After many years, the singular nature of the Shoa is the object of a very lively debate. The current scholarly debate on “ memory ” in fact hides some deeper questions about the Shoa and other contemporary genocides, and the bearers of a sacred memory oppose negationists on the right as well as on the left.
The author here analyses in depth the ideological and historical undercurrents of this controversy. He shows what the Shoa means for the very foundations of democracy, what it shows about Jewish singularity, and what it reveals about the nature of modernity.
Shmuel Trigano teaches the sociology of knowledge and of religion at the University of Paris-X-Nanterre. He has published many works on political philosophy, spirituality, and history.