memorials are not also aesthetically authentic. Whilst artistic depiction of the Holocaust becomes highly symbolic, and ranges from the natural and artificial to the concrete and abstract, 73 some representations are nonetheless more realistic than others. Figurative art, for its closeness to the real-life, may not be historic evidence, yet it can authentically depict the Holocaust nonetheless. George Segal s public sculpture The Holocaust, installed in Legion of Honor Park, San Francisco on November 8 th, 1984 is an example of a figurative piece. Life-size, it consists of 11 cast-white figures which appear behind a barbed wire fence: one, modelled on an Israeli 70 Douglas C. McGill, A Muted Dedication for Holocaust, The New York Times (January 4, 1986) 71 Harold Marcusse, The Emergence of a Genre, The American Historical Review (Vol. 115, No. 1, February, 2010), pp , p Young, The Texture, p Nora, Les Lieux, p. 14

12 12 survivor, stands looking out from behind the fence, whilst ten bodies lay sprawled in a pile behind. Radiating outwards this visual pile appears to form a rough star from one angle, and a cross from another; whilst Segal s hall-mark white plaster figures are haunting. It is precisely the recognisable imagery that yields an understanding of the events: the barbed wire is an unequivocal reference to the concentration camps, whilst the iconic striped uniform worn by said figure denotes the concentration camp uniform. There are no Holocaust simulations, nor authentic relics, yet simply these symbolic reminders of the events force us to reflect. And yet, even in its artistic form, a more authentic representaton like this provokes varying reactions. For art critic, John Haber, the body casts served to mute the chaos of death rather than bring it to life, and the barbed wire fence, rather than evoke the reality of the 76 concentration camp [held] no threat to the viewer. And whilst Segal envisaged the recently passed life still emanating from his forms, many have criticised the falsity of these casts, which were taken from living individuals and not the dead. 77 The fact that vandals sprayed the faces of the figures in black, with the objection Is this necessary?, shows that many find the figurative memorial unncecesarily affronting. It is precisely that this specificity of realistic figuration would seem to thwart multiple messages 78 that has drawn artists to increasingly abstract depictions of the Holocaust. The abstract, for its un-likeness to the real, is the most inauthentic memorial of all. It incorporates no relics, no ruins, no replicas, no visual reconstructions; in fact, there may not be a recognisably depicted form at all. It is at this point that we can discuss American-Jewish architect, Peter Eismenmann s abstract memorial, The Berlin Holocaust Memorial (Denkmal fur die ermordeten Juden Europas). Opened on 12 May, 2005, in central Berlin, this abstract site of memory incorporates an expansive field of 2700 concrete blocks that stand between 74 Ibid., p Ibid., p McGill, A Muted 77 Young, The Texture, p Ibid., p. 12

13 13 one and four metres high. 79 A maze nearly 20,000 square metres in size, it opens to the 80 external world but also shuts it, and represents one of a growing number of experiential spaces 81 in tribute to the Holocaust. Although, notably, not experiential in the same way that a site of destruction or a museum is. 82 The concept shares many characteristics of that which Young dubs the counter-monument : a memorial devoid of explicit symbols, reference to victims, or signage, that does not impose memory but rather, allows for subjectivity and change. The thinkers behind these counter- monuments, which emerged in the 1980s, considered that neither literal nor figurative references suggest[ed] anything more than their own abstract link to the Holocaust Thus 84 whilst conventional monuments can jar viewers to complacency, Eisenman s design is open to interpretation (save the discreet information centre below), and represents at once 85 nothing, something, and everything. And yet, ambiguous and devoid of historical reference as it is, does this doom the Berlin Memorial to concealing its embodied memories? Whilst many believe that artefacts provide longer, larger lessons, or that there is a need in public audiences for figuration, wandering through these encroaching bolders, one can still feel the claustrophobia and disorientation of living in a concentration camp. speechless, others hands get moist, The memorial leaves some visitors and one observer even compared the experience an 90 abyss of horror. According to Åhr, the abstractness causes the viewer to look beyond the individual, intimate face of death and moves him or her to philosophize universally about 79 - Gay, Caroline, The Politics of Cultural Remembrance. The Holocaust Monument in Berlin, International Journal of Cultural Policy (9/ ), pp , p Åhr, Memory, p Harold Marcusse, The Emergence, p Young, The Texture, Chapter 1 83 Young, The Counter-Monument: Memory against Itself in Germany Today, Critical Inquiry (Vol. 18, No. 2 (Winter, 1992), pp , p Ibid., p Åhr, Memory, p Ibid., p Young, The Texture, p Åhr, Memory, p Ibid., p Ibid.

