Above the Death Pits, Beneath the Flag (eBook)

Jackie Feldman lectures in Social Anthropology at Ben Gurion University, Beersheba, Israel. His areas of interest are anthropology of religion, collective memory, pilgrimage, and tourism. He has published on Holocaust memory and pilgrimages to the Second Temple and worked as a tour guide for Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land.

List of illustrations
List of tables
Acknowledgements

Preface: Seeking a personal past in the deathscapes of Poland

Chapter 1. Introduction and Methodology
The Shoah, Jewish-Israeli identity and the voyages to Poland Identifying the voyage as a rite of pilgrimage


The voyage as model and mirror


Commemoration and collective memory


Jewish memory paradigms and their Zionist transformations

Territorializing Jewish history in Zionist practice


Israeli social research on Shoah memory


From personal trauma to social constructivism

Previous research on the Poland voyages


From process to product: The ethnography of the voyage


Context, Structure, and Performance in the Voyages to Poland

Organization of the Book


Chapter 2. The historical and social context of Iraeli Shoah commemoration
The history of Shoah memory in Israel


Early reactions to the Shoah

From the Six Day War to the Yom Kippur War

Begin's rise to power: The use and abuse of Shoah memory

Generational time, the search for roots, and Israeli ethnicity


The Shoah in Israeli education - school textbooks and curricula
Spaces and times of Israeli Shoah Commemoration


Yad Vashem: monument and memory

Holocaust Memorial Day: calendar and commemoration


Chapter 3. The structure of the Poland voyages
Origins, history, and proclaimed aim of the voyage
The title of the voyage: seeking my brothers - the masa to Poland


The voyage group as substitute family

The Poland voyage as a masa


Administration and voyage staff


Voyage staff

The delegation leader

The guides

The accompanying teachers

The doctor and nurse

The Polish guide and driver

The survivor - witnesses Security personnel


Logistic arrangements: Food, clothing, and flags
The preparatory program


Selection of participants

The content of the preparatory program


The itinerary and its implicit messages


Exterior and interior space

Classification of places in "exterior space": death, life, and Polish "ventilation" sites

Allotment of time at sites


The rhythms of time in the voyage itinerary
Student expectations, Polish landscape, and guiding narratives


Guides' narrative techniques

From structure to performance


Chapter 4. Performing the Poland voyages
On the road: Walking through the Poland Voyage
Recruitment and voyage preparations at Sulam High School
The threshold of Poland



- day one The road to Treblinka

- day two "This is Treblinka Station"

Tykocin: Synagogues of the past and the survivor as sheriff

"See, there are no birds in this forest"

Evening discussion: when do we get to the Shoah?


Bus travel, ventilation and prayer


- day three Kabbalat Shabbat: Orthodox Judaism as safe Zionist heritage


Shabbat rest, Shabbat shopping



- day four Slouching through Cracow

(Non-)encounter with a Polish school

Singing for home

After Midnight: the staff meeting


The heart of the Shoah: Auschwitz-Birkenau



- day five Auschwitz I - Approaching the contested site of memory

Manifesting Israel at Auschwitz

Visiting the exhibition in Auschwitz I Birkenau — the Heart of the Death Camp "Honoring" the Righteous Gentile and the witnesses


Ventilazia: on the road again



- day six Touching the icons of death: Majdanek

- day seven The visit to Majdanek

Entering the site

The gas chambers

Shoes as relics: odour and authenticity

"We’re the same children who were there at the end"

Closing the circle: the final evening discussion


Going home: From Warsaw to Tel Aviv



- day eight Confronting the not-yet-dead Diaspora

The route of victory

Final ceremony: the little guy sends us on our way!


Chapter 5. The ceremonies of the Poland voyages
Introduction: What makes ceremonies different?
Contexts of voyage ceremonies


School ceremonies in Poland and Israel

Sites, times, and configurations of ceremonies


Representative examples of ceremony types


Delegation-wide ceremonies

Above the death pits, beneath the flag of Israel: the ceremony at Birkenau

Warsaw: a ceremony that failed

Bus-group ceremonies: "Every person has a name"

Individual ritual acts

"Honoring" ceremonies for Righteous Gentiles and witnesses


Religious texts and the commemorative ceremonies
The close of the ceremony: Hatikvah and the flag
Ceremonies as "triggers": group crying and consolation


The ceremonies: Conclusions


Chapter 6. Homecoming - the transmission of Holocaust memory and Jewish-Israeli Identity
Becoming a witness - the aftermath of the voyage


Transmitting the voyage experience

Talking about the voyage: Conversations with classmates, family, and survivors

Presentations: Albums, videos, ceremonies, and the future of "witnessing"


Subsequent effects of the voyage on participants


Changes in attitudes towards Jewish tradition and the Diaspora

The voyage and Polish others

The voyage and dedication to the nation

Dedication to the flag and students’ political opinions

Survival by proxy and service in the Israeli army


The future of the Israeli voyages to Poland

Chapter 7. Holocaust memory, national identity, and transformative ritual
Conclusions: Poland voyages as national pilgrimages
Cosmopolitan and nationalist memories of the Shoah in the ages of representations
The Poland voyages and modern state ritual: An event that models promoted by a bureaucracy


Models and mirrors, bodies and texts

The risks of transformatory events in bureaucracies


Afterword

Appendix: The orthodox delegations to Poland

Bibliography
Index