1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910785926303321

Autore

Meng Michael

Titolo

Shattered spaces [[electronic resource] ] : encountering Jewish ruins in postwar Germany and Poland / / Michael Meng

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cambridge, Mass., : Harvard University Press, 2011

ISBN

0-674-06281-7

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (368 p.)

Classificazione

NQ 2360

Disciplina

305.892/404309045

Soggetti

Jews - Germany - History - 1945-1990

Jews - Germany - History - 1990-

Jews - Poland - History - 20th century

Jews - Poland - History - 21st century

Collective memory and city planning - Germany

Collective memory and city planning - Poland

Memory - Social aspects - Germany

Memory - Social aspects - Poland

Memorialization - Germany

Memorialization - Poland

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- Contents -- Preface -- Introduction -- 1 Confronting the Spoils of Genocide -- 2 Clearing Jewish Rubble -- 3 Erasing the Jewish Past -- 4 Restoring Jewish Ruins -- 5 Reconstructing the Jewish Past -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Acknowledgments -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

After the Holocaust, the empty, silent spaces of bombed-out synagogues, cemeteries, and Jewish districts were all that was left in many German and Polish cities with prewar histories rich in the sights and sounds of Jewish life. What happened to this scarred landscape after the war, and how have Germans, Poles, and Jews encountered these ruins over the past sixty years? In the postwar period, city officials swept away many sites, despite protests from Jewish leaders. But in the late 1970's church groups, local residents, political dissidents, and tourists demanded the preservation of the few ruins



still standing. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989, this desire to preserve and restore has grown stronger. In one of the most striking and little-studied shifts in postwar European history, the traces of a long-neglected Jewish past have gradually been recovered, thanks to the rise of heritage tourism, nostalgia for ruins, international discussions about the Holocaust, and a pervasive longing for cosmopolitanism in a globalizing world. Examining this transformation from both sides of the Iron Curtain, Michael Meng finds no divided memory along West-East lines, but rather a shared memory of tensions and paradoxes that crosses borders throughout Central Europe. His narrative reveals the changing dynamics of the local and the transnational, as Germans, Poles, Americans, and Israelis confront a built environment that is inevitably altered with the passage of time. Shattered Spaces exemplifies urban history at its best, uncovering a surprising and moving postwar story of broad contemporary interest.