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Darauf aufbauend wird gezeigt, welche Auswirkungen dieser Wandel auf die Entwicklung von drei verschiedenen – einer staatlichen und zwei privat von Überlebenden konzipierten und organisierten – Shoahgedenkstätten in Israel hatte. Ebenso wird beleuchtet, welche anderen Gedenkformen sich parallel zur staatlichen Shoahgedenkkultur entwickelten und diese sukzessive beeinflusst haben.
Die komparative Untersuchung wirft einen neuen Blick auf die israelische Gedenkkultur, die so mannigfaltig wie in keinem anderen Land ist, und verdeutlicht zugleich, dass auch dort eine eigene Form des Gedenkens an die Shoah erst gefunden werden musste.
The memorial culture relating to the Holocaust began to develop in Israel after 1948, mainly through survivors' private initiatives. Survivors also provided the impetus to create official memorials. The state, on the other hand, viewed the victim status of the persecuted European Jews as conflicting with Zionist ideals. This view began to change with the Eichmann trial and the wars in 1967 and 1973. However, by 1953 Martef Hashoah, Beit Lohamei Haghetaot, and Yad Vashem had been created, and Beit Terezin and Yad Mordechai were being planned. Focuses on Beit Lohamei Haghetaot, Yad Vashem, and Beit Terezin, showing that their form and development have been significantly determined by the social debate regarding the Holocaust. Thus, Beit Terezin has not been recognized as an official site of memory, since Israeli historiography views Theresienstadt as a privileged camp, where the inmates suffered less than elsewhere. Due to the changed view of the Holocaust - from emphasis on armed Jewish resistance to individual suffering - visitor numbers at the sites radically increased, and by the 1980s the Holocaust had become part of official memorial culture and Israeli identity. The Holocaust was exploited by all political camps, and this led to profanation and mythologization of the event. Politics have affected Yad Vashem especially, concerning the emphases of both research and education there. Concludes that the Israeli memorials have proved the success of memorial sites far from the sites of events. Currently, there are numerous private and state-initiated memorials in Israel. All three sites focused on here show a trend towards internationalization, and there has been cooperation with Palestinian educators. The increasingly global view may lead to the Shoah losing its singularity in Israel.
