Remembering and forgetting the “Final Solution”: a rhetorical pilgrimage through the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum

Abstract

This essay explores some of the rhetorical dimensions of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, arguing that the curators, planners, and fund raisers used this architectural structure as a vehicle for Americanizing the Holocaust. The essay further argues that those critics or visitors who take a rhetorical pilgrimage of the facility will find that the museum's dominant narrative advances at least five key arguments: a) the Allied liberation of some of the camps made this an American affair; b) overwhelming photographic and documentary proof shows the ontological existence of the Holocaust; c) there were millions of Jews and others who lost their lives during the “Final Solution”; d) western immigration restrictions contributed to this tragedy; and e) a tour of the museum can help reduce the likelihood of future genocide.

Notes

Marouf Hasian, Jr. is Professor of Communication at the University of Utah. The author would like to thank the editors and anonymous reviewers of CSMC for their helpful suggestions. Trevor Parry‐Giles also provided critical commentary on a much earlier version of the essay. Correspondence to: Marouf Hasian, Jr., 1228 E. Bryan Avenue, Salt Lake City, UT 84105, USA. E‐mail: [email protected]

Those in attendance included Jesse Jackson, William Sessions, General Colin Powell, Lech Walesa, Vaclav Havel, Chaim Herzog, Klaus Kinkel, Manfred Stolpe, and Franjo Tudjman. Several of the participants in this dedication ceremony had objected to Tudjman's presence, because he had once written that the Israelis were “Judeo‐Nazis,” and that the estimated loss of some six million dead Jews was an exaggerated figure (Leffler, 1993; Schemo, 1993).

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Notes on contributors

Marouf Hasian, Jr

Marouf Hasian, Jr. is Professor of Communication at the University of Utah. The author would like to thank the editors and anonymous reviewers of CSMC for their helpful suggestions. Trevor Parry‐Giles also provided critical commentary on a much earlier version of the essay. Correspondence to: Marouf Hasian, Jr., 1228 E. Bryan Avenue, Salt Lake City, UT 84105, USA. E‐mail: [email protected]