Holocaust Remembrance in Australian Jewish Communities, 1945-2000 (review)

This book examines some of the ways in which the Holocaust is remembered in Australia, a country of twenty million people, of whom 100,000 are Jews. Judith E. Berman considers three forms of public memory: observance of Yom Hashoah; the extent and nature of formal Holocaust education; and museums dedicated to the Holocaust. The book discusses several worthwhile issues, not the least of which is how should the memory of the Shoah be maintained and transmitted to future generations?

Several years ago I found myself in the thick of a debate that unintentionally had to address that question head-on. It involved the unveiling of a plaque at the South Australian Migration Museum in Adelaide, commemorating not only the Holocaust but also victims of genocide and of racist violence everywhere. Having served on the planning committee, I find that with the distance of years I am now better able to discuss the politics of memorialization than I was at the time. Numerous questions crept in to confuse the issue. Would the plaque be permanent or temporary? How appropriate was its location, sited alongside similar plaques of other nationalities, some of which had collaborated with the Nazis? Would the dedication be a secular or religious affair, and, if religious, would it embrace both the Orthodox and Reform variants of Adelaide Jewry? Given that the Nazis were indiscriminate in their persecution—murdering Jews who were religious, non-religious, converted Christians, and atheists alike—was it even appropriate that this event should have a religious association?

The questions mounted, and that of religion led to one of wider representation. For whom was this commemorative plaque intended: the Jewish community alone, as a focus for their remembrance? The non-Jewish community, with an educative function in mind? Or all citizens, regardless of their background, in a common remembrance of the evil that can be perpetrated by unchecked power operating from a bigoted ideology?

When all is said and done, it is the issue of what might be termed "remembering for the future" that probably most occupies the energies of those involved in Holocaust remembrance. The crux of the question must be, "Why remember in this manner?" Do we want to recall a particular event or events, or to remember not to forget for the sake of our own future? Scholars might consider this question for years without reaching a definite answer, but it is important to try to grapple with it nonetheless, given that so much of our contemporary consciousness is bound up with what we remember and why we remember it.

A final, and ultimately definitive, question concerns relevance, an issue that Berman addresses and that occupies the attention of many in a society distant from Europe and North America. Why should Australian students find the Holocaust an important area for study? Insufficient are the clichés about the Holocaust representing the nadir of Western industrial society's sense of morality, about the Holocaust experience exposing the vulnerability of liberal civilization, and about the value of eternal vigilance to ensure that there is no recurrence of the events of 1933-45. But these considerations, of course, can apply to people in all countries. What makes the Holocaust relevant to Australians is that this country had a part to play during that terrible tragedy; Australia failed to take in Jewish refugees from Nazism, constructed policies based on racial stereotypes, implemented bureaucratic terminologies taken straight from Nazism, and accepted the argument that the Jews of Germany must have done something to earn their fate. For genuine historical reasons the Holocaust is a part of Australia's past and is a legitimate subject both for recollection and for remembrance.

There are, however, limitations in how far that can or should be taken. We must remember that the killing took place in Europe, by Europeans, and that Europeans were its victims. When we speak of the Australian role in the Holocaust, we are in...