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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTAMP:20240412T085504Z
DTSTART:20240508T163000Z
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SUMMARY:Dirk Moses – 'The End(s) of German Memory Culture and the Catastr
 ophization of Politics'
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DESCRIPTION:This paper begins with the catastrophization of politics in G
 ermany today\, meaning that the present is understood in terms of its ca
 tastrophic past: a repetition of impending National Socialist victory an
 d the Holocaust.  In the wake of Hamas’s 7 October 2023 terror attack on
  southern Israeli communities\, the German political class has committed
  itself to the Israeli campaign against Gaza and reaffirmed its imperati
 ve to maintain the security of the Jewish community in Germany as the co
 untry’s Staatsräson: its historical justification after the Holocaust. T
 o that end\, politicians from all major parties and the press have denou
 nced cease-fire marches as “pro-Hamas” and “pro-terror\,” indeed as cont
 emporary incarnations of Nazism Serial cancellations of local and intern
 ational artists and authors\, whether Jewish or not\, who express Palest
 ine solidarity or criticism of the Israel military campaign as antisemit
 es attest to the aim to enforce the Staatsräson on civil society. Senior
  politicians even talk about deporting (mainly Arab) protestors and/or c
 onditioning their citizenship status on loyally to Israel. Nonetheless\,
  because of the mass protest movement and a reported spike in antisemiti
 c incidents (usually conflated)\, some Jews in Germany report feeling ab
 andoned by the state\, and are thus considering emigration\, thereby vit
 iating the German state’s self-assigned historical justification. Meanwh
 ile\, nearly seven out of ten Germans disapprove of the Israeli campaign
  and their government's support of it. How and why the country’s vaunted
  and\, till recently\, admired memory culture led to this catastrophic a
 nd paradoxical situation is the object of the analysis.\n\nA. Dirk Moses
  is the Anne and Bernard Spitzer Professor of International Relations at
  the City College of New York \, CUNY
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