America and The Memory of The Holocaust 1950-1965

America and the Memory of the Holocaust, 1950-1965 Author(s): Deborah E. Lipstadt Source: Modern Judaism, Vol.
16, No. 3 (Oct., 1996), pp. 195-214 Published by: Oxford University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1396708 . Accessed: 16/05/2013 11:44
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Deborah E. Lipstadt
AMERICA AND THE MEMORY OF THE HOLOCAUST, 1950-1965

To say that the Holocaust has become a central symbol of the twentieth century,particularlyforAmerican Jews, is to state the obvious. This confrontation with catastrophe has become a mythic element of American Jewish identityand has served both a positive and a negative purpose. It has become a stimulus for motivatingJewish identity.But, in certain situations, it has been allowed to assume a dominant role thereby distorting the true nature of Judaism and becoming the prism through which the Jewish world view is refracted. This article explores the emergence of the Holocaust on the American agenda -both Jewish and non-Jewish-during the two decades following World War II. The prominence of the Holocaust in American Jewish identity is particularly noteworthy since throughout the 1950s and most of the 1960s it was barely on the Jewish communal or theological agenda. In contrast to today, there were virtually no courses on the topic. There were no more than a few commemorations of YomHaShoah, or books,
conferences, speeches,and museumsdedicated to exploringthe history and significance of the Holocaust. An examinationofJewish periodicals reveals few articles on the Holocaust. These Holocaust commemorationswhichwere held were generally attended onlyby survivors. Nonsurvivors who attended rememberedfeelinglike they"were crashinga Survivors who came to thiscountry in the later 1940s and the funeral."' 1950s were oftendiscouraged fromdiscussingtheirexperiences.They were toldAmericanswere not interested.2 That the Holocaust had such a limitedovertimpacton the American Jewishcommunity during this period is particularly noteworthy to itwas not totally absentfrom that, given contrary popular impression, the American popular culturalagenda. In contrastto what has often been the generalimpression therewerea significant numberof movies, on television and books the plays, productions, subjectwell before the end of the 1960s. In April1959,theJewish noted that,as "happens every DailyForward shows Passover would be broadcaston television year," special marking of and radio.Amongtheshowsscheduled to be aired was an installment CBS's religionseries,LookUp and Live,dedicated to the topic of the dePress ModernJudaism16 (1996): 195-214? 1996 byThe JohnsHopkins University
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Deborah E. Lipstadt
of the Warsawghetto.ABC's religionseries,Directions, struction broadcast TheFinal Ingredient, a play by the author of Twelve Men. The Angry the of inmates of the Belsen concentration playdepicted attempt camp to celebrate a Passover Seder. But these were not the only television shows on the topic. The popular televisionshow, This is YourLifedevoted nine segmentsto the Holocaust in the period between 1953 and 1961.4Judgment at Nuremberg was a successfultelevisionproductionbeforeit was made into a movie in 1961. In 1957 the respectedtelevision drama show,Playhouse a showabout survivors 90, aired Homeward Borne, of the Holocaust. In 1959 Alcoa Goodyear Theater's productionof Thirty PiecesofSilver concerned Holocaust refugees.In 1960 Playhouse 90 produced Rod Serling'sIn the Presence That same year saw ofMineEnemies. the productionof MillardLampell's play,TheWall. And, in thespringof 1961 televisionviewerswere able to watch portionsof the Eichmann trial. Some of the earlyplays,books, and televisionproductionson the Holocaust won substantialattention.Foremostamong them were The which reached Americansin the formof a book, Diary ofAnneFrank, Reich, play,and movie,and WilliamShirer'sTheRiseand Fall oftheThird which,thoughnot solelyconcernedwiththe Holocaust,did pay serious attentionto Hitler'spersecutionof theJewsand the German plan to leave Europe Judenrein. In additionKatherineAnne Porter'sShipofFools Times Review Book as one of thebestbooks (1962), lauded bythe NewYork of the past hundredyears,painted a highly criticalportrait of German attitudestowards seven At least books Eichmann on Jews. appeared in 1962. This particularkind of attention was especiallysignificant because much of it was generated by the non-Jewish world and, consequently, could have suggestedto theJewishcommunity that the external,i.e., American the Holocaust of considernon-Jewish, public,thought worthy ation. Nonetheless,even as these books, televisionshows,and movies of a significant captured the attention portionof the Americanpublic, of American the Holocaust did not emerge as a factorin the construct in Nathan Glazer American observed that Jewish identity. Writing 1957, in or did motivated not seem interested by the two Jews particularly and in the the creationof events Holocaust history: major recentJewish the Stateof Israel.5In a 1961 symposium magsponsoredby Commentary azine on "Jewishness and Younger Intellectuals," onlytwo of thirty-one cited the Holocaust as havinghad a significant impact on participants in Judaism theirlives.That same yearin a similarsymposium magazine, the twenty-one virtually ignoredtheHolocaust. A perusalof participants variousJewishlocal newspapersand publicationsfromthe period reveals littlementionof the Holocaust or serious discussionof its impact on contemporary identity. Jewish
andMemory oftheHolocaust America
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First Thereare a variety ofexplanations forthis and phenomenon. is that America wasnotready theissue.Fromthe foremost to confront a "can-do," end of thewaruntiltheearly1960s, optimistic perspirit vadedAmerica. Thosewhohad returned from thewarwereconcerned a family with and a career, on thehorrors of notwith building dwelling thepast.Soldiers wholiberated campsor who came to campsshortly after liberation and tookpictures came their documenting experiences hometodiscover, friends famoften totheir that their and great dismay, were not in interested "those this was a function But not ily just things."6 of thehomefront's fora gruesome Americans wereendistaste topic. in and never material that gaged obtaining goods they achieving goals had before dreamt wouldbe theirs, and,in many cases,never e.g.,coland televisions. baeducations, cars, homes, lege Everything, including The postwar boomwasin fullswing. It bies,wasbeingmassproduced. did notseemto be an appropriate timeto focus on a painful past,para pastwhich seemedtobe ofno direct concern tothis ticularly country. Thisevent had transpired on another It hadbeen committed continent. did it by another country against"an-other" people. Whatrelevance havefor Americans? In fact, a number ofthepopular oftheperiodare cultural products the fact that as much as was in light had, distinguished by they possible ofthetopicat hand,happy The 1955 version of The endings. Broadway
whichwon the Pulitzerprize fordrama,was written DiaryofAnneFrank, Frances Goodrich and AlbertHackett. by two Hollywood playwrights, ues to generate controversy to this day'--theyessentially de-Judaized There was littlehorrorin the play and nothing thatwould identity." upset audiences' emotional or psychologicalequilibrium.9 They also
to transform Recruited thebook intoa play-in a movewhich continthe story to herJewish by removing manyof Anne'sown references
Americanized thestory iton an optimistic byending upbeatnote.They notonlyavoided toAnne's fate-which ultimate a numanyreferences berofsurvivors whosawAnnein thecampsindicate wasexceptionally and terribly theultimate ofthe painful lonely-butpresented message
