Writing the Holocaust: Identity, Testimony, Representation

Zoë Waxman shows how the conditions and motivations for bearing witness changed immeasurably. She reveals the multiplicity of Holocaust experiences, the historically contingent nature of victims' responses, and the extent to which their identities--secular or religious, male or female, East or West European--affected not only what they observed but also how they have written about their experiences. In particular, she demonstrates that what survivors remember is substantially determined by the context in which they are remembering.

Arguing against the prevailing view that Holocaust survivors (encouraged by a new and flourishing culture of "witnessing") have come forward only recently to tell their stories, Writing the Holocaust examines the full history of Holocaust testimony, from the first chroniclers confined to Nazi-enforced ghettos to today's survivors writing as part of collective memory.

Zoë Waxman shows how the conditions and motivations for bearing witness changed immeasurably. She reveals the multiplicity of Holocaust experiences, the historically contingent nature of victims' responses, and the extent to which their identities—secular or religious, male or female, East or West European—affected not only what they observed but also how they have written about their experiences. In particular, she demonstrates that what survivors remember is substantially determined by the context in which they are remembering.

Zoe Waxman gained a D.Phil. from Oxford University in 2001. She is a Fellow in Holocaust Studies, a member of the Department of History at Royal Holloway, University of London, and the author of a number of articles on the Holocaust.