Holocaust memory in the twenty-first century: between national reshaping and globalisation

This article explores the meanings of ‘commemoration’ and ‘memory’ in the context of a Holocaust memory that is often described as global or globalised, or indeed of Holocaust commemoration. The authors examine the ‘globalised’ as well as the rather national aspects of some emblematic recent events in this context including the Stockholm Declaration and the first Holocaust Memorial Day in Britain and discuss some of the classical sociological theory of ‘collective memory’ (Halbwachs) as well as some more recent theoretical contributions (Nora; Levy/Sznaider). They ask in particular who the agents and the carriers of memory and commemoration are.