Virtual Shtetl has posted the full text of the PhD thesis (University of Timisoara, Romania) by Florence Luxenberg-Eisenberg, focusing on the preservation and management of Holocaust memorial sites. (It also runs an interview with her, conducted by Krzysztof Bielawski).
Called Protecting Truth—Combating Denial: The Challenge to Manage and Preserve Holocaust Memorial Sites, to Safeguard Authenticity and Perpetuate Memory, the work investigates “the challenges to manage and preserve Holocaust memorial sites on their original locations.”
This is an important topic as time moves forward: it is almost 70 years since the end of World War II, and the survivor generation is passing away. How to preserve these sites? How to preserve memory? How to preserve authenticity? How to use the site to combat Holocaust denial? How to ensure the history told in on-site (and off-site) museums is accurate? (See the debates surrounding a planned new Holocaust memorial museum in Budapest, for example.)
Luxenberg-Eisenberg carried out her research in 13 Holocaust sites: Terezin (Theresienstadt), CZ; Dachau, Sachsenhausen, & Ravensbruck, Germany; Auschwitz-Birkenau, Plaszow, Treblinka, Sobibor, Chelmno, Belzec, Stutthof, & Majdanek, Poland; and Babi Yar, Ukraine. She also consulted and carried out research at a number of museums and other institutions.
She writes in her introduction:
I decided to embark onto exploring the challenges faced by those who manage and maintain the Holocaust sites. The term “sites” rather than “camps” is used more frequently in this research because “camp” was and still is a euphemistic term conjured up by the Nazis to hide the true intent of their crimes. We still use the term “concentration camps” and even “extermination camps” to label those places where people were starved, tortured, gassed and burned. They are memorial sites and sacred ground. They are and never were “camps.” And even those terms can create misconceptions unless properly explained. The research explores the management challenges faced by those (some under great difficulties) who work on the subject of the Holocaust on a daily basis, on authentic ground, as seen through their eyes. And it is this that makes this research unique. It supports the following statement: Preservation of the sites would safeguard authentic evidence, protect truth, and keep Holocaust memory alive while combating deniers of atrocities—that Holocaust remembrance is not just one element but a huge network, all part of a ripple effect which expands while managing it. There are many questions that are answered in the research through the investigation and they are discussed in the methodology and procedure. In order to get a clear picture of the challenges to manage and preserve memorial sites while at the same time doing the research authentically and thoroughly, I felt the necessity to travel to the actual locations where the events took place and to speak directly to the museum heads, managers, and directors on the sites themselves—to see for myself with my own eyes what the condition of the sites are today, what problems there are for the directors and museum heads, and to come up with suggestions for the future. This allowed for a reexamination of what exactly is involved with the management of Holocaust remembrance—that it does not involve one thing but a blend of different elements. As a result, locations were chosen very carefully and for different reasons. The journey[…] was as spiritual as it was physical and arduous (former greater than latter).
She considers questions such as:
What is Holocaust remembrance and how can something abstract such as remembrance be managed? Where do we go from here? What can be done so we remember not to forget? Who is responsible if not all of us? What are the challenges faced by museum heads in the management and maintenance of the site in the face of economic woes, Holocaust denial, and anti-Semitism? What are the differences in the challenges for museum heads on sites left with artifacts such as Auschwitz and those that were completely decimated like Sobibor?
Read the full Thesis (in English)
Read the interview with Luxenberg-Eisenberg