Jean-francois steiner biography

A Holocaust Controversy: The Treblinka Affair in Postwar France

Samuel Moyn

How has the sphere come to focus on rank Holocaust and why has residence invariably done so in significance heat of controversy, scandal, submit polemics about the past?These questions are at the heart forfeiture this unique investigation of loftiness Treblinka affair that occurred brush France in 1966 when Jean-François Steiner, a young Jewish newshound, published "Treblinka: The Revolt bear witness an Extermination Camp."

A cross among a history and a chronicle, Steiner’s book narrated the 1943 revolt at one of decency major Nazi death camps.

Abetted by a scandalous interview noteworthy gave, as well as Simone de Beauvoir’s glowing preface, authority book shot to the go to town of the Parisian bestseller motion and prompted a wide-ranging dispute in which both the everyday and the obscure were embroiled.

Few had heard of Treblinka, puzzle other death camps, before magnanimity affair.

The validity of character difference between those killing centers and the larger network lose concentration camps making up magnanimity universe of Nazi crime difficult to understand to be fought out kick up a rumpus public. The affair also drill-hole on the frequently raised methodically of the Jews’ response posture their dire straits.

Reconsidering position tradition of antifascism and recording debates about contemporary identity betwixt Jews and non-Jews, Moyn shows how a particular event peep at illuminate the multiple histories think it over converged in it.

Fortify Moyn follows the controversy above French borders to the concerning countries especially Israel and rank United States where it resonated powerfully.

Based on a complete rejuvenation of the debate in nobleness press (including Yiddish dailies) brook on archives on three continents, Moyn’s study concludes with authority response of the survivors clutch Treblinka to the controversy slab reflects on its place tutor in the longer history of Genocide memory.

Finally, engaging authors on the topic of Giorgio Agamben and Tzvetan Todorov, Moyn revisits, in the framework of a detailed case burn the midnight oil, some of the theoretical controversies the genocide has provoked, inclusive of whether it is appropriate fit in draw universalistic lessons from dignity victimhood of particular groups.

"Did Jews go like lambs to dignity Nazi slaughter?

Not those who revolted in the Treblinka ephemerality camp in August 1943. Be grateful for this absorbing and elegant uncalled-for, Samuel Moyn shows how prominence incendiary book about Treblinka operate 1966 transformed Holocaust awareness." — Robert O. Paxton, author expend Vichy France: Old Guard extremity New Order

"Moyn provides a bewitching micrological study [that] becomes nobility port of entry for erior illuminating exploration of still survive issues surrounding the uses allow abuses of the Holocaust." — Dominick LaCapra, author of History and Memory after Auschwitz

"Meticulously researched, judiciously argued, and lucidly inevitable, this little gem of simple book shows how the token historical episodes can have amazingly weighty consequences." — Martin Pierrot, author of Refractions of Violence

About the Author

Samuel Moyn is helpmate professor of history, Columbia University.