In April 1989, four months after a German citizens’ initiative proposed construction of a central memorial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, Romani Rose, chair of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma, published a petition demanding inclusion of the Sinti and Roma victims into the same memorial. Any other outcome, he wrote, would indicate a “hierarchy of victims” (die Zeit). The Berlin Wall fell seven months later, transforming the political and spatial dimensions of Germany’s commemorative landscape. So began a new phase of contestation – a national memorial project at its centre – over the so-called uniqueness of the (Jewish) Holocaust, and the moral and political responsibility of the newly reunified German state for genocide committed against Jewish and “other” victim groups. This dissertation draws on an entangled understanding of memory production in order to disentangle the social relations and identities that are mobilized in national memorial projects. I define entangled memory in two ways: (1) it refers to the interlinking of dominant memory and oppositional forms in the public sphere (Popular Memory Group 1998); (2) it is multidirectional in that the subjects and spaces of public memory are defined not only by a competition of victimhood but also as a product of influence and exchange (Rothberg 2009). This framework allows me to argue that the genocide of the Sinti and Roma – historically forgotten victims – is gradually gaining a foothold in the German national imaginary via the dominant status of the memorial to the Jewish victims. In turn, the positioning of the memorial dedicated to Jewish victims has been and continues to be influenced by the commemorative activities of other victim groups. German state legislation in 2009 to link up the memorials dedicated to Jewish, Sinti and Roma as well as homosexual victims – the country’s three national memorials – under one administrative roof is a recent example of an emergent memorial network in the country’s commemorative politics. It is here, I conclude, in the New Berlin’s geographic, symbolic, virtual and cartographic spaces of national memory that we are seeing increasing forms of recognition and integration of historically marginalized groups.

It is difficult to understand why genocide continues to occur, even when the international community pledges never to let it happen in the future. Techniques such as moral disengagement and dehumanization have consistently resulted in genocide. These techniques can be greatly amplified through the careful use of language and labeling. The purpose of this paper is to examine the roles that language and labeling play in genocide. Social and psychological influences that use language will be investigated through the examination of the Holocaust, the Cambodian genocide and the Rwandan genocide. These influences are many times unintentionally or unknowingly exercised and can have negative results for everyone involved. The use of language in the media is also examined, along with ways in which ordinary people can avoid susceptibility to language that could influence them to commit evil acts such as genocide.

In April 1989, four months after a German citizens’ initiative proposed construction of a central memorial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, Romani Rose, chair of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma, published a petition demanding inclusion of the Sinti and Roma victims into the same memorial. Any other outcome, he wrote, would indicate a “hierarchy of victims” (die Zeit). The Berlin Wall fell seven months later, transforming the political and spatial dimensions of Germany’s commemorative landscape. So began a new phase of contestation – a national memorial project at its centre – over the so-called uniqueness of the (Jewish) Holocaust, and the moral and political responsibility of the newly reunified German state for genocide committed against Jewish and “other” victim groups. This dissertation draws on an entangled understanding of memory production in order to disentangle the social relations and identities that are mobilized in national memorial projects. I define entangled memory in two ways: (1) it refers to the interlinking of dominant memory and oppositional forms in the public sphere (Popular Memory Group 1998); (2) it is multidirectional in that the subjects and spaces of public memory are defined not only by a competition of victimhood but also as a product of influence and exchange (Rothberg 2009). This framework allows me to argue that the genocide of the Sinti and Roma – historically forgotten victims – is gradually gaining a foothold in the German national imaginary via the dominant status of the memorial to the Jewish victims. In turn, the positioning of the memorial dedicated to Jewish victims has been and continues to be influenced by the commemorative activities of other victim groups. German state legislation in 2009 to link up the memorials dedicated to Jewish, Sinti and Roma as well as homosexual victims – the country’s three national memorials – under one administrative roof is a recent example of an emergent memorial network in the country’s commemorative politics. It is here, I conclude, in the New Berlin’s geographic, symbolic, virtual and cartographic spaces of national memory that we are seeing increasing forms of recognition and integration of historically marginalized groups.

"A book must be an ice-axe to break the seas frozen inside our soul. " ~Franz Kafka This thesis deals with a subject matter which may be considered by some to be undesirable and taboo; that is, the architecture of capital punishment, torture and death. While the content is at times difficult, this book attempts to go beyond initial reactions of support or distaste for the practice of execution. It instead attempts to bring to light the importance of the representation of these events, brought to light by the strength of modern collective thought on the issue, through an architectural discourse. Through space and ritual capital punishment entered into the minds of the people, and through space and ritual the practice can be withdrawn. But should it vanish, or is a continued representation important, and even necessary? My purpose is not to force an opinion, one way or the other, onto anyone. My intention is merely to raise the question in the mind of the reader of this work.

"A book must be an ice-axe to break the seas frozen inside our soul. " ~Franz Kafka This thesis deals with a subject matter which may be considered by some to be undesirable and taboo; that is, the architecture of capital punishment, torture and death. While the content is at times difficult, this book attempts to go beyond initial reactions of support or distaste for the practice of execution. It instead attempts to bring to light the importance of the representation of these events, brought to light by the strength of modern collective thought on the issue, through an architectural discourse. Through space and ritual capital punishment entered into the minds of the people, and through space and ritual the practice can be withdrawn. But should it vanish, or is a continued representation important, and even necessary? My purpose is not to force an opinion, one way or the other, onto anyone. My intention is merely to raise the question in the mind of the reader of this work.

Focusing on Rachel Seiffert¡¦s The Dark Room, this thesis discusses three German protagonists¡¦ fictional representations in three different times and space, all coming from different family backgrounds and with different social understandings in relation to the Holocaust in the World War II. In my discussions on this trilogy, moreover, The Dark Room is believed to have demonstrated the notion of ¡§humanity¡¨ in the sense that vulnerability, perseverance, egoism, ignorance, guilt, sorrow, goodwill, evilness, light and darkness are all intertwined and coexisting as some kind of symbiosis, one blended into another. Meanwhile, The Dark Room offers a significant debate over guilt and punishment, especially with the incredibly heavy historical inheritance on those who are descendents of the perpetrators in World War II living in the contemporary times. What is at stake thus is an interpretation and reading of the Holocaust that allows more of a new and multi-dimensional perspective on this traumatic event in the 20th century. This call for fresh ideas and contemporary understandings of the Holocaust can be seen as answered in The Dark Room as this book has successfully provided a glimpse of an atypical account from the perpetrator side of the story. This fact validates The Dark Room as one of the important literary works in the contemporary times.

Disputats, Linköpings universitet, 2007. / Med litteraturhenvisninger og internetadresser.

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität, Duisburg-Essen. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [265]-276) and filmography ([277]-280).

Thesis (doctoral) - Freie Universität, Berlin, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 277-298).

By investigating the metaphorical connection between bloodletting and the act of writing and drawing, this thesis examines the effects and potential dangers of bearing witness and recording witness testimonials as it is experienced by first-generation and second-generation Holocaust witnesses/authors respectively. Primo Levi’s works as well as biographical records documenting his life and death are examined as the primary sources for the analysis of the survivor or first-generation witness/author. Art Spiegelman’s graphic novels Maus and Maus II provide the source materials for the exploration of the second or ‘postmemory’ generation’s experience with recording their own inherited transgenerational trauma. To support this metaphorical and theoretical framework, I will engage the theories of Janet McCord and her study on suicide and Holocaust survivors as well as employ the works of Sigmund Freud, Dominick LaCapra, Cathy Caruth and Marianne Hirsch in relation to their work on cultural trauma and memory. / Graduate