The New Executioners’ Arrival: German Left-Wing Terrorism and the Memory of the Holocaust

This study aims to show the forms of political involvement of Western European intellectuals. In doing so, the paper attempts to answer the question about the role they played in Western and Central Europe in the discussed period. The paper also demonstrates the cultural and political causes of their decline.streszczenieFor the intellectuals of Western and Central Europe, World War 2 was an extremely difficult period. The genocidal policies of the totalitarian states induced them to take a position, while at the same time depriving them of the ability to express their views publicly. This engendered a sense of helplessness; also, apart for a few exceptions, only emigrants could actually perform the function of intellectuals. Among those, an important role to play fell to two groups: German emigrants who distanced themselves from their nation, and Jewish emigrants, who addressed the subject of the Holocaust. After the war, the Iron Curtain also restricted the actions of intellectuals. It soon turned out that the tenor of spiritual life was set by left-wing authors, fascinated with the USSR. The fascination petered out after the disclosure of Stalin’s crimes in 1956. It was terminated definitively by the ruthless suppression of the Prague Spring. It was at that time that conservatism and right-wing intellectuals returned to Europe. Their aim was to reverse the trend and prevent Western Europe from drifting leftward. The change of the paradigm served to settle the scores with the leftist intellectuals. They were accused of subversive activities against the state and nation or treason. Also, in the intellectual circles there emerged a conviction that the previous formula had been exhausted. A new formula of activities of intellectuals was considered particularly in France, by authors of such eminence as R. Aron, M. Foucault, or P. Bourdieu. The deconstruction of the figure of the intellectual was completed by J.-F. Lyotard, who pronounced the death of intellectuals. Involvement of intellectuals remained a valid notion only in the countries of the Eastern bloc. In post-Cold War Europe, the decline of intellectuals became even more discernible. This was occasioned by a number of political and cultural factors. In this respect, particular role should be attributed to postmodernism which, by disproving the Enlightenment understanding of culture, undermined the role played by intellectuals.

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The Pink Triangle

The Ambivalence of Gay Liberation ◽

10.1093/oso/9780198868965.003.0005 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 125-162

Author(s):

Craig Griffiths

Keyword(s):

Gay Men ◽

Concentration Camps ◽

Left Wing ◽

Gay Liberation ◽

The West ◽

German State ◽

The Holocaust ◽

History Of ◽

Nazi Persecution

This chapter is about how the memory of persecution decisively shaped 1970s homosexual politics. First, the chapter explores the ‘rediscovery’ of the Nazi persecution of homosexuals, explaining how the model of the Holocaust was sometimes appropriated as part of this process. The chapter then shows how memory of this persecution, combined with the experience of contemporary discrimination, produced a profound alienation on the part of left-wing gay men from the West German state. Following an analysis of how the pink triangle became a transnational symbol, this chapter evaluates discourses of victimhood in gay liberation. Though the pink triangle was reclaimed from its origins as a badge of shame in the concentration camps, it never became an unequivocal symbol of pride. Finally, the chapter explores how, in the late 1970s, activists of all stripes, the commercial gay press, and the first openly gay parliamentary candidates coalesced around making the history of past persecution a central plank in their efforts to insert themselves into the West German mainstream.

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Introduction

10.5406/illinois/9780252036941.003.0016 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Susan Rubin Suleiman

Keyword(s):

Twentieth Century ◽

Public Discourse ◽

Personal Interest ◽

Left Wing ◽

Jewish State ◽

Daily Newspaper ◽

The Holocaust ◽

The World ◽

Jewish Intellectuals ◽

Short Essays

These four short essays, written over a twenty-year period, are pièces de circonstance, each one linked to a specific occasion: the publication of a book by a young author, an op-ed piece for a daily newspaper, a symposium on Israel organized by left-wing Jewish intellectuals, the appearance of a film that would become revered around the world. Beauvoir’s essays here are modest efforts, in two cases simply brief prefaces to a much longer work; but read consecutively, they offer an excellent glimpse into the evolution of French public discourse about the Holocaust and about Israel. They also show Beauvoir’s own unwavering commitment to thinking about the implications and consequences of the major atrocity of the twentieth century, as well as her personal interest in the Jewish state....

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Resistance and Repetition: The Holocaust in the Art, Propaganda, and Political Discourse of Vietnam War Protests

Cultural History ◽

10.3366/cult.2021.0233 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

pp. 111-132

Author(s):

Perry Johansson

Keyword(s):

Vietnam War ◽

Democratic Party ◽

Social Democratic Party ◽

Contemporary History ◽

Left Wing ◽

Repressed Memories ◽

Trauma Memory ◽

War Criminals ◽

The Holocaust ◽

History Of

The Western European protest movement against the American War in Vietnam stands out as something unique in contemporary history. Here finally, after all the senseless horrors of the twentieth century, reason speaks, demanding an end to Western atrocities against the poor South. But in the rosy fog of humanistic idealism and youthful revolution lies the unanswered question, why did this and not any other conflicts, before or after, render such an intense, widespread reaction? Taking Sweden as a case in point, this article employs the concepts of resistance, trauma, memory, and repetition to explore why the Vietnam movement came into being just as the buried history of the Holocaust resurfaced in a series of well-publicized trials of Nazi war criminals. It suggests that the protests of the radical young Leftists against American “imperialism” and “genocide” were informed by repressed memories of the Holocaust. The Swedish anti-war protests had unique and far-reaching consequences. The ruling Social Democratic Party, in order not to lose these younger Left wing voters to Communism, also engaged actively against the Vietnam War. And, somewhat baffling for a political party often criticized for close ties to Nazi Germany during WWII, its messaging used the same rhetoric as the Far Left, echoing Nazi anti-Semitic propaganda.

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The Genesis and Internal Dynamics of El Salvador's People's Revolutionary Army, 1970–1976

Behavioral and Brain Sciences ◽

10.1017/s0140525x13009850 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 38 (01) ◽

pp. 102-129

Author(s):

ALBERTO MARTÍN ÁLVAREZ ◽

EUDALD CORTINA ORERO

Keyword(s):

Latin America ◽

El Salvador ◽

Early Years ◽

Left Wing ◽

Internal Dynamics ◽

Internal Coherence ◽

The 1960S

AbstractUsing interviews with former militants and previously unpublished documents, this article traces the genesis and internal dynamics of the Ejército Revolucionario del Pueblo (People's Revolutionary Army, ERP) in El Salvador during the early years of its existence (1970–6). This period was marked by the inability of the ERP to maintain internal coherence or any consensus on revolutionary strategy, which led to a series of splits and internal fights over control of the organisation. The evidence marshalled in this case study sheds new light on the origins of the armed Salvadorean Left and thus contributes to a wider understanding of the processes of formation and internal dynamics of armed left-wing groups that emerged from the 1960s onwards in Latin America.

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