The World Reacts to the Holocaust (review)

156 SHOFAR Spring 1998 Vol. 16, No.3 preferred. It is a pity, for at her best she is an effective close reader oftexts, and students of Holocaust literature can learn much from her explications of many of the works she treats. An apparent need to "theorize" her subject and an inability to do so in ways that are consistently clear and meaningful, however, introduce serious shortcomings in her writing and prevent her book from being as effective as it otherwise might have been. Alvin H. Rosenfeld Jewish Studies Program Indiana University The World Reacts to the Holocaust, edited by David S. Wyman. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996. 981 pp. $65.00. The title ofDavid S. Wyman's ground-breaking contribution to Holocaust studies, The World Reacts to the Holocaust, reveals much of what his book is about. The book indeed covers much ofthe world. Its 24 essays on 22 countries (there are two essays on Japan and one on the United Nations) are divided into seven main categories: Western Europe, Eastern Europe, the Soviet Bloc, the Axis Powers, the British Sphere, North America, and Beyond the Conflict (with essays on the U.N. and Israel). This volume, moreover, exposes what is nearly always a country's reaction, and not its response, to the Holocaust. In fact, as Wyman's work demonstrates, the world has offered very little in the way of response to the Holocaust, where response implies an effort to listen, analyze, and understand. Instead, country after country-from Ireland to Israel, from Japan to Poland-reacts according to its own historical, cultural, religious, and political prejudices. Nevertheless, Wyman's book is itselfa profound response to the Holocaust, guided by meticulous care and astute analysis. Although this volume contains a multitude of voices-28 scholars contributed to the 24 essays-all the contributors exemplify the highest ofstandards in their expertise, their scholarship, and their eloquence. Perhaps one reason for the consistent excellence ofthe essays is their consistent format. Each essay begins with a concise history of the Jews, both before and during the Holocaust, in the country under consideration. The major portion ofeach selection is then devoted to the post-World War II era. Here too all the essays follow a similar structure, examining governmental reactions to the Holocaust, the reactions ofreligious communities and the general public, the treatment ofthe Holocaust in the media and educational systems, and the role of the Holocaust in scholarship, literature, and the arts. Several key principles are reflected in this organization of the essays. First, a country's reaction to the Holocaust arises within the contexts ofa history of reactions to Jews and Judaism; like the Holocaust itself, reactions to the event must be examined Book Reviews 157 within those contexts. Further, a country's reaction to the Holocaust is not confined to universities, government offices, religious institutions, or works of art; rather, the shock waves from the event continue to shake every quarter of a society's collective consciousness-and those shock waves have rolled over the entire globe. Which brings us to a third principle implied by the essays, both in their form and in their content: the Holocaust is a singular event with universal implications. No other catastrophe has commanded such a pervasive reaction from the world, for no other event cuts across the time and the space ofthe world in its implications for deciding who we are and what we hold dear. Who, then, should read this book? All who have ears to hear. From a strictly pragmatic standpoint, both the highly experienced scholar and the student just starting out in Holocaust studies can benefit immensely from The World Reacts to the Holocaust. Containing elaborate and detailed endnotes, the essays are not only the results of extensive research but are excellent research tools for those who wish to pursue a question concerning a given country. If themes, names, or issues common to several countries are of interest to the reader, the volume has an exhaustive and comprehensive index. This book, therefore, is an excellent place to tum for preparing a lecture or a paper on pre-Holocaust Romania, on Japan's treatment of the Jews during the...