Post-Holocaust: Interpretation, Misinterpretation, and the Claims of History"These essays are extremely well written, with the clarity and accessibility that one has come to expect from Berel Lang, one of the most respected and significant philosophers writing about the Holocaust and its impact." --Michael L. Morgan In these trenchant essays, philosopher Berel Lang examines post-Holocaust intepretations--and misinterpretations--showing the ways in which rhetoric and ideology have affected historical discourse about the Holocaust and how these accounts can be deconstructed. Why didn't the Jews resist? How could the Germans have done what they did? Why didn't more bystanders join in the rescue? In Lang's view, these questions become mischievous when the circumstances in which victims, perpetrators, and bystanders played their roles are omitted or obscured. To confront such issues adequately requires comparative and contextual evidence. Post-Holocaust addresses such questions as the place of the Holocaust in the Nazi project as a whole, the roles of revenge and forgiveness in post-Holocaust Jewish thinking, Holocaust commemoration as artifice or "business," and the relationship of the Holocaust to traditional antisemitism. Lang's analysis provides an incisive and fruitful basis for confronting these critical subjects. Jewish Literature and Culture--Alvin H. Rosenfeld, editor |
Contents
The Nazi as Criminal | 3 |
Forgiveness Revenge and the Limits of Holocaust Justice | 17 |
Evil Suffering and the Holocaust | 31 |
Comparative EvilMeasuring Numbers Degrees People | 51 |
Language and Lessons | 61 |
The Grammar of Antisemitism | 63 |
The Unspeakable vs the Testimonial Holocaust Trauma in Holocaust History | 71 |
Undoing Certain Mischievous Questions about the Holocaust | 85 |
Introduction | xi |
In the Matter of Justice | 1 |
The Nazi as Criminal | 3 |
Forgiveness Revenge and the Limits of Holocaust Justice | 17 |
Evil Suffering and the Holocaust | 31 |
Comparative EvilMeasuring Numbers Degrees People | 51 |
Language and Lessons | 61 |
The Grammar of Antisemitism | 63 |
From the Particular to the Universal and Forward | 99 |
For and Against Interpretation | 115 |
Oskar Rosenfeld and Historiographic Realism in Sex Shit and Status | 117 |
Lachrymose without Tears Misreading the Holocaust in American Life | 127 |
Not Enough vs Plenty Which Did Pius XII? | 137 |
The Evil in Genocide | 145 |
Misinterpretation as the Authors Responsibility Nietzsches Fascism for Instance | 157 |
Philosophy andof the Holocaust | 173 |
Notes | 183 |
Index | 197 |
Cover | 202 |
Contents | vii |
Acknowledgments | ix |
The Unspeakable vs the Testimonial Holocaust Trauma in Holocaust History | 71 |
Undoing Certain Mischievous Questions about the Holocaust | 85 |
From the Particular to the Universal and Forward | 99 |
For and Against Interpretation | 115 |
Oskar Rosenfeld and Historiographic Realism in Sex Shit and Status | 117 |
Lachrymose without Tears Misreading the Holocaust in American Life | 127 |
Not Enough vs Plenty Which Did Pius XII? | 137 |
The Evil in Genocide | 145 |
Misinterpretation as the Authors Responsibility Nietzsches Fascism for Instance | 157 |
Philosophy andof the Holocaust | 173 |
Notes | 183 |
| 197 | |