Whether it's a novel, memoir, diary, poem, or drama, a common thread runs through the literature of the Nazi Holocaust--a motif of personal testimony to the dearness of humanity. With that perspective the expert authors of Encyclopedia of Holocaust Literature undertake profiling 128 of the most influential first generation authors who either survived, perished, or were closely connected to the Holocaust. Arranged alphabetically by author, all of the entries answer the same basic questions about the author and his or her work: What is the nature of the author's literary response to the Holocaust? What is his or her place in Holocaust literature? What does the author's work contribute to an understanding of the Holocaust? What is distinctive about the author's work? What are some key moments in the author's life? What issues does the author's work pose for the reader? To address these questions, the entries are generally organized into three primary divisions: (1) an opening section on why the author's work has a significant or distinctive place in Holocaust literature, (2) a second section containing information on the author's biography, and (3) a critical examination of the highlights of the author's work. In most cases, the third section is the longest, since the focus of the encyclopedia is the literature, not the author.

The Encyclopedia is intended for all students and teachers of the Holocaust, regardless of their levels of learning. Avenues for further research are incorporated at the conclusion of each entry and in a comprehensive bibliography of primary works of Holocaust literature and a second bibliography of critical studies of Holocaust literature.

First English translation of the memoirs of Austrian Romani Holocaust survivor, writer, visual artist, musician, and activist Ceija Stojka (1933-2013), along with poems, an interview, historical photos, and reproductions of her artworks. "Is this the whole world?" This question begins the first of three memoirs by Austrian Romani writer, visual artist, musician, and activist Ceija Stojka (1933-2013), told from her perspective as a child interned in three Nazi concentration camps from age nine to twelve. Written by a child survivor much later in life, the memoirs offer insights into the nexus of narrative and extreme trauma, expressing the full spectrum of human emotions: fear and sorrow at losing loved ones; joy and relief when reconnecting with family and friends; desire to preserve some memories while attempting to erase others; horror at acts of genocide, and hope arising from dreams of survival. In addition to annotated translations of the three memoirs, the book includes two of Stojka's poems and an interview by Karin Berger, editor of the original editions of Stojka's memoirs, as well as color reproductions of several of her artworks and historical photographs. An introduction contextualizes her works within Romani history and culture, and a glossary informs the reader about the "concentrationary universe." Because the memoirs show how Stojka navigated male-dominated postwar Austrian culture, generally discriminatory to Roma, and the patriarchal aspects of Romani culture itself, the book is a contribution not only to Holocaust Studies but also to Austrian Studies, Romani Studies, and Women's and Gender Studies.

Largely forgotten over the years, the seminal work of French poet, novelist and camp survivor Jean Cayrol has experienced a revival in the French-speaking world since his death in 2005. His concept of a concentrationary art-the need for an urgent and constant aesthetic resistance to the continuing effects of the concentrationary universe-proved to be a major influence for Hannah Arendt and other writers and theorists across a number of disciplines. Concentrationary Art presents the first translation into English of Jean Cayrol's key essays on the subject, as well as the first book-length study of how we might situate and elaborate his concept of a Lazarean aesthetic in cultural theory, literature, cinema, music and contemporary art.

As World War II and the Nazi assault on Europe ended, some 25,000 Jews--entire families in some instances--walked out of the forests of Eastern Europe. Based on numerous interviews with these survivors, "Fugitives of the Forest" tells their harrowing and heroic stories.

Using the framework of genocide, this volume analyzes the patterns of persecution of the Roma in Nazi-dominated Europe. Detailed case studies of France, Austria, Romania, Croatia, Ukraine, and Russia generate a critical mass of evidence that indicates criminal intent on the part of the Nazi regime to destroy the Roma as a distinct group. Other chapters examine the failure of the West German State to deliver justice, the Romani collective memory of the genocide, and the current political and historical debates. As this revealing volume shows, however inconsistent or geographically limited, over time, the mass murder acquired a systematic character and came to include ever larger segments of the Romani population regardless of the social status of individual members of the community.

Despite an outpouring in recent years of history and cultural criticism related to the Holocaust, Italian women's literary representations and testimonies have not received their proper due. This project fills this gap by analyzing Italian women's writing from a variety of genres, all set against a complex historical backdrop.

Covering the period between the Munich Agreement and the Communist Coup in February 1948, this volume provides the first full account of the Czechoslovak Government-in-Exile in London. In examining attitudes towards the Jews during World War 2 and its aftermath Jan Lani ek explores the notion that Czechoslovak treatment of the Jews was shaped by resurgent Czech and Slovak nationalism/s caused by the war and by the experience of the occupation by the German army. He challenges the official history of Czechoslovak policy towards the Jews between 1918 and 1948, which still presents Czechoslovakia as an exceptional case study of an East-Central European state that rejected antisemitism and treated the Jews decently. This groundbreaking work offers a novel, provocative analysis of the political activities and plans of the Czechoslovak exiles during and after the war years, and of the implementation of the plans in liberated Czechoslovakia after 1945.

