Bilder, Gefühle, Erwartungen : Über die emotionale Dimension von Gedenkstätten und den Umgang von Jugendlichen mit dem Holocaust

What role do emotions play in the way in which young people confront the history of the Holocaust? This article examines memorial sites and video interviews of survivors as interfaces of the representation and appropriation of the past. These contact zones satisfy the need for emotional participation and for information. Videos uploaded by youngsters on the internet following their visit to memorial sites, and short films extracted by pupils from survivor's video interviews, were used as examples in order to examine emotional strategies. These products of involvement point to stored images and ideas mediated by mass media. This repertoire of cultural knowledge and feelings can serve as a template for understanding how young people process the Holocaust emotionally. (By the author)