New Books in History Jie-Hyun Lim, "Victimhood Nationalism: History and Memory in a Global Age" (Columbia UP, 2025)
Feb 21, 2026
Jie-Hyun Lim, historian and Distinguished Professor from South Korea who founded the Critical Global Studies Institute, discusses how nations frame historical suffering as political capital. He traces memorial sites, Holocaust centrality in global memory, and how perpetrators recast themselves as victims. He argues for transnational approaches to reconciliation and compares diverse memory politics across countries.
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Holocaust As A Global Persuasion Frame
- Holocaust memory became globally central because activists use it as a universally recognized frame to explain other atrocities.
- Lim shows groups employ Holocaust parallels strategically to persuade Western audiences unfamiliar with local histories.
Policy Made Holocaust Memory Universal
- International politics institutionalized Holocaust education, notably at the 2000 Stockholm conference linking it to EU and NATO accession.
- Lim argues this expanded Holocaust memory into curricula across Eastern Europe after the Cold War.
Early Japanese Appropriation Of 'Holocaust' Language
- Japan adopted the term for 'Holocaust' publicly in 1945 to describe atomic-bomb suffering, earlier than some Western institutions.
- Lim highlights this early appropriation as part of Japan's effort to parallel its victimhood with Jewish suffering.
