The dynamics of historical memory. “The Story of Aharon Barak: A Holocaust Story”

Abstract

This paper explores the dynamics of historical memory through the example of the Israeli short film “The Story of Aharon Barak: A Holocaust Story” (2021), which is dedicated to one of the episodes of the Holocaust: the escape from the Kaunas ghetto and the rescue of a Jewish boy who later became the President of the Supreme Court of Israel. The process of representing the memory of this episode goes through several stages: the personal memory of Aharon Barak, recorded in his speeches and interviews, the mediation in the mass media, when it becomes part of the collective communicative memory, and, finally, the remediation in the film. In the process of remediation, the audience expands: firstly, at the expense of children, to whom the film is primarily aimed, and secondly (after its translation into English) – at the expense of the English-speaking audience. The film uses several media (feature film, documentary newsreel, personal and historical photographs, animation, video reports, video message), which contribute to a diverse, including visual and emotional, perception of the story being told. Also of great importance in the process of remediation are the ethical aspects emphasised by Aaron Barak himself. Overall, the film considered to be a part of the process of creating a cultural (in J. Assman’s terms) memory of the Holocaust.