Memory through Media: the creation of Holocaust narratives in United States media, 1953-1969

Abstract

Since the capture and trial of Adolf Eichmann in 1960-62, historians have placed great emphasis upon the trial as a watershed in the development of Holocaust awareness. This study examines this claim through the lens of media in the specific context of the United States during the 1960s, specifically the periodicals of the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Time magazine, and a range of long-form books that dealt with the Holocaust specifically, and the Third Reich generally. Through an exploration of Holocaust narratives before, during, and after the trial and across the media types, the complexities of the interactions between creators and consumers of information are revealed. This study also analyzes how media outlets and the general public responded to the publication of new works in the field of Holocaust studies, and offers a critical perspective on how narratives were propagated in the public sphere and why different narratives found disparate levels of critical and commercial success. In doing so, the current historiography of Holocaust awareness in the years and decades following Eichmann's trial is faced with serious challenges.