In the face of the Holocaust, writes Lawrence L. Langer, our age clings to the stable relics of faded eras, as if ideas like natural innocence, innate dignity, the inviolable spirit, and the triumph of art over reality were immured in some kind of immortal shrine, immune to the ravages of history and time. But these ideas have been ravaged, and in Admitting the Holocaust. Langer presents a series of essays that represent his effort, over nearly a decade, to wrestle with this rupture in human values--and to see the Holocaust as it really was. His vision is necessarily dark, but he does not see the Holocaust as a warrant for futility, or as a witness to the death of hope. It is a summons to reconsider our values and rethink what it means to be a human being. These penetrating and often gripping essays cover a wide range of issues, from the Holocaust's relation to time and memory, to its portrayal in literature, to its use and abuse by culture, to its role in reshaping our sense of history's legacy. In many, Langer examines the ways in which accounts of the Holocaust--in history, literature, film, and theology--have extended, and sometimes limited, our insight into an event that is often said to defy understanding itself. He singles out Cynthia Ozick as one of the few American writers who can meet the challenge of imagining mass murder without flinching and who can distinguish between myth and truth. On the other hand, he finds Bernard Malamud's literary treatment of the Holocaust never entirely successful (it seems to have been a threat to Malamud's vision of man's basic dignity) and he argues that William Styron's portrayal of the commandant of Auschwitz in Sophie's Choice pushed Nazi violence to the periphery of the novel, where it disturbed neither the author nor his readers. He is especially acute in his discussion of the language used to describe the Holocaust, arguing that much of it is used to console rather than to confront. He notes that when we speak of the survivor instead of the victim, of martyrdom instead of murder, regard being gassed as dying with dignity, or evoke the redemptive rather than grevious power of memory, we draw on an arsenal of words that tends to build verbal fences between what we are mentally willing--or able--to face and the harrowing reality of the camps and ghettos. A respected Holocaust scholar and author of Holocaust Testimonies: The Ruins of Memory, winner of the 1991 National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism, Langer offers a view of this catastrophe that is candid and disturbing, and yet hopeful in its belief that the testimony of witnesses--in diaries, journals, memoirs, and on videotape--and the unflinching imagination of literary artists can still offer us access to one of the darkest episodes in the twentieth century.

In the last two decades our empirical knowledge of the Holocaust has been vastly expanded. Yet this empirical blossoming has not been accompanied by much theoretical reflection on the historiography. This volume argues that reflection on the historical process of (re)constructing the past is as important for understanding the Holocaust—and, by extension, any past event—as is archival research. It aims to go beyond the dominant paradigm of political history and describe the emergence of methods now being used to reconstruct the past in the context of Holocaust historiography.

The result of a research project conducted by Swedish scholars, this text examines interpretations and representations of the Holocaust in European societies, primarily focusing on the most recent decades. Using specific case studies, the articles in this anthology study how, when and why the collective memory of the Holocaust has been expressed and activated for cultural, economic, political and social reasons.

Encyclopedia of the Holocaust is a comprehensive, authoritative one-volume reference that provides reliable information on this ignoble and frightening episode of modern history. It features eight essays on the history of the Holocaust and its antecedents, as well as coverage of such topics as the history of European Jewry, Jewish contributions to European culture, and the rise of anti-semitism and Nazism. The essays are followed by more than 650 entries on significant aspects of the Holocaust, including people, cities and countries, camps, resistance movements, political actions, and outcomes. More than 300 black-and-white photographs from the archives at Yad Vashem bear witness to the horrors of the Nazi regime and at the same time attest to the invincibility of the human spirit. Best Specialist Reference Work of the Year - Reference Reviews UK

The Holocaust Memorial Museum reveals and traces the transformation of ancient Jewish symbols, rituals, archetypes and narratives deployed in these sites. Demonstrating how cloaking the 'secular' history of the Holocaust in sacred garb, memorial museums generate redemptive yet conflicting visions of the meaning and utility of Holocaust memory.

