Gershom Scholem and the Holocaust: A Reflection of Inner Disunity between Berlin and Jerusalem

_{The lecture deals with Scholem`s role in the remembrance and reception of Holocaust, focusing on his position and critique Hannah Arendt during the Eichman trial in 1961, how this can be seen in his correspondence with Arendt. Quite in the shadow of Arendt`s publication, "Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil", published in 1963, it is no coincidence that Scholem`s famous open letter, "Against the Myth of the German-Jewish Dialogue", written in 1964 to the editor of a Festschrift of Margarete Susman, denied such a German-Jewish dialogue: Nothing can be more misleading than to apply such a concept to the discussions between Germans and Jews durin the last 200 years." After a long period when a large number of Jews had been apparently absorbed within German society and thought they securely established, the Holocaust could occur. Scholem felt encouraged to reflect on the paradox of the German-Jewish phenomen. But this lectue also examines the significance of the Holocaust for Scholem in his friendship with his colleague Theodor Adorno. Adorno played a special role in the culture of remebrance during post-war Germany. One main task and demand of education for Adorno was that Auschwitz never happen again. In 1979 the four-part American television film "Holocaust" had been seen in German TV, which was a nationwide excited discussion. At the same time was broadcast an almost unnoticed radio conversation between Scholem and a young jornalist Sabine Berghahn about the Holocaust. The conversation with Berghahn shows Scholem in the role of someone who does not want to appear as an academc teacher with regards to the Holocaust, but articulates his immediate dismay. The question that follows is to what extent Scholem contributed to a German discourse on the culture of memory. The examination will emphasis on different levels: personal and biographical, morally and ethically, ideologically and historically, religious and philosophical.}