Gray Zones: Ambiguity and Compromise in the Holocaust and Its Aftermath (Studies on War and Genocide)

Part one. Ambiguity and compromise in writing and depicting Holocaust history -- part two. Identity, gender, and sexuality during and after the Third Reich -- part three. Gray spaces : geographical and imaginative landscapes -- part four. Justice, religion, and ethics during and after the Holocaust.;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 ess. Series Page 2 Title Page 3 Copyright Page 4 Table of Contents 7 Prologue 15 Part I: Ambiguity and Compromise in Writing and Depicting Holocaust History 23 Chapter 1 The Ambiguities of Evil and Justice 29 Chapter 2 "Alleviation" and "Compliance" 48 Chapter 3 Between Sanity and Insanity 59 Chapter 4 Sonderkommando: Testimony from Evidence 83 Chapter 5 A Commentary on "Gray Zones" in Raul Hilberg's Work 92 Chapter 6 Incompleteness in Holocaust Historiography 103 Part II: Identity, Gender, and Sexuality During and After the Third Reich 115 Chapter 7 Choiceless Choices 119 Chapter 8 "Who am I?" The Struggle for Religious Identity of Jewish Children Hidden by Christians During the Shoah 129 Chapter 9 Hitler's Jewish Soldiers 140 Chapter 10 A Gray Zone Among the Field Gray Men 149 Chapter 11 Pleasure and Evil 169 Chapter 12 The Gender of Good and Evil 187 Part III: Gray Spaces: Geographical and Imaginative Landscapes 201 Chapter 13 Hitler's "Garden of Eden" in Ukraine 207 Chapter 14 Life and Death in the "Gray Zone" of Jewish Ghettos in Nazi-Occupied Europe 227 Chapter 15 "Almost-Camps" in Paris 244 Chapter 16 Alternate Holocausts and the Mistrust of Memory 262 Chapter 17 Laughter and Heartache 274 Chapter 18 The Holocaust in Popular Culture 292 Chapter 19 The Grey Zone 308 Part IV: Justice, Religion, and Ethics During and After the Holocaust 315 Chapter 20 Gray into Black 321 Chapter 21 Catalyzing Fascism 333 Chapter 22 Postwar Justice and the Treatment of Nazi Assets 347 Chapter 23 The Gray Zones of Holocaust Restitution 361 Chapter 24 The Creation of Ethical "Gray Zones" in the German Protestant Church 382 Chapter 25 Gray-Zoned Ethics 394 Epilogue 412 Select Bibliography 417 About the Editors and Contributors 421 Index 429 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. "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 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 and 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."--Book jacket

the Gray Zone Of The Title Refers To Primo Levi's Phrase For The Complex Structure Of Auschwitz, Where The Italian Author Was Interred, Particularly To Its System Of Conscripting Jews To Collaborate In The Destruction Of Fellow Concentration Camp Inmates. Petropoulos (european History, Claremont Mckenna College) And Roth (philosophy, Center For The Study Of Holocaust, Genocide, And Human Rights, Same Campus) Introduce 25 Chapters Delving Into The Ambiguous Nature Of Evil And Justice. Contributors Discuss Aspects Of This Gray Zone In Relation To Ghettos, Survival Strategies, Identity Issues, Portrayal Of The Holocaust In Popular Culture, And Religion And Ethics During And Afterwards. Illustrations Include Maps And Wartime Film Footage Of Nazi-occupied Ukraine. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, Or

"The author, one of Germany's leading economic historians, analyzes the special features of the German path to the New Economy as it faces the American challenge. He paints a picture of Germany Inc. and looks at the durability of some of its structures and the mentalities that undergird it. He sees a "culture clash" and argues against an underestimation of the dynamics of the German industrial system. A book for all interested in comparative economics and those who have been inclined to dismiss the German Model as outmoded and weak."--BOOK JACKET.