There are numerous ways in which national and global politics have shaped the Holocaust memory around the world. There are many examples of how the Cold War affected the shape of the Holocaust memory in Germany, especially as a result of the Cold War. In the lecture "The Politics of Memory," it was discussed that East Germany was occupied by the Soviet Union during the Cold War, and to commemorate their sufferings, they emphasize their sufferings as victims of bombings by the Allied forces near the end of the Second World War, as
well as their sufferings under Nazi rule (Lecture "The Politics of Memory"). In order to deflect blame away from East Germany's responsibilities for this mass genocide, memory focused on German losses under Nazi rule. As a consequence of the Cold War, their Holocaust memory was also shaped to fit the political divide between the United States and the Soviet Union, which
imposed blame on the Allied forces for German suffering and loss. Also, Polish politics shape Holocaust memory. The majority of Poland's Jewish population died during the war, and those who survived were largely prohibited from returning home due to hostility from the Poles (Lecture "The Politics of Memory"). Therefore, Polish Holocaust memory has largely been framed not by Jews, but by Poles. As a result of their Holocaust memory, the Soviet Union and Poland generalized Jewish losses and sufferings into their own losses. As a result, the Jewish losses are seen as losses for the Soviet Union and Poland as a nation, undermining the role race had in attributing to the Holocaust's mass genocide against the Jews. Overall, this shows that these nations shaped the Holocaust memory to best suit their political narratives.