servationthat"In spiteof everything I stillbelieve thatpeople are really heart." At at which her who has just returnedfrom father, good point the camps, is humbled by her optimismand replies, "She puts me to shame."In fact,Anne wrotethose famouslines beforeher experiences in Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen, she watched her beloved where first die as a resultof starvation, sister disease,and exposure to the elements, and thensuccumbedto the same herself. Would she have been inclined to writesuch uplifting lines at that time?It is doubtful.But the play's Americanreviewers obliviousto thatpoint.In provedthemselves totally
The playconcludes with a voiceover Anne's famous obity. proclaiming
Holocaust as one of hope and faithin the ultimategoodness of human-
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Deborah E. Lipstadt
fact,theyseemed to miss or dismissthe factthatthisplaywas about a tragedyof cataclysmic proportions.One described himselfas feeling be Deto a human being" as he leftthe theater.'0 "exhilarated,proud in it are doomed to death,anothernoted spitethefactall the characters thatthe playhad a qualityof lifeabout it, "glowing, ineradicablelifelifein itswarmth, itswonder,itsspasmsof anguish,and itswildand flarwhen the diarywas made into a film, gloom and ing humor.""Similarly, doom were eschewed. In the film'sconclusion Otto Frankdeclares, as the police break in and the hiding place is discovered:"For twoyears we've lived in fear;fromnow on we'll live in hope."12It was an ironic,if not absurd,wayto end the productiongiventhat,except forFrankhimself,none of the otherslivedon at all, in fearor in hope. A similarattitude was evidentin a 1953 episode of the wildly popuof Hanna Kohner,a lar Thisis Your whichwas devoted to the story Life, Holocaust survivor.Kohner's husband, father,and mother were all killed at Auschwitz.She settledin Hollywood where her second husband, who escaped fromGermanyprior to the war,was a Hollywood by American producer. This show was one of the earliest treatments television of the topic. It too eschewed gloom and doom and ended on a note of "good overcomesall"-particularlyifthatgood is Americanin origin.The episode concluded withthe host,Ralph Edwards,sayingto "The never-to-be-forgotten the survivor, tragicexperiencesof yourlife, Hanna, have been tempered by the happiness you've found here in America..... This is yourlife,Hanna Block Kohner.To you in yourdarkest hourAmericaheld out a friendly hand."'" Americanscould onlyaddress thistopic withinan optiApparently context.People had to be leftwith a feelingof misticand uplifting made a similarpoint when he recalled how in Bruno Bettelheim hope. in America shortly afterhis release froma conhis arrival 1939,upon centrationcamp, he tried to tell Americansabout his experiences. He to whom he was told by most people, including some psychiatrists he conbecause a from was that he prisonerpsychosis suffering spoke, tended that the SS were not "demented sadists..,.or monsters"but He was were in mostcases "banal ... but nonethelessdeadly effective." Bettelheim's warned thathis theorieswere "apt to mislead Americans." contentionthatthe actionsof the SS and otherGermanswere partof a masterplan and not the haphazard actions of a fewindipremeditated viduals "met with little acceptance" in this country.It was, he conframeof reference""14 to our humanistic tended,"just too contrary But therewas yetanotherfactor-a politicalone-which prompted withGermany's Americansto turnawayfroman active confrontation communists. the on the horizon: There was a new enemy wrongdoings. Not onlywas therea new enemypresentbut also Americadepended on bothWestern to protect to serveas a buffer a newally,Germany, Europe
Americaand Memoryof theHolocaust
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and the United Statesfroma Sovietonslaught.There was littleinclination to call attentionto the wrongdoings-even those that had been committed under a previousregime-of thisally.In fact,a whole new was officials and journalists forgedforGermanyby government image alike. Postwareventssuch as the Berlin airlift, which lasted close to a and particularly Berlin (whichonlya Germany, year,served to portray had been the of fewyearsearlier symbol the worstof the Third Reich and the place where Hitler made his last stand) as heroic, freedomunited by an intensecontemptfor totalloving,and, most important, itarianism.'5During the airlift,stories circulated of American GIs candies paid forout of theirown pocketsintoBerlinso that parachuting the childrenof thatcity would not have to suffer Accordunnecessarily. the childrenneverasked forthembut were "grateful" ing to the report, when given these sweetsby the soldiers.'6 When the blockade ended, General Lucius Clay,who for fouryears,first as Deputy Commander and later as Commander-in-Chief, headed the American military governmentin Germany, returnedto the United States. In an address to to Germansin generaland Berlinersin particCongresshe paid tribute ular. Althoughhe acknowledgedthatit was difficult eitherto forget or what Germans had in the done there had a been forgive previousyears, The under the rule of a had started who, change. people dictatorship, an aggressive war had now made a verydifferent choice. Accordingto when a second Berlin had chosen freethe of chance, Clay, given people In the been had reborn. short, enemy dom.'7 The more Americanpoliticiansand military leaders began to think of the USSR as America's major enemy and as the greatestthreatto peace, the more likelytheywere to favornot only softerpeace terms withGermany butGermanmilitary expansion. Amongthosewho increaswere liberals who felt this otherwise have supporteda way ingly might harsher attitude towards Germany.'8 American Jewish organizations attitudetowardsGermany. objected to this more conciliatory strongly were of the sentences distressed the commutation They particularly by of Nazi war criminals In addition they American tribunals.'9 by military looked in vain forsome indicationthatGermany felta degree of contrition about what had occurred. What theysaw instead was a growing German antagonismtowardsthe DPs and a web of bureaucraticprobin Gerlems as Jewishproperty ownerstried to reclaim theirproperty were aware of American having to many. Jewishorganizations acutely balance theirdesirefora more punitive towards Germany against policy Americanforeign thatour old enemywas the growing policyconviction our new ally even as our old allywas our new enemy.20AmericanJews drummer oftenfound themselves marchingto the beat of a different when it came to post-warattitudestoward Germany.In 1950 Elliot Cohen, theeditorof Commentary magazine,deliveredan addressin West
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Berlinin whichhe lambastedGermansfortheir"silence,as of a grave," and for demonstrating "a vacuum of sentiment" when it came to the murderof EuropeanJewry. He wondered Where arethewords offellow and introspection, of sympathy, anguish and healing, ofregeneration andwisdom, that someofus exdiagnosis men of religious and spiritual pectedfrom your thought leadership, from from historians and on scholars, your your poetsand novelists this colossal historic tragedy?21 Despite AmericanJewishconcerns that Germanyhad failed to truly confront its unprecedentedacts of brutality, therewas littlethatcould be done to stop the growingbelief in America that a soft-and ever increasingly softer-peace imposed on Germanywould better serve Americaninterests.22 This growing Americanreluctanceto focus attention on Germany's acts of persecutionand murderwas apparently behind the State Departmentdecision that TheDiaryofAnneFrank not be at the 1956 Paris drama festival. performed Despite growing European interestin the play,and a traditionthat had been establishedseveral years earlier that the play which received the Pulitzerprize would be that Franco-German produced in Paris, the State Department,fearful be damaged bytheproduction,exertedpressureto prerelationsmight vent its staging.2" the (State Departmentobjections not withstanding, in was that and Austria later play