Preserving Memory

In his book Preseving Memory: The Struggle to Create America’s Holocaust Museum Edward Linenthal relates the difficult task of the construction of a Holocaust museum, which is also the construction of American memory of this tragic event. Linenthal traced the controversies and questions from inception in the 1970s to the opening of the museum in 1993. Museum planners had to deal with changing attitudes towards the Jewish people and Israel, especially difficult was the changing outlooks of each consecutive president, each with their own agenda or commitment to the evolving museum. The people involved faced a heady task, defining what the Holocaust was, who the Holocaust involved, and, again, how America would recall the Holocaust in future generations. Questions of inclusion and exclusion, who was to blame, and whether spiritual resistance was “true” resistance swirled throughput the pages of this book.
Linenthal’s book was especially intriguing because of its grand scope. He had access to minutes from most of the major meetings, in-depth interviews with all involved, actually worked as a consultant, and even accompanied Committee members on travels to European sites of Holocaust memory. There seemed to be very few closed doors to his research. A few things impressed me through the work. One was that, despite Linenthal’s close involvement with the project he did not seem to pick sides, he remained impressively impartial. He also resisted the temptation to treat his book as the Holy Grail of the museum, even though the subject was deeply religious, and he himself is a religious professor, Linenthal kept the sacred and the secular apart. He did not resort to the language of reverence and adulation.
Preserving Memory tells the story of telling the story of the Holocaust. We learn how and why, some of the motives behind the construction of the physical museum and, more importantly the construction of American memory of this ghastly event. By never forgetting the inhumanity mankind is capable of, hopefully we will always remember the heights the human spirit can soar to.