Contesting places of memory: the case of Auschwitz

Abstract. The author considers the contestation over symbolic space at the Auschwitz death camp, the postwar symbol of the Holocaust. He examines both Communist and Catholic attempts to de-Judaise the place and hence turn, in Young’s words, an icon of remembrance into an idol of remembrance. In the New World Order such contestation has lessons for the political geographer, particularly in terms of appreciating the religious dimension in national identity.