year.) produced Germany Germansin By the early1950s Hollywoodwas beginningto portray a positivelight.Filmmakers stressedthe sufferings of the Germanswho were clearlydifferentiated fromthe Nazis-and presentedthemas innocentvictims of a fewdiabolical men who had gained controlof an entire country.Not only were theyinnocent but in many cases they were-or so the films claimed-unaware of the atrocities being committed in theirname. Such was the case in the film adaptationof TheYoung Fox movies of thisgenre was TheDesert Lions (1958).24One of the first In was of it Rommel the Field Marshal Rommel. (1951), presented story but as one of those who-seeing not onlyas a heroic military strategist in theJuly the follyof Hitler'sways-breaks withhim and participates of movie Rommel commits At the end the 1944 assassinationattempt. but suicide,an act designed not onlyto show his greatintegrity to presenthim as a "good" German,as opposed to a Nazi. (All thiswas HollyservedtheReich since 1935butwas by Rommelhad loyally wood fiction. endeavorsin whichHitlerwas engag1944 criticalof the futilemilitary in ing. He never participated any aspect of the attemptto assassinate had listedhim as the supreme comHitler.The conspirators, however, he was was successful.Consequently, if mander of the army theircoup eithercommit visitedbytwogeneralswho deliveredHitler'sultimatum: of punishment courtand the threat suicide or face a trialbeforethe Volk
201
to him.) The Rommel took the poison whichwas offered to his family. of Rommel was generally met withpraise by reviewers. film'sportrayal Some of themplaced the moviewithinthe largercontextof contempoin Filmsin Review raryAmericanforeignpolicyissues. The reviewer apas the "celebrationof a German plauded the film, describingthe story general'svirtuesin an Americanmotion picture... a reasonable, even critics One of the fewdissenting laudable incidentin foreignpolicy."25 of the NewYork was BosleyCrowther Times who,appalled by the ravereviewsthe filmreceived,devoted twocolumnsto it,describingit as havof those ing "a strangedisregardforthe principlesand the sensibilities and died in the cause of defeatingGerman aggressionin who suffered thefilm WorldWarII."26Accordingto Crowther was a "tenderizedHollywood laudation of the man who sparkedtheAfrika Korps"when in fact he was "the leader responsibleforthe deaths of thousandsupon thousands of British troops"and someone who loyally supportedHitleruntil the military tide began to turn.27 This attitude-that the past was best rewritten or, at the least, left at the heart of General Lucius Clay'scounsel to Ameriunspoken-was can Jewsto maintainsilence about the Holocaust and Germany's guilt. In a conversation regardingthe situationofJewsin theAmericanzone in Germany, Professor General Clay told his adviseron Jewishaffairs, WilliamHaber:28 in Germany is farmorebitter the anti-Germanism amongtheJews in the thantheanti-Semitism amongtheGermans... wellyoufolks a if ever build a have want to you leadership got responsibility, [Jewish] and emotional and economic base forrevived intellectual health, you havegottoforget what happened.29 in subsequentpages,Jewsdid not need In fact,as shallbe demonstrated much persuadingto keep silent.30 outside the territoBut it was notjust the fight againstcommunists rial bordersof the United Stateswhichled manyAmericanJewsto believe thatsilence about the pastwas an efficacious policy.Eventsclose to home also helped persuade them.AmericanJewswere leftfeelingunActivities Committee easy by the attemptof the House Un-American in theSenate under SenatorMcCarthy)to findand (and itscounterpart in Americanpublic lifeand the tremendousatferret out communists tentiongivento trialssuch as thatofJuliusand Ethel Rosenberg.Some triedto paint theirprosecutionas a sinisof the Rosenbergs'supporters ter conspiracyagainstJews."'Accordingto this scenario, not only was but it also the struggle conspiracy againstthe Rosenbergsan antisemitic relied on the same tacticsthe Nazis had used to subdue the ghettoesof Eastern Europe, i.e., the "old technique of the Jewishtribunal." Jews Deborah Dash and "sentto death byotherJews."32 were"judged byJews"
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Deborah E. Lipstadt
Moore relatesthe memoriesof a historian who,as a younggirl,listened to reportsof the couple's execution which took place late Fridayafterwiththe Sabbath. noon so as not to conflict werekilling themnow.'Nowagain,'they' 'Oh, they're 'Jews.' killing had infact, did to Thiswas, what really, 'Jews.' Nothing changed, 'they' shethought.33 sincetheHolocaust, worriedthatthe AmericanpubBut the established Jewishcommunity, such as the all Jewswith the misdeeds of "traitors" lic would identify redid not see thingsthisway. actively Jewish organizations Rosenbergs, jected the attemptby the Rosenbergs' defendersand othergroups on Americancommunist the Left-particularly groups-to argue thatthe camin Americawas in factan antisemitic to expose communists effort the Rosenbergcase as a paign. They disparaged the attemptto portray Mainstream redux. Sacco-Vanzetti exemplifiedby Jewishorganizations, from the AmericanJewishCommittee(AJC),did not stop at refraining Fearful issue. on the silence or the maintaining supporting Rosenbergs thatthe trialmightgive the Americanpublic reason to "impute to the the AJCconsidered Jewsas a group treasonablemotivesand activities," whichexthe situation than as a potentially the situation greaterdanger Russia rather istedduringWorldWar II. Now the enemywas communist It translatedits fearsinto an activist than Nazi Germany.34 policy.The its used and then for the opposition Rosenbergs AJCopposed clemency offiand convinceboth government favor"fromWashington to "curry cials and the American public that the AmericanJewishcommunity The AJCopenlyadvocated the death penalty bore not a taintof "red."35 and reits patriotism forthe Rosenbergsas a means of demonstrating ranks. its wish to Left who of the adherents might join pulsingany before the House Un-AmericanActivities Aftera Jew testifying Committeedeclared that Jewswere betteroffin the SovietUnion than to the House committee in the United States,the AJCsent a statement are communism and that incompatible."'6 utterly "Judaism declaring and openlyopposed to leanti-German groupsthatwere actively Jewish to efforts in communist avoided becominginvolved niencyforGermany state.3" German of a West the establishment prevent of all Jewswith communism These fears about the identification of 1949, anti-communist In the summer unfounded. not were totally attacked and antisemitic forcesjoined Jewswho had come to groups The following concert.3" Robeson a Paul for New York, year, Peekskill, of House of the on the floor Congressman John Representatives, and proclaimed that Rankin produced a supposed list of "subversives" literature Antisemitic "thereis nota whiteGentilein the entiregroup."39 during the peassociatingJewswithcommunistsappeared frequently were regularly riod.Jews conspirators.40 depicted as communist
203
