A Holocaust Reader

Description

The most comprehensive and representative collection of its kind, A Holocaust Reader: Responses to the Nazi Extermination features writings by theologians, literary figures, cultural critics, philosophers, political theorists, and others. It surveys the major themes raised by the Holocaust and examines the most provocative and influential responses to these topics and to the Holocaust itself. Organized in a roughly chronological pattern, the volume opens with early responses from the postwar period. Subsequent sections cover the emergence of central theological statements in the late 1960s and 1970s, the development of post-Holocaust thinking in the 1970s and 1980s, and burgeoning reflections on the significance of the death camps. Connections between the Holocaust and important events and episodes in Western culture in the 1980s and 1990s are also discussed.
A Holocaust Reader: Responses to the Nazi Extermination offers selections from Theodor W. Adorno, Jean Améry, Hannah Arendt, Omer Bartov, Eliezer Berkovits, Michael André Bernstein, Martin Buber, Arthur A. Cohen, A. Roy Eckardt, Emil L. Fackenheim, Saul Friedlander, Amos Funkenstein, Irving Greenberg, Andreas Huyssen, Hans Jonas, Berel Lang, Primo Levi, Johann Baptist Metz, Richard Rubenstein, Kenneth Seeskin, Franklin Sherman, David Tracy, Elie Wiesel, Robert E. Willis, and Michael Wyschogrod. Ideal for courses in the Holocaust, Jewish studies, and the philosophy of religion, this extensive collection will also be of interest to general readers and scholars.

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction
1. EARLY REFLECTIONS
Survival in Auschwitz, Primo Levi
On the Necessity and Impossibility of Being a Jew, Jean Améry
Meditations on Metaphysics, Theodor W. Adorno
The Concentration Camps, Hannah Arendt
The Dialogue between Heaven and Earth, Martin Buber
A Plea for the Dead, Elie Wiesel
2. CENTRAL THEOLOGICAL RESPONSES
The Making of a Rabbi, Richard Rubenstein
Symposium on Jewish Belief, Richard Rubenstein
Faith after the Holocaust, Eliezer Berkovits
Cloud of Smoke, Pillar of Fire: Judaism, Christianity, and Modernity after the Holocaust, Irving Greenberg
Jewish Faith and the Holocaust: A Fragment, Emil L. Fackenheim
Holocaust, Emil L. Fackenheim
The Holocaust and the State of Israel: Their Relation, Emil L. Fackenheim
Christians and Jews: Along a Theological Frontier, A. Roy Eckardt
3. DEVELOPMENTS: THE 1970s AND 1980s
Faith and the Holocaust, Michael Wyschogrod
Theological Interpretations of the Holocaust: A Balance, Amos Funkenstein
Thinking the Tremendum: Some Theological Implications of the Death Camps, Arthur A. Cohen
Speaking of God after Auschwitz, Franklin Sherman
Auschwitz and the Nuturing of Conscience, Robert E. Willis
Religious Values after the Holocaust: A Catholic View, David Tracy
Christians and Jews after Auschwitz: Being a Meditation Also on the End of Bourgeois Religion, Johann Baptist Metz
The Holocaust and Philosophy, Emil L. Fackenheim
The Concept of God after Auschwitz: A Jewish Voice, Hans Jonas
4. THE HOLOCAUST AND WESTERN CULTURE: THE 1980s AND 1990s
The Shoah in Present Historical Consciousness, Saul Friedlander
Intellectuals on Auschwitz: Memory, History, and Truth, Omer Bartov
What Philosophy Can and Cannot Say about Evil, Kenneth Seeskin
Coming to Terms with Failure: A Philosophical Dilemma, Kenneth Seeskin
Narrating the Shoah, Michael André Bernstein
The Representation of Evil: Ethical Content as Literary Form, Berel Lang
Monuments and Holocaust Memory in a Media Age, Andreas Huyssen
Bibliography
Index