Judging 'Privileged' Jews

Holocaust Ethics, Representation, and the 'Grey Zone'
1. Auflage 2015
ISBN: 978-1-78238-916-3
Verlag: Berghahn Books

Buch, Englisch, Band 18, 234 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 349 g

Reihe: War and Genocide

The Nazis’ persecution of the Jews during the Holocaust included the creation of prisoner hierarchies that forced victims to cooperate with their persecutors. Many in the camps and ghettos came to hold so-called “privileged” positions, and their behavior has often been judged as self-serving and harmful to fellow inmates. Such controversial figures constitute an intrinsically important, frequently misunderstood, and often taboo aspect of the Holocaust. Drawing on Primo Levi’s concept of the “grey zone,” this study analyzes the passing of moral judgment on “privileged” Jews as represented by writers, such as Raul Hilberg, and in films, including Claude Lanzmann’s Shoah and Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List. Negotiating the problems and potentialities of “representing the unrepresentable,” this book engages with issues that are fundamental to present-day attempts to understand the Holocaust and deeply relevant to reflections on human nature.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Brown, Adam

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Ethik, Moralphilosophie
• Geisteswissenschaften Jüdische Studien Geschichte des Judentums Geschichte des Judentums: Moderne & Gegenwart
• Geisteswissenschaften Jüdische Studien Jüdische Studien Jüdische Identität & Biographien
• Geisteswissenschaften Jüdische Studien Geschichte des Judentums Antisemitismus, Pogrome, Shoah

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Introduction: “Privileged Jews, Holocaust Representation and the “Limit” of Judgment

Chapter 1. La “Zona Grigia”: The Paradox of Judgment in Primo Levi’s “Grey Zone”

Chapter 2. The Judgment of “Privileged” Jews in the Work of Raul Hilberg

Chapter 3. Bridging History and Cinema: “Privileged” Jews in Claude Lanzmann’s Shoah and Other Holocaust Documentaries

Chapter 4. Portraying “Privileged” Jews in Fiction Films: The Potential to Suspend Judgment?

Conclusion: “And What Would You Have Done?” Negotiating the Paradoxical Bind

Bibliography

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Brown, Adam
Adam Brown is a Senior Lecturer in Media Studies at Deakin University, Australia, and a volunteer at the Jewish Holocaust Centre in Melbourne, where he initiated the digitization of the Centre’s survivor video testimony collection. He was awarded the Isi Leibler Prize for the best contribution to advancing knowledge of racial, religious or ethnic prejudice in any time or place for his dissertation, and has written widely on Holocaust representation across various genres, surveillance and film, mediations of rape, digital children's television, and gaming cultures.

Adam Brown is a Senior Lecturer in Media Studies at Deakin University, Australia, and a volunteer at the Jewish Holocaust Centre in Melbourne, where he initiated the digitization of the Centre’s survivor video testimony collection. He was awarded the Isi Leibler Prize for the best contribution to advancing knowledge of racial, religious or ethnic prejudice in any time or place for his dissertation, and has written widely on Holocaust representation across various genres, surveillance and film, mediations of rape, digital children's television, and gaming cultures.