A prizewinning historian offers a groundbreaking look at the changing fortunes of Holocaust memory in America and provocatively questions the prominent role it now plays in our political and cultural life. In recent years the Holocaust has become an important and prominent symbol in American life. It is a cornerstone of how Jews understand themselves and would have others understand them as well as a moral reference point for all Americans, embodied by Washington’s … More >>
The Holocaust in American Life
ALTHOUGH THIS BOOK IS EXTREMELY WELL WRITTEN, IT LACKS A HUMANISTIC ELEMENT WHICH IS RATHER SURPRISING GIVEN THE SUBJECT MATTER. NEVERTHELESS, PROF. NOVICK FEEDS THE BIGOTRY THAT IS RISING IN THE U.S. AGAINST JEWS. IF EVER THERE WAS AMMUNITION TO USE AGAINST ANY DEVASTATED GROUP OF PEOPLE, NOVICK CERTAINLY PROVIDES IT TO MANY WHO HAVE LONGED FOR THIS KIND OF OPINION. I CONSIDER THIS A VERY DANGEROUS BOOK BECAUSE IT WILL STIR UP THE FLAMES OF BIGOTRY BY MANY READERS AGAINST JEWS. I DON’T THINK THIS WAS THE INTENT OF PROF. NOVICK WHO IS QUITE AN INTELLECTUAL. UNFORTUNATELY, MANY HATE GROUPS WILL BE USING THIS MATERIAL FOR PROPAGANDA. WHAT A DISGRACE!
Rating: 3 / 5
For an historian, Novick seems to be little interested in real history, but is rather fascinated by the ephemeral wish and wash of the propagandized masses. This book describes in exhausting detail how Americans, Jews and Gentile, have changed their perception over time of THE assumed genocide. Such a heterogeneous lot, needless to report, have reactions all over the ball-park.
More interestingly, he shows how the shifts that have occurred over time have been driven mostly by the concerns of national Jewish organizations to present an image to the gentiles that is deemed suitable for their current purposes. Immediately after the war their concern was to present Jews as a successful heroic people, getting on with their lives, and turning the desert green. Later on it was used by them to justify Israel’s aggressive wars of occupation. Then, in all the rage for identity politics, with its requisite displays of historical victimization, to out-victim every other ethnie. Finally, most despicably, to “draw lessons” for school-children, suitable for bumper-stickers.
Novick’s language describing all this is scholarly and temperate, but sometimes has a discernible edge. However, his talent as an historian and writer is lamentably wasted. He has produced, analogously speaking, a 400 page monograph on how the public’s perception of alien abduction has changed since Goddard’s invention of rockets. He describes how some have used their alien abduction to show how brave they are, surviving and going on with their lives. Some have used it in a campaign to accuse the government of a cover-up in which all of the uninvolved, un-abducted are complicit. And others have used it as a vehicle to go on the lecture circuit, write books of nonsense, and bring in some cash.
Perhaps most interesting is his discussion of the trend of organized Jewry toward making the holocaust a theological event, beyond any rational historical discussion or revision, as an ineffable, unique, illustration of the Jews’ special relation to God. He disapproves of this, of course, but recognizes its inevitability.
A remarkable omission in the book is his almost total neglect of the story of how the holocaust is used in the eternal efforts of lawyers and other greedy organization men to successfully extract billions of dollars from the gentiles, mostly enriching themselves, and sullying the memories of the victims. Their essential argument: my suffering is unique and therefore greater than yours, so give me some money–you’ll feel better. The silence around this phenomenon is thunderous.
One cannot be but a little disappointed in this otherwise praiseworthy effort to examine a modern delusion and its effects on the public psyche and politic. It would have been interesting to read here an account of how the legend itself has changed over the years, mostly due to the diligent efforts of real historians, who have gradually approached the truth with its revisions in the number of victims, the recognition that Dachau and Buchenwald were not extermination camps, and the discrediting of Simon Wiesenthal’s hyperbolic tales of soap manufacture.
Rating: 2 / 5
It’s a bit cowardly to get at Institute of Historical Review without offering the opportunity to retort. The generally modest Novick suddenly gets out of his way by calling them “fruitcakes”, “nuts”, “screwballs”, “deniers” (while doubting the holocaust is surely NOT the same as denying it). When Novick mentions the collecting by one Mel Mermelstein of IHRs $50.000 offer for anyone who could prove any jews were gassed at Auschwitz, to actually “prove” IHR is no good, without giving any further notice of what took place in the courtroom from 1981 onwards (see for instance http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v14/v14n1p25_Okeefe.html), or of the fact that indeed no one to date has been able to prove any jews were gassed at all, the author seems to confirm that IHR maybe isn’t as slanderous as he wants his readers to believe. And assuming the importance of Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List in “checking the denier menace” is simply hilarious.
Rating: 3 / 5
This book does not deserve the attention it has received. Aside from its exceptionally boring and repetitive style, it is seriously marred by the fact that the author borrows from earlier books without giving credit where credit is due.
When discussing the actual events that took place between 1933 and 1945 Novick bases his conclusions on very limited evidence and in some cases distorts the evidence. He also dismisses the work of major historians who have won awards and are respected within the field of Holocaust history.
When Novick comes to his main thesis about the Holocaust in American life, he bases his discussion of Jewish reactions on the records of a few major Jewish organizations. These organizations are not representative of Jewish opinion. Even more distressing, Novick bases his comments on very limited and distorted evidence.
On the whole, Novick’s thesis about the Holocaust in American life is in no way original. It reflects (without giving credit) what other authors have said in a more nuanced and balanced way. On the whole Novick’s discussion of the Holocaust in American life and society is trite.
The book is not worth the time or money.
Rating: 1 / 5
. . . is what the (post) Holocaust situation is about, then Novick sticks to the task – he does not allow that this memory to the 6,000,000 dead is good enough. Far from it! The moral advantage that a group or organization can obtain by identifying itself with the suffering of the Jews – Novick leaves us in no uncertainty – is a disgrace to the memory of the dead, as such is exploited for whatever advantage it can get! Finkelstein’s contemporary publication takes on a personal tone that it is a joy not to witness here: Novick couches his words in a dispassionate, and more reasoned tone. Yet, he too, like Finkelstein, fails to begin an investigation into the meaning of suffering – and how that meaning – in all of this (perhaps ineffable) tragedy – is that the Jews have not lost one iota of the recognition that they are the race by which God entered human time, human history, and human experience. Their suffering enduring the Holocaust, only makes this association all the deeper. In attempting to dislodge the Chosen Race (via the ghastly brutalities of Selection) the Nazis attempted to assert themselves – Man as Superman – in the place of God. The Jews were the human-representatives of God’s place in the history of Western Civilization – the place which the Nazis wanted for themselves – and the Nazi mind turned to the brutalities of Selection! An attempt to unravel the history (in the face of God) of the Jews. It is a bitter irony that the more the Jews suffered, the more their place as God’s representatives in human history was assured. The exploitation of their suffering – as concertedly detailed in Novick’s book – is one more powerful voice that resounds clearly as a bell: Never again! this exploitation of Jewish suffering!
Rating: 4 / 5