What to read after Remaking Holocaust Memory?

Since the late 1990s in Israel, third-generation Holocaust survivors have become the new custodians of cultural memory, and the documentary films they produce play a major role in shaping a societal consensus of commemoration. In Remaking Holocaust Memory, a pioneering analysis of third-generation Holocaust documentaries in Israel, Liat Steir-Livny, co-recipient of the 2019 Young Scholar Award given jointly by the Association of Israel Studies and the Israel Institute, investigates compelling films that have been screened in Israel, Europe, and the United States, appeared in numerous international film festivals, and won international awards, but have yet to receive significant academic attention. Steir-Livny’s comprehensive investigation reveals how the “absolute truths” that appeared in the majority of second-generation films are deconstructed and disputed in the newer films, which do not dismiss their “cinematic parents’ ” approach but rather rethink fixed notions, extend the debates, and pose questions where previously there had been exclamation marks. Steir-Livny also explores the ways in which the third-generation’s perspectives on Holocaust memory govern cinematic trends and aesthetic choices, and how these might impact the moral recollection of the past. Finally, Remaking Holocaust Memory serves as an excellent reference tool, as it helpfully lists all of the second- and third-generation films available, as well as the festival screenings and awards they have garnered.