ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book. The book explores the 'rise' of the myth of the 'Holocaust'; there is a sense in which it is also about the 'fall' of that myth. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, at the heart of the Mall in Washington, DC, represents the official face of the myth of the 'Holocaust' within contemporary America, but it is not the only expression of remembrance. As First World War memorials and memory have become increasingly peripheral, so it is possible to envisage something similar happening to the remembrance of the Holocaust. The book examines the construction of the 'Myth of War Experience' in terms of the defeated nation-state drawing meaning from the meaninglessness of the war through a process of sanctification. The 'Holocaust' had a resonance beyond Jewish America which can be seen in the United States in the aftermath of the showing of the mini-series.
