Meng, Michael.

Shattered spaces : encountering Jewish ruins in postwar Germany and Poland / Michael Meng.

Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 2011.

xiv, 351 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm

"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.

9780674053038 (alk. paper)
0674053036 (alk. paper)

Jews Germany History 1945-1990.
Jews Germany History 1990-
Jews Poland History 20th century.
Jews Poland History 21st century.
Collective memory and city planning Germany.
Collective memory and city planning Poland.
Memory Social aspects Germany.
Memory Social aspects Poland.
Memorialization Germany.
Memorialization Poland.
Juifs Allemagne Histoire 1945-1990.
Juifs Allemagne Histoire 1990-
Juifs Pologne Histoire 20e siècle.
Juifs Pologne Histoire 21e siècle.
Mémoire collective et urbanisme Allemagne.
Mémoire collective et urbanisme Pologne.
Commémorations Allemagne.
Commémorations Pologne.
Collective memory and city planning.
Jews.
Memorialization.
Memory Social aspects.
Historische Stätte
Juden
Kollektives Gedächtnis
Judenvernichtung.
Judenverfolgung.
Städtebau.
Collective memory Germany.
Collective memory Poland.
Judar historia Tyskland 1900-talet 2000-talet.
Judar historia Polen 1900-talet 2000-talet.
Minnet sociala aspekter historia Tyskland 1900-talet 2000-talet.
Minnet sociala aspekter historia Polen 1900-talet 2000-talet.
Germany.
Poland.
Deutschland
Polen

History.

Location: Library main 282054
Call No.: BIB 219192
Status: Available