But it was not onlyAmericanJewishorganizations whichharbored the fearthatAmericansat large would associate the Rosenbergswithall Jews and, in turn,associate all Jewswith communism.41 Judge Irving Kaufman,who presided over the Rosenberg trial,privately expressed his concerns,as an "Americanand a Jew," about the propaganda efforts to save the Rosenbergs.The campaign claimed thatthe government's case againstthemand othercommunist was reallya thinly sympathizers veiled antisemitic When sentencingthe Rosenbergs,Kaufcampaign.42 man charged that,by puttingthe A-bombinto the hands of the Russians, theyhad caused "the communistaggressionin Korea, with the resultant casualties exceeding 50,000."They had, throughtheiracts of to the disadvantageof our "betrayal,... altered the course of history sentiments surfaced (Similar country."43 during the McCarthyhearEstablished within the felt increasings.)44 groups Jewishcommunity to differentiate the between ingly compelled Rosenbergs and the American Jewish community. The identification of West Germanywiththe enemies of communismand withthe heroic defendersof democracypersistedthroughout the 1950s. But then certainpolitical strainsbegan to develop between the United Statesand Germany. These tensionspromptedcertain jourand writers to focuson Germany's nalists, intellectuals, legacyas the heir of Nazi Germany as opposed to the heroic image of an anti-communist, Berlinairlift, postwarGermany. It was againstthisbackgroundthatWilliamL. Shirer'sRiseand Fall Reich oftheThird appeared in 1959.Shirerargued thatNazism had been a virtually He found a historipredictableoutcome of German history. cal continuumin Germanythatbegan withMartinLuther and culminated in AdolfHitler.Looking back to Bismarck, Shirerpostulatedthat Third the roots of the Reich were to be found not in the aberrations which"possessed Hitler'sfeverish brain"nor in worldwide politicaland economic conditions.The ideologyof the Third Reich was, in fact,the and was in harmony withlong"logical continuum"of German history In MeinKampfHitlerset out his blueprint standingGerman traditions. forwhathe planned to do once the Nazi party came to power.Shirerargued that the Nazi leader's "philosophyhoweverdemented, had its roots... deep in Germanlife."45 Accordingto Riseand Fall,the German of theirmostbasic people supportedNazism because itwas a reflection beliefs.46 But the success of thisbook had not been a foregoneconclusion.In had twicerejectedhis idea of a book on WilliamShirer'spublishers fact, the ThirdReich,once in 1954 and again in 1955.Theydid so despitethe because theywere convinced success of his previousbook, Berlin Diary, in reading about the history and misthatAmericanshad lost interest A numberof otherpublishersshoweda similar deeds of Nazi Germany.
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lack of interest. When thebook finally appeared under anotherpublishit was longer-1,250 pages-and more expensive-ten doler's imprint lars-than most otherbooks on the market.It contained close to forty Given this,few of pages of source notes and a lengthybibliography. those involvedwithits publication,includingShirerhimself, expected it to be a commercial success. Their expectationswere dramatically wrong.In its first yearit sold over a millioncopies. The book not only reached thebestsellerlist,but it stayedthereforovera year.When condensed and serializedin Reader's itwon an even largeraudience.47 Digest, In paperback it sold over one millioncopies despite the factthatit was the thickest paperback ever printedand cost more than a dollar. Ultiit became one of thebestsellingnonfiction historical ofall works mately The book's success reflected, at least in measure,an increased willon of the part segmentsof the American public-including ingness of Shirer'sbook-to call up most prominently among them reviewers to conthe memoryof Germany'sevils and to question its willingness in Shirer'sbook mayalso have been linked to front them.The interest the crisisin German-American relationswhich,at the end of the 1950s and beginningof the 1960s,reached theirlowestpointsince the end of and the United Statesevolved WorldWarII. TensionsbetweenGermany a formof indicatedthatit mightbe inclinedtowards whenWashington of State Allan Dulles sugdetente withthe USSR. At one point Secretary accept a change in the statusquo regestedthatthe United Statesmight Berlin and allow East West German, as opposed to Russian, garding situationdid not dissiThis tension-laden to the city.49 controlof traffic when Chancellor Adenauer administration the Kennedy pate during a series of denounced compromiseproposals under considerapublicly it appeared thatthe United and tionbyMoscow Moreover, Washington. of theEuropean demands for a Statesmight recognition accept Russian who statusquo, somethingthe WestGermans, territorial hoped forthe of Germany, ultimatereunification opposed.50 By the summerof 1962, relationshad reached theirlowestpoint since the German-American end of thewar. vandalismin WestGermany-which led An outbreakof antisemitic that to copycatincidentsin otherpartsof theworld-and the discovery held important Nazi officials former postsin theWestGerhigh-ranking the convictionin certainAmericancircles reinforced man government divorceditselffromits past. This vithatGermanyhad not completely was bolsteredforAmericansbya spate sion of an unrepentant Germany runbypeople who not onlyhad of novelsand books depictinga country a Nazi past but who also feltno remorseforwhathad happened there less thantwodecades earlier.51 At the same time another event thrustGermany'sNazi past onto
times.48
Americaand Memoryof the Holocaust
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centerstage. In May 1960 Israel capturedAdolph Eichmann and spirited him out of Argentina. His captureand subsequenttrialwere given tremendousmedia attention.52 Nearlyeverydailypaper in America ran at least one editorialon the trialwhen it began and a significant number ran severalin close succession,despite the factthatthe disastrous Bay of Pigs invasionand Sovietspace successeswere competingforeditorialspace at the same time.53 Four monthsbeforethe end of the triala revealed that 87 Gallup poll percentof the Americanpublic had heard about the trial.54 Polls fromthe timeof the trialindicatethatAmerican wereof the "normalrunof youthweremore aware of the trialthanthey it should be more noted, [Though, people knew about the events.""55 death of GaryCooper (93%) than about the trial.]56 most Significantly, who were aware of the trial of its people approved being held.57 While the media did devote extensiveattentionto Eichmann, in to Shirer,it did not see a continuumof German history contrast as reno newspaper connected Eichmann's sponsible for Nazism. Virtually deeds to Germanhistory or culture, as Shirer had done. In fact, thepress's inclination was to do the exact opposite. Reluctantto create the impression thatthe current was synonymous withthe Third Reich,it Germany exoneratedWestGermanyand its people. The Hearst papers explicitly the general reactionin the presswhen theyexpressed the contypified cern thatthe trialwould lead the Americanpublic to "falsely associate the greatmajority of contemporary GermanswithNazi barbarities.""58 The press was disinclinedto link one Germanywiththe other because-the currenttension in German-American relations not withstanding-in the eyes of mostAmerican newspapers,communismwas the contemporaryheir to Nazi totalitarianism. Typically,the San ifEichmann had been called Bernadino,CaliforniaSun wonderedwhy, to the bar of justice, "other killers-the power-maddespots who orin Budapest and the terrible dered the inhumaneslaughter genocide in Tibet-still are deemed fitcompanywithwhich to negotiate."59 Some conservative book as wellas a politically journals contendedthatShirer's spate of otherworkswhich focused on Germany'spast and which apto Ameripeared around the same timewere designed to give comfort ca's enemies. The intent, according to this theory,was to revive in Americaand anti-Americanism in Germany in order anti-Germanism to serveSovietinterests. anddistrust between America ofhostility The most obvious beneficiary is theKremlin. noncommunist or between other and Germany states, anti-Germanism in creating areequally interested Soviet propagandists two sentiIndeedthose in Germany. inAmerica and anti-Americanism inter-action. When the Germans mentshave mutually accelerating distorted and defamatory that a false, readofbooksand films picgive
