The Legacies of the Holocaust and European Identity after 1989

Since the fall of the Berlin wall, Europe has experienced an increased interest in the Holocaust. After more than half a century, several countries have confronted the more neglected aspects of their Second World War history, publicly admitting their cooperation with the Nazi regime and their participation in the deportation of Jews.

How can we explain this change? Is there a relationship between the growing interest in the Holocaust and a growing need for a shared history and some shared European values? Does the Holocaust represent a universal lesson that unites the member states around the imperative: Never Again?

In this DIIS Working Paper, Senior Researcher Cecilie Felicia Stokholm Banke will offer some explanations for how and why interest in the Holocaust developed in Europe after 1989. She will discuss whether there is a relationship between the legacies of the Holocaust and the need for a European identity. And she will point to some general patterns in the way the Holocaust has been dealt with since the end of the Second World War.