ABSTRACT
Pierre Nora makes an interesting distinction between memory and history, which he sees in a complex relationship. This chapter explains that the Warsaw Ghetto Monument is perhaps the most famous and yet controversial memorial. It simultaneously commemorates the annihilation of the Jews of Warsaw while also aiming to honour the heroism of the Jewish resistance against the Nazis. Member of the delegation from the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) laid a wreath at the Ghetto Monument. The chapter explains in politics, duplicity and pretence usually go hand in hand with cynicism, suspicion and contempt. The creation of the monument was initially promoted by the relatively small Zionist sections of the original Jewish resistance organization, which included the Communist Party. The chapter describes that counter-monuments are abstract pieces. They do not aim at representing an image. Counter-monuments are conceptual creations that resist the very existence of monuments, defying traditional convention.
