Victims and executioners : American political discourses on the holocaust from liberation to Bitburg

In recent years, much has been written on how the Holocaust has been appropriated in popular and political discourses in the United States. Authors such as Peter Novick and Norman Finkelstein have argued that the Holocaust has been "Americanized," often detracting from its European origins and the moral questions it poses. This thesis goes further by focusing on the particular framing of the Holocaust in US official and public discourses with particular reference to foreign policy discourse. It traces the way in which this discourse has been structured around assumptions about the victims on the one hand, and executioners on the other. It also traces how the dialectic between victim and executioner in American public discourse has been affected by pragmatic and political considerations, particularly those concerning the Federal Republic of Germany and the State of Israel at significant historical junctures. 

The thesis focuses on US responses to the war crimes issue in occupied Germany immediately after the Second World War in the second chapter. Responses to the trial of Adolf Eichmann by Israel in 1961 are examined in the third chapter. The fourth chapter discusses the significance of the meeting between US and German political figures at the Bitburg cemetery in 1985.