Reluctant Witnesses
Survivors, Their Children, and the Rise of Holocaust Consciousness
Published on 25. September 2014
Book
Hardback
256 pages
978-0-19-973358-3 (ISBN)
Description
For most of the postwar period, the destruction of European Jewry was not a salient part of American Jewish life, and was generally seen as irrelevant to non-Jewish Americans. Survivors and their families tended to keep to themselves, forming their own organizations, or they did their best to block out the past. Today, in contrast, the Holocaust is the subject of documentaries and Hollywood films, and is widely recognized as a universal moral touchstone. Reluctant Witnesses mixes memoir, history, and social analysis to tell the story of the rise of Holocaust consciousness in the United States from the perspective of survivors and their descendants.
The public reckoning with the Holocaust, the book argues, was due to more than the passage of time. It took the coming of age of the "second generation" -- who reached adulthood during the rise of feminism, the ethnic revival, and therapeutic culture -- for survivors' families to reclaim their hidden histories. Inspired by the changed status of the victim in American society, the second generation coaxed their parents to share their losses with them, transforming private pains into public stories.
Reluctant Witnesses documents how a group of people who had previously been unrecognized and misunderstood managed to find its voice. It tells this story in relation to the changing status of trauma and victimhood in American culture more generally. At a time when a sense of Holocaust fatigue seems to be setting in, and when the remaining survivors are at the end of their lives, it offers a reminder that the ability to speak openly about traumatic experiences had to be struggled for. By confronting traumatic memories and catastrophic histories, the book argues, we can make our world mean something beyond ourselves.
The public reckoning with the Holocaust, the book argues, was due to more than the passage of time. It took the coming of age of the "second generation" -- who reached adulthood during the rise of feminism, the ethnic revival, and therapeutic culture -- for survivors' families to reclaim their hidden histories. Inspired by the changed status of the victim in American society, the second generation coaxed their parents to share their losses with them, transforming private pains into public stories.
Reluctant Witnesses documents how a group of people who had previously been unrecognized and misunderstood managed to find its voice. It tells this story in relation to the changing status of trauma and victimhood in American culture more generally. At a time when a sense of Holocaust fatigue seems to be setting in, and when the remaining survivors are at the end of their lives, it offers a reminder that the ability to speak openly about traumatic experiences had to be struggled for. By confronting traumatic memories and catastrophic histories, the book argues, we can make our world mean something beyond ourselves.
Reviews / Votes
Arlene Stein traces the history and transformation of Holocaust consciousness from the postwar period to the present, deftly interweaving oral history, interviews, and autobiography. Reluctant Witnesses is a compelling portrayal of the paradoxes, complexities, and politics of Holocaust memory.... an important, necessary contribution. * Marita Sturken, author of Tourists of History: Memory, Kitsch, and Consumerism from Oklahoma City to Ground Zero * Today, growing numbers of Americans are both obsessed with-and fatigued by-efforts to remember the Holocaust. After years of relative silence, how did we get here? In this perceptive and profoundly moving account, Reluctant Witnesses shows how feminist and therapeutic ideas changed our culture, opening up new spaces for victims of world-shattering events to speak for themselves. * Phil Zuckerman, author of Living the Secular Life and Faith No More * Reluctant Witnesses is an important addition to our understanding of what happens subsequently to victims of trauma and genocide. Though Stein's focus is on the Holocaust, her insightful and sensitive work speaks to a wide audience. * Deborah E. Lipstadt, Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish History and Holocaust Studies, Emory University * Reluctant Witnesses shows how stories of trauma shape personal identities, families across generations, and political consciousness. No other study so clearly demonstrates how narratives are shaped as much by the historical moments in which they are told as by the history they tell. * Arthur W. Frank, author of The Wounded Storyteller and Letting Stories Breathe * ...a complex sociological and psychological exploration of what it is to be a descendant of a survivor in the 21st century. This book is a result of decades of research and interviews with children of survivors. Academics as well as those with a personal interest in the history and sociology of the second and third generation of Holocaust survivors will find value in this research. * Library Journal * This beautiful book mixes elegy and exegesis to uncover the labors of a generation of Jewish Americans who have made meaning from and given meaning to the horrors of the Holocaust. Stein writes so well and fluidly that her rich sociological analysis reads more like an intimate family history. Highly recommended. * Public Books * Reluctant Witnesses is a comprehensive monograph that brings together the experiences of Holocaust survivors and their descendants in a readable, insightful, and well-researched study. * Janet Jacobs, Symbolic Interaction * Beautifully and clearly written, Reluctant Witness presents the challenges and complexities of Holocaust remembrance through interpretive history, interviews with survivors, and the author's own stories of her life as a child of survivors. The brilliance of this book is how it painstakingly traces the distinct time periods in which attitudes shifted. Anyone interested in this topic should read this incisive and wise analysis in this outstanding volume. * New Jersey Jewish News * this is a very important book, as it emphasizes the memories of survivors and their children who are fighting to establish their identities against denial politics, sometimes for their personal goals, but most of the time to share an awareness in order to sensitize others to their existence. * Maja Slijepcevic, Cultural Sociology * Reluctant Witnesses highly informative, written in accessible fashion, and evokes an interest in an irresistible way. * Joanna Rak, Qualitative Sociology *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
11 b/w halftone
Dimensions
Height: 243 mm
Width: 162 mm
Thickness: 23 mm
Weight
458 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-973358-3 (9780199733583)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
08/2014
1st Edition
OUP eBook
€20.99
Available for download
E-Book
08/2014
1st Edition
OUP eBook
€17.49
Available for download
Person
Arlene Stein is Professor of Sociology at Rutgers University and serves on the graduate faculty of Women's and Gender Studies. She is the author of three books, including The Stranger Next Door: The Story of a Small Community's Battle over Sex, Faith, and Civil Rights.
Content
Acknowledgments ; Introduction ; Chapter 1: Interrupted Lives ; Chapter 2: Desperately Seeking Normality ; Chapter 3: The Children Wish to Remember What the Parents Wish to Forget ; Chapter 4: Claiming Victimhood, Becoming Survivors ; Chapter 5: Ghosts into Ancestors ; Chapter 6: Too Much Memory? Holocaust Fatigue in the Era of the Victim ; Appendix: Methodological notes, Interviewees ; Notes ; References ; Index