The Holocaust In American Life Summary

The Holocaust rightly dominates public consciousness in Europe where the Second World War wreaked havoc across the continent but also puzzlingly pervades modern American consciousness. Peter Novick, in The Holocaust in American Life, resolves to examine the reasons why and how the Holocaust is still extremely relevant in the modern age. Though he poses a number of intriguing questions throughout the monograph, Novick fails to completely answer the motivations lying behind this phenomena of memory. The strengths of the argument lie in his thoughtful questioning of the nature of collective memory and the possible implications for the American Jew and Gentile in the present and future. The book is divided into five sections covering the war itself …show more content…
Several Jewish committees believed that such an effort would be "a perpetual memorial to the weakness and defenselessness of the Jewish people” and would "not be in the best interests of Jewry" (Kindle Locations 2279-2281). The Jewish population did not want to associate themselves with victimhood following the war until after the 1961. Even the popularization of The Diary of Anne Frank was met with a downplay of her Jewish identity and more concentration her coming of age story. The 1961 event that reversed Jewish and American thought towards the Holocaust was the trial of Adolf Eichmann. Novick argues that it was at this moment that the public could no longer ignore the barbarous actions of Nazism towards the Jews. The trial took place in Israel but the ramifications reached American Jews with the belief that they could associate with victims of the Holocaust without being labelled as victims themselves (Kindle Location 2406). The end of silence on the Holocaust led directly to Novick’s “victimization Olympics” and the erection of physical and media