Food, Memory and Travel
As humans, memory plays a substantial role in our day to day lives as well as the significant life events that our daily activities are centered around. Researchers in the field of neuroscience have narrowed down a certain aspect of our brain that plays more of a role than others when it comes to memory formation- the hippocampus. This small part of our brain has generally been thought to have been associated with two key functions. The first function is as an encoder of memory (particularly episodic and long-term declarative memories) and the second function is its role in navigation by cognitively mapping our surroundings.[1] More recently, in the twentieth century the hippocampus has also been found to be involved in learning (memory acquisition) and recall.[2] Why does this matter on a field school? Episodic memory involves the formation and recall of one-time unique events in one’s life and the hippocampus is essential for this kind of memory formation.[3] Obviously, when you’re on a Field School about history and memorialization, these are very important things.
Yet, as much as memory may be rooted in science, when combined with the academic pursuit of history, these two concepts become paradoxical in their inherent differences. What we consider to be history and what we consider to be memory are two very different things. Jon D. Holtzman, a professor of anthropology, writes that while history is frequently tied to empiricism and objectivity, memory “intrinsically destabilizes truth through a concern with the subjective ways that the past is recalled, memorialized, and used to construct the present.”[4] This was apparent again and again as we travelled through various countries and cities and were able to observe the subtle (and not so subtle) differences in memorialization, as well as the ways in which countries chose to portray their history. Furthermore, while all the participants encountered the same sites and memorials during our travels, we all left the Field School with slightly different memories and experiences from each other.
One thing that struck me while I was on the Field School and even more so when I got back, was the way that food became associated with certain places or feelings for me. Sometimes, these were related to the precise location that we were at or a particular memorial, but sometimes they were tied to things more abstract- a feeling, the people I was with, what I had learned that day, etc. The link between food, travel, and memory is not one that has been very thoroughly researched. What does exist comes from the realm of the tourism industry with studies conducted to gather information on how to make formulated food experiences more enticing to tourists. However, that does not mean that these studies are without merit to experiential learning activities, as these studies have simultaneously attempted to elucidate what makes food so memorable when travelling.
Authors Matthew J. Stone, Steven Micgacz, and Erose Sthapit found that food experiences while travelling are more memorable than those experienced at home.[5] Their research attempted not just to analyze what factors contributed to these memory making experiences, but to find out why they did so. They discovered that several different factors lead to memorable food experiences when travelling including the novelty of the situation, travel companions, moods and emotions, focus and attention, and reflective connections.[6] Researchers Anam Afaq, Loveleen Gaur, and Gurmeet Singh conducted similar research into food, memory, and travel and found that food is critical in outlining a particular destination’s uniqueness.[7] Furthermore, they found that food memories trigger associative memories connected to the location and event that happened in relation to a particular food.[8] Their study also found that location and setting play a vital role in creating food memories in addition to the newness or uniqueness of the setting, such as a new restaurant or a new type of food.[9] Interestingly, the Afaq et al. study also stated that responses gathered from recent tourists, indicated that these travellers were not intentionally seeking a particular food experience but that instead, a surprising food experience turned out to be a memorable one.[10]
Relating this to my own experience, I can attest to the fact that the novelty or the newness of a certain situation impacted my memory of that place and the food I had there. Indeed, almost every food memory I speak about on this site is tied in some way to factors of uniqueness and where this novelty differed from place to place. For example, at the former concentration camp Ravensbrück, I have memories that were created both from location as well as from what I ate, whereas in a location such as Poland, my memories were created more from the novelty of the food and the people I was with. Additionally, as Afaq et al. found, none of these food memories were entered into intentionally, but were all times when a unique experience turned into a memorable one.
