Michael Rothberg’s Multidirectional Memory, Translated into German
A German translation of Professor Michael Rothberg’s book Multidirectional Memory: Remembering the Holocaust in the Age of Decolonization, is now available.
The book, originally published in 2009 by Stanford University Press, has previously been translated into French and Polish. Its recent German translation led to a national debate about Holocaust memory and about the relation between the Holocaust and colonialism. The debate centers on whether Germany’s public Holocaust commemoration—which is often held up as a model for other nations attempting to confront their own dark histories—can also incorporate memory of other crimes, such as those of colonialism, and contemporary forms of racism. Links to this debate are available at Metropol, the publisher’s page for the German translation. A paperback version of Multidirectional Memory was recently issued by the Federal Agency for Civic Education, which makes inexpensive editions of significant books available for educators and the general public. The press has listed a number of reviews, webinars, and radio shows related to the book, though most are in German. This is only a small selection of the debate. The larger debate is being archived under Serdargunes’ Blog’s “A Debate: German Catechism – Holocaust and (Post-)colonialism” and includes a recent interview Michael did for Deutschlandradio (DLR) (German Radio). Also available is Michael’s recent article for one of Germany’s major newspapers Die Zeit: “We Need to Re-center the New Historikerstreit.”