“On TikTok, everything needs to be playful, even the Holocaust!”: Playability, memes, and participatory memory culture
2025-10-30
TikTok has become a space where playfulness is the dominant lingo for engaging with serious subjects. On the platform, the Holocaust is mediated through meme-based performances like the #POVHolocaustChallenge, a trend that invited users to re-enact fictionalized memories of Holocaust victims. Our analysis of 250 videos identifies 3 types of Holocaust-related memetic narratives—mem(e)ories: (1) Testimonial Mem(e)ory, where “victims” testify from “heaven” as confessional storytelling; (2) Punitive Mem(e)ory, where “victims” choose to be sent back to the Holocaust as punishment; and (3) Escapist Mem(e)ory, where “victims” time travel from the 1940s to the present for a brief escape. Drawing on interviews with 15 creators and 7 Holocaust institution representatives, we argue that #POV challenges re-mediate past events, transform into education, and serve as a means for forging personal connections to the Holocaust. We introduce TikTok’s affordance of playability as a structural condition that governs participation, with users merging performative storytelling with remix culture and inscribing Holocaust (post)memory into their platformed experiences.