14 14 life 91 Whilst one visitor describes the feeling of being trapped, with only the choice to keep moving forward or go back, and having left with a haunted sense of all that was lost with the annihilation of so many lives. 92 The question remains then: is an authentic representation of the Holocaust necessary for the memorialisation of the Holocaust? Like each and every notion of authenticity explored in this essay, an authentic experience in the abstract also has its limits. For survivors, in particular, they may feel that the searing reality of their experience demands as literal a memorial expression as possible. 93 And there is the fear that, with no clear indication of its tribute to the Murdered Jews, this undermines the commemorative raison d être of a memorial. 94 As we have discussed, Segals figurative monument announces its commemorative function in a way that the Berlin Memorial cannot. And yet, what this essay has shown is that a typically authentic Holocaust experience is not the only means by which we can sustain the memory of the Holocaust. Far removed from the sites of destruction, and devoid of artefacts, replicas or even recognisable forms, the memory of the Holocaust can still be sustained in the abstract; in the deepest depths of the mind s eye. And if, as Young explains, The need for symbolic representations is predicated on the 95 absence of that which is symbolised, then perhaps, as the events of the Holocaust recede further into time, it is this abstract evocation of events which we will become increasingly dependent on. As the former concentration camps decay and need increasing preservation, and the museums no longer engage visitors with their reconstructed Holocaust gimmicks, it may well be that these typically inauthentic memorials, otherwise removed from the historical landscape, can sustain the memory of the Holocaust for the longest. 91 Åhr, Memory, p Rachel Mumma, A Reaction to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (August 17, 2015), Dialogue of Civilization, global, intellectual life, University Scholars, North Eastern University, -murdered-jews-of-europe/ 93 Young, The Texture, p Bridgitte Sion, Affective Memory, Ineffective Functionality. Experiencing Berlin s Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Bill Niven and Chloe Paver (eds.) Memorialisation in Germany Since 1945 (2010), pp , p Marcusse, The Emergence, p. 58

15 15 Conclusion In conclusion, this essay has examined three notions of authenticity preserved, reconstructed, and symbolised in lights of three sites of memory: former sites of destruction, museums, and artistic monuments. Considering Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial, The United States Holocaust Museum, George Segal s Holocaust sculpture, and Eisenman s Holocaust Memorial, this essay has explored authenticity across a spectrum, beginning with the typically most authentic historical sites, and finishing with the least authentic sites in the abstract. This essay has shown that concrete reminders of the Holocaust are indeed authentic and effective windows to the past. At Dachau, visitors can walk where victims once perished, and gleen understanding through the emotive and educational experience of preserved place. However, this authentic route to the past is not without its limitations: paradoxically, expectations of pure history may inhibit our comprehension of the past. Moving across our spectrum of authenticity and we come the reconstructed Holocaust museum. As the memory of the Holocaust becomes a global affair, living museums are transporting artefacts and creating replicas that reconstruct the reality of the Holocaust thousands of miles away from where the original atrocities took place. Yet whilst this can prove both emotive and informative, for want of trying to recreate atrocities in an artificial context, the authentic experience also falls short. And finally, where artefacts and historical evidence become obselete, we have the artistic public monument. Through figurative and abstract art, the memory of the Holocaust is symbolised, and the authentic experience is conjured in our mind s eye. Figurative memorials, like George Segal s Holocaust, can be considered authentic for their likeness to the real, and demonstrate that authentic imagery, as well as historical fact, has the power to conjure memory. And yet, what this essay has shown is that even an abstract memorial, devoid of all typical authenticity, can make us remember. Thus, an authentic representation of the Holocaust is only as important as the authentic memories it elicits.

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17 17 - Berenbaum, Michael, The World Must Know: The History of the Holocaust as told in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, 1993) - Cole, Tim, Selling the Holocaust: From Auschwitz to Schindler: How History is Bought, Packaged and Sold (New York, 2000) - Crysler, Greig Kusno, Abidin, Angles in the Temple: The Aesthetic Construction of Citizenship at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Art Journal (Volume 56, 1997, Issue 1), pp Douglas C. McGill, A Muted Dedication for Holocaust, The New York Times (January 4, 1986), [accessed 7/12/16] - Engelhardt, Isabelle, A Topography of Memory: Representations of the Holocaust at Dachau and Buchenwald in Comparison With Auschwitz, Yad Vashem and Washington (Brussels, 2002) - Eschebach, Insa, Soil, Ashes, Commemoration: Processes of Sacralization at the Former Ravensbrüück Concentration Camp, History and Memory (Vol. 23, No. 1; Spring/Summer 2011), pp Hoffamn-Curtius, Kathrin, Nurmi-Schomers, Susan, Memorials for the Dachau Concentration Camp, Oxford Art Journal, (Vol. 21, No. 2, 1998), pp Horne, Donald, Demystifying the Museum (Wagga Wagga, 1986) - Novick, Peter, The Holocaust and Collective Memory: the American Experience (London, 2001)

18 18 - Nora, Pierre, Les Lieux de mémoire (Version translated into English; New York, 1996) - Marcusse, Harold, Legacies of Dachau: The Uses and Abuses of a Concentration Camp (Cambridge; New York. 2001) - Marcusse, Harold, The Emergence of a Genre, The American Historical Review (Vol. 115, No. 1, February, 2010), pp Mumma, Rachel A Reaction to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (August 17, 2015), Dialogue of Civilization, global, intellectual life, University Scholars, North Eastern University, al-to-the-murdered-jews-of-europe [accessed 8/12/16] - Niven, Bill, Paver, Chloe (eds.), Memorialization in Germany since 1945 (London, 2010) o Sion, Bridgitte, Affective Memory, Ineffective Functionality. Experiencing Berlin s Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, pp Young, James E., The Counter-Monument: Memory against Itself in Germany Today, Critical Inquiry (Vol. 18, No. 2, Winter, 1992), pp Young, James E., The Texture of Memory. Holocaust Memorials and their Meaning (New Haven, 1993) - Gay, Caroline, The Politics of Cultural Remembrance. The Holocaust Monument in Berlin, International Journal of Cultural Policy (9/ ), pp Haber, John, Review of George Segal, John Haber in New York (Art Reviews), [accessed 7/12/16]

19 19 - Sion, Bridgitt (ed.) Death Tourism: Disaster Sites as Recreational Landscape (Calcutta, 2014) o Clark, Laurie Beth, Ethical Spaces: Ethics and Propriety in Trauma Tourism, pp Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site, Visitor Website, [accessed 6/12/16]

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