Before and Beyond Auschwitz: Ethics, Memory, Citizenship and Belongings

Abstract

This paper explores how Western culture has struggled to include Auschwitz (as a symbolic location) within its view of humanity and culture, both theoretically, politically and emotionally. The principal points of reference are Giorgio Agamben, Hannah Arendt and Zygmunt Bauman. The paper argues that pre‐Auschwitz concepts and experiences of ‘normality’ can no longer be applied in the post‐Auschwitz world. It ends by tracing the relationship between the European treatment of the Jews in the 20th century and the current European treatment of asylum seekers and refugees.