| Title | : | Gray Zones: Ambiguity and Compromise in the Holocaust and its Aftermath (War and Genocide, 8) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1845453026 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781845453022 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 440 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 2005 |
Few essays about the Holocaust are better known or more important than Primo Levi’s reflections on what he called “the gray zone,” a reality in which moral ambiguity and compromise were pronounced. In this volume accomplished Holocaust scholars, among them Raul Hilberg, Gerhard L. Weinberg, Christopher Browning, Peter Hayes, and Lynn Rapaport, explore the terrain that Levi identified. Together they bring a necessary interdisciplinary focus to bear on timely and often controversial topics in cutting-edge Holocaust studies that range from historical analysis to popular culture. While each essay utilizes a particular methodology and argues for its own thesis, the volume as a whole advances the claim that the more we learn about the Holocaust, the more complex that event turns out to be. Only if ambiguities and compromises in the Holocaust and its aftermath are identified, explored, and at times allowed to remain--lest resolution deceive us--will our awareness of the Holocaust and its implications be as full as possible.
Gray Zones: Ambiguity and Compromise in the Holocaust and its Aftermath (War and Genocide, 8) Reviews
-
“The essays are about moral dilemmas faced by people in the extreme circumstances of genocide. I don't think these are as far removed from the ethical dilemmas of ordinary life as the book implies. It is a weakness of the book to keep repeating that they are and stressing the point ad nauseum. For example the term "choiceless choices" is introduced as though it were a breakthrough concept in moral philosophy first come to light during the Holocaust. As if the phrase "Hobson's choice" never existed or that evildoers never delighted before 1933 in forcing decent people to act immorally for their own amusement.
That aside the many of the essays are worth reading.