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tureoftheir are aptto indulge in retorts in turn, which, country they Americans the that is not a reliable give impression Germany ally.6o Hannah Arendt'sEichmann inJerusalem, whichfirst appeared in the formof articlesin the NewYorker and then as a book, generatedsignificant discussionin Americanintellectual Her charge circles.6' andJewish that"whereverJews and this lived,therewererecognized leaders, Jewish in almost without one or leadership, exception,cooperated way another forone reason or anotherwiththe Nazis" provokedgreatcontroversy in theJewishcommunity. on role of research the the Jewish (Subsequent councils revealed thather conclusionswere highlyimpressionistic and not generally rootedin historical observed how Newsweek fact.)62 "deeply disturbed" American Jewswereby the series.One of the more vituperativeJewishreactions appeared in a headline in a Midwestern Jewish whichproclaimed: weekly Writes Pro-Eichmann Series Self-Hating Jewess forNew Yorker Magazine63 in Podhoretz Arendtnot onlyof Norman accused Writing Commentary, unfairly Jews'actions duringthe war but of demanding that criticizing better" "be than be "braver, nobler,more dignifiedothers, wiser, Jews or be damned."And damned them is what he believed she had done. the "banal" Nazi for the "monMoreover,he charged,by substituting in the strous"Nazi, by making Jew "accomplice in evil" ratherthan a and replacingthe "confrontation between guiltand "virtuous martyr" innocence" with "collaboration" between perpetrator and victim, Arendthad translated the story of the Holocaust into "the kindof terms But it was that can appeal to the sophisticatedmodern sensibility."64 notjust amongJewsthather series of articlesand the subsequentbook Times BookReview byPennprovokeddebate. Lambasted in the NewYork Michael Musmanno,a witness at theEichsylvania SupremeCourtJudge Eichmann inJerusalem mann trialand a judge at the Nurembergtrials, Musmanno'sreviewgenerbecame a topic of discussionin the Times.65 the ated well over one hundred lettersto the paper. The NewRepublic, and the NewYorker wereamong the publicaNational Review, Commentary, tionswhichcontinuedtheiranalysisof both the book and the response Review described the book as havto it fora numberof weeks.66Partisan as other workit could thinkof in as much controversy any ing provoked in the NationalReview over a year and a half the last decade.67Writing observed thatit was rare one reviewer afterthe articlesfirst appeared, fora seriesof articlesor a book to "arouse so manypassions and so prolonged a discussion."'6 conducted afterthe conclusion Public opinion polls and interviews of the trialsuggestedthatneitherthe trialnor the debate overArendt's in the Holocaust among Americans book generatedsustainedinterest In fact,despite the extenin general and AmericanJewsin particular.
oftheHolocaust America andMemory
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sive media coverageof the trial,its impactseems to have been limited. While an extensiveportion (77%) of the general population thought the trialwas a good thing, fewamong themhad, by the end of the trial, an accurate knowledgeof some of the most basic information which million had been transmitted the that six had been trial, Jews by e.g., killed.Accordingto an extensive of one American city, only study large 20 percentof the whitepopulation knewand believed thatsix million had actuallybeen killed.What the trialdid do was to turnthe United Statesinto a large classroom.No eventsince the Nurembergtrialshad focusedin such a dramatic of the Nazis to annihilate wayon theattempt theJewish and few people yetrelatively people seemed to have absorbed its more important details. Similar,though not identical,conclusions mightbe drawn about theJewish WhileJewswere certainly more aware and more community. of the information the conveyedby prosecutionduring the accepting it a does not seem to have had more than trial, temporary impact.An of of examination the indices Jewishmagazines and periodicals from in the the period indicatesthattherewas a momentary of interest flurry Holocaust in general and in Eichmann in particular. However the impact seems to have been of limitedduration.No communalcommemorationsemerged as a result,no Holocaust memorialswere proposed by local communities, and virtually no courseswereintroducedin universitiesor schools. Even among American and religiousleaders the intellectuals Jewish tenor of the conversationamong Jews did not change dramatically. in 1966 on the "ConWhen Commentary conducted anothersymposium Belief"theeditorsdid notmentionthe Holocaust in the ditionofJewish fivelengthy to the thirty-eight rabbisand distributed questionsthatthey small of who were a number the theologians Only participating. respondentsmade reference to the Holocaust.69 The seeming failure of the Holocaust to have had a sustained impacton the public consciousnesscan be explained in partby the absence in America of an intellectual,political, and emotional atmosphere conducive to a prolongedand intensive grapplingwithmanyof the issues relatedto the Holocaust. As has been noted in thisarticlethe Sovietswere stillthe primary object of concern.Jewsin generaland surfordemanding vivorsin particular were stillsubject to severecriticism that Germanyconfrontits past. By so doing, criticscontended, they were revivinganti-Germanfeelingsand giving succor to communist forces. ofthe thebarbarous Itwasnatural, indeedinevitable crimes that hatred of deep and bitter Nazisshouldleavebehinda legacy among in faith and blood,if not bystill some of thosewho feltidentified
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Deborah E. Lipstadt
closertiesof relationship of these and friendship, withthe victims crimes. ... Buta hardcoreofirreconciliables, that convinced nothing muchofthe remains. Hereone finds goodcan comeoutofGermany, force behind theanti-German and alsoa organizing driving campaign gooddeal ofitsmassaudience.7" Those criticalof this trendcondemned these books because theynot readers'attention on thegruesomepast"butled them only"concentrated to "associate the image of Nazism withthe image of Germany." These criticsattributed thisspate of books to "the left-wing, anti-Communist inclinationsof a number of publishers,authors,reviewers." By calling of Nazi Germanytheywere creatinga "smokescreento up the memory hide the terrors of the Sovietenemy."71 For manyAmericansremembera incorrect the Holocaust was still ing politically thingto do. But Eichmann'scapture and his subsequent trialdid have a longtermimpact.In termsof a more broad-ranging popular response,these eventsdid not serve to open up the floodgatesof memory.They, togetherwiththe manybooks, plays and movies on the topic may,howat least in part,forlayingthe groundwork ever,have been responsible, in the Holocaustjust a few forwhatwould become an intenseinterest book mayhave had a similar impact-both among yearshence. Arendt's time an those who adored it and those who abhorred it. For the first withthe issues raised by began to grapple seriously arrayof intellectuals the Holocaust. These matters engaged the attentionof thatportionof the population "most disposed to become involvedin public affairs"72 scholarsand intellectuals began to examine the Holocaust Journalists, in a more profoundwaythan theyhad since the end of the war.Subsewhen the Holocaust did emerge on theJewishcommunal and quently, weremore prepared to addressitsimplications. religiousagenda, they was not yetreceptiveto such a In the early1960s Americansociety was necesofAmericansociety in A the nature development. sea-change feel to to of American in for a broad order Jews empowered range sary of this address the Shoahand to see its own fatein termsof the history in theJewish eventwithin event.It would takea cataclysmic community, asthe formof the Six Day Warand the upheavalson thedomesticfront sociated withVietnamprotest.It would also take the rise of American somein the 1970sand the comingof age of a post-Holocaust, ethnicity as a rewho American of whatself-righteous had, Jews generation young sult of the Vietnam War, been schooled in the politics of protestto begin to ask, in an adaptation of the line fromthe Haggadah,"What meaning do these eventshave forus?" And as AmericanJewsbegan to a portionof the general engage in the act of remembering, increasingly Americanpopulace began to do the same.
EMORY UNIVERSITY