Food, Memory, and the Holocaust
Interestingly, but perhaps not surprisingly, the Holocaust and food have also been linked to both memory and remembrance. Discussion of food appears frequently in Holocaust survivor memoirs and testimonies. Myrna Goldenberg, writes that food- or, more precisely, hunger- dominates Holocaust narratives.[11] She coined this fixation or desire to talk about food, “food talk,” and describes it in all of its different facets including recitations of remembered and fantasized meals, graphic descriptions of food stolen from other prisoners or Nazis, statements of grotesque hunger and thirst, and reflections on preparing meals and menus.[12] Goldenberg explores the importance of this type of talk because of its ability to foster social relationships, reinforce religious values and rituals, and strengthen women’s sense of purpose which in turn reinforced their self-esteem and dignity and ultimately, contributed to their ability to survive.[13]
She also draws attention to the fact that there was a gendered element when it came to reminiscing about food and the importance that this had in women’s versus men’s lives during the Holocaust and its aftermath. Goldenberg writes that men wrote less about food in their memoirs and when they did, it was about terrible hunger or the memory of delicious food in a more abstract manner.[14] Conversely, for women, hunger was just as significant as it was in men’s memoirs, but the response it evoked was more concretely rooted in the imagination, situated in the kitchen, and remembered through socialization.[15] Jon Holtzman also notes this gendered aspect of food memory, writing that because gender is a central theme within many analyses of food and memory, this emphasizes its role as a “vehicle for particularly feminine forms of memory.”[16]
Professor Louise Vasvari also notes the connection between “food talk” and gender in her article, “En-gendering Memory Through Holocaust Alimentary Life writing.” Vasvari argues that women in concentration camps attempted to maintain their identity and family connection through “food talk” and that, after the war, their memoirs and recipes acted as a means of transmitting survivors’ Holocaust memories to future generations.[17] Further to this, and something that I found to be particularly relevant to the work we did on the Field School, is her argument that recipes can act as postmemory aided by the next generation, and a means of intergenerational transmission of Holocaust memory and remembrance.[18] In line with Vasvari, Marianne Hirsch and Leo Spitzer also write about the way that recipes and recipe books created and written by Holocaust survivors act as a means of connection to future generations of women (and hopefully, men as well).[19] They argue that recipe books such as In Memory’s Kitchen published by survivors of Theresienstadt, carry memory traces from the past and also embody the very process of transmission through the very tangible act of cooking or baking.[20]
As a woman myself, I find myself entangled within this gendering of the connection between food and memory and am not entirely satisfied with the generalizations behind it. It may be that food and food preparation have been the traditional realm of females and the social connection that the authors describe above makes food a more feminine way of remembering, yet I still think there is more research to be done into this connection. In my own experience, I found the act of cooking and baking in relation to my memories from the Field School to be both a meditative action as I had a chance to think about the original moment when I ate the food, as well as a way of creating new memories that served to reinforce and augment the previous ones. Perhaps, travel, a novel experience, or simply cooking a recipe are more gender-neutral ways of creating food memories that can be long lasting and meaningful and looking forwards, I am curious about how food may aid in educating a new generation about the Holocaust.
[1] Douglas D. Burman, “Introductory Chapter: A Brief Survey of the Functional Roles of the Hippocampus,” in Hippocampus- More Than Just Memory, (London: IntechOpen, 2023), 1.
[2] Burman, “Introductory Chapter,” 1.
[3] Ibid., 2.
[4] Jon D. Holtzman, “Food and Memory.” Annual Review of Anthropology 35 (2006): 363.
[5] Matthew J. Stone, Steven Migacz, and Erose Sthapit, “Connections Between Culinary Tourism Experience and Memory,” Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research 46, no. 4 (May 2022): 797.
[6] Stone, Migacz, and Sthapit, “Connections Between Culinary Tourism Experience and Memory,” 800.
[7] Anam Afaq, Loveleen Gaur, and Gurmeet Singh, “A Trip Down Memory Lane to Travellers’ Food Experiences,” British Food Journal 125, no. 4 (2023): p. 1390.
[8] Afaq, Gaur, and Singh, “A Trip Down Memory Lane to Travellers’ Food Experiences,” 1391.
[9] Ibid., 1396.
[10] Ibid., 1399.
[11] Myrna Goldenberg, “Food Talk: Gendered Responses to Hunger in the Concentration Camps,” in Experience and Expression: Women, the Nazis, and the Holocaust, ed. Elizabeth R. Baer and Myrna Goldenberg (Wayne State University Press, 2003),162.
[12] Goldenberg, “Food Talk,” 162.
[13] Ibid. 163
[14] Ibid., 167
[15] Ibid. 167
[16] Holtzman, “Food and Memory,” 10.
[17] Louise O. Vasvari, “En-gendering Memory Through Holocaust Alimentary Life Writing,” Comparative Literature and Culture 17, no. 3 (September 2015): 1.
[18] Vasvari, “En-gendering Memory Through Holocaust Alimentary Life Writing,” 1.
[19] Marianne Hirsch and Leo Spitzer, “Testimonial Objects: Memory, Gender, and Transmission,” Poetics Today 27, no.2 (Summer 2006): 354.
[20] Hirsch and Spitzer, “Testimonial Objects: Memory, Gender, and Transmission,” 355.