“¡Eso no nos representa!” Historia, contexto(s) y representación en el Monumento Nacional a la Memoria de las Víctimas del Holocausto Judío de Buenos Aires, Argentina

Abstract

Objective/Context: In the field of Holocaust studies, the Latin American experience has occupied a liminal space. Even when the global character assumed by its forms of remembrance is widely accepted, little attention has been paid to the national cases of this region. This paper deals with a specific national case through the construction record of the National Monument to the Victims of the Jewish Holocaust, located in the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina. The present research reveals the legal and administrative process that accompanied its gestation, the recognition of the actors that intervened throughout the period, and, finally, the character and debates that the architecture of the pantheon provoked. This cycle, which lasted a little more than two decades, allows us to qualify the meaning of the global character of Holocaust memory by considering how this experience was redefined in a national context. Methodology: For this research, qualitative techniques are used in the analysis of the legislative and patrimonial records, journalistic sources, interviews with involved actors, and a documentary film called “Monument,” which aims to give an account of the history of its construction and the representational matrix of that memorial. Originality: Although there have been, in recent years, some works that addressed the memory of the Holocaust in Argentina, they focused on various cultural media: literature, film, and testimonial narratives. This paper addresses an object whose materiality is different—monumental—and which was conceived as a public policy of commemorative character. The analysis of the construction of this memorial pantheon allows recognition of how the transnational dimensions of Holocaust remembrance intersected with aspects of the Argentine political process of the last twenty years. Conclusions: The analysis of the construction process and the materiality assumed by its architecture demonstrate, first, how the global dimensions of Holocaust remembrance interact with local contexts and, second, the tensions raised between the actors and organizations that promote its memory and the victims of Nazi persecution in Argentina.