Deakin University
Browse

Judging 'privileged' Jews: Holocaust ethics, representation, and the 'grey zone'

book
posted on 2013-01-01, 00:00 authored by Adam Brown
Judging 'privileged' Jews: Holocaust ethics, representation, and the 'grey zone'

History

Pagination

1 - 232

Publisher

Berghahn

Place of publication

New York, NY

ISBN-13

9780857459923

ISBN-10

0857459929

Language

eng

Notes

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.

Publication classification

A1 Books - authored - research; A Book

Usage metrics

    Research Publications

    Categories

    No categories selected

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC