The Historiography of the Holocaust

The Holocaust under Communism 437
in Poland, the only East German film to be nominated for an Oscar, was based
on Becker’s novel Jacob the Liar, and was later remade by Hollywood. In general,
however, East German artistic production remained within the prescribed
parameters that emphasized communist leadership and resistance.
In the 1980s a perceptible change in East German attitudes towards Jews and
the Holocaust occurred. This was at least in part due to the (unsuccessful)
attempt by the East German leadership to play its ‘Jewish card’ in exchange for the
inclusion of East Germany in the category of ‘Most Favored Nation’ trade status.
As in Poland, a small renaissance of Jewish culture occurred in East Germany,
and in the later 1980s one could discern a more differentiated approach to the
Holocaust. But in general, the interpretive guidelines laid down by the Comintern
in the 1930s obtained until 1989.
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The reception of the Holocaust under communism demonstrates, despite the
different countries involved, various patterns and similarities. In the transitional
period directly following the Second World War, one perceives in most
countries a period of relative openness about the Holocaust, followed, in the
later 1940s, by the persecution of Jews and a Stalinization of history writing.
In communist historiography and schoolbooks of the 1950s, the Holocaust
hardly exists; when historians discussed it, they generally underplayed or otherwise
distorted it. In the 1960s it often re-emerges as a topic in public discourse,
often instrumentalized under the veneer of a homogenized communist
discourse for more specifically national purposes. Romanians structured their
discussions of the Holocaust, for example, to allow them to feel morally superior
to Hungarians. East Germans, Poles and Czechs employed a similar strategy
with regard to the West Germans. In the Soviet Union the Holocaust needed
to fit a narrative emphasizing unity; in Bulgaria it served to illustrate the wisdom
and benevolence of the communists; in Poland it served as a figure for the
tragedy of the Polish nation. In the later 1980s, the impact of glasnost allowed
most Eastern Bloc nations to reassess their attitudes towards the Holocaust and
towards Jews.
More so than history writing, literature and film under communism provided
information about the Holocaust, and also about the motives and intentions
of the people and nations attempting to give it meaning. Art was a
useful export item in the propaganda war. In some countries artistic works
were less rigidly censored than scholarly ones, and in general, it is difficult to
contain the multivalency of creative works. Hence artistic products generated
by communist Holocaust discourse are not necessarily contained by that
discourse alone, and will continue to find audiences beyond the political
watershed of 1989.