My Holocaust: A Novel

Successful father-and-son business partners Maurice and Norman Messer know a good product when they see it. That product is the Holocaust—and they.
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In comparison, I think of Francine Prose's novella "Guided Tours of Hell," which delivers the same satirical punch more concisely. Still, "My Holocaust" forces us to think seriously about the uses and abuses to which we put the Holocaust, the ethics of what we do with other people's real suffering.

Sep 08, Sabrina rated it did not like it. I had to stop reading this book-it was atrocious. Feb 05, Bookmarks Magazine added it. Mar 25, Paul rated it it was amazing. It was laugh out loud funny with a biting satire on par with Animal Farm. I like this more than I should.

When you think of it as a surreal, absurdist, postmodern, satirical look at how certain members of the Jewish community have almost commodified the Holocaust to gain sympathy points from the public at large, and certain jerks use it as an excuse to be jerks, and elitist aruging over who was "most" harmed by the Holocaust and thus who has metaphorical ownership over what it is, how it can be defined, and how it can be used Offensive, I like this more than I should.

Offensive, transgressive, absurdist, etc. The surrealism comes from characters treating the metaphorical discussion of the Holocaust as a literal business. Not a Holocaust museum, not a Holocaust trademarked intellectual property, just Anyone who wants to "use" the Holocaust must speak to the business owner, the man who bought and trademarked it. The absurdism comes from different characters who represent many different mindsets regarding the Holocaust some hold it as sacrosanct, others treat it as a commodity, some are Holocaust deniers, some think it belongs only to the Jews, some think the Holocaust should be applied to the other groups affected, etc , and the book portrays every single mindset as ridiculous beyond all measure, in order to highlight how meaningless and pointless the arguing over how to define the Holocaust really is at the end of the day.

Whether or not you agree, or whether or not you even think such a portrayal is harmful to Holocaust survivors and their descendants and society at large, will probably determine how much you love or hate this book. A fascinating book Sometimes it seems a bit too long but the subject is a serious one.

It is one of the most realistic books I have read on present business of the Holocaust. Apr 17, Kellie rated it it was ok. Let's explain the two stars. First of all, it wasn't for the "atrocious" satirization of the Holocaust. What Tova Reich had to say didn't offend me as it did many other reviewers but it is the way she said it that lead me to giving this novel two stars. I did enjoy the humor at times, even laughed out loud occasionally.

However, there were just so many characters that are not particularly identifiable or like-able and the way Reich bounced around among the characters was confusing and chaotic. I Let's explain the two stars. I had trouble remembering who some of the characters were especially at the end though that might have been my fault because everything became so dragged out and wordy that I found myself skimming just to reach the end. Speaking of wordy, the writing itself is unnecessarily wordy at times, with long sentences that veer off into unnecessary lines of detail that had my mind wandering and unfocused rather than understanding the point or symbolic meanings she was trying to create.

I went back and forth between a two star rating and a three star but the idea can only carry a novel so far before it becomes important to look at the refinement of the writing and structure. In reality, I'd give this novel a rating of 2. Oct 21, Therese Zrihen-Dvir rated it it was ok. It seems that we are running straight towards The Banality of Evil The Shoah has been commercialized as many things on our planet since we cannot expect the world to be as noble and honest as we would wish it to be.

But, I would sincerely prefer that a person who lost his entire family during the holocaust would refrain from writing a book of this kind and run into i Hello Tova But, I would sincerely prefer that a person who lost his entire family during the holocaust would refrain from writing a book of this kind and run into its banality. I went through hell to correct the harm caused to the holocaust survivors through Mrs.

I am not a holocaust survivor, but I live in Israel and met with a great number of them especially in a kibbutz. They deserve our consideration and respect… The least we can offer them. Jan 14, Charles rated it liked it. When a book is described, I generally ignore words like "shocking," "clever," and especially "irreverent," as these words are so overused as to be meaningless like "hero" and "genius" nowadays. For this book, though, I would use all three descriptors and mean it. It takes some chutzpah to satirize Holocaust rememberence, which, if you ask me, is a long time coming years of history and all we ever talk about is this?