Reading a wide range of novels from post-war Germany to Israeli, Palestinian and postcolonial writers, The Politics of Jewishness in Contemporary World Literature is a comprehensive exploration of changing cultural perceptions of Jewishness in contemporary writing. Examining how representations of Jewishness in contemporary fiction have wrestled with such topics as the Holocaust, Israeli-Palestinian relations and Jewish diaspora experiences, Isabelle Hesse demonstrates the 'colonial' turn taken by these representations since the founding of the Jewish state. Following the dynamics of this turn, the book demonstrates new ways of questioning received ideas about victimhood and power in contemporary discussions of postcolonialism and world literature.

The lens of apartheid-era Jewish commemorations of the Holocaust in South Africa reveals the fascinating transformation of a diasporic community. Through the prism of Holocaust memory, this book examines South African Jewry and its ambivalent position as a minority within the privileged white minority. Grounded in research in over a dozen archives, the book provides a rich empirical account of the centrality of Holocaust memorialization to the community's ongoing struggle against global and local antisemitism. Most of the chapters focus on white perceptions of the Holocaust and reveals the tensions between the white communities in the country regarding the place of collective memories of suffering in the public arena. However, the book also moves beyond an insular focus on the South African Jewish community and in very different modality investigates prominent figures in the anti-apartheid struggle and the role of Holocaust memory in their fascinating journeys towards freedom.

Memory Work studies how Jewish children of Holocaust survivors from the English-speaking diaspora explore the past in literary texts. By identifying areas where memory manifests - Objects, Names, Bodies, Food, Passover, 9/11 it shows how the Second Generation engage with the pre-Holocaust family and their parents' survival.

Mordechai Gebirtig was one of the most influential and popular writers of Yiddish songs and poems. Born in 1877, he became a prolific poet and song writer, using everything he saw, heard and knew about people. His legacy, therefore, is not only one of melodies and lyrics, but also a treatise on Jewish life in Poland under the benign neglect of the Austrians, the ever growing hostility of the Poles, and finally, the terror of the Germans, who destroyed the people, their culture, and, to a great measure, their memory. Schneider's book for the first time brings his work to an English-speaking audience, offering a collection of all of his major works, complete with the scores, transliterated Yiddish text, and English translation. Her book offers a rare insight into the world of Eastern European Jews, their culture, and their music.

Gebirtig's most famous song Es Brent--It's Burning--was written in response to a 1936 pogrom. It became a stirring hymn for the survivors of the Holocaust, who felt that the words suited their own situation very well. Gebirtig himself was shot in the Cracow Ghetto in June 1942. Neither he nor any of his close family survived the war. However, as this volume shows, his songs and poems remain an enduring voice for a Jewish community nearly lost to the Nazis. They constitute a precious legacy for anyone interested in the world of Eastern Europe Jews, their culture, and their music.

How does scale affect our understanding of the Holocaust? In the vastness of its implementation and the sheer amount of death and suffering it produced, the genocide of Europe's Jews presents special challenges for historians, who have responded with work ranging in scope from the world-historical to the intimate. In particular, recent scholarship has demonstrated a willingness to study the Holocaust at scales as focused as a single neighborhood, family, or perpetrator. This volume brings together an international cast of scholars to reflect on the ongoing microhistorical turn in Holocaust studies, assessing its historiographical pitfalls as well as the distinctive opportunities it affords researchers.

Of the three categories that Raul Hilberg developed in his analysis of the Holocaust-perpetrators, victims, and bystanders-it is the last that is the broadest and most difficult to pinpoint. Described by Hilberg as those who were "once a part of this history," bystanders present unique challenges for those seeking to understand the decisions, attitudes, and self-understanding of historical actors who were neither obviously the instigators nor the targets of Nazi crimes. Combining historiographical, conceptual, and empirical perspectives on the bystander, the case studies in this book provide powerful insights into the complex social processes that accompany state-sponsored genocidal violence.

An intriguing analysis of how place constructs memory and how memory constructs place, "Remembering the Holocaust" shows how visiting sites such as Auschwitz shapes the transfer of Holocaust memory from one generation to the next. Through the discussion of a range of memoirs and novels, including "Landscapes of Memory" by Ruth Kluger, "Too Many Men" by Lily Brett, " The War After" by Anne Karpf and "Everything is Illuminated" by Jonathan Safran Foer, "Remembering the Holocaust "reveals the pivotal yet complicated role of place in each generation's writing about the Holocaust.This book provides an insightful and nuanced investigation of the effect of the Holocaust upon families, from survivors of the genocide to members of the second and even third generations of families involved. By deploying an innovative combination of generational and literary study of Holocaust survivor families focussed on place, "Remembering the Holocaust" makes an important contribution to the field of Holocaust Studies that will be of interest to scholars and anyone interested in Holocaust remembrance.