Shattered spaces [electronic resource] : encountering Jewish ruins in postwar Germany and Poland / Michael Meng.
Meng, Michael.
2011
DS134.26 .M46 2011eb
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Title Shattered spaces [electronic resource] : encountering Jewish ruins in postwar Germany and Poland / Michael Meng.
Author Meng, Michael.
ISBN 9780674062818 electronic book
0674053036
9780674053038
Imprint Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 2011.
Language English
Description 1 online resource (xiv, 351 p.) : ill., maps.
Call Number DS134.26 .M46 2011eb
Summary "After the Holocaust, the empty, silent spaces of bombed-out synagogues, cemeteries, and Jewish districts were all that was left in many German and Polish cities with prewar histories rich in the sights and sounds of Jewish life. What happened to this scarred landscape after the war, and how have Germans, Poles, and Jews encountered these ruins over the past sixty years? In the postwar period, city officials swept away many sites, despite protests from Jewish leaders. But in the late 1970s church groups, local residents, political dissidents, and tourists demanded the preservation of the few ruins still standing. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989, this desire to preserve and restore has grown stronger. In one of the most striking and little-studied shifts in postwar European history, the traces of a long-neglected Jewish past have gradually been recovered, thanks to the rise of heritage tourism, nostalgia for ruins, international discussions about the Holocaust, and a pervasive longing for cosmopolitanism in a globalizing world. Examining this transformation from both sides of the Iron Curtain, Michael Meng finds no divided memory along West-East lines, but rather a shared memory of tensions and paradoxes that crosses borders throughout Central Europe. His narrative reveals the changing dynamics of the local and the transnational, as Germans, Poles, Americans, and Israelis confront a built environment that is inevitably altered with the passage of time. Shattered Spaces exemplifies urban history at its best, uncovering a surprising and moving postwar story of broad contemporary interest."--Jacket.
Bibliography, etc. Note Includes bibliographical references and index.
Access Note Access limited to authorized users.
Source of Description Description based on print version record.
Available in Other Form Shattered spaces.
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Confronting the spoils of genocide
Clearing Jewish rubble
Erasing the Jewish past
Restoring Jewish ruins
Reconstructing the Jewish past
Conclusion.

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