The chapter focuses on the evolution of Soviet official discourse on the Holocaust parallel to the Eichmann arrest and trial in Jerusalem (1960-65), while insisting rather on its ambiguities and exploring literary, press, and filmic spaces in which the topic was discussed. Undoubtedly, the Eichmann trial played a vital role, even if it did not overcome resistance to public recognition of the specificity of the genocide of the Jews. The fate of the Jewish communities in the occupied territories, especially the Soviet ones, continued to be placed on the same plane as Nazi violence against the Slavs. The study builds on news and documentary films of the time, archival documents available on their production, and the memoirs of the Jewish-Ukrainian director Rafail Aronovich Nakhmanovich. It also examines the writings of Lev Ginzburg, a Moscow essayist deeply involved in this campaign, who participated in the production of a film. It concludes that the discourse on the Holocaust authorized by officials in the USSR at the beginning of the 1960s was accompanied by virulent accusations against the capitalist world, viewed as an accomplice of Nazism and neo-Nazism. Above all, the USSR refused to consider the Holocaust as an essential goal of Nazism in itself; the real targets were always the Slavs occupying the “vital space” desired by Hitler’s people. Thus, it was perhaps indeed wiser to revert to more discrete allusions, as Leon Mazrukho did in In the Name of the Living or as Gerts (Hercs) Frank and Imants Brils did in Prigovor obzhalovaniiu ne podlezhit [The Sentence is Final] (1965). Nonetheless, the global significance of the Jerusalem trial allowed the memory of the Holocaust to re-emerge from the drawer where it had remained confined since the end of the 1940s. If most artists who broached this minefield too imprudently paid a price for it with their career, or even with their general fortune, like Rafail Nakhmanovich, the Eichmann trial contributed to a ceding of the floor to witnesses and victims.

Voisin Vanessa (2024). Accountability and the Cold War: The Eichmann Trial and Holocaust Representation in the Soviet Union. Berlin, Boston : De Gruyter Oldenbourg [10.1515/9783110672657-008].

Accountability and the Cold War: The Eichmann Trial and Holocaust Representation in the Soviet Union

Voisin Vanessa
2024

Abstract

The chapter focuses on the evolution of Soviet official discourse on the Holocaust parallel to the Eichmann arrest and trial in Jerusalem (1960-65), while insisting rather on its ambiguities and exploring literary, press, and filmic spaces in which the topic was discussed. Undoubtedly, the Eichmann trial played a vital role, even if it did not overcome resistance to public recognition of the specificity of the genocide of the Jews. The fate of the Jewish communities in the occupied territories, especially the Soviet ones, continued to be placed on the same plane as Nazi violence against the Slavs. The study builds on news and documentary films of the time, archival documents available on their production, and the memoirs of the Jewish-Ukrainian director Rafail Aronovich Nakhmanovich. It also examines the writings of Lev Ginzburg, a Moscow essayist deeply involved in this campaign, who participated in the production of a film. It concludes that the discourse on the Holocaust authorized by officials in the USSR at the beginning of the 1960s was accompanied by virulent accusations against the capitalist world, viewed as an accomplice of Nazism and neo-Nazism. Above all, the USSR refused to consider the Holocaust as an essential goal of Nazism in itself; the real targets were always the Slavs occupying the “vital space” desired by Hitler’s people. Thus, it was perhaps indeed wiser to revert to more discrete allusions, as Leon Mazrukho did in In the Name of the Living or as Gerts (Hercs) Frank and Imants Brils did in Prigovor obzhalovaniiu ne podlezhit [The Sentence is Final] (1965). Nonetheless, the global significance of the Jerusalem trial allowed the memory of the Holocaust to re-emerge from the drawer where it had remained confined since the end of the 1940s. If most artists who broached this minefield too imprudently paid a price for it with their career, or even with their general fortune, like Rafail Nakhmanovich, the Eichmann trial contributed to a ceding of the floor to witnesses and victims.
2024
Holocaust Memory and the Cold War: Remembering across the Iron Curtain
173
200
Voisin Vanessa (2024). Accountability and the Cold War: The Eichmann Trial and Holocaust Representation in the Soviet Union. Berlin, Boston : De Gruyter Oldenbourg [10.1515/9783110672657-008].
Voisin Vanessa
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11585/991243
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