Description
Book Synopsis The Sonderkommando—the “special squad” of enslaved Jewish laborers who were forced to work in the gas chambers and crematoria of Auschwitz-Birkenau—comprise one of the most fascinating and troubling topics within Holocaust history. As eyewitnesses to and unwilling abettors of the murder of their fellow Jews, they are the object of fierce condemnation even today. Yet it was a group of these seemingly compromised men who carried out the revolt of October 7, 1944, one of the most celebrated acts of Holocaust resistance. This interdisciplinary collection assembles careful investigations into how the Sonderkommando have been represented—by themselves and by others—both during and after the Holocaust.
Trade Review “Overall, the collection offers exciting and also new perspectives on the representations of the Sonderkommando and it will be interesting for researchers from different disciplines.” • H-Soz-Kult
“This is yet another outstanding book from Nicholas Chare and Dominic Williams. Each chapter offers an interesting perspective and keen insights into the Sonderkommando, the Scrolls of Auschwitz, and Holocaust representation, and I came away with new appreciation for them all.” • Sarah Cushman, Northwestern University
“Testimonies of Resistance is an important volume that addresses a topic that has not been explored in sufficient depth so far, connecting it to crucial debates on the “gray zone,” resistance, and moral action. It is a vital contribution to the field of Holocaust Studies and beyond.” • Svenja Bethke, University of Leicester
Table of Contents List of Figures and Tables
Foreword
Anne Karpf
Acknowledgements
Note on Transliteration
Introduction: Testimonies of Resistance
Nicholas Chare and Dominic Williams
Part I: Historical and Ethical Questions of Representation
Chapter 1. Knowing Cruelty: The Negation of Death and Burial in SS Violence
Griselda Pollock
Chapter 2. What Makes the Grey Zone Grey? Blurring Factual and Ethical Judgements of the Sonderkommando
Dominic Williams
Part II: Witnessing from the Heart of Hell
Chapter 3. Farewell Letter from the Crematorium: On the Authorship of the First Recorded ‘Sonderkommando-Manuscript’ and the Discovery of the Original Letter
Andreas Kilian
Chapter 4. To Read the Illegible: Techniques of Multispectral Imaging and the Manuscripts of the Jewish Sonderkommando of Auschwitz-Birkenau
Pavel Polian and Aleksandr Nikityaev
Chapter 5. ‘Like a True Greek’: The Last Will and Testimony of Marcel Natzari
K.E. Fleming
Chapter 6. Disinterred Words: The Letters of Herman Strasfogel and Marcel Nadjary
Nicholas Chare, Ersy Contogouris and Dominic Williams
Chapter 7. The Letter of Herman Strasfogel
Translated by Ersy Contogouris
Chapter 8. The Letter of Marcel Nadjary
Translated by Ersy Contogouris
Chapter 9. The Religious Life of Sonderkommando Members inside the Killing Installations in Auschwitz-Birkenau
Gideon Greif
Part III: Retrospective Representations
Chapter 10. Doubly Cursed: The Sonderkommando in the Documents of the International Tracing Service
Dan Stone
Chapter 11. Enduring Witness: David Olère’s Visual Testimony
Carol Zemel
Chapter 12. The Sonderkommando and the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Museum
Dominic Williams and Isabel Wollaston
Chapter 13. Early and Late Testimonies of the Sonderkommando Survivors
Gideon Greif
Chapter 14. From Special Operations Executive to Sonderkommando: Sebastian Faulks and the Anxiety of Invention
Sue Vice
Chapter 15. Out of the Plan, Out of the Plane 2: Stripping, Fourth Letter to Gerhard Richter
Georges Didi-Huberman
Chapter 16. Greeks in the Birkenau Sonderkommando: Representation and Reality
Steven Bowman
Part IV: Cinema and the Sonderkommando
Chapter 17. ‘We Did Something’: Framing Resistance in Cinematic Depictions of the Sonderkommando
Barry Langford
Chapter 18. ‘We Can’t Know What We’re Capable Of ’: Approaching the ‘Grey Zone’ in Holocaust Film
Adam Brown
Chapter 19. The Sonderkommando on Screen
Philippe Mesnard
Afterword: Tracing Topographies of Memory and Mourning
Victor Jeleniewski Seidler
Index
