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Auschwitz and After. By CHARLOTTE DEr.so, trans. Rosette C. Lamont. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995.
Bridge of Sorrow, Bridge of Hope. By RIVA CHIRURG, trans. Arlene and Jerry Aviram, ed. Rebecca Camhi Fromer. Berkeley: Judah L. Magnes Museum, 1994. The Dentist of Auschwitz By BENJAMIN JACOBS. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1995.
The Smell of Humans. By ERNO SZEP, trans.John Bakti. New York: Central European University Press, 1994.
Varieties of Fear: Growing Up Jewish under Nazism and Communism. By PETER KENEz. Washington, DC: American University Press, 1995.
LAWRENCE LANGER ONCE SUGGESTED THAT "ONE OF THE MANY TASKS OF HOLOCAUST criticism is to clarify the complex bond, in the minds of both author and audience, linking the oppression of history to the impressions of art."' Langer was discussing fictional works about the Holocaust, but with very little change similar points can be made about Holocaust autobiography: first, that we can and should distinguish between the "objective" truths of an historical account, and the "subjective" truths of a personal one; and second, that the linkage between historical information and personal narratives is a complex relationship in the minds of both writers and readers. These are problems, of course, for all autobiographical literature. But they raise particularly sensitive issues for Holocaust autobiographies, considering the enormity of the events discussed, the necessarily limited experience any one person could have of the total scope of those events, the impressionistic and therefore conventionally unreliable nature of such limited experience (especially when recalled over time and re-created in words), and finally the willingness of some to use such unavoidable limitations on autobiography in an effort to discredit and deny the very events that have been witnessed. One approach to Holocaust autobiographies, then, begins with a discussion of the author's use or avoidance of historical information to supplement personal knowledge. This distinction can be made most clearly between autobiographies that strive to communicate an accurate re-creation of an individual experience in historical terms, and those that attempt to recover the emotions and impressions of that experience as selfvalidating in themselves. "Recovered" autobiographies are often more literate in tone and content, while those stressing the accuracy of re-creation rely more on the external details of their story. Further, this distinction between "recovered" and...