This lecture will trace a particular trajectory of Omer Bartov's writing about loss and its recovery, encompassing his 2018 monograph Anatomy of Genocide as a story of conflict and destruction; his forthcoming book, Tales from the Borderlands, as a retelling of the world of the borderlands before its destruction; his soon-to-be-published novel, The Butterfly and the Axe, as an attempt to fill in the gaps in the historical records of Bartov's family's murder, and observe its impact on three generations of Jews and Ukrainians; and, time permitting, some remarks on the book he is currently researching, Remaking the Past, which will trace the story of the first generation of Jews and Palestinians born in Israel after the establishment of the state in 1948.
Omer Bartov is a member of the advisory board of the "Globalized Memorial Museums" ERC project.