Saul Friedlander – författare

Can the Holocaust be compellingly described or represented? Or is there some core aspect of the extermination of the Jews of Europe which resists our powers of depiction, of theory, of narrative? In this volume, twenty scholars probe the moral, epistemological, and aesthetic limits of an account or portrayal of the Nazi horror.Christopher Browning, Hayden White, Carlo Ginzburg, Martin Jay, Dominick LaCapra, and others focus first on the general question: can the record of his historical event be established objectively through documents and witnesses, or is every historical interpretation informed by the perspective of its narrator? The suggestion that all historical accounts are determined by a preestablished narrative choice raises the ethical and intellectual issues of various forms of relativization. In more specific terms, what are the possibilities of historicizing National Socialism without minimizing the historical place of the Holocaust?Also at issue are the problems related to an artistic representation, particularly the dilemmas posed by aestheticization. John Felstiner, Yael S. Feldman, Sidra Ezrahi, Eric Santner, and Anton Kaes grapple with these questions and confront the inadequacy of words in the face of the Holocaust. Others address the problem of fitting Nazi policies and atrocities into the history of Western thought and science. The book concludes with Geoffrey Hartman’s evocative meditation on memory.These essays expose to scrutiny questions that have a pressing claim on our attention, our conscience, and our cultural memory. First presented at a conference organized by Saul Friedlander, they are now made available for the wide consideration and discussion they merit.

A magisterial history of the Jews in Nazi Germany and the regime's policies towards them in the years prior to World War II and the Holocaust. Written by arguably the world's leading scholar on the subject.Himself a survivor, Friedlander has been a leading figure in Holocaust studies for decades and this book represents a definitive summing up of his research and that of hundreds of other historians. NAZI GERMANY AND THE JEWS: THE YEARS OF PERSECUTION is perhaps the richest examination of the subject yet written, and, crucially, one that never loses sight of the experiences of individuals in its discussion of Nazi politics and the terrible statistics and technological and administrative sophistication of the Final Solution.

The second and concluding volume of the definitive two-volume account of the HolocaustWith THE YEARS OF EXTERMINATION, Friedlander completes his work on Nazi Germany and the Jews. The book describes and interprets the history of the persecution and murder of the Jews throughout occupied Europe. The implementation of German extermination policies and measures depended on the submissiveness of political authorities, the assistance of local police forces and the passivity or co-operation of the populations, primarily of their political and spiritual elites. The implementation also depended on the readiness of the victimes to submit to orders, often with the hope of modifying them or surviving long enough to escape the German vice.This multifaceted representation - at all levels and in all different places - enhances the perception of the magnitude, complexity and interrelatedness of the multiple components of this history. Based on a vast variety of documents and an overwhelming choir of voices, Friedlander manages to avoid domesticating the memory of unparalleled and horrific events. The convergence of these various aspects gives THE YEARS OF EXTERMINATION its unique aulity. In this work the history of the Holocaust has found its definitive representation.

An abridged edition of Saul Friedlander's definitive two-volume history of the Holocaust: THE YEARS OF PERSECUTION and THE YEARS OF EXTERMINATION.Saul Friedlander's historical masterpiece is perhaps the richest examination of the Holocaust yet written, and, crucially, one that never loses sight of the experiences of individuals in its discussion of Nazi politics and the terrible statistics and technological and administrative sophistication of the Final Solution.The book's first part, dealing with the National Socialist campaign of oppression, restores the voices of Jews who were engulfed in an increasingly horrifying reality following the Nazi accession to power. Friedländer also provides the accounts of the persecutors themselves - and, perhaps most telling of all, the testimonies of ordinary German citizens. The second part covers the German extermination policies that resulted in the murder of six million European Jews.