This book provides a sophisticated investigation into the experience of being exterminated, as felt by victims of the Holocaust, and compares and contrasts this analysis with the experiences of people who have been colonized or enslaved. Using numerous victim accounts and a wide range of primary sources, the book moves away from the 'continuity thesis', with its insistence on colonial intent as the reason for victimization in relation to other historical examples of mass political violence, to look at the victim experience on its own terms. By affording each constituent case study its own distinctive aspects, The Victims of Slavery, Colonization and the Holocaust allows for a more enriching comparison of victim experience to be made that respects each group of victims in their uniqueness. It is an important, innovative volume for all students of the Holocaust, genocide and the history of mass political violence.
Kitty Millet is Professor of Holocaust Studies and Comparative Jewish Literatures at San Francisco State University, USA.
List of IllustrationsAcknowledgementsList of AbbreviationsIntroduction: Comparative Histories of PersecutionPart I: Slavery1. A World of Slaves2. The Formula and 'the Being of Slavery'Part II: Colonialism3. A World of Colonies and the Evolving Colonial Consciousness4. The Empirical Colony in German Southwest Africa and a Formula of Colonization5. From a Formula for Colonization to a Formula of Extermination and Victims' 'Shared Sense'Part III: The Holocaust6. An Aryan World and the 'Worldlessness' of Jews7. 'Being' Exterminated and the Formulas of ExterminationConclusion: Observations on the Future Store, the Future Map and the FutureNotesBibliographyName IndexSubject Index
[An] ambitious and complex book … Significant for graduate collections. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Graduate students, faculty.
Petru Negura, Andrei Cusco, Svetlana Suveica, Germany) Negura, Dr Petru (Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies, Romania) Cusco, Dr Andrei (Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, Germany) Suveica, Dr Svetlana (University of Gottingen, Paul Jackson