Fluchtpunkte der Erinnerung
Vanishing Points of Memory
About the book
What distinguishes racism from anti-Semitism? Is it possible to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust and of colonialism without relativising history? In the work of Hannah Arendt, Edward Said and others, Natan Sznaider finds ideas and arguments to advance the debate on the relationship between colonial crimes and the Holocaust.
Jury evaluation
Is the Holocaust an unparalleled crime or an act of colonialism, and what are the differences between anti-Semitism and racism? Starting from the finding that the globalisation of memory does not necessarily lead to a shared meta-narrative, Natan Sznaider intervenes in the heated controversy about the relationship between the Holocaust and colonialism. Drawing on authors such as Hannah Arendt and Albert Memmi, he offers important suggestions to facilitate a productive conversation between postcolonialism and Jewish experiences. To this end, he clearly exposes the ideological short-circuits that cluster around apparently morally sound political desires. An important, stimulating and intelligent book in a debate that is, as Natan Sznaider notes, about nothing less than our “shared responsibility for the public sphere”.
Natan Sznaider
Natan Sznaider was born in 1954 in Mannheim, and has worked as Professor of Sociology at the Tel Aviv Academic College since 1994. His most recent publications include “Gesellschaften in Israel. Eine Einführung in zehn Bildern” (Suhrkamp 2017), “Neuer Antisemitismus? Fortsetzung einer globalen Debatte” (edition suhrkamp 2019, ed. with Christian Heilbronn and Doron Rabinovici) and “Politik des Mitgefühls. Die Vermarktung der Gefühle in der Demokratie” (Beltz Juventa 2021).
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