Matters of testimony : interpreting the scrolls of Auschwitz /

The authors of this book have undertaken to analyze and interpret clandestinely created written testimonies discovered in pits of human ash near the ruins of the crematoria at Auschwitz-Birkenau, where over 1.1 million Jews were gassed and their bodies burned. Mainly in Yiddish, but also in French, Greek, and Polish, the documents were authored by members of the Sonderkommando work gangs of Jews forced to labor in the crematoria. The fragile paper testimonies, damaged by moisture and cold, describe in detail aspects of their authors' lives as well as the process of mass murder, and even the planning and execution of a failed rebellion in October 1944. Chare (art history, Univ. of Montreal) and Williams (Liverpool John Moores Univ., UK) have applied a multidisciplinary approach using methods drawn from history, literature, art, psychology, photography, and the study of material culture to analyze these documents, which are often referred to as the Scrolls of Auschwitz, an allusion to the Dead Sea Scrolls. Like the Dead Sea Scrolls, the damaged documents are often very difficult to read and interpret. A valuable contribution to Holocaust scholarship, the field of eyewitness testimony, and the documentation of traumatic events. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. --Robert Moses Shapiro, Brooklyn College