Memory of the Holocaust in the Baltics

• In Event: History and Memory of the Holocaust in the Baltic States

Abstract

Seen from a distance, the memory of the Holocaust in the Baltics since the end of the Second World War has followed a uniform path from Soviet-era distortion to gradual reckoning in the post-Soviet period, and integration with increasingly confident narratives of European identity. Seen up close, differences in demographics and Jewish-Gentile relations, collaboration and resistance to German and Soviet occupation, and post-Soviet transitions tell three different stories. This paper charts the evolution of Baltic memories of the Holocaust in relation to West European and Soviet/Russian narratives of trauma and victory during the Cold War, the post-Soviet process of European integration, and the post-accession spread of populist narratives that seek to revise the postwar security order.

Author

• Violeta Davoliute, Vilnius U (Lithuania)