The Future Of The Holocaust

In The Future of the Holocaust, Berel Lang continues his inquiry into the causal mechanisms of decision-making and conduct in Nazi Germany and into responses to the genocide by individuals and nations—an inquiry that he began in Act and Idea in the Nazi Genocide and pursued in Heidegger's Silence. Raising the question now of what the future of the Holocaust is, he addresses among other topics how history and memory together shape views of the Holocaust; how the concept of "intention"—which played a crucial part in the events of half a century ago—shapes history and memory themselves; and how future views of this genocide may alter those of today.In addition, Lang explores cultural representations of the "Final Solution"—from monuments to public school curricula—within the Jewish and German communities. He analyzes ethical issues concerning such concepts as intention, responsibility, forgiveness, and revenge, and puts forward a theory of the history of evil which provides a context for the Holocaust both historically and morally. Addressing the claims that the Nazi genocide was unique, Lang argues that the Holocaust is at once an actual series of events and a still future possibility. If the Holocaust occurred once, he argues, it can occur twice—and this view of the future remains an unavoidable premise for anyone now writing or thinking about that event in the past.

Focused on 'The Holocaust in an Age of Genocide', Remembering for the Future brings together the work of nearly 200 scholars from more than 30 countries and features cutting-edge scholarship across a range of disciplines, amounting to the most extensive and powerful reassessment of the Holocaust ever undertaken. In addition to its international scope, the project emphasizes that varied disciplinary perspectives are needed to analyze and to check the genocidal forces that have made the Twentieth century so deadly. Historians and ethicists, psychologists and literary scholars, political scientists and theologians, sociologists and philosophers - all of these, and more, bring their expertise to bear on the Holocaust and genocide. Their contributions show the new discoveries that are being made and the distinctive approaches that are being developed in the study of genocide, focusing both on archival and oral evidence, and on the religious and cultural representation of the Holocaust.

Views the Holocaust as a pivotal event in history and concludes that God does not exist. Argues for a secular humanistic Judaism of "the future Jew." Holocaust memory is central to this vision, which aims at preventing another holocaust or any other genocide. Presents an example of a Holocaust "seder" and stresses that every day should be Holocaust Day. States that antisemitism is a constant in history and, despite the utopian rationality- and science-based humanism espoused, expresses a commitment to cut off the hands of any antisemitism that threatens before it can harm the Jews. This combination of humanism and perpetual memorializing of the Holocaust is seen as giving some redemptive meaning to the Holocaust. Much attention is paid to arguing that God's failure to save the Jews proves His non-existence.

Richard Rubenstein writes of the holocaust, why it happened, why it happened when it did, and why it may happen again and again.

"In the courtroom and the classroom, in popular media, public policy, and scholarly pursuits, the Holocaust-its origins, its nature, and its implications-remains very much a matter of interest, debate, and controversy. Arriving at a time when a new generation must come to terms with the legacy of the Holocaust or forever lose the benefit of its historical, social, and moral lessons, this volume offers a richly varied, deeply informed perspective on the practice, interpretation, and direction of Holocaust research now and in the future. In their essays the authors-an international group including eminent senior scholars as well those who represent the future of the field-set the agenda for Holocaust studies in the coming years, even as they give readers the means for understanding today's news and views of the Holocaust, whether in court cases involving victims and perpetrators; international, national, and corporate developments; or fictional, documentary, and historical accounts. Several of the essays-such as one on nonarmed "amidah" or resistance and others on the role of gender in the behavior of perpetrators and victims-provide innovative and potentially significant interpretive frameworks for the field of Holocaust studies. Others; for instance, the rounding up of Jews in Italy, Nazi food policy in Eastern Europe, and Nazi anti-Jewish scholarship, emphasize the importance of new sources for reconstructing the historical record. Still others, including essays on the 1964 Frankfurt trial of Auschwitz guards and on the response of the Catholic Church to the question of German guilt, bring a new depth and sophistication to highly charged, sharply politicized topics. Together these essays will inform the future of the Holocaust in scholarly research and in popular understanding."--De l'éditeur.

A collection of working papers and addresses discussed at the international interfaith conference Remembering for the Future: The Impact of the Holocaust and Genocide on Jews and Christians . This three-volume work representing the current state of Holocaust research, is an invaluable source for those involved in researching and teaching this and related subjects.The papers focus on two main themes: Jews and Christians during and after the Holocaust and The impact of the Holocaust on the contemporary world and represent the views of scholars from all over the world. It is intended that these volumes will be productive of new perspectives, new research, expanded sensitivity to fears and dangers experienced by many people and greater awareness in our cultures, religious faiths, scientific thinking and technological-managerial decision-making of actions that may have genocidal consequences.

Ter z M zes was born in Romania in 1919 to a stable and loving family. Her idyllic life would eventually be shattered by the upheavals of the Second World War as the Nazis systematically undertook the destruction of the Jewish race. Starting with the insidious and menacing anti-Jewish laws and continuing with resettlement into cramped ghettos and finally deportation to the death camps, Ter z and her sister Erzsi would be thrust into a harrowing journey that would forever alter the course of their lives. In June 1944, Ter z and Erzsi were sent to the notorious Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in German-occupied Poland, where they would fight for their survival in a traumatic ordeal of unimaginable horror. Liberation in February 1945 should have meant the end of their nightmare, yet their homecoming would be delayed by widespread confusion as the Russians swept through Eastern Europe crushing the Nazi regime. After internment in numerous Russian camps and an uncertain future, Ter z and Ezri finally returned to their shattered hometown of Oradea in August 1945. Staying Human Through the Holocaust, originally titled Beverzett kot blak ("Shattered Tablets"), was published in Hungarian in 1993 and in Romanian in 1995. Told in a direct and riveting style that will haunt the reader long after the story is over, this memoir is a glimpse of the darkest and most uplifting aspects of our humanity from both an individual and historical point of view.

The denial of the Holocaust has no more credibility than the assertion that the earth is flat. Yet there are those who insist that the death of six million Jews in Nazi concentration camps is nothing but a hoax perpetrated by a powerful Zionist conspiracy. Sixty years ago, such notions were the province of pseudohistorians who argued that Hitler never meant to kill the Jews, and that only a few hundred thousand died in the camps from disease; they also argued that the Allied bombings of Dresden and other cities were worse than any Nazi offense, and that the Germans were the “true victims” of World War II. For years, those who made such claims were dismissed as harmless cranks operating on the lunatic fringe. But as time goes on, they have begun to gain a hearing in respectable arenas, and now, in the first full-scale history of Holocaust denial, Deborah Lipstadt shows how—despite tens of thousands of living witnesses and vast amounts of documentary evidence—this irrational idea not only has continued to gain adherents but has become an international movement, with organized chapters, “independent” research centers, and official publications that promote a “revisionist” view of recent history. Lipstadt shows how Holocaust denial thrives in the current atmosphere of value-relativism, and argues that this chilling attack on the factual record not only threatens Jews but undermines the very tenets of objective scholarship that support our faith in historical knowledge. Thus the movement has an unsuspected power to dramatically alter the way that truth and meaning are transmitted from one generation to another.