Do you read holocaust literature? If you do, is there a specific type of book that you read (biographies, historical accounts, analysis etc.) or anything and everything? Is there a specific type of book that you avoid reading? What about pictures--do you try to avoid looking at the particularly gruesome pictures, or do you davka look at them to get a full picture of what was done?

Any titles you consider to be must-reads?

Yes, I read holocaust literature. From things like Holocaust Responsa [eg. R. Oshry] to Lucy Davidowiz's stuff http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_Dawidowicz to pop-history like Martin Gilbert. Autobiographies of survivors [although those are all skewed: the mere fact that somebody survived means his account is not typical], historical accounts, analysis etc. Picture books included. I think it's very, very important.

Mostly bios and historical accounts. Lots of them. I've known and interviewed survivors and find it really scary that our kids won't be as 'close' to actual survivors as we were. It's not 'history' to me, but it might be to them.

Why do you call Martin Gilbert pop-history? are you implying that he's not a serious historian? I happen to be in middle of http://www.amazon.com/Second-World-War-Com...6128&sr=8-2 right now, and recently finished http://www.amazon.com/Holocaust-History-Eu...6128&sr=8-7, although honestly the second one I skimmed much of it. How many times can I read the same description of a massacre over and over and over?


Yes, I think about that too. Although I don't know that many survivors personally.

Yes, he's a serious historian. I've read literally...I don't know, easily a dozen of his books, probably more, including the one's you linked. It's just that so many of his books are 1. repetitive and 2. aren't exactly analytical. I shouldn't have called him a pop-historian. Maybe it's because his books are such easy reading.


[My wife thinks I'm obsessed with the Holocaust and that if unfairly colors my views of nonJews, Europeans and Catholics/Protestants in particular].

Goldhagen
http://www.amazon.com/Hitlers-Willing-Exec...t/dp/0679772685

No, in fact I am not remotely interested in the holocaust.
I think it is far too a central figure in the modern day Jewish Psyche, and that far too much emphasis is put on it inside the community and even more so outside the community......

Not this one?
Rigg
http://www.amazon.com/Rescued-Reich-Hitler...8005&sr=8-2

Not much anymore- it tends to scare me too much. I especially avoid pictures.

I actually just started reading Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky, which wasn't published until 65 years after her death (in 1942 in Auschwitz).

Please tell me you're joking...

I'd say the #1 must read is the Diary of Anne Frank. If you have ties to Lithuania, then R' Efraim Oshry's Churbon Lita is also a must...

Nope. But don't worry, I've already been pilloried in the past on h.com for lauding the book.


Even without ties to Lithuania...

No, I find it depressing. I didn't watch shindlers list either, but i did enjoy "everything is illuminated" (book not movie) if you can call that holocaust literature. I suppose it was the super-saturation in hebrew school, where the holocaust was seemingly a core curriculum subject and it was the school mission to traumatize children by showing extremely violent footage.

This propaganda mindf-- was further solidified by a march of the living trip which i thankfully did not go on.

I've read a lot of Holocaust literature, fiction & non-fiction, so much that I most definitely can't remember them all. Some that I can recall off the top of my head, which impacted me in one way or another:
The Devil's Arithmetic, To Vanquish the Dragon, Shailos U'Tshuvos M'Maamakim (which is mind-blowing for many reasons), a first person account of a man experimented upon by Mengele (I can't remember the name of the book), Hitler's Willing Executioners & that's all I can remember. I've also read about WW2 in general, I personally feel it's important to know about WW2 beyond the Holocaust, and what the world in general went through. I find that since I've had children, I'm much more affected by what I read.

I recently read;

The Kommandant's Mistress: A Novel
by Sherri Szeman