They shift and transform as essential elements of our social fabric and civil religion from generation to generation. The meanings of these places of memory are not stable. Whether in the Soldiers and Sailors Arch in Brooklyn, also modeled on the Arch of Titus, or in the thousands of statues across America, the Civil War is very much with us.Įach place and time since then has thought about and reimagined the war - “The War of the Rebellion,” to many Northerners, “The War of Northern Aggression” to some in the South - in complex and differing ways. The sculptural tributes to the Civil War, North and South, are still living places of memory. I tell these stories of Paris, Rome and Jerusalem as parallels to debate that has been intensified following the horrible events in Charlottesville. Instead, the State of Israel took the Arch back unto itself, basing the design for its state emblem on the menorah carved into its surface. Others imagined exploding the Arch and thus taking final retribution against Titus for his destruction of Jerusalem. The emblem of the State of Israel, seen here on a stamp commemorating seven years of independence, was based on the depiction of the menorah on the Arch of Titus. Am Yisrael Chai.” Or as Freud put it, “The Jew survives it!” Where once Mussolini had celebrated the Arch as part of the heritage of fascism, Jews after the war assembled there to demand a Jewish state. In modern times, the Arch of Titus became a symbol both of newfound Jewish rootedness in Europe and a place of pilgrimage where Jews, religious and not, could proclaim, “Titus you are gone, but we’re still here. For Jews, the arch was a symbol for their own defeat and exile, even as some took solace by claiming that its magnificence was proof that Israel had once been a “powerful nation” and formidable foe. For Christians, the Arch became a place to celebrate Christian triumph over Judaism and the imperial power of the Catholic Church. Titus had not defeated a foreign power but put down a pesky rebellion by a small province. The Arch of Titus, too, is a complex monument whose meaning shifted over time. One of the more enduring photographs of the liberation shows American troops marching under the arch. Hitler did, after all, celebrate his own victory there, and France did not exactly emerge victorious by its own power. French victory in World War II, for example, was hardly unequivocal. Subsequent events have complicated the meaning of the arch, which was intended to commemorate French military prowess. Napoleon and those who came after him borrowed the design of this Roman triumphal arch, transferring the glory of Rome to the French nation. The spoils of the Jerusalem Temple, including its menorah, are borne aloft by Roman soldiers. This arch, located on the Sacred Way in the ancient center of the Roman Empire, commemorates the victory of the Roman general Titus in the Jewish War of 66-74 C.E.īuilt circa 82 C.E., its deeply carved reliefs show the general, soon emperor, parading through Rome in a triumphal procession. The Arc de Triomphe is a larger version of another triumphal arch, the Arch of Titus. Part of the power of this central place of memory resides in the architecture itself. French historian Pierre Nora spent his life describing and explaining “places of memory,” sites commemorating significant moments in the history of a community that continue to resonate and transform from generation to generation.įor the French Republic, the Arc de Triomphe is one such “place of memory.” Begun by Napoleon and completed in 1836, the Arc is a place of French pride and memory, where war dead from the Revolution to the present are recalled and military triumph exalted.
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