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xi PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Writing, as often lamented by those like myself who struggle with the written word in a perpetual battle for clarity and simplicity, is at times difficult as well as lonely work. As Ernest Hemingway famously quipped, “There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.” Bringing this project to a close, I realize how deeply indebted I am to my teachers, colleagues, friends, and family for seeing me through the past few years, both intellectually and personally. Writing a first book in particular has meant, in this author’s case, leaning heavily on others who generously shared their time, advice, and ideas. I would first like to thank Marlie Wasserman, the director at Rutgers University Press, for believing in this project and for her helpful assistance throughout this process, as well as for her kind patience with a first-time author. I am especially grateful, and remain forever in debt, to my professor and adviser Renate Voris at the University of Virginia. I could not have wished for a more inspiring and devoted Doktormutter; her insight and her critical—yet always kind—attention to my work, as well as the intellectual and personal support she has given me over the years, made this book possible . Renate is the teacher one hopes for but so rarely finds, and it is to her that I dedicate this book, in boundless gratitude and admiration. I would also like to thank Benjamin Bennett, Asher Biemann, and Jeff Grossman at the University of Virginia. I owe a special thanks to Asher Biemann for his kind encouragement, his active interest in and support of my work, and his friendship. I am grateful to Jeff Grossman as well for always making time for me and for my work; for helping me in a thousand ways, both during my graduate studies and since; and for sharing with me his insights and thoughts. I am also grateful to Paul Jaskot, K. Hannah Holtschneider, and Vanessa Ochs for their helpful advice and comments on various parts of this book and to Gabriel Finder for starting me on the path of Jewish Studies at the University of Virginia. I am especially grateful to Jonathan Skolnik, who gave me an inestimable gift many years ago at the University of Maryland, College Park, when he introduced me to the essays of Jean Améry. This well-worn volume still accompanies me on my travels. xii Preface and Acknowledgments I am particularly indebted to the anonymous reader for Rutgers University Press, who invested a great deal of time and thought in reading and critiquing my manuscript and in offering many helpful suggestions, which have much improved this work. Finally, I am grateful to Susan Silver for her careful copyediting of the manuscript. I am grateful for the institutional and financial support I have received during the time I spent researching and writing. This book was made possible (in part) by funds granted to the author through a 2008–2009 Diane and Howard Wohl Fellowship at the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies , United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. The statements made and views expressed, however, are solely my responsibility. I am also grateful to the center for awarding me with a 2007 Dorot Foundation Summer Graduate Research Assistantship and to the center’s Emerging Scholars Program for its support in the publication of this volume. I would like to thank the University of Virginia for a generous research award in 2010 that allowed me to travel to Germany and Israel at the beginning of this project and also the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) for a research grant in Berlin . Finally, I would like to thank the University of Mary Washington for a faculty development grant that helped support the publication of this book. In particular, I am grateful to Marcel Rotter, Leonard Koos, and Ana Chichester for their assistance in securing the grant (and to Marcel for his kind encouragement over the past two years as well). Portions of this book have appeared in previous publications, and I am grateful for the permission granted me to reprint them here. Chapter 1 reproduces in part material published in the article “Evoking the Sacred: Visual Holocaust Narratives in National Museums,” Journal of Modern Jewish Studies 9, no. 2 (July 2010): 209–232. Chapter 6 contains an argument that appears, in nascent form, in “Disfigured Memory: The Reshaping of Holocaust Symbols in Yad Vashem and the Jewish...

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