True, the satire becomes a little much, and after a while, loses its When a book is described, I generally ignore words like "shocking," "clever," and especially "irreverent," as these words are so overused as to be meaningless like "hero" and "genius" nowadays. True, the satire becomes a little much, and after a while, loses its flavor in light of all the unsympathetic characters and events. Still, what was said needed to be said, even if it ended up a little mean-spirited. Amongst Reich's criticisms, I particularly appreciated the observation that Holocaust rememberence is a martyrs-cult, and there already exists a martyrs-cult from Judaism - its called Christianity.

If you want to worship martyrs, pray to Jebus and his crew - its all the same. Dec 03, Dusty rated it it was ok Recommends it for: Aug 10, Gwen rated it liked it. I'd read this book was fantastic and searched for it for a while in bookstores before just ordering it. It was ok but I didn't think it was fantastic.

Basically it's a satire of the whole industry that has grown up around the Holocaust--people making money from Auschwitz tours, "Remember the Holocaust" trinkets, and so forth.

MY HOLOCAUST by Tova Reich | Kirkus Reviews

The author also points out the battle for "biggest victim" bragging rights, with concentration camp survivors comparing tattoos and where they were, and with other groups c I'd read this book was fantastic and searched for it for a while in bookstores before just ordering it. The author also points out the battle for "biggest victim" bragging rights, with concentration camp survivors comparing tattoos and where they were, and with other groups comparing their situations to the Holocaust and trying to figure out how to make a connection to it to bring attention to their cause.

It's funny enough, but the plot where the Holocaust Museum gets taken over by protesters seemed a little silly. Sep 15, Batya7 rated it did not like it. There are some things you can't satirize, the Holocaust being one. I'm not just discarding this volume, but making sure it becomes shredded or used for small animal bedding. I ripped it up and put it in the recycling. Nobody should read it again. Tova, you disappoint me. You're a good writer, but you've chosen a very sore subject.

I'm not easily offended as another reader suggested "it is not for the easily offended. In these days of Holocaust denial, why give the haters additional ammo? Apr 29, Jill Meyer rated it it was amazing. I cannot possibly recommend "My Holocaust" Instead, it is for all of us who adore "non p. Plus, I am finding out what happened to one of my all-time favorite characters, Mara Lieb, and her family. Please do NOT read this book if you are easily offended.

If you aren't easily offended by brilliant satire, then enjoy. Mar 23, Peter rated it it was ok. In a blurb for this novel that was so fulsome it begged belief, Cynthia Ozick called Philip Roth a little pisher in comparison to Tova Reich. Hard to know why. The book is occasionally funny, but mostly it's a preachy, one-trick pony: But once we get the point, the book's glibness and lack of sympathetic characters leave us simply bored.

May 05, Michael Austin rated it liked it. This is a three-star book like no other. I give it five stars for concept--the organizing principle is brilliant, transgressive, funny, dark, comic, and ironic all at once. But I give it one star for execution. The brilliant premise--a Holocaust survivor who sets up a business endorsing other causes in the name of the Holocaust--just doesn't go anywhere. The satire is first rate. The story is forgettable. Jun 19, Tom rated it it was ok. I thought this was going to kick our modern culture of victimization right in its foibles.

Alas, the foibles go relatively unmolested. Otherwise, if you like to make fun of the way immigrants speak English not an ignoble pursuit in my mind or need to brush up on your Yiddish, this may be the book for you. Oct 15, Riv rated it did not like it Shelves: For some reason, I like satire in movies, and a lot of times in books, but I couldn't get through this He spoke lovingly of a pre-war Germany where Einstein could gallivant with the Berlin Orchestra or something. He lamented how the Nazis had destroyed that. What was his connection? Did he have grandparents who survived the Holocaust?

His connection was only his step-grandfather, and I imagine he emigrated before the war. It was Reich, standing wholly alone, who had the necessary courage to resist administrative and political pressure to conduct the terror chieftain Yasir Arafat on a tour of the museum — a tour of the kind reserved for visiting foreign dignitaries. Jews are smart but they overlooked something that could be bigger than Holocaust.

