Nearly eighty years have passed since the Holocaust. There have been hundreds of memoirs, histories and novels written about it, yet many fear that this important event may fall into oblivion. As Holocaust survivors pass away, their legacy of suffering, tenacity and courage could be forgotten. It is up to each generation to commemorate the victims, preserve their life stories and hopefully help prevent such catastrophes. These were my main motivations in writing this book, Holocaust Memories, which includes reviews of memoirs, histories, biographies, novels and films about the Holocaust. It was difficult to choose among the multitude of books on the subject that deserve our attention. I made my selections based partly on the works that are considered to be the most important on the subject; partly on wishing to offer some historical background about the Holocaust in different countries and regions that were occupied by or allied themselves with Nazi Germany, and partly on my personal preferences, interests and knowledge. The Nazis targeted European Jews as their main victims, so my book focuses primarily on them. At the same time, since the Nazis also targeted other groups they considered dangerous and inferior, I also review books about the sufferings of the Gypsies, the Poles and other groups that fell victim to the Nazi regimes. In the last part, I review books that discuss other genocides and crimes against humanity, including the Stalinist mass purges, the Cambodian massacres by the Pol Pot regime and the Rwandan genocide. I want to emphasize that history can, indeed, repeat itself, even if in different forms and contexts. Just as the Jews of Europe were not the only targets of genocide, Fascist regimes were not its only perpetrators.
Foreword by Rabbi Joseph Polak Introduction Preface: A Precedent for the Holocaust 1. Between Fanaticism and Terror: Hitler, Stalin and The Noise of Time 2. Elie Wiesel's Night: Shedding Light Upon the Darkness 3. Bergen-Belsen and Four Perfect Pebbles 4. The Last Seven Months of Anne Frank by Willy Lindwer 5. Hazy Hints of Memory: After the Holocaust the Bells Still Ring 6. Survivors Club: A Family's Legendary Tale 7. Levi's Reflection on Humanity in Crisis: Survival in Auschwitz 8. Sarah's Key and the Holocaust in France 9. The Holocaust in Hungary: Leni Yahil's The Holocaust 10. A Holocaust Hero in Hungary: Wallenberg by Kati Marton 11. Imre Kertesz's Fatelessness 12. Anti-Semitism in Hungary Today 13. Hannah Arendt's The Origins of Totalitarianism: Why the Jews? 14. The Role of the Masses in The Origins of Totalitarianism 15. Beyond the Jewish Genocide: Inferno by Max Hastings 16. Hitler's Ban on Modern Art: The "Degenerate Art" Exhibit 17. Saving European Art from the Nazis: The Monuments Men 18. The Holocaust in Austria and The Woman in Red 19. On the Anschluss: Becoming Alice 20. The Gypsy Holocaust: The Nazi Persecution of the Gypsies 21. Eichmann in Jerusalem: What is the Banality of Evil? 22. The Real Banality of Evil: Ordinary Men 23. Eichmann's Extraordinary Evil: Eichmann Before Jerusalem 24. The Concentration Camp Commandants: Soldiers of Evil 25. The Auschwitz Kommandant: Arthur Wilhelm Liebehenschel 26. The Real Story of the Terezin Jewish Ghetto: I am a Star 27. The Wannsee Conference: Planning the Final Solution 28. America First 29. Quiet Neighbors by Allan A. Ryan 30. Action T 4: From "Euthanasia" to the Final Solution 31. Hitler's Niece and Historical Fiction 32. An Unlikely Hero: Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally 33. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas: An Instructive Fable 34. Unbroken: Forgiven but Never Forgotten 35. The 1936 Berlin Olympics: The Boys in the Boat 36. Manufacturing Death: Hell's Cartel 37. Prosecuting War Crimes: The Nuremberg Trial 38. Kamikaze Warfare: Inferno 39. Hateful Words: Nazi Propaganda 40. A Cowardly Success: Bloodlands 41. Planning a Soviet Holocaust: Stalin's Last Crime 42. Lebensraum: The Second World War 43. The Siege of Leningrad and Genocide by Starvation 44. The Murderous Einsatzgruppen (Task Forces) 45. Poland's Plight: Gustaw Herling's A World Apart 46. Children of the War Years: Witnesses of War 47. Sophie's Choice: Holocaust Literature as Psychological Fiction 48. An Incredible Tale of Survival: Alicia, My Story 49. Revealing the Ugly Truth: The Holocaust in Romania 50. A Romanian Hero: The Memoirs of Wilhelm Filderman 51. Ion Antonescu: Hitler's Forgotten Ally 52. Anti-Semitism in Romania: The Journal of Mihai Sebastian 53. Heroism in Hell: Resistance, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising 54. Privilege and Persecution: The Diary of Mary Berg 55. Janusz Korczak: The King of the Children of the Warsaw Ghetto 56. The Pianist: The Extraordinary Story of Survival in Warsaw 57. Trapped in the Lodz Ghetto: The Cage 58. The Book Thief: Holocaust Literature as Best Seller 59. The Forgotten Holocaust: The Rape of Nanking 60. A Cataclismic War: Postwar, a History of Europe since 1945 61. The Cultural Revolution and The Great Leap Forward 62. The Killing Fields: Genocide in Cambodia 63. Genocide in Rwanda: Me Against My Brother 64. North Korea's State of Terror: Nothing to Envy 65. Yad Vashem: "A Place and a Name" of Remembrance 66. An Impossible Conflict in Gaza: Rock the Casbah 67. Anti-Semitism Today and the Assault on Democratic Values 68. Would you Forgive the Nazi Perpetrator? The Sunflower 69. Could the Holocaust Happen Again? Nazi Hunter 70. Ethics Above Politics Conclusion: Judaic Studies and the Holocaust via Reviews Bibliography About the Author
