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Book Reviews of Shoah: An Oral History of the Holocaust

Shoah: An Oral History of the Holocaust
Shoah An Oral History of the Holocaust
Author: Claude Lanzmann
ISBN-13: 9780394743295
ISBN-10: 0394743296
Publication Date: 4/12/1987
Pages: 208
Rating:
  • Currently 4.5/5 Stars.
 4

4.5 stars, based on 4 ratings
Publisher: Pantheon
Book Type: Paperback
Reviews: Amazon | Write a Review

3 Book Reviews submitted by our Members...sorted by voted most helpful

Kibi avatar reviewed Shoah: An Oral History of the Holocaust on + 582 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 3
Brilliant, brutal, but necessary, February 14, 2006
Reviewer: R. J. LIPSITZ "always think about everything" (Washington D.C.)

After the Holocaust most survivors' chose for their memories to remain unspoken. They opted to repress the horror and move on with what remnant of life they could. Fortunately, their silence did not persist, for if it did, enemies of humanity who choose to falsify and revise history, declaring the Holocaust never existed, would be armed with devastating ammunition..."where is the victims' testimony?".

With Shoah we finally get to hear, en masse, the devastating account of civilization's most heinous crime. While every memory of the horror cannot be captured, most, like the unfortunate lives consumed in the madness, are lost for ever. Yet gratefully we have this document to mark society beginning to come to terms with and document honestly what humanity is capable of.

As the last survivors are rapidly dying off with age, soon we will be without first hand witnesses. Thankfully through Shoah and other efforts, we are documenting and preserving in perpetuity the Holocaust to forever encase the evidence in an envelope of truth and righteousness where it forever belongs. Let Shoah along with Yad Shem, The Sorrow and the Pity, and the precious few other venues of masterpiece historical documentation persevere. They have captured the immense odiousness, horror, insanity, and pure evil that humanity is capable of and should not only never be forgotten but taught to all presently and for posterity so all of humanity can bear witness. Only through dedicated vigilance to awareness can we hope to avoid recurrence.
reviewed Shoah: An Oral History of the Holocaust on + 195 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
made into a film, this book details the unforgettable truth and horror
of the nazi extermination camps as told by witnesses
reviewed Shoah: An Oral History of the Holocaust on + 160 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
No matter how much I have learned or read about the Holocaust, I can't forget this book. Containing the dialogues from Claude Lanzmann's documentary film, Shoah, the testimonies contained are both horrifying and chilling. From the German railroad workers who arranged the transports to the extermination camp, to the Poles and others who "looked away" and conveniently "knew nothing" about what was happening, to the few survivors who lived to tell the tale, this is a book one won't easily forget.