Introduction

The Holocaust took place primarily in Eastern Europe and the vast majority of its victims were Jews from this region. However, the historical narrative of the Holocaust—especially as it has emerged since the 1980s—has been dominated by a Western interpretation. This view has considered the period of the Cold War a kind of “black hole” in Eastern Europe where the memory of the Holocaust was suppressed by socialist states that forced the discourse about World War II into a rigid ideological framework that considered the war as a battle between fascism and antifascism. According to this interpretation, antifascist discourse did not allow for the discussion of Jewish victimhood. The present volume challenges this view, demonstrating that antifascism was neither a monolithic narrative nor did it fully erase Holocaust memory. It aims to show how during state socialism Holocaust survivors, as well as Jewish and non-Jewish activists, historians, writers, artists, and journalists, used an antifascist narrative framework to make room for the memory of the Holocaust in Eastern Europe.