Deconstructing Holocaust Consciousness

A review essay on books by (1) Peter Novick, The Holocaust in American Life (New York: Houghton & Mifflin, 1999); (2) Norman Finkelstein, The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering (New York: Verso, 2000); & (3) Mark Chmiel, Elie Wiesel and the Politics of Mo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Palestine studies 2002-10, Vol.32 (1), p.78-89
Main Author: Massad, Joseph
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
(DS) History - Asia
Bank accounts
Historiography
History
Holocaust
Jewish Americans
Jewish history
Jewish peoples
Nazism
Research Article
Swiss banks
United States history
World wars
Zionism
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Summary:A review essay on books by (1) Peter Novick, The Holocaust in American Life (New York: Houghton & Mifflin, 1999); (2) Norman Finkelstein, The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering (New York: Verso, 2000); & (3) Mark Chmiel, Elie Wiesel and the Politics of Moral Leadership (Philadelphia: Temple U Press, 2001). These books deal with various aspects of the Holocaust. Novick's text is argued to have no equal as a history of the event. It offers a comprehensive & intelligent account of the expansion of consciousness about the Holocaust, & the quality of its information is lauded. Finkelstein provides a brief but important addition to the body of literature on the Holocaust, in which he criticizes Novick's book for its lack of radical critique & discusses information that Novick omitted while addressing the Holocaust industry. Chmiel presents a case study of the political aspects of Holocaust memory via a challenge of Elie Wiesel's one-sided politics. J. W. Stanton
ISSN:0377-919X
1533-8614
DOI:10.1525/jps.2002.32.1.78