Reluctant Witnesses

Arlene Stein traces the history and transformation of Holocaust consciousness from the postwar period to the present, deftly interweaving oral history, interviews, and autobiography. Reluctant Witnesses is a compelling portrayal of the paradoxes, complexities, and politics of Holocaust memory.... an important, necessary contribution. * Marita Sturken, author of Tourists of History: Memory, Kitsch, and Consumerism from Oklahoma City to Ground Zero *
Today, growing numbers of Americans are both obsessed with-and fatigued by-efforts to remember the Holocaust. After years of relative silence, how did we get here? In this perceptive and profoundly moving account, Reluctant Witnesses shows how feminist and therapeutic ideas changed our culture, opening up new spaces for victims of world-shattering events to speak for themselves. * Phil Zuckerman, author of Living the Secular Life and Faith No More *
Reluctant Witnesses is an important addition to our understanding of what happens subsequently to victims of trauma and genocide. Though Stein's focus is on the Holocaust, her insightful and sensitive work speaks to a wide audience. s Deborah E. Lipstadt, Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish History and Holocaust Studies, Emory University
Reluctant Witnesses shows how stories of trauma shape personal identities, families across generations, and political consciousness. No other study so clearly demonstrates how narratives are shaped as much by the historical moments in which they are told as by the history they tell. * Arthur W. Frank, author of The Wounded Storyteller and Letting Stories Breathe *
...a complex sociological and psychological exploration of what it is to be a descendant of a survivor in the 21st century. This book is a result of decades of research and interviews with children of survivors. Academics as well as those with a personal interest in the history and sociology of the second and third generation of Holocaust survivors will find value in this research. * Library Journal *
This beautiful book mixes elegy and exegesis to uncover the labors of a generation of Jewish Americans who have made meaning from and given meaning to the horrors of the Holocaust. Stein writes so well and fluidly that her rich sociological analysis reads more like an intimate family history. Highly recommended. * Public Books *
Reluctant Witnesses is a comprehensive monograph that brings together the experiences of Holocaust survivors and their descendants in a readable, insightful, and well-researched study. * Janet Jacobs, Symbolic Interaction *
Beautifully and clearly written, Reluctant Witness presents the challenges and complexities of Holocaust remembrance through interpretive history, interviews with survivors, and the author's own stories of her life as a child of survivors. The brilliance of this book is how it painstakingly traces the distinct time periods in which attitudes shifted. Anyone interested in this topic should read this incisive and wise analysis in this outstanding volume. * New Jersey Jewish News *
this is a very important book, as it emphasizes the memories of survivors and their children who are fighting to establish their identities against denial politics, sometimes for their personal goals, but most of the time to share an awareness in order to sensitize others to their existence. * Maja Slijepcevic, Cultural Sociology *
Reluctant Witnesses highly informative, written in accessible fashion, and evokes an interest in an irresistible way. * Joanna Rak, Qualitative Sociology *