Memory, History, and the Extermination of the Jews of Europe (review)

100 SHOFAR Winter 1995 Vol. 13, No.2 arguments-about the dejudaicization of the Holocaust, or liberalism and liberal Judaism, for example-the book would have been more valuable. Striking in a book which traces so many contemporaryJewish figures, movements, issues, and events is the absence of women, both as thinkers and as subject matter. Aside from utilizing the controversy over the ordination of women rabbis to illustrate divisiveness among branches of Judaism, Berenbaum's overview of contemporary Jewish life and thought in American takes no note of the profusion ofJewish women theologians, rabbis, and scholars, and the ways in which they continue to challenge and reshape American Judaism and to reflect back on the Jewish past. As Berenbaum writes it, American Judaism remains a male discourse. Berenbaum clearly outlines the predominant theological and historical approaches to the Holocaust, making the complicated events which have occupied thinkers for decades accessible to a larger public. One can learn from each of these approaches, Berenbaum's respectful assessment of his colleagues implies; his essays enable his readers to treat these different interpretations as complementary, rather than competing. Sara R. Horowitz Director, Jewish Studies Program University of Delaware Memory, History, and the Extermination of the Jews of Europe, by Saul Friedlander. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993. 142 pp. $24.95. The Shoah, the Nazi attempt to exterminate the European Jews, is an event in the past whose meaning and significance continues to elude us. Although thousands of books and articles have been written about the Holocaust, notes Friedlander, "the catastrophe of European Jewry has not been incorporated into any compelling framework of meaning in public consciousness, either within the Jewish world or on the Western cultural scene in general" (p. 43). The author is a distinguished Israeli historian who divides his time by teaching at Tel-Aviv University and the University of California at los Angeles. Earlier in his career he published on the Holocaust itself, but in recent years his concern has shifted from the events themselves to how the Shoah is being interpreted, commemorated, and denied. His method is to examine the responses ofvarious publics including historians, writers, film Book Reviews 101 makers, and other cultural producers, especially those who are Jews, Israelis, and Germans. The present work is divided into an introduction and seven chapters. Three deal specifically with the Historikerstreit, the German historians' controversy over the significance of the Final Solution and its place in German history. The other four chapters address the problem from a more general perspective. Thus, for example, after the war in Israel the destruction of European Jewry came to be understood in a context of "Catastrophe and Redemption ." From this perspective the Holocaust was the latest in a long sequence of massacres ofJews in the diaspora, while the birth ofIsrael was cast as the redemption from such a cruel fate. This earlier Israeli view of the Holocaust came to be shared by American Jewry, which constructed its post-war identity on the tragedy of the Holocaust and the triumph of Israel, as well as on its success in assimilating to American culture. Following the Yom Kippur war and the rise of the Likud to power a subtle but significant shift occurred in Israeli identity, especially with regard to the Shoah. Under Ben-Gurion Israelis were cast as the brave pioneers who had transcended thegalut fate of their kin in Europe. Under Begin, however, they were recast as victims once more, surrounded by implacable Arab enemies who came to resemble the Nazis, while Israel was viewed as a better-armed Warsaw ghetto. On closer examination, it should be apparent, neither the theme of "Catastrophe and Redemption" nor the theme of "Catastrophe-Redemption-Potential Catastrophe" does justice to the historicity of the Shoah itself. According to Friedlander, historians have not done much better: "The 'Final Solution' in its epoch has not yet found its historian; and the problem cannot be reduced to a mere technical issue" (p. 129). The problem is two-fold. It lies with the incapacity of the historian to empathetically understand the motivations of the Nazi killers and with the inability of the survivors to adequately describe their experiences, especially in the camps...