THE memory of Auschwitz, the best-known symbol of the Holocaust, is fiercely contested. Communist propaganda routinely overlooked the fact that nine-tenths of the 1.1m people murdered there were Jews. A Swedish neo-Nazi may be behind the theft in December of the Arbeit macht frei (“Work sets you free”) sign over the main gate, which has been found and is now being restored. This week foreign dignitaries and survivors gathered to mark the 65th anniversary of Auschwitz’s liberation by the Red Army in 1945.
A polemical new documentary by Yoav Shamir, an Israeli film-maker, suggests that his country’s authorities use visits to Auschwitz partly as spine-stiffeners to prepare youngsters for military service. After visiting the camp, one schoolgirl in the film says, “I want to kill.” It also shows guides warning the group that hostile locals make it dangerous to leave their hotel unaccompanied.
The Anti-Defamation League and others have denounced Mr Shamir’s film. Poland, like much of Europe, was home to anti-Semitism—the post-war massacres of Jews were especially shameful. But Poles object to being blamed for the crimes of their Nazi occupiers, too.
Read more:http://www.economist.com/world/europe/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15403083
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