Holocaust Supremacism Chills Dissent Mintz

Popular Culture and the Shaping of Holocaust Memory in America, by Alan L. Mintz. 2001

Origins of Holocaust Preeminence in the USA, and the Intimidating Effect It May Have Towards Potential Dissenters

The author identifies himself as Jewish- the grandson of Jews from Lithuania in the 1880s. (p. 168). He largely focuses on the impact of Holocaust movies, but also touches on deeper issues, which I now discuss.

Mintz writes, ” How the Holocaust succeeded in penetrating layers of American isolationism is not a simple matter. The key to this question, I believe, lies in the power of cultural texts and their diffusion in the form of books, stage plays, movies, and television.” (p. 16). In other words, it was the media.

HOLOCAUST DOMINANCE, BY ITS VERY NATURE, TENDS TO CHILL DISSENT

Some Jews think that American Holocaust consciousness has caused an overshadowing of other aspects of being Jewish. In addition, non-Jews may feel intimidated against criticizing the preeminence of the Holocaust. Mintz comments, ” It is ‘ within the family’ of the Jewish community that critical reservations about Holocaust-centeredness have been most freely expressed. Such reservations, or even resistance, may abound in general, non-Jewish circles in American culture; yet the powerful moral prestige of the Holocaust, I suspect, often prevents these thoughts from being aired.” (p. 161).