Reluctant witnesses : survivors, their children, and the rise of the Holocaust consciousness

For the first two decades following the end of World War II, discussion of the destruction of European Jewry was largely absent from American culture and the tragedy of the Holocaust was generally seen as irrelevant to non-Jewish Americans. Today, the Holocaust is widely recognized as a universal moral touchstone. Reluctant Witnesses documents how a group of people who had previously been unrecognized and misunderstood managed to find its voice. At a time when a sense of Holocaust fatigue seems to be setting in and when the remaining survivors are at the end of their lives, it affirms that confronting traumatic memories and catastrophic histories can help us make our world mean something beyond ourselves. Includes bibliographical references (pages 219-233) and index. 242 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm