John-Paul Himka and Joanna Beata Michlic, Bringing the Dark Past to Light (U of Nebraska Press, 2013)
I\u2019ll be leaving soon to take students on a European travel course. During the three weeks we\u2019ll be gone, in addition to cathedrals, museums and castles, they\u2019ll visit Auschwitz, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe and a variety of other Holocaust related sights. \xa0And I\u2019ll ask them to think about what we can say about how people in East-Central Europe remember the Holocaust based on the places they\u2019ve visited.\n\nThis is not simply a matter of historical reckoning. \xa0The responses to the recent op-ed by FBI director James Comey show how important the question is in contemporary politics. \xa0 They also show how limited our understanding of the dynamics of memory in Eastern Europe has been.\n\nMy answers to the students\u2019 questions will be enormously more sophisticated and thoughtful after having read the work of John-Paul Himka and Joanna Beata Michlic. \xa0Their recent edited collection titled Bringing the Dark Past to Light:\xa0The Reception of the Holocaust in Postcommunist Europe\xa0(University of Nebraska Press, 2013) is a remarkable collection of essays. \xa0The book surveys the state of memory and memorialization in each of the countries of the former Soviet Block. \xa0It highlights broadly similar responses while explaining differences between the countries. \xa0And the editors explain why they believe it is so important to, as they say, bring the dark past to light. \xa0In doing so, they begin the process of bringing our understanding of the memory of the Holocaust in this region to the same level of sophistication we now bring to the subject in Western Europe.\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices\nSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/genocide-studies