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Guilt(y) Today? What Some German Youths Say After Virtual Encounters with Shoah Survivors
Author(s) -
Morgan Katalin Eszter
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
journal of historical sociology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.186
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 1467-6443
pISSN - 0952-1909
DOI - 10.1111/johs.12199
Subject(s) - the holocaust , german , honour , silence , presentation (obstetrics) , psychology , relation (database) , ethnography , psychoanalysis , sociology , history , art , aesthetics , anthropology , law , political science , computer science , medicine , archaeology , radiology , database
Against the theoretical background that sketches Biblical, legal, historical, psychological and biographical perspectives on guilt, this article examines the mental models that some German youths have in relation to the experiences told by Shoah survivors. Ethnographic descriptions and discourse analytical interpretations of these models are based on six participants’ responses to video‐graphed interviews with Shoah survivors. These responses were video‐recorded during a public presentation that the youths gave in a German small‐town in honour of Holocaust Remembrance Day. Results indicate that attitudes to the crimes of the Shoah consist largely of formulaic recitations of commonly‐adopted discourses that separate guilt from responsibility and silence the crimes in multiple, subtle ways. To balance this, some counter‐examples are provided from other German contexts. The article ends by offering pointers towards appropriate ways of being responsible.