NOTES
209
1. EdwardT. Linenthal,Preserving (New York,1995), p. 6. Memory NewLives(New York,1976). 2. DorothyRabinowitz, 3. Jeffrey Shandler,"The Holocaust on Television:A New American Jewish 'Rite of Spring,"forthcoming in Freedom and Responsibility: Dilemmas Exploring of edited by Rela MintzGeffenand Marsha BryanEdelman.JefContinuity, Jewish Shandlergraciously of his paper. frey providedme witha draft 4. Idem, "'This is Your Life': Tellinga Holocaust Survivor's Life Storyon Narrative and Vol. EarlyAmericanTelevision" Journal of Life History, 4, Nos. 1 and 2, p. 52. 5. Nathan Glazer, American Judaism(Chicago, 1957), p. 114. See also the 1972 edition,p. 172. 6. For a variety of examples of these kindsof experiences,see the oral hisin the FredCrawford withliberators Witness tothe Holocaust collectoryinterviews tion,EmoryUniversity, Atlanta, Georgia. 7. For a summary see David Barnouw, of thismatter, "The Play," TheDiaryof AnneFrank:TheCritical Edition 78-83. York, (New 1989), pp. 8. On EasterSunday1944,theinhabitants of theannex,discovering burglars in the warehouse and offices below them,believed thattheirhidingplace had been discovered.Theywaitedin fearful of the police. The nextday anticipation Anne wrotein her diary: Who has inflicted thisupon us? Who has made us Jewsdifferent from all otherpeople? Who has allowed us to suffer so terribly up tillnow?It is God thathas made us as we are, but itwillbe God, too,whowillraise us up again. Ifwe bear all thissuffering and ifthereare still Jewsleft, when it is over,thenJews, insteadof being doomed, willbe held up as an example. Who knows,it mighteven be our religionfromwhichthe worldand all peoples learn good, and forthatreason and thatreason now. onlydo we have to suffer Edition, p. 600. April11, 1944.DiaryofAnneFrank:Critical This was deleted fromthe playin its entirety and replaced withthe followtransforms Anne'soriginalintent: ing whichtotally We're not the only people to suffer. There've always been people that've had to ... sometimesone race. .. sometimes another.... FrancesGoodrich and AlbertHackett,TheDiaryofAnneFrank (New York,1956), and The Case of cited in Alvin 168 as Rosenfeld, Memory: p. "Popularization Anne Frank,"Lessonsand Legacies:The Meaningof theHolocaustin a Changing edited byPeterHayes (Evanston,1991),p. 257. World, of the Holocaust on Stage and 9. Lawrence Langer, "The Americanization edited and Screen, American Street toHollywood: Hester Screen,"From Stage TheJewish bySarah Blacher Cohen (Bloomington,1986),p. 214. and Sun as quoted in Alvin World 10. WilliamHawkinsin New York Telegram Rosenfeld, "Americanizationof the Holocaust," Commentary Magazine (June, 1995),p. 37.
210
Deborah E. Lipstadt
11. WalterKerr,NewYork HeraldTribune, as quoted in Rosenfeld,"American37. ization," p. 12. The filmmakers trieda different ending whichdepicted Anne in a concentration camp. The reactionof the audience was so disquietingthattheirdecision to create a "hopeful"filmwas reinforced. "How Cheerfulis AnneFrank?" in as cited Ilan theHolocaust Avisar, Variety (April 1, 1959) Screening (Bloomington, 1987),p. 190. 13. Jeffrey Shandler,"This is Your Life,'pp. 41, 51. 14. Bruno Bettelheim, "Eichmann: The System, the Victims," New Republic (June 15, 1963),p. 25. 15. The blockade began on June24, 1948 and ended on May 12, 1949.It cost the livesof forty-five Americanand British soldiers.At its height, planes landed (New York, every61.8 seconds. Eugene Davidson, TheDeathand LifeofGermany 1959),p. 218. 16. Davidson,Deathand LifeofGermany p. 212. 17. NewYork 1949. Times, 18, May 18. Shlomo Shafir, and Germany 1945: Points American after ofConnection Jews and Points (Cincinnati,1993),p. 12. of Departure 19. Ibid., p. 13. 20. Ibid., p. 15. 21. Elliot E. Cohen, "What Do the Germans Propose to Do?" Commentary (September,1950),pp. 225-26. 22. Moses Moskowitz,"The Germans and the Jews: Postwar Report, the 1946),pp. 7-14. Enigma of Germany Commentary (July, Irresponsibility," in "The as cited 23. De Telegraaf Barnouw, 12, 1956, May Play," p. 80. 24. Avisar,Screening of theHolocaust, p. 110. See Avisar'sanalysisof HollyLions.Shaw wrote of the adaptationof IrwinShaw's TheYoung wood's treatment of modafflictions his book to addresswhathe consideredto be one of theworst his originalintenThe movie,he believed,subverted antisemitism. ern society, tion (ibid.,pp. 111-116). in Review, Vol. 2, No. 8 (October, 1951),pp. 50-51 as cited in Avisar, 25. Films Holocaust, ofthe p. 110. Screening October 18, 1951. "The DesertFox,"NewYork 26. BosleyCrowther, Times, October 28, 1951. NewYork 27. Idem, "Curious Twist," Times, of the postwarperiod was the creationof a post 28. One of the innovations of Jewishadvisor to the American militarycommand. These advisors both DPs who remainedon Germanand looked after the needs of the 200,000Jewish withinformation Austriansoil and provided the AmericanJewishcommunity towardsthe DPs and a broad arrayof othermatregardingGerman sentiments and Germany, to theJewish tersof interest Shafir, American p. 11. community. Jews 29. Ibid., p. 13. 30. In fairnessto Clay,it should be noted thatthoughhe counseledJewsto he did not believe thatGermansshould do likewise.In a meetingwith forget, inJuly1949,Clay statedthat"the momentthatGermany representatives Jewish thatwas the pointat which the Buchenwaldsand theAuschwitzes, has forgotten in of could Ibid., p. 18. everyone despair anyprogress Germany." 31. There is a certainhistoricalironyto the attemptby Americancommuvictimsof capitalistforces.During this niststo paint the Rosenbergsas Jewish
211
