Appropriated Memory

Th¿is¿¿ b¿ook offers a survey of post-World War II German-language post-memorial writing.¿ An analysis¿ of¿ the books by¿ Heinrich Böll, Günter Grass, and Wolfgang Koeppen¿ e¿xposes the difficult path of German writing about the Holocaust. Koeppen's unauthorized ¿¿appropriation of Jakob Littner's survivor memoir serves as the frame for th¿is study,¿¿ ¿expos¿ing¿¿ ¿the difference¿s¿ between perpetrator and victim perspectives. The various attempts ¿by¿ the current generation¿ of authors¿ to bridge th¿is¿ ¿divide¿ ¿reflect¿ the renewed interest and changed attitude¿s¿ towards the Holocaust ¿that emerged ¿in Germany after ¿R¿eunification. Included in this volume are W. G. Sebald's imaginary dialogue between a victim and a perpetrator, Ursula Krechel's exploration of Jewish life in Shanghai from a Jewish perspective, Iris Hanika's presentation of the distraught mindset of a member of Germany's second perpetrator generation, and Kevin Vennemann's ¿narrative about¿ a Jewish child in¿ the midst of¿ a Polish massacre.