“Nürnberg II?” Mitul denazificării şi utilizarea acestuia în martirologia competitivă Holocaust-Gulag
“Nürnberg II?” The Myth of Denazification and its Use in the Competitive Martyrology Holocaust-Gulag

Summary/Abstract: The “competitive martyrology” between the Holocaust and Gulag in post-communist East-Central Europe (Romania included) is a “clash of memories” rather than a confrontation between different versions of history. That makes it the more difficult to eradicate, since memory is always subjective and based on myth, which cannot be replaced except by other myths. The call for placing communism “on trial” in what has been metaphorically called “Nürnberg II” is a telling example. The article discusses both mythical aspects of “Nürnberg II”, namely the myth-as-legend and its mobilization function. It shows that the Holocaust plays no less of a mobilization role among Jews than the Gulag does among non-Jews. One of the most serious consequences of this confrontation is the ethnicization of the conflict. The article discusses the causes of different perceptions of the significance of the Iron Guard contribution to the counter-communist resistance, showing that to a large extent this is an illustration of memory being a function of the socialization process. It ends with a call for a “democratization of memories” that would take into account each side’s sensibilities.

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