The End of the Holocaust

by Rosenfeld, Alvin H.

• ISBN13: 9780253356437
• ISBN10: 0253356431
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-04-20
• Publisher: Indiana Univ Pr

Summary

In this provocative work, Alvin H. Rosenfeld contends that the proliferation of books, films, television programs, museums, and public commemorations related to the Holocaust has, perversely, brought about a diminution of its meaning and a denigration of its memory. Investigating a wide range of events and cultural phenomena, such as Ronald Reagan's 1985 visit to the German cemetery at Bitburg, the distortions of Anne Frank's story, and the ways in which the Holocaust has been depicted by such artists and filmmakers as Judy Chicago and Steven Spielberg, Rosenfeld charts the cultural forces that have minimized the Holocaust in popular perceptions. He contrasts these with sobering representations by Holocaust witnesses such as Jean Améry, Primo Levi, Elie Wiesel, and Imre Kertész. The book concludes with a powerful warning about the possible consequences of "the end of the Holocaust" in public consciousness.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Introduction	p. 1
Popular Culture and the Politics of Memory	p. 14
The Rhetoric of Victimization	p. 33
The Americanization of the Holocaust	p. 51
The Posthumous Years	p. 95
The Anguish of the Witness	p. 163
Primo Levi: The Survivor as Victim	p. 185
Surviving Survival	p. 213
The End of the Holocaust	p. 238
Epilogue: A ôSecond Holocaustö?	p. 271
Notes	p. 281
Index	p. 299
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.