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I will not dwell too long on the bitter theme of the many purely external difficulties with which the writer in exile must contend. I hope that those who have not experienced these difficulties…
People are forever quoting Talleyrand’s remark that language is only there in order to hide the thoughts of the diplomat (or for that matter of any other shrewd and dubious person). But in fact the…
Primarily but not exclusively, the Institute would like to concern itself with the history of German Jewry since the Emancipation. The factual events leading to the catastrophe under the Nazi regime…
For Elie Wiesel
Not literally. Due to my father’s foresight (he had shown it when leaving Vienna in 1924), I came to America in January 1940, during the phony war. We left France, where I was born and…
The era of Western history that began with the French Revolution ended in Auschwitz. The emancipation of the Jews was reversed in the most horrendous way. For a short while after 1945 the reigning…
Before continuing my story about the events in Pinsk in the summer of 1940, I would like to digress briefly into the realm of the miraculous. Let us imagine the impossible—something fantastic and…
What does the Voice of Auschwitz command?
Jews are forbidden to hand Hitler posthumous victories. They are commanded to survive as Jews, lest the Jewish people perish. They are commanded to remember…
Was there an element of cowardice in the attitude of the Jewish masses, who preferred to suffer the worst degradation rather than revolt? Given the terrible conditions created by the fierce anti…
Berlin-Grunewald
Tauberstr. 16
February 26, 1970
Dear Mr. Scholem,
Writing this letter does not come easily to me; hence the long delay. And now you know already that I have not been able to decide in…
When macabre reality gnaws at a person’s soul, it is hard to devote oneself to psychological investigation, even of very pressing subjects. The event also seemed cut off from life, entirely academic…