Century of Genocide: Eyewitness Accounts and Critical Reviews (review)

Book Reviews .> ;'. ~t. 125 Along with Howe's own words, it should be the place from which future work on Irving Howe begins. Alexander Bloom Professor of American History Wheaton College Century ofGenocide: Eyewitness Accounts and Critical Reviews, edited by Samuel Totten, William S. Parsons, and Israel W. Charny. New York and London: Garland Publishing, 1997. 488 pp. $24.95. This edited volume comprises brief analyses and overviews including pertinent eyewitness accounts offourteen cases ofgenocide and mass destruction. Israel W. Charny, Executive Director of the Jerusalem-based Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide, wrote the Foreword, while Samuel Totten, Professor of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, and William S. Parsons, Chief of Staff for the United States HolocaustMemorial Museum, wrote the Introduction. Charny, Totten, and Parsons are scholars and veteran activists. For over a decade they have made significant contributions to the literature on the understanding and prevention of genocide. Among the contributors and their topics are Jon Bridgman and Leslie J. Worley on the Hereros of South West Africa (1904), Rouben P. Adalian on the Armenian Genocide (1915-1923), James P. Mace on mass starvation in the Ukraine during the Stalinist collectivization period (1932-1933), Lyman H. Legters on the deportation and destruction ofsoviet nationalities, Donald L. Niewyk on the Holocaust ofthe" European Jews (1933-1945), Sybil Milton on the Holocaust ofthe Gypsies (1933-1945), Hugh Gregory Gallagher on the Nazi "euthanasia" campaign against disabled persons (19391945 ), Robert Cribb on the Indonesian massacres (1965-1966), Ben Kiernan on Cambodia (1975-1979), Robert K. Hitchcock and Tara M. Twedt on the physical and cultural destruction of indigenous peoples, and Steven L. Burg, in an Afterword on Bosnia-Herzegovina, on the link between genocide and ethnic war. The scholarly and analytical contributions vary in scope and quality, as might be expected from an edited volume; nevertheless, for the most part they are informative and of high quality. Moreover, acting on their stated moral commitment to define genocide widely, the editors have included instances such as killing ofthe Hereros, the deportations ofSoviet nationalities, and the destruction of indigenous peoples that are often left out of discussions on genocide. The intent of this volume is not to make spurious equation between instances ofgenocide where millions died and others where fewer perished. The explicit aim is to stretch the borders of our understanding of 126 SHOFAR Winter 2000 Vol. 18, NO.2 genocide and ofour empathy for its victims. Besides the broad scope ofthe cases, what distinguishes this edited volume from some other recent contributions is the inclusion of eyewitness testimonies. This gives each case an immediacy and credibility that the scholarly analysis alone cannot match. In that sense the volume reaches beyond the narrow confines ofthe scholarly community to a wider community ofreaders, including students. Had there been a more extensive discussion ofthe analytic meaning ofterms, this volume could have made a stronger contribution to the scholarly and legal literature on genocide, but that was not its intent. Although comparative studies ofthe perpetrators of genocide and their motives do exist, there are precious few studies that include eyewitness accounts ofthe victims. For their discerning selections of case studies and for including eyewitness accounts of victims and bystanders we should be grateful to the editors. Robert Melson Department of Political Science Purdue University From a Ruined Garden: The Memorial Books ofPolish Jewry, edited and translated by Jack Kugelmass and Jonathan Boyarin. 2nd expanded ed., with geographical index and bibliography by Zachary M. Baker. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, published in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 1998. 353 pp. $39.95 (c); $17.95 (p). Rarely is a book published that causes an entirely new genre ofstudies to open up. This, however, was the result ofthe remarkably fortunate publication by Schocken Books of the first edition in 1983 of From a Ruined Garden. Before 1983, some scholars, librarians, and genealogical researchers certainly knew about yizker bikher in general, but up to that time there had not been a major focus on these books as social, historical, and genealogical sources offirsthand knowledge about destroyed communities, to some extent because of language barriers. But as more lay persons began searching...