“WHEN MEMORIES OF SLAVERY AND COLONIALISM BUMP UP AGAINST MEMO- RIES OF THE HOLOCAUST IN CONTEMPORARY MULTICUL- TURAL SOCIETIES, MUST A COMPETITION OF VICTIMS ENSUE?” THEORIST MICHAEL ROTHBERG ARGUES IN FA- VOR OF A VIEWPOINT WHICH ALLOWS FOR “NEW FORMS OF SOLIDARITY AND NEW VISIONS OF JUSTICE.”


ABOVE: A portrait of Anne Frank (1929-1945) taken in a photography booth with her weight and the date the photo was taken printed on the border, Aachen, Germany. From Anne Frank’s photo album.


RIGHT: Photo mural at the Anne Frank House Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands. On July 6, 1942, the Frank family went into hiding in the building at Prinsengracht 263, which housed the business of Anne’s father Otto. The building consisted of the main house and the annex. Eight people hid on the top floors of the annex. A moveable bookcase concealed a secret entrance (shown on facing page).


30 AMERICAN INDIAN WINTER 2018


against Indigenous peoples under colonial- ism on the one hand, and the Holocaust on the other. This comparison occurs despite the fact that production of the Classic Mimbres bowls is commonly claimed to have ceased at around 1130 AD; our contemporary knowl- edge of the devastation that was unleashed in the American Southwest and the New World in general with the arrival of the Europeans cannot simply be put on hold. The


comparison is especially loaded because in many cultures of memory the


Holocaust is seen as a “unique” event in hu- man history which has no parallel. As a result, comparisons to other atrocities and genocides are perceived as ethically dangerous in that they might dilute, relativize or even trivialize the memory of the Holocaust. Nevertheless, the question, although still largely taboo, is gaining relevance and urgency with the in- creasing social and moral need to address the historical practices and continuing legacies of (settler) colonialism. In the realm of com- parative studies, theorist Michael Rothberg


PHOTO COURTESY OF ANNE FRANK FONDS BASEL VIA GETTY IMAGES


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