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  • Lessons of the Holocaust by Michael R. Marrus
  • Doris L. Bergen
Michael R. Marrus. Lessons of the Holocaust. University of Toronto Press. xiv, 202. $23.95

This engaging and provocative book interrogates its own title. Lessons of the Holocaust, asks Michael Marrus? There are none, if by "lessons" one means specific, unambiguous guidelines for individuals and communities. Instead, the Holocaust teaches us to "beware of lessons" because, as Marrus demonstrates, what are trumpeted as timeless truths and unequivocal warnings upon examination turn out to be hollow pieties or self-serving slogans that instrumentalize and even falsify the past. Yet lessons abound. According to Marrus, a Google search for "lessons of the Holocaust" found "more than nine million hits"; two years later, the number is closer to 15 million. Undaunted – indeed, invigorated by the magnitude of the task – Marrus proceeds to question, debunk, and, above all, analyse what he sees as the most pervasive of the lessons – from "the Holocaust as a school for tolerance" to Benjamin Netanyahu's insistence that Israelis "can only rely on ourselves." Lessons of the Holocaust is a joy to read. Written with clarity and verve, it covers a lot of ground elegantly and efficiently. But be prepared; at some point, it will hit you how profoundly this book has challenged what you thought you knew about the Holocaust.

Marrus is at his best in diagnosing the problem. In seven crisp, thoughtful, and often witty chapters, he probes the connection between "lessons" and history in general and explores the specific case of the Holocaust under the categories of early, Jewish, Israeli, and universal lessons. His curiosity and eye for detail find meaning in unexpected places. For instance, take Joe the Plumber, aka Samuel Wurzelbacher, [End Page 276] who, Marrus reminds us, invoked the Holocaust during the US elections of 2008 as proof of the danger of gun control. Marrus also brings a fresh perspective to more familiar scholarly subjects; highlights are his discussions of Hannah Arendt, Elie Wiesel, and Emil Fackenheim. It is not enough to denounce those lessons with which we disagree, Marrus insists: "We need to remember that those who advance Holocaust lessons often assume great moral authority."

Some of the most interesting parts of the book are autobiographical. Marrus positions himself as both observer and participant in the development of Holocaust studies. Drawing on his long career – as the co-author with Robert Paxton of the path-breaking Vichy France and the Jews (1981), a member of the International Catholic-Jewish Historical Commission to examine the role of the Vatican during the Holocaust, and a professor and mentor to generations of students at the University of Toronto – he illustrates the complex, ever-changing relations between present and past. Along the way, he offers some memorable vignettes: Raul Hilberg thrown into a crisis by Marrus's review of his 1992 book in the New York Times; Claude Lanzmann's resentful appraisal of Marrus's presence at a university event.

If studying and commemorating the Holocaust is not about lessons, what is its purpose? In addition to a call for skepticism, Marrus offers an additional injunction: "to get it right." Getting it right, Marrus explains, is above all the obligation of professional historians. One wonders whether this position leaves room for the poets, artists, theologians, philosophers, jurists, psychologists, and others who have tried, starting at the time of the Holocaust, to find lessons or at least some kind of meaning in that suffering and destruction.

In a review in Holocaust and Genocide Studies, the philosopher John Roth points out a logical loop in Marrus's argument: if we are to be wary of lessons, should we not also view critically Marrus's call to "beware of lessons"? Roth considers this contradiction not a weakness but a strength, and I agree. Marrus's skepticism, like his call to get the history right, invites the restless, endless quest for understanding, insight, and knowledge that marks all of Marrus's work. He opens the door for new generations of scholars to bring their own questions and concerns. "Holocaust history," Marrus writes, "is like all history in this respect; it must constantly be rewritten if it is...

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