ABSTRACT
As his contribution to the Jewish Museum’s Mirroring Evil exhibition in 2002, Boaz Arad cut and remixed original film-clips of Adolph Hitler’s speeches, to produce a short Hebrew greeting: ‘Shalom, Jerusalem, I apologize’.3 Many victimized peoples dream of such apologies, if not from the actual perpetrators, then at least from their descendents. Acknowledgement, compensation, reconciliation – these are but some of the goals persecuted groups seek as they grapple with their histories. Few, however, have come as far as the Jewish people in gaining acknowledgement of and reparations for their collective suffering. Of course, token amounts of money and an official apology may mean little to those who suffered horrendous loss. Nevertheless, the Holocaust has become the pre-eminent symbol of evil in the modern world, encouraging other groups to copy its vocabulary and imagery, while sometimes contesting its significance.
