Holocaust Representations in History: An Introduction

by Daniel H. Magilow, Lisa Silverman

Overview

How the Holocaust is depicted and memorialized is key to our understanding of the atrocity and its impact. Through 18 case studies dating from the immediate aftermath of the genocide to the present day, Holocaust Representations in History explores this in detail.

Daniel H. Magilow and Lisa Silverman examine film, drama, literature, photography, visual art, television, graphic novels, memorials, and video games as they discuss the major themes and issues that underpin the chronicling of the Holocaust. Each chapter is focused on a critical debate or question in Holocaust history; the case studies range from well-known, commercially successful works about the Holocaust to controversial examples which have drawn accusations of profaning the memory of the genocide. This 2nd edition adds to the mosaic of representation, with new chapters analysing poetry in the wake of the Holocaust and video games from the here and now.

This unique volume provides an unmatched survey of key and controversial Holocaust representations and is of vital importance to anyone wanting to understand the subject and its complexities.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781472512420
Publisher:	Bloomsbury USA
Publication date:	02/26/2015
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	208
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Daniel H. Magilow is Professor of German at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, USA. He is the author of The Photography of Crisis: The Photo Essays of Weimar Germany (2012) and editor of It Will Yet Be Heard: A Polish Rabbi's Witness of the Shoah and Survival (2019).

Lisa Silverman is Associate Professor of History and Jewish Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, USA. She is the author of Becoming Austrians: Jews and Culture between the World Wars (2012) and co-editor of Making Place: Space and Embodiment in the City (2014).

Table of Contents

Part I - The 1940s and 1950s
1. The Boy in the Warsaw Ghetto (photograph, 1943)
2. Nazi Concentration Camps (documentary film, 1945)
3. Yizker-bukh Chelm (memorial book, 1954)
4. The Diary of Anne Frank (drama, 1955)
5. Night (memoir, 1958)
Part II - The 1960s and 1970s
6. Eichmann in Jerusalem (magazine reports, 1963)
7. The Deputy (drama, 1963)
8. The Night Porter (film, 1974)
9. Holocaust: The Story of the Family Weiss (television, 1978)
Part III - The 1980s and 1990s
10. Shoah (film, 1985)
11. Maus (graphic novel, 1991)
12. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (museum, 1993)
13. Fragments: Memories of a Wartime Childhood (fiction, 1996)
Part IV - The 2000s until Today
14. The Children's Holocaust Memorial and Paper Clip Project (memorial, 2001)
15. Mirroring Evil: Nazi Imagery / Recent Art (visual art, 2002)
16. Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (memorial, 2005)
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

In engaging prose, Magilow and Silverman show that influential works on the Holocaust were shaped by the historical moment in which they were produced. Their lesson is an important one: what we know of this horrific event is mediated by present concerns and so evolves with time and, once taken to heart, you'll never read these canonical and controversial texts the same way.” —Lisa Leff, Professor of History, American University, USA

“This book is an excellent interdisciplinary statement on the narrative challenges of the Holocaust to art, film, literature and memorialisation. A must-use text of close readings for teachers and students alike.” —Simone Gigliotti, Senior Lecturer in Holocaust Studies, Royal Holloway University of London, UK

From the Publisher

Magilow and Silverman perceptively analyze how iconic and controversial Holocaust accounts, documentaries, films, memoirs, monuments, museums, novels, and trials were influenced by the historical context in which they originated and the perspectives of their creators. They trace how the meanings initially conveyed by these representations have evolved over time and place. Each chapter focuses on the genesis and continuing impact of diverse "texts" like Elie Wiesel's Night, the television miniseries Holocaust, Claude Lanzmann's Shoah, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Berlin Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, and even the discredited memoir Fragments by Binjamin Wilkomirski. Their jargon-free case studies will enable students to apply the same critical approach to other key works that attempt to depict or document the Nazi genocide of the Jews.

Lawrence Baron

In a crowded field, Lisa Silverman and Daniel Magilow have made an extraordinary contribution that distinguishes itself as a beacon for critical pedagogy. Nuanced philosophical provocation meets historical context and bibliographic substance in this book; instructors may use it with confidence as they introduce the intricacies of the history of representing the Holocaust. Exemplary for its clarity, the book sacrifices none of the necessary complexity with which students must engage in order to begin to articulate their own questions. Holocaust Representations in History sets a new standard for those of us committed to challenging our students to think deeply.

Darcy Buerkle