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Book Reviews 149 In "The Role ofGender in the Holocaust," their introduction to this volume, Ofer and Weitzman note that gender-based analyses in the field ofHolocaust studies are still in an early stage. However, the excellent and well-documented essays in this volume, and the difficult questions their authors raise, already delineate an emerging 'field of study and will certainly encourage important research in the future. Judith R. Baskin Department of Judaic Studies State University ofNew York at Albany Fresh Wounds: Early Narratives of Holocaust Survival, edited by Donald L. Niewyk. Chapel Hill: University ofNorth Carolina Press, 1998. 414 pages. $34.95. In 1946, American psychologist David P. Boder traveled to Europe to interview Holocaust survivors. When he returned, Boder tried to have his material published but was generally unsuccessful. Fortunately, Boder's work was preserved and has now come to light in Fresh Wounds: Early Narratives ofHolocaust Survival, edited by Donald L. Niewyk of Southern Methodist University. In this valuable and powerful book, Niewyk provides a sample ofBoder's interviews with Holocaustsurvivors whose ordeals were still fresh. Of Boder's original 109 interviews, Niewyk has selected 34, allowing survivors from Poland, Lithuania, Germany, France, Slovakia, and Hungary to finally have their say. In his informative introduction, Niewyk details the history behind the interviews, places them in their historical context, and traces David P. Boder's life. Boder's interest in linguistics led him to Europe so that he could "discover what words survivors would choose in telling their stories." Once there, he encountered numerous difficulties gaining access to the victims and recording their stories. Boder was limited by circumstances to refugees who for one reason or another could not return to their original homes. Thus, Jews from Italy, Greece, and most Western European countries were omitted from the process. Niewyk points out the more unique features of the narratives, emphasizing their "special value" and noting that they were made before the survivors' memories were "blurred" by the passage oftime. Boder's efforts to publish his scholarship in the 1950s essentially failed because there was no market for his product. Ironically, Boder died just as Adolf Eichmann was brought to trial. Had he lived, Boder might have received proper credit for his efforts and the public would have been exposed to the entire collection of interviews. Niewyk leaves the essence ofthe interviews intact, allowing the reader to feel their full impact. These accounts are special because these victims had no time to analyze or to rationalize the actions of their tormentors or, in some cases, their fellow prisoners. Nor had their anger subsided. These people did not have the luxury ofhaving fifty years to become retrospective about their experiences. They spoke without having been 150 SHOFAR Winter 2001 Vol. 19, No.2 exposed to material that could have enhanced their stories to make them more accurate, horrific, or marketable. The material covers every imaginable Holocaust experience. Some ofthe information is common knowledge, and stories ofstarvation, harsh conditions in the camps, and the general dehumanization process are often repeated. On the other hand, a number of the survivors had witnessed some of the most significant events of the Holocaust including the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, the revolt of the Sonderkommandos at Auschwitz, and the Slovak National uprising. Some of the accounts contain small factual errors which Niewyk corrects. Nonetheless, they make compelling reading. One of the more notable aspects of the interviews is the number of people expressing a desire to emigrate to "Eretz Israel." For some, going to Palestine was the only positive aspect oftheir lives. For others, going to "Eretz Israel" represented a last desperate move following their failed attempts to return to their former homes. More than one survivor recalled the violence against Jews in post-war Poland, voicing the opinion that Jews would never be able to return to their former lands. Some of those wishing to emigrate to the Middle East had fallen into British hands, and the treatment they received will do little to change opinions about British behavior toward Jews and Israel in the post-war period. At least one detainee implied that conditions in the British detention camp were worse than those in...

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