Holocaust Images and Picturing Catastrophe: The Cultural Politics of Seeing

Citation

Parry, F. (2012), "Holocaust Images and Picturing Catastrophe: The Cultural Politics of Seeing", Online Information Review, Vol. 36 No. 3, pp. 482-483. https://doi.org/10.1108/14684521211241486

Images become iconic and have an afterlife which can, in the author's words, “crystallize explanations of what the world is like”. This book is concerned with the way Holocaust images “come loose from their historical moorings”, with the creation and manipulation of meaning (by the news media and political groups in particular) in visual studies and the politics of seeing.

It is often difficult to differentiate genocidal acts from the Holocaust. The terms are sometimes used interchangeably and can lead to lazy thinking and false associations. It can therefore also lead to misleading information which should be a concern for all information professionals.

In one of the book's key chapters, a discussion of the Israeli‐Palestinian conflict, Buettner refers to the use of Holocaust images as a weapon against Israel by anti‐semitic or politically motivated groups, such as the equation of the Star of David and the swastika, or the use of the swastika as a triumphalist symbol in the war against Israel. Images of the bulldozing of corpses in concentration camps gain extra significance and meaning when (harshly and inappropriately) juxtaposed with images of the bulldozing of Palestinian homes or the death of a peace activist trying to stop an Israeli bulldozer. On the other side of the divide, Holocaust imagery has also been used by Israeli politicians, either between Israeli parties or notably by Begin in his justification for the war in Lebanon against Arafat and the PLO. From this, Buettner infers that “images […] can lie” or at least be made to make a strong point and influence law and international opinion and action. Knowledge is powerful, but knowledge based on (mediated) images can be dangerous.

In addition to the Israeli‐Palestinian conflict and the rise of anti‐semitism, Buettner examines the terminology applied to the Holocaust itself (Shoah, Final Solution, Porraimos), the extension of the Holocaust into “holocausts” (Holocaust‐transfer), animal rights and environmental catastrophes such as tsunamis and nuclear accidents. Buettner describes how genocidal campaigns such as that which occurred in Rwanda often appropriate the terminology and visual imagery of the Holocaust. Buettner also describes some of the more controversial instances of Holocaust‐transfer when she tells of the animal activist literature which shows images of concentration camps and purports to relate them to the conditions in which animals are kept and the slogan, “To animals all humans are Nazis”.

Although Holocaust images can be open to interpretation and misinterpretation, they are also crucial to understanding in our search for explanations, for archival memory and attempts to curate impartial, objective resources such as the Legacy Project which is mentioned in the final chapter. With so many competing, charged emotions and beliefs, this cannot have been an easy book to write, but Buettner has succeeded in producing a thoroughly well‐researched and original study which will particularly interest those working in the fields of cultural and media studies. Studies such as this are useful in understanding the way we see and look and the context in which images are presented. It can be recommended.