Memory lobbying borrows Holocaust victimhood templates with mixed diplomatic results

Evidence

Both Vertriebene and Pieds-Noirs have couched their memory lobbying in terms of victimization, drawing largely on international or transnational patterns of Holocaust commemoration since the 1980s. In both cases, initiatives for national recognition have been followed and criticized in other countries, mainly in Poland and Algeria, and have led to diplomatic tensions. Yet, while growing exchange among Germany, Poland, and other Central European states and their civil societies seems to have paved the way to a ‘transition from a divided to a shareable – if not shared – memory of the flight and expulsion of the German populations’ (François), forms of international collaboration have not materialized in the Franco-Algerian case. — Manuel Borutta and Jan C. Jansen, Vertriebene and Pieds-Noirs in Postwar…, 103

Categorization

• XREF: Supports reader’s question about how grievance groups borrow established victimhood scripts to sustain solidarity politics across borders. — connects to: Victim-narrative explanations fail for conflicts inside Muslim-majority states — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 734

Broader Connections

• Victim-narrative explanations fail for conflicts inside Muslim-majority states #complicates (0.72) — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 734