Victims and Victors: Holocaust and Military Commemoration in Israel Collective Memory

Abstract

“Holocaust and Heroism,” the formula of Holocaust commemoration in Israel, recognizes the ghetto fi ghters, links the memory of the annihilation to the creation of the state, and gives meaning to the deaths of the 6 million Jews. Yet, those who fell in battle were viewed as the central pillar of Israel’s national revival. Since the 1970s, the status of the military victims has declined and their memory no longer serves as a tool of social solidarity. On the contrary, it has become a source of confrontation with the government. At the same time, the image of ghetto fi ghters and partisans has been diminished as the primary representation of Holocaust commemoration. In its place, the memory of the victims and survivors of the Holocaust have emerged as a more appropriate representation. Th e reasons for the changes are inherent in the democratization of Israeli society and in its becoming a pluralist, capitalist, and even postindustrial society. I seek to examine this change by examining the transformation in the Holocaust and military monuments throughout Israel.

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