Abstract

KAHAN, Emmanuel  and  LVOVICH, Daniel. Uses of the Holocaust in Argentina. Notes on the Appropriations and Resignifying of the Memory of the Nazi Genocide. Rev. mex. cienc. polít. soc [online]. 2016, vol.61, n.228, pp.311-336. ISSN 0185-1918.

The suggestion of any similarity between the Holocaust and other historical experiences has instigated many debates within the public sphere in the last decades. While some actors reject any kind of comparison of the Holocaust arguing this leads to its trivialization, others contend that the comparative approach is a legitimate tool to understanding contemporary problems. Besides those stances, the study of both the memories and the public and political uses of the Holocaust reveals how a large group of social actors have managed to link the past and the present in various contexts. This paper offers and historical perspective of the Holocaust memory and its "uses" in Argentina, focusing on four key stages: the period that was coincident with the extermination of the Jews in Europe; the 1960s, when polemic uses of the Holocaust emerged in association with the problems of anti-Semitism and the conflict in the Middle East; the stages of dictatorship and the recovery of democracy, when the Holocaust became a global metaphor for the violation of human rights and a parameter to contrast dictatorial anti-Semitism and its repressive procedures.

Keywords : Holocaust, genocide; memory; dictatorship; human rights.

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