Using and abusing the Holocaust /

Langer (emer., Simmons College) is an influential scholar of Holocaust studies, and his previous books--for example, The Holocaust and the Literary Imagination (CH, Feb'76) and Preempting the Holocaust (CH, Apr'99, 36-4318)--have challenged presumptions of the field. The present title is unlikely to have the same impact, largely because all but four of the essays have been previously published in shorter (or longer) versions. As a collection, this volume lacks the force of coherence of Langer's earlier works and instead reiterates several of his key ideas, as the title indicates. Among the writers/topics considered are Jorge Semprun, Charlotte Delbo, Anne Frank, the Roberto Benigni film Life Is Beautiful, Binjamin Wilkomirski, Victor Klemperer, hidden children, and the paintings of Samuel Bak (14 of which are beautifully reproduced). Particularly noteworthy is a chapter comparing Wilkomirski's fraudulent memoir Fragments with Jerzy Kosinski's novel The Painted Bird, which Langer persuasively argues Wilkomirski used as a source. Similarly provocative is a chapter titled "Memory and Justice after the Holocaust and Apartheid," which traces the differences between the Nuremburg trials and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. Large graduate and research collections. E. R. Baer Gustavus Adolphus College