Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Holocaust memorials go up in Eastern Europe

La caduta del comunismo ha significato la fine della censura sulla 
memoria ebraica dello sterminio. Un interessante reportage di R.E. Gruber
Holocaust memorials go up in Eastern Europe, with some flaws
By Ruth Ellen Gruber · October 30, 2009
ROME (JTA) -- Under communism, Jewish suffering in World War II 
generally was treated as a footnote to the overall losses in what the 
Soviets called the "Great Patriotic War."
Public monuments existed at some Holocaust sites in Eastern Europe, such 
as Auschwitz, the Paneriai forest near Vilnius where at least 70,000 
Jews were killed, and Babi Yar, where tens of thousands of Jews were 
killed in ravines outside Kiev. But these usually commemorated generic 
"victims of fascism" and did not acknowledge the involvement of local 
collaborators.
Since the fall of communism 20 years ago, however, a host of new 
Holocaust memorials have gone up in post-communist states while and 
Communist-era monuments have been revamped by state authorities, local 
civic groups and Jewish organizations, giving the Jewish tragedy of 
World War II more prominence.
The new memorials range from simple plaques to modest monuments to huge 
memorial complexes, such as the monument at the Belzec death camp. A 
joint project of the Polish government and the American Jewish 
Committee, the monument was inaugurated in 2004 by the Polish president.
Some new sites, such as Belzec and the state-run Holocaust memorial 
center in Budapest, which also opened in 2004, include museums or 
educational facilities.
In other cases, including at Babi Yar and Paneriai, new inscriptions or 
components have been added to provide more accurate information and 
context in order for the memorial site to teach and inform as well as 
commemorate.
This can become contentious if, for example, the new inscriptions make 
reference to local collaboration in the killing of Jews.
"After the problem of funding, the hardest part of getting monuments and 
memorials erected has not been getting some kind of general consent, but 
it has been working out the specifics of the design and especially the 
language on the inscription," said the president of the International 
Survey of Jewish Monuments, Samuel Gruber, who has written about 
Holocaust memory and consulted on Holocaust monument projects.
"Most older memorials have been very general in their language, so much 
so that it is often hard to figure out what events are being 
commemorated, and rarely can one learn about who did what to whom and 
when,” he said.
This remains a concern, even with monuments whose positioning and design 
make them prominent. Some memorials form a striking symbolic presence, 
but provide little or no information as to what they commemorate. 
Visitors are presumed to know already what they represent.
In the heart of the Slovak capital Bratislava, for example, a chiseled 
image of a destroyed synagogue now serves as a Holocaust memorial. But 
other than the word "Remember," no information is provided on how the 
wartime fascist state collaborated with the Nazis in killing most of 
Slovakia's 135,000-strong prewar Jewish community.
Likewise, in Sopron, Hungary, a small but powerful sculptural monument 
depicting empty clothing hung outside the Auschwitz gas chambers stands 
near an abandoned synagogue. The memorial bears Hebrew lettering and the 
Sh’ma prayer, but no further information.
"How can one remember what one doesn't know?" Gruber said. "How can one 
'not forget' what is never fully discussed or taught?"
On Slovakia’s Holocaust Memorial Day, Sept. 9, Slovak Prime Minister 
Robert Fico presided over the dedication of a memorial to Slovaks who 
helped rescue Jews at the time of the anti-Nazi Slovak National Uprising 
in 1944.
Funded by the Israeli Chamber of Commerce in Slovakia and several 
private sources, the memorial was built in the town of Zvolen next to 
the mass gravesite of Jews who were killed by the Nazis. It also 
includes a digital information point.
"This represents a different way of presenting Slovak national history 
that is at the same time a rejection of the [Nazi-allied] Slovak 
national puppet state of Josef Tiso," said Rabbi Andrew Baker, the 
American Jewish Committee's director of international Jewish affairs who 
has advised on Holocaust memorial projects in several countries. "Fico 
deserves credit for doing this, and he also speaks emotionally about the 
importance of Holocaust education in his country."
Though flawed at times, the memorials serve an important purpose.
"Memorials have a permanent presence," said Warren Miller, chairman of 
the U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad, 
which has been involved in Holocaust memorial projects in Latvia, 
Romania, the former East Germany and other countries. "Going to a 
powerful memorial will help people want to learn more."
For a JTA video on Holocaust memorials in Berlin, visit 
http://blogs.jta.org/wanderingjew/article/2009/10/24/1008699/hidden-memorials-in-berlin
.

 memoria ebraica dello sterminio.
peccato che ha significato anche la celebrazione di eroi nazionali
tipo questo:
http://www1.yadvashem.org/about_holocaust/chronology/1939-1941/1941/chronology_1941_18.html