Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away. Rhetoric about destruction in Holocaust representations

Abstract

This research examines Holocaust representations in Kansas City in 2021, focusing on global connections to social responsibility and commemoration methods. A review of historical museums around the world reveals that curators of historical museums utilize specific rhetoric that reflect the values and forces of their respective society. The arrival of the international traveling exhibit Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away. to Kansas City, MO marks new cultural practices of remembrance that embed the Holocaust narrative into a local perspective. Local agents, such as Midwest Center for Holocaust Education and film producer Brad Austin, use rhetorical language that aims to fill the void left by genocide via a strategic perspective that connects the Holocaust story to the Midwestern and national narratives of commemoration. I argue that, today, international Holocaust representations reflect a new tendency to connect to the victims, encourage empathy, and thus reduce Otherness. The French philosopher Emmanuel Levinas asks us to reconsider how we interact with the Other. Thus, the main function of historical exhibition is to encourage the visitor to truly connect across the barriers of difference. This tendency is now a part of the international Holocaust memorialization, and the rhetorical message is no longer only didactic. The global message of the Holocaust transformed this event into a vehicle for new rhetoric, one that enhances a sense of responsibility and constructs a new social responsibility to build tolerance in our multicultural communities, beyond the Holocaust itself.