Britain and the Holocaust, then and now

This is a study of the relationship between Britain and the Holocaust from 1933 until today. Britain’s search for a means to respond to, understand, represent and remember the Holocaust has resulted in the construction of a version of the Holocaust that has been and continues to be filtered through the prism of British national identity. It is argued that the Holocaust forces Britain to define itself and therefore Britishness and the meaning of British identity are at the centre of this study. This thesis challenges the notion that Britain is simply a bystander to the Holocaust and focuses on the presence and impact of the Holocaust in the lives of ordinary British people. Then and now, British people have always drawn the Holocaust within the reassuring parameters of their own national narrative, creating an active link between themselves and the destruction process, and exposing the diverse and complicated nature of British identity. This inter-disciplinary study is based on the close reading of distinctive examples drawn from literary and cultural sources that centralise the responses, actions and memories of a diverse range of British people. Chapter One proves how Britain’s relationship with the Holocaust is traceable from 1933 in the work of British pro-refugee and rescue campaigners. 1945 is considered to be the cornerstone year in Britain’s relationship with the Holocaust. Chapter Two provides the Holocaust survivors’ perspective on the liberation of the concentration camps. Britain’s perceived role as a liberating nation remains central to Britain’s Holocaust memories. Constructions of Britishness defined press and popular responses to 1945 and are explored in Chapter Three. Chapter Four highlights how questions of identify and belonging defined British Jewish responses to the Holocaust. Finally, a case study of the Imperial War Museum Holocaust Exhibition illustrates the enduring nature of Britain’s relationship with the Holocaust.