Violations of Holocaust Memory in Art

Abstract

Artists sometimes choose the martyrial legacy of the Holocaust as the topic for their works of (broadly defined) art. The motivations of the artists may vary from the most noble, such as reverence and full-throated commemoration, through warnings, remembrances of Nazi crimes, other socially significant values, therapy for trauma suffered during the Holocaust, criticism of certain attitudes or current historical narration, simple unthinkingness or the search for publicity, to hatred, anti-Semitism and denialism. Even if art has a scopious legitimacy to operate on the edges of the binding social order, which also includes legal goods such as national memory or cults of remembrance of the fallen, there still exists a border that should not be crossed. In the present article, the author cites selected examples of works of art in an attempt to determine the intentions of their creators and whether or not the memory of the Holocaust has been violated. It would be difficult to implement a form of strict legal protection of the martyrial heritage and national memory because these concepts do not possess a normative definition and estimations of their value may depend on subjective beliefs. Each case of a violation of memory requires individual evaluation, and it is impossible to adopt objective criteria that would be conducive to the stipulations of criminal law.