Holorection, or Resurrection after holocaust. Google that never does Easter will surely have major doodles for that. But there was more: So far, Holocaust has been used to just beat people over the head. But there is the other story. Rise of Jewish power and wealth from the ashes. The founding of Israel. Suppose another concept be created called Holorection though I worry what Anthony Weiner and Harvey Weinstein might make of it or Holocaust-Resurrection.

It would be the sunlight after the storm. And then, Holocaust-Holorection can truly be a far more effective neo-religion. So, add an element of redemption to Holocaust theme, and people will love it. Sure the bad nazis were killing Jews. Holorection Day can be occasion where people sing and dance and give gifts to Jews. After Holocaust Month, there can be Holorection Month. It became an instant success in Europe and was translated into 18 languages. On 29 February , the author as well as her lawyers admitted that the bestselling book was a hoax, despite its having been presented as autobiographical.

Here is a version of those events as described by Marvin Kalb, who was friends with Walter Reich. That last paragraph shocked me into looking up a more recent federal subsidy figure for the H. Whatever giant demons the Reich family may have cursed him with, this particular David at least has slain enough of them to free his mind for significant work. Would that everyone could be so successful with their own psychological slingshots. She has all the right credentials; this helps to get away with a lot of stuff ordinary people could never.

I had a lot of fun telling a Jewish liberal about my having seen the Rolling Stones in , I had him reeled in for the drop, which was that it was a great tragedy in my opinion that the band were never filmed by the one filmmaker who really understood that kind of crowd reaction, namely, Leni Riefenstahl. But Arafat was a foreign dignitary at the time, having already been awarded a shared Nobel Peace Prize, feted at the White House, etc.

That made it a quasi-governmental institution and made attempts to politicize it inevitable. You are quite correct that what can only be described as effective Holocaust-worship or, as I believe you have called it, Holocaustianity has replaced Judaism for far too many Jews. Zionism and Cultural Marxism are perhaps the two most prominent and significant among the many other false gods that many Jews have been led astray by.

You are quite correct that for too many Jews, what can only be described as effective Holocaust-worship or, as I believe you have called it, Holocaustianity has replaced Judaism. Zionism and Cultural Marxism are additional false gods that have led astray many Jews. Also, this Tova sounds like an awesome girl. She wrote a great, smart and funny book solely to defend her husband and burn his enemies. Exodus was a huge deal, as a book and later, a movie. The appearance of the state of Israel fits your requirements. A miraculous rebirth transmutating ultimate catastrophe into inviolable right.

Eh, modern white religion skips the forgiveness part.


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See also the sprouting Academic Grievance Priesthood for other versions on the same theme. Israel has two main founding myths: My impression is that Masada is increasing in relative importance just as Hanukah went from a very minor festival to something quite major after the Six-Day war. To many Israeli Jews the Holocaust represents the nadir not just of the treatment of Jews but also the moral character of Jews. Separated from their homeland, their soil and purpose, it is seen that the Holocaust victims often went meekly to their own slaughter.

A story told to me by an IDF veteran and intended as a post hoc preminotory warning of the Holocaust might be summarised as this:. During the pogroms the Cossacks attacked a Jewish village. The men hid in a cupboard as the Cossacks only came to kill the men. The women were raped in view of the cupboard. The men did nothing. Other reasons for the emphasizing of Masada include that most young Israelis are only part Ashkenazi and Masada applies to all Jews. Also, that it obviously took place in Israel. Of course the story is somewhat the other way around for many diaspora Jews.

It also fits far better into what the contemporary West values. Personally, I find an overemphasis on founding myths to be unnecessary, but perhaps that is a sort of reverse Dunning-Kruger effect of the type Charles Murray identifies when he argues that the elite no longer preaches what it practices. However if one is to be picked I prefer the one that steals valour rather than steals misery. I get that the Holocaust was a current event for those nearing the end of their lives but for younger generations a focus on it feels maudlin and ennervating.

