Dimitri Stevens response to "The Americanization of the Holocaust"

After reading “The Americanization if the Holocaust,” I focused on the section titled “The first American memorials” by James E. Young.  The passage that seemed to be a turning point in the text was when he was talking about the three reasons why the New York City’s art Commission turned down the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising designs for the holocaust memorial.  It is understandable if it got turned down for not being aesthetically pleasing, but the main reason that was unfair was because they stated that the holocaust was not an American experience.  Young stated that “ For the Jewish survivors of the holocaust who had immigrated to America after World War II, and who regarded themselves as typical ‘New Americans,’ such an answer challenged their very conception of what it meant to be American in the first place(Young 70).”  I saw this section as a turning point because it was even stated in the text that for the first time there had been a distinction between “events in American history” and “Americans history.” 

                I enjoyed reading about the later support of the Americans, putting millions of dollars towards creating memorials for the Jewish.  I agree with the idea that some advances to support the cause were influenced by attaining or maintaining power politically.  The description of the construction of the architecture was very impressive and seemed to be well thought out in the section “Americas national Memorial to the Holocaust.”  Phrases mentioned in the passage like “Not only would this museum depict the lives of ‘new Americans, ‘but it would also reinforce America’s self-idealization as haven for the world’s oppressed” (Young 73).