Landscapes of the Metropolis of Death
Reflections on Memory and Imagination
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
Otto Dov Kulka's memoir of a childhood spent in Auschwitz is a literary feat of astounding emotional power, exploring the permanent and indelible marks left by the Holocaust
Winner of the JEWISH QUARTERLY-WINGATE PRIZE 2014
As a child, the distinguished historian Otto Dov Kulka was sent first to the ghetto of Theresienstadt and then to Auschwitz. As one of the few survivors he has spent much of his life studying Nazism and the Holocaust, but always as a discipline requiring the greatest coldness and objectivity, with his personal story set to one side. But he has remained haunted by specific memories and images, thoughts he has been unable to shake off.
Translated by Ralph Mandel.
'The greatest book on Auschwitz since Primo Levi ... Kulka has achieved the impossible' - the panel of Judges, Jewish Quarterly-Wingate Prize
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Personal accounts of the Holocaust face the difficult task of bringing fresh perspective to one of the most well-documented events in modern history. Jewish History professor Kulka delivers his own tale with a refreshing mix of immediacy, imagery, and adroit historicism, a combination which masterfully depicts the mental gymnastics he's gone through to understand this seminal time in his past. Kulka draws from his own journal entries and audio monologues in describing his time at family camps inside Theresienstadt and Auschwitz, places he considers part of the Metropolis of Death. Having spent his professional career on Naziism and Holocaust studies, Kulka wrestles with the elusive nature of perception and recollection, questioning why his memories vary so drastically from others who experienced this landscape firsthand. These reflections, while a testament to the strength of the human spirit, seem intended for the author alone an intellectual record of his journey toward personal reconciliation. Despite surviving, he is still trapped in the past, held there by the "immutable law" of beauty and death.
