The author considers the contestation over symbolic space at the Auschwitz death camp, the postwar symbol of the Holocaust. He examines both Communist and Catholic attempts to de-Judaise the place and hence turn, in Young's words, an icon of remembrance into an idol of remembrance, In the New World Order such contestation has lessons for the political geographer, particularly in terms of appreciating the religious dimension in national identity.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BartoszewskiW T, 1990The Convent at Auschwitz (Bowerdean Press, London)
2.
BlochA, 1982, “Poland in the present”, in The Real Poland Ed. BlochA (Continuum, New York) pp 53–70
3.
BoyarinJ, 1991, “Space, time and the politics of memory”, WP122, Centre for Studies of Social Change, New School of Social Research, New York
4.
DaviesN, 1984The Heart of Europe (Clarendon Press, Oxford)
FirestoneD, 1989, “Claims to Auschwitz”Newsday 5 September, page 1
7.
GilbertM, 1986The Holocaust (Collins, London)
8.
Irwin-ZareckaI, 1989Neutralizing Memory: The Jew in Contemporary Poland (Transaction Books, New Brunswick, NJ)
9.
KerstenK, 1991The Establishment of Communist Rule in Poland 1943–1948 (University of California Press, Berkeley, CA)
10.
LangbeinH, 1991, “The controversy over the convent at Auschwitz”, in Memory Offended: The Auschwitz Convent Controversy Eds RittnerCRothJ K (Praeger, New York) pp 95–98
11.
Le CorreDSobotkaM, 1984John Paul II in Poland (Le Corre, Bagnolet)
12.
MartinM, 1990The Keys of this Blood (Simon and Schuster, New York)
13.
MinerbiS I, 1989, “The kidnapping of the Holocaust”Jerusalem Post 25 August, page 1
14.
NoraP, 1989, “Between memory and history: Les Lieux de Mémoire”Representations26(1) 7–25
15.
PiperF, 1991, “Estimating the number of deportees to and victims of the Auschwitz — Birkenau camp”Yad Vashem Studies2149–103