Trajectories of Memory ― Intergenerational Representations of the Holocaust in History and the Arts

Therapists have written about the continuing traumatic effect of the Holocaust on survivors' offspring. In this valuable contribution, whose title's "trajectories" references the nonlinear nature of memories and their representations, Guenther (German) and Griech-Polelle (modern European history), professors at Bowling Green State University, introduce 20 essays focusing on this legacy and this generation's obligation as "co-witnesses" to history in factual and artistic media. Interdisciplinary scholars treat the role of the "vicarious past" in constructing personal and national identities including collective amnesia, e.g., in Holocaust testimonies, Art Spiegelman's Maus parable, and the creation of Israel. This valuable contribution derives from a namesake conference at the editors' campus in 2006, at which keynote speakers reflected on the intersection between scholarly research and personal histories. Annotation c2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Christina Guenther is Associate Professor of German at Bowling Green State University. Her teaching and research focus on German and Austrian culture, Jewish identity, and the Holocaust. She has published essays in Comparative Literature Studies, Unterrichtspraxis and Modern Austrian Literature, and her work has also appeared in anthologies, including Visions and Visionaries in Contemporary Austrian Literature and Film. Currently a fellow at the Institute for the Study of Culture and Society at Bowling Green State University, she is at work on a book-length project exploring the life and work of Jewish Austrian writers Doron Rabinovici, Ruth Beckermann, Robert Schindel, and Anna Mitgutsch. E-mail: cguenth@bgsu.edu Beth A. Griech-Polelle is Associate Professor of Modern European History at Bowling Green State University. Her teaching and research focus on the Nazi era, including a specific focus on the Catholic Church in Nazi Germany. Her first book is Bishop von Galen: German Catholicism and National Socialism (Yale University Press, 2002). Her essays have appeared in works such as In God's Name: Genocide and Religion in the Twentieth Century, edited by Omer Bartov and Phyllis Mack; Antisemitism, Christian Ambivalence, and the Holocaust, edited by Kevin P. Spicer; and Glaube-Freiheit-Diktatur in Europa und den U.S.A., edited by Katarzyna Stoklosa and Andrea Str?bind. She is currently working on another book project exploring the impact of the Spanish Civil War (1936- 1939) on Roman Catholic clergy in Nazi Germany. E-mail: bgriech@bgnet.bgsu.edu