Documentation
of Fictionalized Accounts on the Holocaust
Reply-To: H-NET List for History of the Holocaust
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Sender: H-NET List for History of the Holocaust
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Author: Stephen
Esrati
Date: August 10, 1999
Holocaust literature (including biography, history,
and historical fiction) drips with inexactitude,
propaganda, lies, and distortion. My article:
Mala's
Last Words seeks to dispel some of the falsehood.
I am particularly upset by the great Lucy
Dawidowicz,who appears to have written only to
uphold her Zionist party's position. According to her,
there was no Jewish resistance anywhere but in Warsaw.
I am also upset at Raul Hilberg, who used Nazi
sources to state that Jewish resistance at Sobibor was
ineffective. These are the two greatest sources on the
Holocaust. If they can be so wrong, how can we judge
conclusions drawn by others who have relied on their
books?
From: Fred
Klein
I would like to comment on Holocaust books in
general. We seem to go from documentation to fictional
or semi-fictional accounts, and, finally to true
exploitation. It is my opinion that the most powerful
works are documentations -- unfortunately not the most
popular ones. I remember the first fictionalized film
called "Holocaust".more than ten years ago. I also
read the book and it was very good. Two weeks before,
I saw documentaries about Auschwitz and I assume the
ratings were very low. The truth can be terrible, and
many people cannot face it. If they are able to
confront it, they will have feelings of guilt, too,
because the whole world remained silent, including the
United States. The same approach apllies to books. A
fictionalized, well written story may appeal to the
masses for one simple reason: it reads better and you
cannot distinguish between truth and fiction. On a
daily base, we refuse to see reality. We read about
car accidents, but the victims are covered with a
white cloth. In our time, we are impressed by color
images from Kosovo but there are no color videos from
Auschwitz. The term of six million victims has become
a statistic long ago, as a Nazi predicted at the end
of the war. In this overall context, I think it is not
so important how many books by women are left out --
this is always subjective. Given the unbelievable
amount of literature, it may be better to establish a
database about the topic. Thus we would not have to
search for keywords. Amazon offers an excellent
selection about the holocaust, but the topic "Teaching
the Holocaust" may not always coincide with the
intention of Amazon. We want to teach, Amazon wants to
SELL. Resuming, and in my personal opinion, the best
fiction is less important than a documentary account.
Fred Klein
Stephen G.
Esrati
PO Box 20130
Shaker Heights,
OH 44120
(216) 561-9393
write to David Irving