An intriguing analysis of how place constructs memory and how memory constructs place, Remembering the Holocaust shows how visiting sites such as Auschwitz shapes the transfer of Holocaust memory from one generation to the next. Through the discussion of a range of memoirs and novels, including Landscapes of Memory by Ruth Kluger, Too Many Men by Lily Brett, The War After by Anne Karpf and Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer, Remembering the Holocaust reveals the pivotal yet complicated role of place in each generation's writing about the Holocaust. This book provides an insightful and nuanced investigation of the effect of the Holocaust upon families, from survivors of the genocide to members of the second and even third generations of families involved. By deploying an innovative combination of generational and literary study of Holocaust survivor families focussed on place, Remembering the Holocaust makes an important contribution to the field of Holocaust Studies that will be of interest to scholars and anyone interested in Holocaust remembrance.

And she considers how the Holocaust has been portrayed in poetry, fiction, and film.

(Originally Published in 2000 by Allyn & Bacon) Teaching and Studying the Holocaust is comprised of thirteen chapters by some of the most noted Holocaust educators in the United States. In addition to chapters on establishing clear rationales for teaching this history and Holocaust historiography, the book includes individual chapters on incorporating primary documents, first person accounts, film, literature, art, drama, music, and technology into a study of the Holocaust. It concludes with an extensive and valuable annotated bibliography especially designed for educators. Chapter Ten instructs how to make effective use of technology in teaching and learning about the Holocaust. The final section of the book includes a bibliography especially developed for teachers that lists invaluable resources. From the Back Cover: Holocaust scholars from around the world offer critical acclaim for Totten and Feinberg's Teaching and Studying the Holocaust: Michael Berenbaum; Ida E. King Distinguished Visitor Professor of Holocaust Studies, Richard Stockton College and Former Director of Research at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: "There are many scholars who are wont to criticize the teaching of the Holocaust. Many journalists critique what they regard as kitsch or trendiness. All critics of contemporary Holocaust education would do well to read this book. One cannot fail to be impressed by the quality of its learning and the seriousness of its purpose. It is a wonderful place for teachers to turn as they contemplate teaching the Holocaust, an open invitation to learn more and teach more effectively." Barry van Driel; Coordinator International Teacher Education, Anne Frank House, Amsterdam: "Teaching and Studying the Holocaust is an invaluable resource for any teacher wanting to address the complex and sometimes overwhelming history of the Holocaust in the classroom. The book offers a multitude of sensitive and responsible ways of dealing with the issue of the Holocaust. It succeeds in showing teachers very clearly how the study of the Holocaust is not just a topic for history teachers, but for teachers across the curriculum." Dr. Nili Keren; Kibbutzim College of Education, Tel Aviv, Israel "Teaching about the Shoah is one of the most complicated tasks for educators. Indeed, teaching and studying this history raises unprecedented questions concerning modern civilization, and presents teachers and students with tremendous challenges. Samuel Totten and Stephen Feinberg have created a volume that provides educators with essential information and new insights regarding the teaching of this history, and, in doing so, they assist educators to face the aforementioned challenges head-on. Teaching and Studying the Holocaust does not make the task easier, but it does make it possible." Samuel Totten is currently professor of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. Prior to entering academia, he was an English and social studies teacher in Australia, Israel, California, and at the U.S. House of Representatives Page School in Washington, D.C. Totten is also editor of Teaching Holocaust Literature published by Allyn & Bacon. Stephen Feinberg is currently the Special Assistant for Education Programs in the National Institute for Holocaust Education at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. With Samuel Totten, he was co-editor of a special issue (Teaching the Holocaust) of Social Education, the official journal of the National Council for the Social Studies. For eighteen years, he was a history and social studies teacher in the public schools of Wayland, MA.

Cole shows us an "Auschwitz-land" where tourists have become the "ultimate ruberneckers" passing by and gazing at someone else's tragedy. He shows us a US Holocaust Museum that provides visitors with a "virtual Holocaust" experience.

During and in the aftermath of the dark period of the Holocaust, writers across Europe and America sought to express their feelings and experiences through their writings. This book provides a comprehensive account of these writings through essays from expert scholars, covering a wide geographic, linguistic, thematic and generic range of materials. Such an overview is particularly appropriate at a time when the corpus of Holocaust literature has grown to immense proportions and when guidance is needed in determining a canon of essential readings, a context to interpret them, and a paradigm for the evolution of writing on the Holocaust. The expert contributors to this volume, who negotiate the literature in the original languages, provide insight into the influence of national traditions and the importance of language, especially but not exclusively Yiddish and Hebrew, to the literary response arising from the Holocaust.