bias were being held in various period, show trialswitha definiteantisemitic and the SoEast Germany, communist-bloc countries, includingCzechoslovakia, of a sevietUnion. The Doctor's Plot in Moscowin 1949 had been onlythe first defendants were ries of such events.In December 1952 eleven mostly Jewish executed in Prague as part of the Slanskytrial. (Rudolf Slanskyhad been the second most powerful figurein the Czech communistpartyand government.) a non-Jewish At the same timePaul Merker, German communist leader,was arincorrect-from restedby the East German regime.Merkerheld the politically the communiststandpoint-view thatthe "Jewish question" (i.e., the nexus of the Holocaust, and the role ofJewsin European society)was at antisemitism, the heart of the class struggleand the communistfightagainst fascism.He maintainedthisvieweven when German communismdefineditselfin opposition to a "Western, Merker international, liberal,Jewishconspiracy." capitalist, was denounced in 1950 and held in prisonfrom1952 to 1956 forhis supportof he was partiallyrehaZionism and his emphasis on antisemitism. Eventually bilitatedby the communists. Herf,"East German Communistsand the Jeffrey OccaGerman HistoricalInstitute, Question: The Case of Paul Merker," Jewish sional Paper No. 11,1994,p. 18. November14, 1952,as 32. Howard Fast,"The RosenbergCase," L'Humanite, File(New York,1983), quoted in Ronald RaydoshandJoyceMilton,TheRosenberg p. 351. 33. Deborah Dash Moore, "Reconsidering the Rosenbergs:Symboland Substance in Second GenerationAmerican Consciousness," Jewish ofAmeriJournal canEthnic (Fall, 1988),p. 28. History 34. VictorS. Navasky, Names(New York,1980),pp. 115-116. Naming 35. Raydoshand Milton,Rosenberg File,p. 352. 36. AmericanJewish Vol. 56 (1955), p. 620. Yearbook, 37. Shafir, American and Germany, p. 16. Jews 38. There were actuallytwo riots,one on August27 and a second on September4, 1949. Paul Robeson, whose pro-Sovietviewswere well known,had been scheduled to appear in concert on the first date. The concert was prevented fromoccurringbecause a group of protestors blocked entryinto the was to be held. Stoneswerethrown, automopicnic groundswherethe function biles overturned, and a number of those who had come for the concertwere beaten up. The following week,on Labor Day, approximately 15,000visitors apa own guards, reat rescheduled conference. their peared Accompanied by YearBookfromleft-wing cruited according to the American unions, the Jewish the eventfights once visitors arrivedin privatecars and charteredbuses. After were hurled.Antiagain ensued, cars and buses werestoned,and racial epithets stickers were placed on cars at semitictractswere distributed and antisemitic Year Vol. 52 (1951), pp. 62-64. the Labor Day event.American Book, Jewish toDesist(Philadelphia,1972),p. 348. 39. Naomi Cohen, NotFree Year 40. American Vol. 54 (1953), p. 95. Book, Jewish 41. Not all Jewishorganizations adopted as vigorousa stance as the Americamcan JewishCommittee.B'nai B'rithdid not conduct an anti-Communist paign within the Jewish community.In contrast to the American Jewish Committee,it did not workto prevent JewishCommunistorganizationsfrom to communal admitted coordinatingbodies. In 1952, when Mcbeing Jewish
212
Deborah E. Lipstadt
Carthywas gaining an extremely high profile,the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) chose to honor Senator HerbertLehman, who had emergedas one of main opponents.The following McCarthy's yearADL passed a resolutionconviolation of traditional"Americansafeguardsof human demning McCarthy's The same resolutionaffirmed liberty." ADL's oppositionto Communismand its conviction thattherewas a "Communist to destroy conspiracy democracyin the UnitedStates." Deborah Dash Moore, B'nai B'rith and the Ethnic LeadChallenge of 1981),pp. 226-227. ership (Albany, 42. Marc E. Berkson,"The Case ofJuliusand Ethel Rosenberg:JewishReof Institute sponse to a Period of Stress"(thesis,Hebrew Union College-Jewish Religion,NewYork1978),as cited in ibid.,p. 32. 43. Trial transcript, pp. 1613-1614as quoted in Raydoshand Milton,Rosen284. File, berg p. 44. RoyCohn, McCarthy (New York,1968), pp. 249-250; Howard Rushmore, 1953),pp. 67-74. "YoungMr.Cohn,"American Mercury (February, 45. WilliamL. Shirer,TheRiseand Fall oftheThird A History Reich: ofNazi Ger163. York, 1960), (New many p. 46. Shirer, RiseandFall,p. 134. 47. Reader's Digesthad a monthlycirculationof over 12 million. Gavriel "The Rosenfeld, Reception of WilliamL. Shirer'sTheRiseand Fall oftheThird Reich in the United Statesand WestGermany, 1960-1962," Journal ofContempoVol. 29 (1994), p. 100. History, rary 48. John Tebbel, A History in theUnited Vol. IV, The States, ofBookPublishing Great 1940-1980 (NewYork,1981),p. 388 as cited in GavrielRosenfeld, Change, "Receptionof Shirer'sRiseandFall," p. 101. 49. Roger Morgan, The United States and West 1945-1973 (London, Germany, 1974),p. 89. 50. Morgan, United States and West Germany, pp. 97, 112-115. 51. NorbertMuhlen, "The U.S. Image of Germany,1962, as Reflectedin AmericanBooks,"Modern Age(Fall, 1962),p. 420. 52. The trialbegan in April 1961 and concluded in Augustof thatyear.The sentencewas renderedin December and in May,after the IsraeliSupreme guilty Courtrejectedhis appeal, he was hanged. 53. TheEichmann Case in theAmerican Instituteof Human Relations, Press, PressPamphletSeries,p. 9. 54. In addition to the Gallup poll a series of in-depthinterviews were conducted withapproximately fivehundredresidents of Oakland Californiain the summerof 1961.84 percent of those sampled met the minimumcriterionof simpleawareness.Giventhe generalweaknessdemonstrated byAmericansconof this is a statistic. events, Lazarsfeld,pp. 5, cerningknowledge foreign striking 19-21. These statistics validatedIsrael'sand particularly PrimeMinister David BenGurion'sobjectivesfor the trial.It was designed to mete out justice, acquaint withthe era,and, above all, servea pedagogical purpost-Holocaust generations indipose. Analysisof the Americanpress coverageof the trialin thiscountry cates thatit fulfilled the lattertwo objectives.In a letterto a member of the IsraeliKnesset,Israel Galili,Ben-Gurionwrote:
