<html xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"> <head> <meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <meta name=ProgId content=Word.Document> <meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 9"> <meta name=Originator content="Microsoft Word 9"> <link rel=File-List href="cid:filelist.xml@01C2AAE1.01DF2540">  <style>  </style> </head> <body lang=EN-US style='tab-interval:.5in'> <div class=Section1> <![if !supportEmptyParas]> <![endif]><o:p></o:p> “ It was probably Night that Chris read, which is a decent enough book of its type, pitched, probably deliberately, at the level of a smart middle school reader. I agree with Chris, although it's fairly churlish to pick on this sort of literature, that it' not at the level of (say) Primo Levi's memoirs.  “<o:p></o:p> <![if !supportEmptyParas]> <![endif]><o:p></o:p> <![if !supportEmptyParas]> <![endif]><o:p></o:p> I think you’re right that it was Night. Actually, I’ve read two other really good accounts of Nazi concentration camp experience, besides Primo Levi’s very impressive books. They are:<o:p></o:p> <![if !supportEmptyParas]> <![endif]><o:p></o:p> Anna Pawelczynska: Values and Violence in Auschwitz: A Sociological Analysis,<o:p></o:p> <![if !supportEmptyParas]> <![endif]><o:p></o:p> and,<o:p></o:p> <![if !supportEmptyParas]> <![endif]><o:p></o:p> Benedikt Kautsky: Teufel und Verdammte: Erfahrungen und Erkenntnisse aus Sieben Jahren in deutschen Konzentrationslagern.<o:p></o:p> <![if !supportEmptyParas]> <![endif]><o:p></o:p> Anna P is, or was a Polish sociologist, and Auschwitz survivor. It’s quite a good book. Kautsky was the son of the famous Austrian social-democratic leader, Karl K., whom Lenin called “the renegade.” I had never heard of Benedikt, and when I happened on the book, which is superb, in a used furniture store here in the Bronx, I e-mailed the Karl-Renner Institut in Vienna, the Austrian SD think tank. They explained who he was. He seems to have been uncommonly astute and a clear observer. He avoids nasty sectarian squabbling with the Communists, for example. He lived until 1960, and was a leader of various social-democratic institutions, and an academic.<o:p></o:p> <![if !supportEmptyParas]> <![endif]><o:p></o:p> Recently, at Michael Pugliese’s suggestion, I read a contemporary analysis of the inner functioning of Nazi concentration camps –<o:p></o:p> <![if !supportEmptyParas]> <![endif]><o:p></o:p> Wolfgang Sofsky: Die Ordnung des Terrors: Das Konzentrationslager.<o:p></o:p> <![if !supportEmptyParas]> <![endif]><o:p></o:p> Sofsky was born only in 1951, but he is a sound and empathic analyst, who seems to have read every description of concentration camp existence. He draws on Kautsky a fair amount, and on many other books available only in German and French. I think the book has been translated. He seems to be a theoretical follower of Bourdieu.<o:p></o:p> <![if !supportEmptyParas]> <![endif]><o:p></o:p> <![if !supportEmptyParas]> <![endif]><o:p></o:p> Christopher Rhoades D�kema<o:p></o:p> <![if !supportEmptyParas]> <![endif]><o:p></o:p> </div> </body> </html>