Repentance for the Holocaust: Lessons from Jewish Thought for Confronting the German Past

C. K. Martin Chung

ISBN 10: 1501707620 / ISBN 13: 9781501707629

Published by Cornell University Press, 2017

About this Item

New copy - Usually dispatched within 4 working days.

Seller Inventory # B9781501707629

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Repentance for the Holocaust: Lessons from Jewish Thought for Confronting the German Past
• Publisher: Cornell University Press
• Publication Date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1501707620
• ISBN 13: 9781501707629
• Binding: Paperback / softback
• Condition: New
• Weight: 621 grams

About this title

Synopsis

In Repentance for the Holocaust, C. K. Martin Chung develops the biblical idea of "turning" (tshuvah) into a conceptual framework to analyze a particular area of contemporary German history, commonly referred to as Vergangenheitsbewältigung or "coming to terms with the past." Chung examines a selection of German responses to the Nazi past, their interaction with the victims' responses, such as those from Jewish individuals, and their correspondence with biblical repentance. In demonstrating the victims' influence on German responses, Chung asserts that the phenomenon of Vergangenheitsbewältigung can best be understood in a relational, rather than a national, paradigm.

By establishing the conformity between those responses to past atrocities and the idea of "turning," Chung argues that the religious texts from the Old Testament encapsulating this idea (especially the Psalms of Repentance) are viable intellectual resources for dialogues among victims, perpetrators, bystanders, and their descendants in the discussion of guilt and responsibility, justice and reparation, remembrance and reconciliation. It is a great irony that after Nazi Germany sought to eliminate each and every single Jew within its reach, postwar Germans have depended on the Jewish device of repentance as a feasible way out of their unparalleled national catastrophe and unprecedented spiritual ruin.

About the Author

C. K. Martin Chung is Assistant Professor in the Department of Government and International Studies at Hong Kong Baptist University.