Full Text Available

Note: Clicking the button above will open the full text document at the original institutional repository in a new window.

Reporting on the Holocaust in South Africa: An Examination of Press Coverage and Memorialization in the Aftermath of World War II

Until recently, little scholarly work has focused on the development of Holocaust memory in South Africa, particularly regarding the extent to which the Holocaust has been ‘domesticated' – refracted through a local lens – in this country. This dissertation seeks to add to a broader scholarly effort...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Abrahams, Dmitri
Other Authors: Mendelsohn, Adam
Format: Thesis
Language:Eng
Published: Department of Historical Studies 2025
Subjects:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1867614512937435136
access_status_str Open Access
author Abrahams, Dmitri
author2 Mendelsohn, Adam
author_browse Abrahams, Dmitri
Mendelsohn, Adam
author_facet Mendelsohn, Adam
Abrahams, Dmitri
author_sort Abrahams, Dmitri
collection Thesis
description Until recently, little scholarly work has focused on the development of Holocaust memory in South Africa, particularly regarding the extent to which the Holocaust has been ‘domesticated' – refracted through a local lens – in this country. This dissertation seeks to add to a broader scholarly effort to explain how a country with its own fraught racial politics engaged with the Nazi past. This study provides a detailed analysis of how different newspapers in South Africa reacted, transmitted, and engaged with the news of the liberation of the Nazi Concentration camps, the subsequent Belsen Trial, and the International Military Tribunal. It also uncovers how the Jewish community established commemorative practices and disseminated knowledge of the Holocaust between 1945 and 1960. This is achieved by examining the most widely circulated newspapers marketed towards different segments of South African society, as well as Jewish community records, and archival material. Newspaper coverage of the Holocaust in South Africa reflected the ethos of each publication and their stance on the war. How these publications reacted to and reported on the Holocaust greatly influenced how they engaged with and understood the Belsen Trial and the International Military Tribunal. Early Jewish commemoration of the Shoah reflected the community's need to rebuild its communal identity in the wake of social and political upheaval both locally and abroad.
format Thesis
id oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/41482
institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language Eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:53:13.936Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2025
publishDateRange 2025
publishDateSort 2025
publisher Department of Historical Studies
publisherStr Department of Historical Studies
record_format dspace
source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/41482 Reporting on the Holocaust in South Africa: An Examination of Press Coverage and Memorialization in the Aftermath of World War II Abrahams, Dmitri Mendelsohn, Adam Historical Studies Until recently, little scholarly work has focused on the development of Holocaust memory in South Africa, particularly regarding the extent to which the Holocaust has been ‘domesticated' – refracted through a local lens – in this country. This dissertation seeks to add to a broader scholarly effort to explain how a country with its own fraught racial politics engaged with the Nazi past. This study provides a detailed analysis of how different newspapers in South Africa reacted, transmitted, and engaged with the news of the liberation of the Nazi Concentration camps, the subsequent Belsen Trial, and the International Military Tribunal. It also uncovers how the Jewish community established commemorative practices and disseminated knowledge of the Holocaust between 1945 and 1960. This is achieved by examining the most widely circulated newspapers marketed towards different segments of South African society, as well as Jewish community records, and archival material. Newspaper coverage of the Holocaust in South Africa reflected the ethos of each publication and their stance on the war. How these publications reacted to and reported on the Holocaust greatly influenced how they engaged with and understood the Belsen Trial and the International Military Tribunal. Early Jewish commemoration of the Shoah reflected the community's need to rebuild its communal identity in the wake of social and political upheaval both locally and abroad. 2025-06-25T11:40:41Z 2025-06-25T11:40:41Z 2025 2025-06-25T11:34:27Z Thesis / Dissertation Masters Masters http://hdl.handle.net/11427/41482 Eng application/pdf Department of Historical Studies Faculty of Humanities University of Cape town
spellingShingle Historical Studies
Abrahams, Dmitri
Reporting on the Holocaust in South Africa: An Examination of Press Coverage and Memorialization in the Aftermath of World War II
thesis_degree_str Master's
title Reporting on the Holocaust in South Africa: An Examination of Press Coverage and Memorialization in the Aftermath of World War II
title_full Reporting on the Holocaust in South Africa: An Examination of Press Coverage and Memorialization in the Aftermath of World War II
title_fullStr Reporting on the Holocaust in South Africa: An Examination of Press Coverage and Memorialization in the Aftermath of World War II
title_full_unstemmed Reporting on the Holocaust in South Africa: An Examination of Press Coverage and Memorialization in the Aftermath of World War II
title_short Reporting on the Holocaust in South Africa: An Examination of Press Coverage and Memorialization in the Aftermath of World War II
title_sort reporting on the holocaust in south africa an examination of press coverage and memorialization in the aftermath of world war ii
topic Historical Studies
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/41482
work_keys_str_mv AT abrahamsdmitri reportingontheholocaustinsouthafricaanexaminationofpresscoverageandmemorializationintheaftermathofworldwarii