I suspect that it will fade away in fits and bursts as the next couple of generations pass while Masada will remain. The first few pages are rather funny indeed. More than a vengeance, this novel must have been a therapeutic experience for its author. It purged her at least for a time , I think. Generally, it is about Jewish victimization narrative, as well as about victim-centered identitarian cultural politics America has adopted in past few decades. Reich had savaged not only shoah industry, but beyond that- Jewish modern identity.

Or any identity based on obsession, whether victimological or not. Are US Jews in this respect different from other American ethnics? Or to put it differently: The corollary would be: Or, perhaps, Auschwitz was just an intensifier of basically unhappy consciousness…. And Frank Sinatra, in a cameo appearance, portrayed the pilot of a small aircraft who hand-dropped homemade bombs on Arab soldiers.

Somehow, Yasser Arafat got invited to tour the museum. Arafat was a Jew killer — a man with real blood on his hands. You might as well have invited Eichmann. When other Jewish organizations found out, there was an uproar and Reich, Sr. There is always a tension in Shoah Business between making the Holocaust the symbol of universal human suffering and having it be something that is specifically Jewish. Sure, it can seem that ghoulish Holocaust commemoration has become the core of Jewish observance nowadays.

Sure, some of those commemorators can be crass. Sure, some Jews have paraded their suffering before the world, insisting it is unique. Sure, much of it is ripe for ridicule, and ridicule can purify. And if you manage to, so what? This last paragraph of the New York Times review is interesting.

Who is he speaking to here? Is it other Jews who will resent being called a race or is it boomers who still believe that Jews are literally Dear fellow white people? Or is it both? To a non-boomer goy it really does confirm the stereotype of Jews being all about muh holocaust. Jews and their unique-in-human-history Holocaust represent the collective persecution and suffering of the human race. He was greedy, stingy, conniving, physically deformed FDR wheelchair for good measure and physically unattractive. He owned practically everything in town and was ever greedy for more.

He looked down at everyone else in town as worthless rabble i. When Clarence allowed George Bailey to see what Bedford Falls would be like without him, Mr Potter owned everything and the town was a den of iniquity. Only boomers could be so blind about Mr. The book is a reverse triple head fake, designed to make dumb goys think that Jews have an ability to see their own foibles. PS Tova sounds like a hoot. She wrote another novel, A Hundred Philistine Foreskins…. David is really an interesting study. Oh by the way, about that convent that used to be on the grounds of Auschwitz, The Forward ran a piece defending their presence, during the controversy drummed up by Odious Avi Weiss.

Not to mention his surname I should think. If he was the Director, he has final decision authority for inviting VIPs, unless you can produce a governing document that says otherwise. He made a very poor decision, one that fundamentally called his leadership into question. Or more accurately, vacillated, then made a poor decision. He should have emphatically rejected the Arafat visit proposal up front on clearly stated principles, and let the critics be damned.

The rest of us are silent unwitting partners as this intra-tribal duel continues to play out. Jack you know this is nonsense. That is a different thing than genocide. Heck we—the US—killed millions of Germans and Japanese during the war. If Arafat was really like Eichmann, then Rabin should not have negoitiated or shook hands with him. There would be no point.

I read a lot of military history, section The commie libarians only buy a couple of books a year and at least one will be about Teh holocaust. If you want to see commies in action, check out the ALA, american Libary association. I seem to recall that the erm climax of the film involves the rape and murder by Arabs of course of the flaxen-haired blue-eyed girl on the left in the still above. So manly and blue-eyed and good with guns and such. Israel first, especially for gorgeous blonde women. She of course died in battle, so they have a statue to her at the kibbutz.

In the movie she is presented as an avatar of the Sixties generation of Bright Young Zionists…. By Nazis of course. At Auschwitz of course. Not, of course, Hollywood. Or the shaving-cream-selling lady who equated men shaving with stripping. The Executive Committee 12 voting members, one non-voting member, the Director has decision-making authority when the Council is not in session, except for certain specific matters listed in the by-laws.

