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Abstract

This dissertation aims to explore Western society’s engagement with the Holocaust. Throughout the exploration, the study appraises the extent to which our collective memory of the Holocaust is based on softened narratives and the side-lining of survivor testimony in order to provide entertainment and/or conform to the limitations of what we are willing to process about acts of barbarity.
The dissertation begins with a historiographical consideration of how the Holocaust was able to happen, before considering how popular memory of the event first formed, and how it subsequently developed and transformed throughout the second half of the 20th century. Finally, it considers the most modern engagements with the Holocaust that have occurred in recent decades. Through an analysis of history, imagery and mass media, this dissertation debates whether Holocaust memory is transgressive, and considers to what extent the ways in which we have memorialised the event over the last 75 years can be considered a form of forgetting.
Ultimately, the analysis seeks to establish how society can best engage with the Holocaust and keep the memory of the victims alive in a mass-mediated world as more time passes and survivors cease to be with us.

Course: Media Studies - BA (Hons) - C1346

Date Deposited: 2022-08-10

URI/permalink: https://library.port.ac.uk/dissert/dis13987.html