Description
Book SynopsisAmong sources on the Holocaust, survivor testimonies are the least replaceable and most complex, reflecting both the personality of the narrator and the conditions and perceptions prevailing at the time of narration. Scholars, despite their aim to challenge memory and fill its gaps, often use testimonies uncritically or selectively-mining them to support generalizations. This book represents a departure, bringing Holocaust experts Atina Grossmann, Konrad Kwiet, Wendy Lower, Jürgen Matthäus, and Nechama Tec together to analyze the testimony of one Holocaust survivor. Born in Bratislava at the end of World War I, Helen Zippi Spitzer Tichauer was sent to Auschwitz in 1942. One of the few early arrivals to survive the camp and the death marches, she met her future husband in a DP camp, and they moved to New York in the 1960s. Beginning in 1946, Zippi devoted many hours to talking with a small group of scholars about her life. Her wide-ranging interviews are uniquely suited to raise questio
Trade ReviewShould be read by all who produce and consume writings and arts about the Holocaust. * CHOICE *
Table of ContentsForeword ; Mark Roseman ; Introduction: What Does it Mean? Holocaust Testimony and the Story of Helen "Zippi" Tichauer ; Chapter 1: Designing Survival: A Graphic Artist in Birkenau ; Konrad Kwiet ; Chapter 2: Recapturing the Past: Individuality and Cooperation in Auschwitz ; Nechama Tec ; Chapter 3: Displacing Memory: The Transformations of an Early Interview ; Jurgen Matthaus ; Chapter 4: Living On: Remembering Feldafing ; Atina Grossmann ; Chapter 5: Distant Encounter: An Auschwitz Survivor in the College Classroom ; Wendy Lower ; Conclusion: What Have We Learned? ; Appendix: English Translation of an Interview ; Conducted by David Boder with Helen Tichauer ; Notes ; Bibliography ; About the Contributors ; Index
