The Digital Monument to the Jewish Community in the Netherlands: a meaningful, ritual place for commemoration

Abstract

The Digital Monument to the Jewish Community in the Netherlands went online in 2005. This monument has been dedicated to preserve the memory of "all the men, women and children who were persecuted as Jews during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, and did not survive the Shoah". In 2010 the Jewish Monument Community was linked to this virtual monument, this website Community offers the possibility to contribute additional information about individual victims remembered in the Digital Monument. The results of this research show that in comparison with commemoration at a traditional material monument, in particular the individual features of this new concept regarding commemoration are valued. Each individual victim may be commemorated and remembered in a very personal manner by telling who the victim was, and how he or she lived on the eve of deportation. The conclusion is that cyberspace may offer a significant and relevant place for, in this case, commemoration practices. Both Digital Monument and Community offer a meaningful place of commemoration of Dutch victims of the Shoah.

From Mediatized Emotion to Digital Affect Cultures: New Technologies and Global Flows of Emotion

“…In our theorization of digital affect culture, we draw on media and cultural studies and start with conceptualizing affect as a cultural practice being transferred and shaped by communication while at the same time influencing our communicative action. These communicative processes span the established, culturally significant memorial practices that inform practices in the digital realm (Faro, 2015), with mediatization shaping established rituals (e.g., Christensen & Sandvik, 2016; Pantti & Sumiala, 2009). Adopting the perspective of practice allows us to take into account the cultural as well as situational differences in doing affect, the meanings attached to specific emotions, and the normative dimension inherent in normalized practices as the preferred way of doing things.…”