Witnessing the Holocaust: Six Literary Testimonies

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Witnessing the Holocaust presents the autobiographical writings, including diaries and autobiographical fiction, of six Holocaust survivors who lived through and chronicled the Nazi genocide. Drawing extensively on the works of Victor Klemperer, Ruth Kluger, Michal Glowinski, Primo Levi, Imre Kertsz and Bla Zsolt, this books conveys, with vivid detail, the persecution of the Jews from the beginning of the Third Reich until its very end. It gives us a sense both of what the Holocaust meant to the wider community swept up in the horrors and what it was like for the individual to weather one of the most shocking events in history. Survivors and witnesses disappear, and history, not memory, becomes the instrument for recalling the past. Judith M. Hughes secures a place for narratives by those who experienced the Holocaust in person. This compelling text is a vital read for all students of the Holocaust and Holocaust memory.

Reviews

[T]his book offers a useful, engaging and well-written starting point. * Journal of Modern Jewish Studies *
Historian and psychoanalyst Judith Hughes examines reactions to the destruction of European Jewry through the writings of six of its victims, caught in the destructive web of the Nazis murderous anti-Jewish program. The psychoanalyst captures the characters of her distinguished authors in often surreal situations; the historian chooses moments from among the panorama of sometimes surreal incidents, places and moments in time across the European continent. This is a splendid survey by an experienced scholar, recovering the specificity and concreteness of the Holocaust. * Michael R. Marrus, Professor Emeritus of History, University of Toronto, Canada *

Author Bio

Judith M. Hughes is Professor Emerita of History at the University of California, San Diego, USA. She is the author of several books, including The Holocaust and the Revival of Psychological History (2015), From Obstacle to Ally: The Evolution of Psychoanalytic Practice (2004) and Freudian Analysts/Feminist Issues (1999).