Andy Pearce. Holocaust Consciousness in Contemporary Britain

This thoughtful but flawed account of how awareness and knowledge of the Holocaust became increasingly widespread in Britain in the second half of the twentieth century complements the late Peter Novick's provocative volume The Holocaust in American Life (1999). Andy Pearce describes in detail the political and cultural avenues by which the Holocaust gained “a prominence none could have foreseen” (p. 1). Individual chapters trace the incorporation of the Holocaust into the National Curriculum for History, the establishment of the Holocaust Memorial Garden in Hyde Park (a state initiative), the establishment of the Holocaust Centre, Beth Shalom, in rural Nottinghamshire (a private initiative), the creation of the Imperial War Museum's permanent Holocaust exhibition, and the introduction of an annual Holocaust Memorial Day into the national calendar. Pearce also covers, in a more abbreviated fashion, the impact of Holocaust-themed cultural events, in fiction, cinema, drama, and television such as the British release of Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List (1994) and the publication of D. M. Thomas's novel The White Hotel (1981)

Archaeology · Art · Art history · Exhibition · Media studies · Political science · Sociology · The Holocaust · World War II · History · Law · Memory, Trauma, and Commemoration