With this additional knowledge and understanding, I revise my earlier remark and conclude that Mr. Reich did indeed advise and act on strong principle, and was thrown under the bus by the ExCom for their own vacillation. I find it quite fitting, with Stalingrad having been kind of a Masada situation. After accepting their fate as hopeless, among the Germans there was much talk about suicide, mercy-killing of the wounded and so on.

In this quote it is admitted:. His wife is notable for a book on scientific fraud: What about the Exodus? I would think that with the number of Orthodox increasing in Israel, this venerable founding myth would also return to prominence. Never as amusing as Jewish self-appointed experts on all things. But there is a way out: Hollywood tended to cast attractive women in movies back then. And, for that matter, neither did most of his men. Think Bonfire of the Vanities but set in Los Angeles, with golf, and an odder, more 21st Century, ethnic mix men with gold chains, etc.

With a volunteer army, everyone fights for the Izzies whether they realize it or not. To be fair, the Potter character was not originally written that way. Lionel Barrymore just happened to have arthritis and a bad hip. Their answer was more Holocaust museums, and possibly mandatory attendence. It has to be about a general feeling of miraculous rebirth from the ashes and the ground. That would seem like a relevant detail. It would also seem that Gypsies should be able to legitimately claim a piece of the contemporary Holocaust victim paradigm —or at least they could if they were better organized.

Being able to easily recall the number of Jewish people killed in the Holocaust has almost become a public expectation. And yet I only have a vague sense of the victim totals for the other groups the Nazis killed. No need to overanalyze things…. Was there wide pop-cultural knowledge of Masada in the forties or was this a comparison made by survivors much later?

Your analysis rings true in terms of how myths work but I am unaware of anyone imprisoned, hounded out of work, physically attacked and threatened with death for impugning the midcentury repopularization of the Masada story. This is sick, this is more mentally ill than me talking about my Abigail Shapiro pillow.


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A fictitious and undefined straw man, that has existed or been attested for about a year, and which is the target of establishment-approved physical violence when identified in public, is discredited by its inability to keep pace with a centennial publishing monopoly? Quite right, Riefenstahl worked as a still photographer and as a documentary filmmaker after WWII she was still working at but was never allowed to make a theatrical release after that. I doubt that she would have brought much to seeing the band itself perform, but the crowd reaction, that is another thing entirely.

Among rock and roll band frontpersons, Mick Jagger is in a class by himself in terms of getting the crowd to pay attention to him. After him there are a couple dozen men and maybe three or four women, but none with his level of command. I have pretty well quit attending concerts, as the money involved has become insane. Things may be different now or in the very recent past. My dealings with MLS holders have convinced me in every single instance, without fail, that they are universally leftist and universally stupid to boot.

I have had dealings with dozens and every one so far has shown herself or himself to be low IQ, low energy, and thoroughly inculcated in a culture that is essentially Cultural Marxist. Most libraries have been purged of any really useful books, therefore, besides basic DIY stuff and even that is getting rarer. These were contemporaneous comments during the siege. Pretty much everything Beevor quotes is contemporaneous: During the housing crash, Ross Douthat wrote that it was basically Baileyism that brought it about:.

If the global economy survives the autumn and our cable-TV companies are still in business come Christmas, Americans surfing the channels for classic Yuletide movies may finally figure out exactly whom they have to blame for the housing bubble and everything that has followed. Forget the predatory lenders, Wall Street sharks and their government enablers: It all started with George Bailey. They are all Polish Jews, and I think they would qualify as famous. Ben-Gurion, Menachen Begin in Polish: Bruno Schulz, Brzechwa, Tuwim, Korczak last 3: You were probably thinking of Freud and Mahler.

Viennese Jews got famous in Vienna as a function of a more welcoming society. Polish Jews generally hid or emigrated and became famous somewhere else. If you had lost your entire family as a child and then grew up to a bunch of useless freaks on the internet telling you that it had never happened, you would also probabaly bequeath what wealth you had created to fund organisations to shut them up.


