Testimonies of Resistance: Representations of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Sonderkommando

The Sonderkommando—the “special squad” of enslaved Jewish laborers who were forced to work in the gas chambers and crematoria of Auschwitz-Birkenau—comprise one of the most fascinating and troubling topics within Holocaust history. As eyewitnesses to and unwilling abettors of the murder of their fellow Jews, they are the object of fierce condemnation even today. Yet it was a group of these seemingly compromised men who carried out the revolt of October 7, 1944, one of the most celebrated acts of Holocaust resistance. This interdisciplinary collection assembles careful investigations into how the Sonderkommando have been represented—by themselves and by others—both during and after the Holocaust.

Table of Contents:
List of Figures and Tables Foreword Anne Karpf Acknowledgements Note on Transliteration Introduction: Testimonies of Resistance Nicholas Chare and Dominic Williams Part I: Historical and Ethical Questions of Representation Chapter 1. Knowing Cruelty: The Negation of Death and Burial in SS Violence Griselda Pollock Chapter 2. What Makes the Grey Zone Grey? Blurring Factual and Ethical Judgements of the Sonderkommando Dominic Williams Part II: Witnessing from the Heart of Hell Chapter 3. Farewell Letter from the Crematorium: On the Authorship of the First Recorded ‘Sonderkommando-Manuscript’ and the Discovery of the Original Letter Andreas Kilian Chapter 4. To Read the Illegible: Techniques of Multispectral Imaging and the Manuscripts of the Jewish Sonderkommando of Auschwitz-Birkenau Pavel Polian and Aleksandr Nikityaev Chapter 5. ‘Like a True Greek’: The Last Will and Testimony of Marcel Natzari K.E. Fleming Chapter 6. Disinterred Words: The Letters of Herman Strasfogel and Marcel Nadjary Nicholas Chare, Ersy Contogouris and Dominic Williams Chapter 7. The Letter of Herman Strasfogel Translated by Ersy Contogouris Chapter 8. The Letter of Marcel Nadjary Translated by Ersy Contogouris Chapter 9. The Religious Life of Sonderkommando Members inside the Killing Installations in Auschwitz-Birkenau Gideon Greif Part III: Retrospective Representations Chapter 10. Doubly Cursed: The Sonderkommando in the Documents of the International Tracing Service Dan Stone Chapter 11. Enduring Witness: David Olère’s Visual Testimony Carol Zemel Chapter 12. The Sonderkommando and the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Museum Dominic Williams and Isabel Wollaston Chapter 13. Early and Late Testimonies of the Sonderkommando Survivors Gideon Greif Chapter 14. From Special Operations Executive to Sonderkommando: Sebastian Faulks and the Anxiety of Invention Sue Vice Chapter 15. Out of the Plan, Out of the Plane 2: Stripping, Fourth Letter to Gerhard Richter Georges Didi-Huberman Chapter 16. Greeks in the Birkenau Sonderkommando: Representation and Reality Steven Bowman Part IV: Cinema and the Sonderkommando Chapter 17. ‘We Did Something’: Framing Resistance in Cinematic Depictions of the Sonderkommando Barry Langford Chapter 18. ‘We Can’t Know What We’re Capable Of ’: Approaching the ‘Grey Zone’ in Holocaust Film Adam Brown Chapter 19. The Sonderkommando on Screen Philippe Mesnard Afterword: Tracing Topographies of Memory and Mourning Victor Jeleniewski Seidler Index