GRGR: Todorov and Clendinnen on the Holocaust
rj
rjackson at mail.usyd.edu.au
Wed Sep 22 15:32:55 CDT 1999
davemarc <davemarc at panix.com> wrote:
>
> > From: rj <rjackson at mail.usyd.edu.au>
>
> > Thanks for your contribution.
>
> You're welcome. I wanted to include the URL of the review, but I was
> unable to find it on the web. Can anyone find it?
>
I doubt that it's on the web. The publication details are as follows:
A.P. Riemer. 'The Killing of Morality'. Review of *Facing the Extreme:
Moral Life in the Concentration Camps* by Tzvetan Todorov. (Translated
by Arthur Denner and Abigail Pollack. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson,
1999. 307 pp, $49.95 (Aust.) ISBN 0 297 64306 1) *The Sydney Morning
Herald*, Saturday, September 18, 1999, 'Spectrum - Books', p. 8s.
A further excerpt:
"[According to Todorov, the Holocaust] was merely an extreme
manifestation of the depersonalising effects of totalitarianism's
ambition to deny the individual responsibility for moral, ethical and
political choices.
"To speak of absolute or inexplicable evil in connection with the
extermination of European Jewry is not merely inaccurate but highly
dangerous because it distracts attention from the possibility that
similar atrocities may arise even in banal or commonplace circumstances.
"Nor is it wise to attempt to ascribe blame to such abstractions as
the German character, for instance.
"Todorov is particularly scathing about the assertion of Claude
Lanzmann, the maker of the celebrated film *Shoah*, that Auschwitz could
not have happened in France. ....
"It is not possible in a brief review to do justice to the richness
and intellectual poise of this book.
"Todorov surveys an impressive range of issues. He wonders, for
instance, whether women were better equipped to survive the camps and
also to retain moral and ethical integrity.
"The personalities of some of the most vicious commandants are
examined. Their notorious worship of music is contrasted against the
delight of a group of inmates as they marvelled at a magnificent
sunrise, Primo Levi's attempts to recite Dante, and the elation of the
Soviet dissident Eugenia Ginzburg when she glimpsed a tree in full leaf
as she was about to face her accusers and judges. ..."
best
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