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Why the Holocaust Does Not Matter to Estonians

This essay examines perceptions of the Holocaust in contemporary Estonia. To comprehend how Estonians have formed their views on the Holocaust is to understand how they conceive of their history. Whereas in Western Europe and North America the Holocaust is perceived as carrying a universalistic message, in Estonia and other East European countries it is ultimately linked to the Jewish minority. Thus, whatever Estonians think of the Jews as a group translates into their perceptions of the Holocaust and vice versa. Therefore it is essentially impossible to discuss what the Holocaust means to Estonians without assessing the levels of anti-Semitism in Estonian society today. Unlike in neighboring Latvia and Lithuania, the Nazi mass murder of Jews has never become a subject of debate in Estonia. Most Estonians think of the Holocaust as a superimposed discourse that has no direct connection to their country. The lack of interest can be attributed to several factors. As far as Jewish history is concerned, Estonia is a marginal case. The Estonian Jewish community was small and inconspicuous. Even more significantly, in Estonia the Holocaust played out differently than elsewhere in Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe. The implementation of the so-called Final Solution of the Jewish Question in Estonia was less visible than elsewhere and was witnessed by few people. Therefore, the Soviet investigation of war crimes committed in Estonia paid relatively little attention to the plight of the Jews. Even then, both the media and witnesses routinely portrayed Jewish victims as peaceful Soviet citizens murdered by German fascist invaders. These perceptions carried over into the post-1991 period.