Mediated memories: narratives and iconographies of the Holocaust in Lithuania

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: 20 amžius; Istorinė atmintis; Ikonografija; Naratyvai; Holokaustas; Žydai; Okupacija; Karas; The Lithuanian XX c. history; Historical memory; Iconography; Narations; Holocaust; Jews; Occupation; War.

ENThis research thus aims to uncover these memories of the Holocaust in Lithuania by presenting how they have been mediated and interpreted differently since Lithuania gained independence in 1990. However, understanding the development of these narratives and iconographies requires a substantial examination of the construction of Holocaust memories in Soviet Lithuania and in the Lithuanian exile in the postwar years, as well. The Holocaust5 was one of the most traumatic experiences in Lithuania in the last century. Over the course of several months in 1941, more than 80 percent of the Lithuanian Jewry were exterminated.6 Only 5 to 10 percent of Lithuanian Jews survived the war; more than 195,000 of them were killed.7 This execution meant the annihilation of Jewish culture and community life in Lithuania, as well as the destruction of their material property and traditions. During the Soviet occupation of Lithuania, Jewish victims were turned into "peaceful Soviet citizens", and their Jewish specificity was erased from the memory landscape of the Second World War for the coming fifty years. [Extract, p. 2]