Solidarity Forever: A Call for Inclusive Holocaust Memory and Coalition Building Amid Forgetting & Denial

Abstract

According to a recent survey, less than half of American Millennials can name a Holocaust concentration camp, and more than two-thirds of the respondents did not know the number of Jewish people the Nazis killed in the camps. This lack of knowledge is happening in a world where some people do not even admit the Holocaust event happened. This thesis will first lay out the current state of Holocaust remembrance in education, memorialization, and popular culture, particularly in America. Particular attention is given to how these remembrances overlook or silence certain victims of the Holocaust, such as LGBTQ+ victims. The second chapter explores the motivations and ideologies scholars have disregarded about deniers thus far. The final section will examine ways coalitions working in solidarity to make and proliferate inclusive Holocaust narratives can combat Holocaust denial and forgetting.