Through a Glass Darkly
Robert Wistrich’s huge book contends that the world is suffering from an anti-Semitic contagion that poses a lethal threat to the Jewish people and, indeed, to the entire globe. No one can accuse him of pulling his punches. “Hitlerism,” he says on the first page, “did not really die in April 1945 nor, unfortunately, was Auschwitz truly ‘liberated.’” In Wistrich’s view, “Hitlerism” is not only alive, but “Auschwitz” is continuing. What exists now is not only widespread anti-Semitism, but “a new warrant for genocide.” In every country to which he devotes attention, hatred of the Jews “seems as chillingly relevant today as it was six decades ago.”
To read the rest of this review, and to read all of the magazine's first-rate content, subscribe to Moment's print or digital edition.
Michael R. Marrus is Chancellor Rose and Ray Wolfe Professor Emeritus of Holocaust Studies at the University of Toronto and the author of The Holocaust in History. His most recent book is Some Measure of Justice: The Holocaust Era Restitution Campaign of the 1990s.
|
