Genocide, the Holocaust and Israel-Palestine: First-Person History in Times of Crisis

This book discusses the tensions between Holocaust and genocide studies, the importance of local history and individual testimony, and how legal discourse has served to uncover and deny individual and national complicity. It also demonstrates how first-person histories provide a better understanding of events and draw on the authors personal trajectory to consider links between the fate of Jews in World War II and the plight of Palestinians.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 264 pages
Publication date: 10 August 2023
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

This book delves into some of the most pressing and contentious debates surrounding the study, commemoration, and politicization of the Holocaust through a diverse range of critical perspectives. Omer Bartov skillfully examines the intricate tensions between Holocaust and genocide studies, which have often enriched and conflicted with each other, while compellingly advocating for the significance of local history and individual testimony in comprehending the nature of mass murder. He further critically assesses how legal discourse has played a dual role in uncovering and denying individual and national complicity.

Genocide, the Holocaust, and Israel-Palestine explores how first-person histories offer a deeper understanding of events that may otherwise seem inexplicable. Moreover, the author draws on their personal journey to consider the connections between the fate of Jews during World War II and the plight of Palestinians during and after the establishment of the state of Israel. Bartov convincingly demonstrates that these five perspectives, which have rarely been discussed together in a single book, are interconnected, shedding valuable light on each other. Consequently, the Holocaust and other genocides must be viewed as related catastrophes in the modern era. Understanding such vast human tragedies necessitates examining them on a local and personal scale, which calls for historical empathy achieved through personal-biographical introspection. Furthermore, genuine, open-minded, and rigorous introspection is essential to prevent historical understanding from becoming obfuscated, while also illuminating uncomfortable yet clarifying connections, such as the relationship between the Holocaust and the Nakba, the mass flight and expulsion of Palestinians in 1948.

Weight: 418g
Dimension: 156 x 234 x 16 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781350332317