Description
Book Synopsis In 1944, members of the Sonderkommando—the “special squads,” composed almost exclusively of Jewish prisoners, who ensured the smooth operation of the gas chambers and had firsthand knowledge of the extermination process—buried on the grounds of Auschwitz-Birkenau a series of remarkable eyewitness accounts of Nazi genocide. This careful and penetrating study examines anew these “Scrolls of Auschwitz,” which were gradually recovered, in damaged and fragmentary form, in the years following the camp’s liberation. It painstakingly reconstructs their historical context and textual content, revealing complex literary works that resist narrow moral judgment and engage difficult questions about the limits of testimony.
Trade Review “Chare and Williams have applied a multidisciplinary approach using methods drawn from history, literature, art, psychology, photography, and the study of material culture to analyze these documents, which are often referred to as the Scrolls of Auschwitz, an allusion to the Dead Sea Scrolls. Like the Dead Sea Scrolls, the damaged documents are often very difficult to read and interpret. A valuable contribution to Holocaust scholarship, the field of eyewitness testimony, and the documentation of traumatic events… Highly Recommended.” · Choice
“In Matters of Testimony, Nicholas Chare and Dominic Williams use the tools of literary criticism to analyse these formidable texts and offer new reflections on the scrolls. What sets the book apart is the way in which the authors consider how to read the Auschwitz scrolls, assessing their value as testimony… In that sense—and this is not the least significant element of this important book—they endeavour to reintegrate the Auschwitz scrolls into the general scholarship of Holocaust writing. This is incredibly interesting in the sense that the authors of the scrolls themselves asked the seminal questions that now structure this subfield of Holocaust studies… Matters of Testimony is an important work of scholarship.” · Jewish Quarterly
"Matters of Testimony is bold and fascinating, and provides a fresh and insightful analysis that contributes to scholarship about the Sonderkommando (SK), Holocaust testimony, Holocaust writing, the material culture of Auschwitz, resistance, and the Auschwitz camp complex itself." · Shofar
“This is a profoundly moving book. It is more than just the most complete analysis of the Sonderkommando writings in the English language, it is a study that challenges readers to ask fundamental questions about how we access the past. In doing so, Matters of Testimony is a manifesto for the importance of historical and literary analysis even when scholars are confronted with this most difficult and traumatic material.” · Tom Lawson, Northumbria University
“This is a major book that changes the field. It is a brilliant and original work of superb historical research and profoundly affecting cultural analysis.” · Griselda Pollock, University of Leeds
“The authors’ analyses are meticulous and fascinating, and are invariably based on equally impressive research. It is unusual to be able to say that an academic monograph on Holocaust literature serves as not just an analysis of but also a memorial for its subject, but that is the case here.” · Sue Vice, University of Sheffield
Table of Contents Acknowledgments
Preface
Introduction: Matters of Testimony
Chapter 1. Matters of History
Chapter 2. Zalman Gradowski: Literature in the Death Factory
Chapter 3. Scattered Selves: The Stories of Leyb Langfus
Chapter 4. Final Arrangements: Zalman Lewental’s Histories of Resistance
Chapter 5. Characters and Letters: Chaim Herman and Marcel Nadjary
Chapter 6. The Camera Eye: Four Photographs from Birkenau
Conclusion: Crossing the Circle of Flame
Appendix
Index
