The lens of apartheid-era Jewish commemorations of the Holocaust in South Africa reveals the
fascinating transformation of a diasporic community. Through the prism of Holocaust memory
this book examines South African Jewry and its ambivalent position as a minority within the
privileged white minority. Grounded in research in over a dozen archives the book provides a
rich empirical account of the centrality of Holocaust memorialization to the community¿s
ongoing struggle against global and local antisemitism. Most of the chapters focus on white
perceptions of the Holocaust and reveals the tensions between the white communities in the
country regarding the place of collective memories of suffering in the public arena. However
the book also moves beyond an insular focus on the South African Jewish community and in very
different modality investigates prominent figures in the anti-apartheid struggle and the role
of Holocaust memory in their fascinating journeys towards freedom.
