Abstract
Selfies at Auschwitz have become increasingly popular, and have generated agitated public debate. While some see them as an engaged form of witnessing, others denounce them as a narcissistic desecration of the dead. We analyze the taking, composition, and circulation of several of the most popular selfies of Auschwitz and the online reactions to them. The practice of selfies marks a shift from witness to witnessee and from onsite to online presence. Yet it also builds on previous practices: photography, postcards and souvenirs, the affordances of the architecture of the memorial site, the bodily presence of the survivor-witness as mediator of the Holocaust, and the redemptive value assigned to the physical presence of the visitor as “witness of the witness.” We suggest that the combination of continuities with the past alongside the radical break with previous witnessing practices empowers selfie-takers, while arousing the indignation of gatekeepers of Holocaust memory.
| Original language | American English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 403-420 |
| Number of pages | 18 |
| Journal | Memory Studies |
| Volume | 16 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Apr 2023 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:We are thankful to our colleagues in the Sociology and Anthropology Department of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and the members of the Sidney and Esther Rabb Center for Holocaust and Revival Studies, whose comments helped focus and improve the article. Special thanks to Andrea Hajek and the anonymous readers of Memory Studies for their suggestions and criticisms. The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The research for this article was made possible by Israel Science Foundation grant 228/19: “Memorial, museum, smartphone: Transmitting Holocaust memory in a digital generation.” A grant from the Bergida Family Foundation at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev for the topic "Remembering the six million on Zoom: Education and commemoration in a digital-only world" provided funding for additional research.
Funding Information:
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The research for this article was made possible by Israel Science Foundation grant 228/19: “Memorial, museum, smartphone: Transmitting Holocaust memory in a digital generation.” A grant from the Bergida Family Foundation at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev for the topic "Remembering the six million on Zoom: Education and commemoration in a digital-only world" provided funding for additional research.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2022.
Keywords
- Auschwitz-Birkenau
- Holocaust
- digital Holocaust memory
- embodiment
- mediation
- memorial
- selfies
- witnessing