ABSTRACT
The memory of the Holocaust and its victims has always been a locus of controversy in the Israeli public sphere. The Zionist view of the Holocaust is predicated on the perception of the state of Israel as the most suitable monument to the memory of the Jews of Europe, and a form of secular redemption for their suffering. Indeed, the United Nations’ decision in 1947 to divide Palestine into two states, one Arab and one Jewish, was directly connected to Western guilt regarding the extermination of Europe's Jewish population, as well as an attempt to solve the problem of Jewish refugees. Furthermore, the Israeli state views itself as the representative of the destroyed European Jewry, and therefore as the custodian of the ‘official’ memory of the Holocaust. Numerous speeches delivered by Israeli politicians regarding the relationship between the establishment of the Zionist state and the Holocaust bear testimony to the success of the state in nationalizing and monopolizing its memory, and constructing this as part of the Zionist narrative of redemption. 1
