The digital multidirectionality of anniversaries

7 October 1944/2023, Catch-22 commemoration and the comparative instrumentalization of Holocaust memory on X

Bibliographic Data

ID17831777
AuthorsEric Boyd (0009-0005-9161-6963, Umeå University, corresponding author), Samuel Merrill (0000-0002-9572-5922, Umeå University)
Year2026
Volume5
Publication date2026-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueMemory Mind & Media (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2635-0238 • E-ISSN: 2635-0238
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/mem.2026.10032
OpenAlexW7160412435
LanguageEN
References cited61

This article analyses how coinciding anniversaries of the Sonderkommando revolt (7 October 1944) and the 7 October 2023 Hamas terror attacks on Israel shaped digital Holocaust memory. It contributes to the study of social media users’ reactions to the online commemorative efforts of Holocaust memory institutions. Adapting Rothberg’s concept of ‘multidirectional memory’, we code a small, yet rich set of X posts, comments, and quote reposts, focusing on social media users’ engagement with the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum’s X account during the anniversaries. We ask how did X social media users react to Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum’s commemoration of the eightieth anniversary of the Sonderkommando revolt on the first anniversary of 7 October 2023 Hamas attacks on the platform? And how can the concept of multidirectional memory be used to understand the comparative instrumentalization of Holocaust memory on social media? Our results demonstrate the utility of the multidirectional memory concept and four types of comparative instrumentalization (empathising commemoration, empathising contestation, polarising commemoration, and polarising contestation). They show that many X users reacted by highlighting the moral capacity of Holocaust memory, but that others flattened Holocaust memory or competitively equated it with or distinguished it from contemporary violence in the Middle East. The article highlights how anniversaries intensify the online entanglement of commemoration and contestation, often forcing Holocaust memory institutions into contested digital terrains where empathy, solidarity, polarisation, and competition intersect and exacerbate the ‘Catch-22’ situation they face: critiqued for drawing parallels with contemporary events or chastised for not

Collective memory · Cultural memory · Digital media · Parallels · Photo elicitation · Social media · The Holocaust · Memory, Trauma, and Commemoration · Nostalgia and Consumer Behavior · Polish-Jewish Holocaust Memory Studies

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