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Indeed, if, on the other side, your family had actually perpetrated such crimes you might also do the same thing and for the same reasons. Are there or are there not laws regarding Holocaust history?

KIRKUS REVIEW

Are there comparable laws regarding Masada? You made a reasonable prediction about the future public perceptions of historical tragedies. The problem which you have not addressed is that no story is going anywhere if it is guaranteed by government action. This is one of many reasons why government should not certify history or anything else outside its natural mandate. Believing that a government has a natural mandate which it should autistically stick to is not Holocaust denial, it is the necessary foundational ideological creed of anyone who wants to call himself an American.

I stopped worrying over Jack D a while back when he mentioned his dad. I stumbled across him talking about how various victims have not really suffered and should shut up.

Questions?

Deciding to leave a country for your own reasons then declaring yourself a refugee is a tactic that we should be able to see through In The Current Year. Dumpy might be the wrong word, but thick and hirsute is how I remember the chicks out in the courtyard working out with guns or whatever.

Admittedly I last saw this movie in the s, so all I retain is the strong impression that the Jewish kibbutz ladies were no Eva Marie Saints…and I seem to recall that in the Leon Uris novel he went out of his way to describe her character an Aryan goddess nurse from the American Germanic heartland. You can say the same thing about the white women in race mixing propaganda today.

The point is that the Jews were expelled from Western Europe, incl. In the s the percentage of Jews in Germany was only 0. The main reason it was a bit higher in Austria was because during the Partitions Austria stole Galicia from Poland, and the Galician Jews immediately made a beeline for Vienna. The Jews were deluded into thinking that just because Austria was rich, it was also more civilized and therefore more welcoming to the Jews. How did that work out? You never heard of the Holocaust? Death played no favorites.

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So much for highly civilized Germans. The Jews living in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealh could have learned a lot from the Slavs whose territory they inhabited. They would have learned that you cannot trust the Germanics, that the Germanics are violent war-like people. Even the Romans noticed that. But the Jews were too narcissistic to learn from the Slavs, and paid a severe price.

And now Western Europe is returning to its usual violent antisemitism, and the Jews are too blind to notice. You obviously never lived in Central Europe and lack first-hand experience of the region. Young people find it hard to believe, but in the s and s, intelligent Noticing people openly talked things over from the heart and gut. Especially points or whole terrains of disagreement.

My Holocaust: A Novel

This movie struck a chord with most Jews I knew out east and in the Midwest, so it was an interesting conversational lightning rod. Out of practice now with the script, though still do OK with passages of transliterated Yiddish, it being so heavily Germanic. When I studied it formally, reading Forverts was my specific goal.

I never had an ear for it however. Which is true for me in most languages, even my native English. In your first paragraph you moved backwards and forwards across completely different circumstances and time periods often enough that I stopped reading. The original point was that there was a different attitude towards Jewish accomplishment in different parts of Eastern Europe, which partly explains different levels of achievement.

I saw that scene, though probably not the whole movie, on TV as a kid. I remember also the scene where Wayne threatens Douglas with court martial for insubordination when they liberated the camps and Douglas very emotionally demanded that they devote all their energies to the prisoners. Poland continued to exist after the partition. Its government no longer existed. Being Polish and Irish, I can relate to that. The Catholicism of the Hapsburgs restrained their less than civilized impulses.

Still the Hapsburg empire was unstable because it crushed the national aspirations of their many minorities, and finally collapsed under its own weight, just like the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth collapsed partly for the same reasons a century and a half earlier.

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Both entities had too many minorities. And now we see the same thing happening in the U. They were expelled centuries ago, and never welcomed again, except in tiny numbers, as in the Netherlands. Think how welcoming America would be if it had 32 million Jews, like Poland did percentagewise only a few decades ago. You can sell anything. If something is made sacred, even fraud in its name is deemed a kind of noble lie. The Catholic Church understood this. They knew some of them were downright faked, like tears flowing eye of Madonna statue.

But the Church tolerated those frauds because they were seen as energizing the faithful.