Testimonies of Resistance

Nicholas Chare is Associate Professor in the Department of History of Art and Film Studies at the Université de Montréal.

“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

• List of Figures and TablesForewordAnne KarpfAcknowledgementsNote on TransliterationIntroduction: Testimonies of ResistanceNicholas Chare and Dominic WilliamsPart I: Historical and Ethical Questions of RepresentationChapter 1. Knowing Cruelty: The Negation of Death and Burial in SS ViolenceGriselda PollockChapter 2. What Makes the Grey Zone Grey? Blurring Factual and Ethical Judgements of the SonderkommandoDominic WilliamsPart II: Witnessing from the Heart of HellChapter 3. Farewell Letter from the Crematorium: On the Authorship of the First Recorded ‘Sonderkommando-Manuscript’ and the Discovery of the Original LetterAndreas KilianChapter 4. To Read the Illegible: Techniques of Multispectral Imaging and the Manuscripts of the Jewish Sonderkommando of Auschwitz-BirkenauPavel Polian and Aleksandr NikityaevChapter 5. ‘Like a True Greek’: The Last Will and Testimony of Marcel NatzariK.E. FlemingChapter 6. Disinterred Words: The Letters of Herman Strasfogel and Marcel NadjaryNicholas Chare, Ersy Contogouris and Dominic WilliamsChapter 7. The Letter of Herman StrasfogelTranslated by Ersy ContogourisChapter 8. The Letter of Marcel NadjaryTranslated by Ersy ContogourisChapter 9. The Religious Life of Sonderkommando Members inside the Killing Installations in Auschwitz-BirkenauGideon GreifPart III: Retrospective RepresentationsChapter 10. Doubly Cursed: The Sonderkommando in the Documents of the International Tracing ServiceDan StoneChapter 11. Enduring Witness: David Olère’s Visual TestimonyCarol ZemelChapter 12. The Sonderkommando and the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial MuseumDominic Williams and Isabel WollastonChapter 13. Early and Late Testimonies of the Sonderkommando SurvivorsGideon GreifChapter 14. From Special Operations Executive to Sonderkommando: Sebastian Faulks and the Anxiety of InventionSue ViceChapter 15. Out of the Plan, Out of the Plane 2: Stripping, Fourth Letter to Gerhard RichterGeorges Didi-HubermanChapter 16. Greeks in the Birkenau Sonderkommando: Representation and RealitySteven BowmanPart IV: Cinema and the SonderkommandoChapter 17. ‘We Did Something’: Framing Resistance in Cinematic Depictions of the SonderkommandoBarry LangfordChapter 18. ‘We Can’t Know What We’re Capable Of ’: Approaching the ‘Grey Zone’ in Holocaust FilmAdam BrownChapter 19. The Sonderkommando on ScreenPhilippe MesnardAfterword: Tracing Topographies of Memory and MourningVictor Jeleniewski SeidlerIndex