andMemory oftheHolocaust America I see the importanceof the fact thatAdolf Eichmann has been capturedand willbe put to trialbeforean Israeli courtnot so much as an of the Israeli Seachievementof the efficiency and outstanding ability but has Officers.... rather that it made it curity possible foran Israeli courtto revealin detail the tragedy of the Holocaust, in a public open trial so that Israeli youthwho grewup and were educated afterthe Holocaust knowthe factsof the incredibletragedy, about which they were untilnow onlyscantily informed. Furthermore it willensure that knowledge of the tragedywill have its impact on public opinion theworld. throughout
213
Davar, May27, 1960,p. 9, as quoted in AkivaW. Deutsch, TheEichmann Trialin the Israeli 18. 1974),p. (Jerusalem, Eyes of Youngsters forthe trial,the Israeli Ministry of EduEchoing Ben-Gurion's expectations cation and Culturecirculated a letter beforethetrialwhichstressed itshisright toricand educationalsignificance. It is not a feelingof revengewhichguides us whenwitnessing the proceedings of the trialbut the aim to uncover before the whole world and beforeourselves,the dimensionsof the tragedy whichour people experienced. of Education and Culture, Circularletterof April 19, 1961, Ministry Jerusalem, as cited in ibid.,pp. 18-19. 55. George Salomon, "America'sResponse to the Eichman Trial,"American Year Vol. 63 (1962), pp. 8, 9, 103. Book, Jewish 56. Charles Y. Glock, Gertrude J. Selznick,and Joe L. Spaeth, TheApathetic A Study BasedonPublicResponses tothe Eichmann Trial(New York,1966), Majority: pp. 20, 28. 57. Ibid., p. 134. 58. Eichmann Casein the Press American (pamphlet),p. 29. 59. San Bernadino Sun,June 5, 1962. See also the BaltimoreNews-Post, April 13, 1961.The editorialin the BaltimoreNews-Post appeared in otherHearst papers. Ibid., p. 35. 60. WilliamHenry Chamberlin,"The Revivalof Anti-Germanism," Modern 278. (Summer, 1962), p. Age "A Reporterat Large: EichmanninJerusalem," 61. Hannah Arendt, TheNew Yorker, February16, 23; March 2, 9, 16, 1963. These articleswere published as Eichmann inJerusalem: A Report on the Banality ofEvil (New York,1963). 62. Arendt'sanalysisof the behavior of theJewishcouncils in the ghettos, whichwas based in the main on secondarysources and written beforevirtually all of the major researchon the councilshad been conducted,was criticized not but foritstone. Her friendGershomScholem, the eminent onlyforitsfindings scholarwithwhomshe had workedin the post-war period on the EuropeanJewish CulturalReconstruction, described her workin a letterto her as "heartless, In whatmusthave been a devastating almostsneeringand malicious." frequently withScholem, and his commentforArendt,given her past close relationship staturein the academic world,he declared its tone to be one pervaded by"flip-
214
Deborah E. Lipstadt
pancy.""Eichmann in Jerusalem:An Exchange of Letters between Gershom Scholem and Hannah Arendt," Encounter (22 January1964), pp. 51-56. She was also bitterly criticizedby MartinBuber formisrepresenting his positionon the trial.She could have, he charged,easilyascertainedit frommaterialpublished In theWake Scholem,"Postscript," bythe Hebrewpressor byaskinghim directly. Eichmann 61. For additional information on the York, (New 1964), ofthe p. Trial toNazi Persecution: Collective JewishCouncils, see Isaiah Trunk, Responses Jewish and Individual Behavior inExtremis The (New York,1979),and idem,Judenrat: JewishCouncils inEastern under Nazi edition new York, (New 1972), Europe Occupation withintroduction byStevenT. Katz (Lincoln, 1996). 63. Newsweek, June 17,1963,pp. 94-95. 64. Norman Podhoretz,"Hannah Arendton Eichmann:A Studyin the Perof Brilliance:'Commentary versity (September,1963),pp. 201, 208. 65. Arendtmisstated Musmanno'srole at the Nurembergand Eichmanntrials. NewYorker, April27, 1964,p. 108. 66. Michael Musmanno, "Man with an Unspotted Conscience," New York Times Book Review, May 19,1963,pp. Iff.For a responsesolicitedbythe editorsof fromArendtand a replyfromMusmanno as well as an arrayof the BookReview to the editorsee New York letters BookReview, Times June 23, 1963,July14, 1963; New Republic, June 15, 1963, June 29, 1963. Ernest van den Haag, "Crimes NationalReview, AgainstHumanity," August27, 1963,pp. 154-157.For responses see September10,24, 1963; October 22, 1963. Further to van den Haag's review a yearlaterwhen the magazine discussionwas generatedin the NationalReview publisheda followup articleon the book. See Max Geltman's"Hannah Arendt and Her Critics" NationalReview, November 17, 1964, pp. 1007-1012.See also "Talk of the Town,"TheNewYorker, 20, 1963,p. 17. July 67. "Editor'sNote,"Partisan Review (Summer,1963),p. 210. 68. Geltman,p. 1007. 69. Milton Himmelfarb,The Condition ofJewish Belief(New York, 1966); Glazer,American Judaism, p. 172. 70. Chamberlin, "Revival"p. 278. 71. Muhlen,"U.S. Image of Germany," pp. 421, 426. 72. Glock et al., Apathetic p. 169.See, forexample,Lionel Abel "The Majority, Partisan Aesthetics of Evil," Review (Summer,1963),pp. 211-230.

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America and the Memory of the Holocaust, 1950-1965 Author(s): Deborah E. Lipstadt Source: Modern Judaism, Vol.

AMERICA AND THE MEMORY OF THE HOLOCAUST, 1950-1965

andMemory oftheHolocaust America

The playconcludes with a voiceover Anne's famous obity. proclaiming

Holocaust as one of hope and faithin the ultimategoodness of human-

Americaand Memoryof theHolocaust

Americaand Memoryof theHolocaust

Americaand Memoryof theHolocaust

Americaand Memoryof the Holocaust

oftheHolocaust America andMemory

oftheHolocaust America andMemory

oftheHolocaust America andMemory

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