Collect and Record!: Jewish Holocaust Documentation in Early Postwar Europe

by Laura Jockusch

Overview

This book describes the vibrant activity of survivors who founded Jewish historical commissions and documentation centers in Europe immediately after the Second World War. In the first postwar decade, these initiatives collected thousands of Nazi documents along with testimonies, memoirs, diaries, songs, poems, and artifacts of Jewish victims. They pioneered in developing a Holocaust historiography that placed the experiences of Jews at the center and used both victim and perpetrator sources to describe the social, economic, and cultural aspects of the everyday life and death of European Jews under the Nazi regime. This book is the first in-depth monograph on these survivor historians and the organizations they created. A comparative analysis, it focuses on France, Poland, Germany, Austria, and Italy, analyzing the motivations and rationales that guided survivors in chronicling the destruction they had witnessed, while also discussing their research techniques, archival collections, and historical publications. It reflects growing attention to survivor testimony and to the active roles of survivors in rebuilding their postwar lives. It also discusses the role of documenting, testifying, and history writing in processes of memory formation, rehabilitation, and coping with trauma. Jockusch finds that despite differences in background and wartime experiences between the predominantly amateur historians who created the commissions, the activists found documenting the Holocaust to be a moral imperative after the war, the obligation of the dead to the living, and a means for the survivors to understand and process their recent trauma and loss. Furthermore, historical documentation was vital in the pursuit of postwar justice and was deemed essential in counteracting efforts on the part of the Nazis to erase their wartime crimes. The survivors who created the historical commissions were the first people to study the development of Nazi policy towards the Jews and also to document Jewish responses to persecution, a topic that was largely ignored by later generations of Holocaust scholars.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199996100
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	09/20/2012
Series:	Oxford Series on History and Archives
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Laura Jockusch is a Martin Buber Society Fellow at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and teaches Holocaust studies at the University of Haifa.

Table of Contents

Note on Translations and Transliterations List of Abbreviations Introduction: Early Chroniclers of the Holocaust: Jewish Historical Commissions and Documentation Centers in the Aftermath of the Second World War 1. Khurbn-Forshung: History Writing as a Jewish Response to Catastrophe 2. Writing French Judaism's "Book of Martyrdom": Holocaust Documentation in Liberated France 3. Writing Polish Jewry's "Greatest National Catastrophe": Holocaust Documentation in Communist Poland 4. Writing History on Packed Suitcases: Holocaust Documentation in the Jewish Displaced Persons Camps of Germany, Austria, and Italy Chapter 5: Joining Forces to Comprehend the Jewish Catastrophe: The Attempt to Establish a European Community of Holocaust Researchers Conclusion: History Writing as Reconstruction: The Beginnings of Holocaust Research from the Perspective of Its Victims Appendix: Major Participants in the Jewish Historical Commissions and Documentation Centers Notes Bibliography Index

Editorial Reviews

"In this important new book, Laura Jockusch effectively puts to rest the 'myth of silence'—the idea that Jews did not discuss the Holocaust in the war's immediate aftermath—and sheds light on the fascinating origins of Holocaust scholarship...Jockusch's history provides a worthy memorial of its own to the survivors who made sure the memory of the Holocaust would not be lost."—German Studies Review

"[M]eticulously researched...[Jockusch] has performed a valuable service in bringing together in comparative perspective a great deal of material in a variety of languages."—Journal of Modern History

"An invaluable scholarly work for those interested in the memory reconstruction of the Holocaust. Not only has she documented and analyzed some wonderful primary sources for future researchers, she has also included phenomenal discussions on Lawrence Langer's concept of deep memory, the value of insider and outsider perspectives, the concepts of individual and collective memory, and much more. There is a great deal of information on memory reconstruction and historical agency, as well as a superb analysis of underutilized primary sources."—Oral History Review

"This well-researched book by Laura Jockusch shows that, far from being 'silent' in the aftermath of the Holocaust, Jewish survivors organized research institutes, collected documents, gathered testimonies, and left a legacy of archival treasures of unrivaled importance. This excellent book should be read by anyone with a serious interest in Holocaust memory and historiography."—American Historical Review

"The evidential strength of sources created by victims and survivors has had an impact on scholarship to this day, and Jockusch's work significantly enhances our understanding of them. Also, the great value of Collect and Record! lies in a clear demonstration of how the early documentation projects had preceded later quests to break the public silence about the nature of Nazi persecution of European Jewry, and the role of local governments and populations in that crime."—H-Antisemitism

"This impressive, comparative study, written in a style which is easily readable but retains a high academic level, does not spare emotions, and is a must-read for every Holocaust historian or educator. It is important for reconnecting to these long-forgotten academic roots and for bringing awareness of these archival sources to a broader public."—H-Net Reviews

"This is a historiographical study documenting the birth of a new field of study, and as such will be of interest mostly to those who pursue Holocaust topics. Well documented and written; competent index and bibliography. Recommended."—CHOICE

"Collect and Record! is one of the most original and important studies of Jewish life in the aftermath of the Nazi catastrophe to appear in recent years. This vital chapter of historiography will change the way historians understand the development and uneven reception of the early scholarship on the Holocaust. It challenges the myth that Jewish survivors of the wartime apocalypse were traumatized, paralyzed, and silent."—David Cesarani, Research Professor in History, Royal Holloway, University of London

"This is the first rigorous study of the efforts by Holocaust survivors to document their fate in the immediate aftermath of the war. Based on extensive research, this book demonstrates that contrary to the conventional view, there was no silence after the Holocaust, but rather a refusal by the rest of the world to listen. Laura Jockusch saves these voices from oblivion and immeasurably enriches our knowledge of the Holocaust and its aftermath."—Omer Bartov, author of Erased: Vanishing Traces of Jewish Galicia in Present-Day Ukraine

"The most important success of Jockusch's study is that it paves the way for a transnational history of Holocaust memory...Jockusch shows, through her small case study of early historians, how much more there is to do."—The Times Literary Supplement

"While we have known about institutions like the Centre de documentation juive contemporaine in France and the Central Jewish Historical Commission in Poland, the responses of the many who struggled to tell their story have not been brought together before and Jockusch deserves enormous credit for recording their narratives in such rich and compelling detail. Perhaps most pioneeringly, she shows that Jews took up forms of historical writing even in the difficult circumstances of the continent's displaced persons camps, a phenomenon never studied before."—Samuel Moyn, Columbia University, Canada Institute for the Study of Antisemitism (CISA)

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