This book is about Primo Levi and Ka-Tzetnik, both Auschwitz survivors and central figures in the shaping of Holocaust memory, who dedicated their lives to bearing witness and writing about the concentration camps, seeking, in particular, to give voice to those who did not return. The two writers are generally treated as complete opposites: Levi level-headed and self-aware, Ka-Tzetnik caught up in repeating the traumatic past. In this book I show how fundamentally mistaken this approach is, and how the similarity between them is, in fact, far greater than it may seem. While Levi draws the map, Ka-Tzetnik reveals the territory itself, and, taken together, they offer a better understanding of the human experience of the camps. This book explores their writing and their lives up to their deaths—Ka-Tzetnik of old age and Levi by his own hand—offering new explanations of Levi’s suicide, little understood to this day.
Holocaust History and the Readings of Ka-Tzetnik provides the first extensive exploration of the reception of Ka-Tzetnik's work and the role that his books have played in the larger discussion of the Holocaust and its memorialization around the world. Including contributions from an international and interdisciplinary group of experienced scholars, the book examines the literary merits, historical context and public resonance of Ka-Tzetnik's stories. It also places his novels in the context of post-WWII debates about how the memories and testimonies of the victims of the Holocaust can be represented and made publicly accessible through literature. There is also detailed coverage of key topics, like Holocaust memory and sexual violence in the concentration camps, and thorough historical analysis of key works like House of Dolls included throughout. This is an important study for all scholars and students with an interest in the Holocaust and Holocaust literature.
A literary scholar examines survival narratives from Russian and German concentration camps, shedding new light on testimony in the face of evil. In this illuminating study, Leona Toker demonstrates how Holocaust literature and Gulag literature provide contexts for each other, especially how the prominent features of one shed light on the veiled features and methods of the other. Toker’s analysis concentrates on the narrative qualities of the works as well as how each text documents the writer’s experience in a form where fictionalized narrative can double as historical testimony. Toker also views these texts against the background of historical information about the Soviet and the Nazi regimes of repression. Writers at the center of this work include Varlam Shalamov, Primo Levi, Elie Wiesel, and Ka-Tzetnik, and others, including Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Evgeniya Ginzburg, and Jorge Semprún, illuminate the discussion. Toker also provides context for references to potentially obscure historical events and shows how they form new meaning in the text.
THE CULT NOVEL RETURNS! “The best book I read last year is A Man Lies Dreaming by Lavie Tidhar... It is so cleverly constructed and such a spectacular conclusion unfolds that you are going to take it all very seriously.” – Sting “Ambitious as hell” –Ian Rankin “An excellent novel” –Philip Kerr Since its original 2014 publication, A Man Lies Dreaming has been translated into multiple languages and gained a cult following for its dark humor, prescient politics and powerful exploration of the impossibility of fantasy. 1939: Adolf Hitler, fallen from power, seeks refuge in a London engulfed in the throes of a very British Fascism. Now eking a miserable living as a down-at-heels private eye and calling himself Wolf, he has no choice but to take on the case of a glamorous Jewish heiress whose sister went missing. It’s a decision Wolf will very shortly regret. For in another time and place a man lies dreaming: Shomer, once a Yiddish pulp writer, who dreams lurid tales of revenge in the hell that is Auschwitz. Prescient, darkly funny and wholly original, the award-winning A Man Lies Dreaming is a modern fable for our time that comes “crashing through the door of literature like Sam Spade with a .38 in his hand” (Guardian). PRAISE FOR LAVIE TIDHAR Winner – The World Fantasy Award Winner – The John W. Campbell Award Winner – The British Fantasy Award Winner – The Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize Winner – The Neukom Literary Arts Award Winner – The Kitschies Award Winner – The BSFA Award “Tidhar is a genius at conjuring realities that are just two steps to the left of our own.” –NPR “Tidhar changes genres with every outing, but his astounding talents guarantee something new and compelling no matter the story he tells.” –Library Journal “In a genre entirely of his own, and quite possibly a warped genius.” –Ian McDonald, author of River of Gods “Already staked a claim as the genre’s most interesting, most bold, and most accomplished writer.” –Locus “Tidhar is a master at taking concepts that really shouldn’t work and crafting them into something uniquely brilliant.” –GeekDad “He is perhaps the UK’s most literary speculative fiction writer.” –Strange Horizons “Like early Kurt Vonnegut... both writers seem to channel the same prankster glee that covers deep despair.” –Locus “Bears comparison with the best of Philip K Dick” –The Financial Times PRAISE FOR A MAN LIES DREAMING JERWOOD FICTION UNCOVERED PRIZE WINNER 2015 BRITISH FANTASY AWARD NOMINEE 2015 PREMIO ROMA NOMINEE 2016 GEFFEN PRIZE NOMINEE 2019 DUBLIN LITERATURE AWARD LONGLIST 2016 “Complex, elusive and intriguing” –The Jerusalem Post “Nasty, clever, waspish and witty... a brilliant and potent thought experiment” –The Sunday Herald “Bold and unnerving” –NPR “Damn good” –Jewish Book Council “A wholly original Holocaust story: as outlandish as it is poignant.” –Kirkus (starred review) “A vital, brilliant novel” –Barnes & Noble SFF Blog “Outstanding and moving” –Maxim Jakubowski, LoveReading.co.uk “Gripping... clever and thrilling work” –Buzz Magazine “In turns brutal, harrowing, heartbreaking and intriguing.... [an] unforgettable novel.” –Gulf Weekly “poetic & terrible... quite incredible” –Tor.com “A brilliant novel.” –Pop Verse 눀
A work by the Italian-Jewish writer, Primo Levi. It describes his arrest as a member of the Italian anti-fascist resistance during the Second World War, and his incarceration in the Auschwitz concentration camp from February 1944 until the camp was liberated on 27 January 1945.
The legacy of antifascist partisan, Auschwitz survivor, and author Primo Levi continues to drive exciting interdisciplinary scholarship. The contributions to this intellectually rich, tightly organized volume - from many of the world's foremost Levi scholars - show a remarkable breadth across fields as varied as ethics, memory, and media studies.
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.
A novel of the improbable friendship that arises between a Nazi officer and a Jewish chessplayer in Auschwitz SS Obersturmfuhrer Paul Meissner arrives in Auschwitz from the Russian front wounded and fit only for administrative duty. His most pressing task is to improve camp morale and he establishes a chess club, and allows officers and enlisted men to gamble on the games. Soon Meissner learns that chess is also played among the prisoners, and there are rumors of an unbeatable Jew known as "the Watchmaker." Meissner's superiors begin to demand that he demonstrate German superiority by pitting this undefeated Jew against the best Nazi players. Meissner finds Emil Clément, the Watchmaker, and a curious relationship arises between them. As more and more games are played, the stakes rise, and the two men find their fates deeply entwined. Twenty years later, the two meet again in Amsterdam—Meissner has become a bishop, and Emil is playing in an international chess tournament. Having lost his family in the horrors of the death camps, Emil wants nothing to do with the ex-Nazi officer despite their history, but Meissner is persistent. "What I hope," he tells Emil, "is that I can help you to understand that the power of forgiveness will bring healing." As both men search for a modicum of peace, they recall a gripping tale of survival and trust. A suspenseful meditation on understanding and guilt, John Donoghue's The Death's Head Chess Club is a bold debut and a rich portrait of a surprising friendship.
