Conceptualizing Mass Violence Conceptualizing Mass Violence draws attention to the conspicuous inability to inhibit mass violence in myriad forms and considers the plausible reasons for doing so. Focusing on a postcolonial perspective, the volume seeks to popularize and institutionalize the study of mass violence in South Asia. The chapters explore and deliberate upon the varied aspects of mass violence, namely revisionism, reconstruction, atrocities, trauma, memorialization and lit- erature, the need for Holocaust education, and the criticality of dialogue and rec- onciliation. The language, content, and characteristics of mass violence/genocide explicitly reinforce its aggressive, transmuting, and multifaceted character and the consequent necessity to understand the same in a nuanced manner. The book is an attempt to do so as it takes episodes of mass violence for case study from all inhabited continents, from the twentieth century to the present. The volume stud- ies “consciously enforced mass violence” through an interdisciplinary approach and suggests that dialogue aimed at reconciliation is perhaps the singular agency via which a solution could be achieved from mass violence in the global context. The volume is essential reading for postgraduate students and scholars from the interdisciplinary fields of Holocaust and Genocide Studies, History, Political Science, Sociology, World History, Human Rights, and Global Studies. Navras J. Aafreedi is Assistant Professor of History at Presidency University, Kolkata, and Research Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemi- tism and Policy, New York. His publications include his monograph Jews, Judaiz- ing Movements and the Traditions of Israelite Descent in South Asia. Priya Singh is Associate Director at Asia in Global Affairs (www.asiainglo- balaffairs.in). Priya is a political scientist with an interest in issues pertaining to geo-politics, nationalism, post-nationalism, identity, state formation and gender. She has authored, edited, and co-edited books on Israel and the Middle East. Mass Violence in Modern History Edited by Alexander Korb (University of Leicester, United Kingdom) and Uğur Ümit Üngor (Utrecht University, the Netherlands) Despite the horrors of nineteenth-century conflicts including the US Civil War and the Napoleonic Wars, it was not until the twentieth century that mass killing was conducted on an industrialized scale. While the trenches of Flanders and the atomic bomb were major manifestations of this, mass violence often occurred outside the context of conventional war or away from the traditional battlefield. Research has understandably tended to focus on major events and often within a binary superpower narrative. In fact, instances of mass violence are often hard to pin down as well as being little known, and involving civilians and citizens of a wider range of territories than is publicized. The books in this series shed light on mass violence in the modern era, from Armenia to Rwanda; from Belarus to Bosnia-Herzegovina and many points in between. 5. The Construction of National Socialist Europe During the Second World War Raimund Bauer 6. Cultural Violence and the Destruction of Human Communities: New theoretical perspectives Edited by Fiona Greenland and Fatma Müge Göçek 7. Remembering Genocides in Central Africa Rene Lemarchand 8. Political Violence in Southeast Asia since 1945 Case Studies from Six Countries Edited by Eve Monique Zucker and Ben Kiernan 9. Conceptualizing Mass Violence Representations, Recollections, and Reinterpretations Edited by Navras J. Aafreedi and Priya Singh For more information about this series, please visit: https://www.routledge.com/ Mass-Violence-in-Modern-History/book-series/MASSVIOLENCE Conceptualizing Mass Violence Representations, Recollections, and Reinterpretations Edited by Navras J. Aafreedi and Priya Singh First published 2021 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2021 selection and editorial matter, Navras J. Aafreedi and Priya Singh; individual chapters, the contributors The right of Navras J. Aafreedi and Priya Singh to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Aafreedi, Navras Jaat, editor. | Singh, Priya, editor. Title: Conceptualizing mass violence : representations, recollections, and reinterpretations / edited by Navras J. Aafreedi and Priya Singh. Subjects: LCSH: Genocide. | Genocide--South Asia. | Violence--South Asia. Classification: LCC HV6322.7 .C653 2021 | DDC 304.6/63--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020050905 ISBN: 978-0-367-69997-0 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-367-70406-3 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-003-14613-1 (ebk) Typeset in Times New Roman by SPi Global, India To Professor Mahavir Singh With respect and warm regards Contents List of figures x List of tables xi List of contributors xii Acknowledgements xx Introduction 1 1. Reading mass violence 3 NAVRAS J. AAFREEDI AND PRIYA SINGH PART 1 Narratives 17 2. Violence and violations: betrayal narratives in atrocity accounts 19 DENNIS B. KLEIN 3. Holocaust survivors in Mexico: intersecting and conflicting narratives of open doors, welcoming society and personal hardships 29 DANIELA GLEIZER AND YAEL SIMAN 4. Historical narratives, the perpetuation of trauma, and the work of Vamık Volkan 45 REUVEN FIRESTONE PART 2 Revisionism and reconstruction 59 5. Holocaust, propaganda, and the distortion of history in the former Soviet space 61 CHARLES E. EHRLICH viii Contents 6. The Genocide of 1971 in Bangladesh: lessons from history 73 SRIMANTI SARKAR 7. Holocaust denial and minimization in the Indian Urdu press 87 MD. MUDDASSIR QUAMAR PART 3 Education 97 8. Holocaust education and remembrance in Australia: moving from family and community remembrance to human rights education 99 SUZANNE D. RUTLAND AND SUZANNE HAMPEL 9. New developments in Holocaust and genocide education in South Africa: the case study of the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre 114 TALI NATES 10. A case of naive normalization? India’s misbeliefs about Hitler and schooling on the Holocaust 126 ANUBHAV ROY 11. Holocaust education in India and its challenges 138 NAVRAS J. AAFREEDI PART 4 Reflections 151 12. Sonderkommando Photo 4 and the portrayal of the invisible 153 DAVID PATTERSON 13. Overcoming “intimate hatreds”: reflections on violence against Yezidis 167 TUTKU AYHAN AND GÜNEŞ MURAT TEZCÜR 14. The state and its margins: changing notions of marginality in Turkey 181 ANITA SENGUPTA Contents ix PART 5 Trauma 195 15. Pinochet’s dictatorship and reflections on trauma in Chile: how much have we learned in terms of human rights? 197 NANCY NICHOLLS LOPEANDÍA PART 6 Memorialization 211 16. “Grassroots” Holocaust museums: revealing untold stories 213 STEPHANIE SHOSH ROTEM 17. Fabric, food, song: the quiet continuities in Bengali life 70 years after partition 224 RITUPARNA ROY PART 7 Literature 239 18. The failure of secular publics and the rise of the Jewish religious public in Nathan Englander’s: For the Relief of Unbearable Urges 241 FUZAIL ASAR SIDDIQI PART 8 Dialogue and reconciliation 253 19. The 2002 Alexandria Summit and its follow-up 255 DAVID ROSEN Index 263