Embattled Selves: An Investigation into the Nature of Identity Through Oral Histories of Holocaust Survivors

Jacobson, Kenneth

ISBN 10: 087113571X / ISBN 13: 9780871135711

Published by Atlantic Monthly Pr, 1994

About this Item

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Bibliographic Details

Title: Embattled Selves: An Investigation into the ...

Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Pr

Publication Date: 1994

Binding: hardcover

Condition: Very Good

About this title

Synopsis:

Twenty-four survivors of the Holocaust discuss how they embraced, concealed, rejected, or otherwise dealt with their Jewishness under the Nazis, and explore the implications of their decisions for the nature of human identity. 15,000 first printing. National ad/promo.

From the Author:

Universal Questions of Identity are the Focus
My intention in writing Embattled Selves was to focus far more on universal issues of identity than on the specific experience of European Jews between 1933 and 1945. I was interested in showing the way individuals' lives are shaped by several fundamental and compelling questions: What is essential to who one is and what is not? How much does being a member of a group make one who one is as an individual? How much can one change and still remain the same person? What is the price of change? What price will one pay not to change?

To me, the book's 15 life histories are flesh-and-blood allegories: The narrators illustrate, in recounting their thoughts, feelings, and choices, how each of their lives is an attempt to come to grips with these vital questions--during a historical period in which the questions themselves could be a matter of life and death. I have limited my own observations to a handful of brief, interpretive passages meant mainly to suggest how the stories connect with the identity theme; it was most important to me to present the narratives in a way that would not interfere with readers' forming their own intellectual and emotional relationships to those who speak.