184

CONTEMPORARY

THE HOLOCAUST

JEWRY

AS A SOCIOLOGICAL

CONSTRUCT

Jack Nusan Porter

Spencer Group Perpe~ators,

l~ct~,ns, By~anders b y R A U L H I I . B E R G . N e w Y o r k : H a r p e r Co|ling, A a r o n A ~ e r l k ~ k s , 1992, 340 pp. $25 (Cloth) $35 Canada. Modernity and the Holocaust b y Z Y G M U N T B A U M A N . Ithaca, N Y : Cornell University Press, 1992, 238 pp. $15.95 (Paper). The Seventh Million: The Ixrael~ ~ the Holoeaub'~ b y T O M S E G E V , translated b y H a i m War-ruraL N e w York: Hill & W a n g , 1993, 593 pp. $27.50 (cloth). Professions o f a Luo~y Jew by B E N N O W E I S E R V A R O N . N e w York: Cornwall l ~ o k s , 1992, 431 pp. $24.50 (cloth). The rusk is mwortant not b e m u s e of any ... r e n e w ~ triumph of fascism in lhe fore$~w.ahle futgo'e, but in the hope of strengthening the awareness that democratic, humanitarian values are not an ine~ahle, or necessarily lasting property of m o d e m i ~

society, bus that they must constantly and r o , ~ t e d l y be fought f o r and d e f e n d ~ n g a i ~ all inroads -some quite new inform -- o f modern authoritarianism (Kershaw 1989: 191). S o c i o l o g y has had the greatest difficulty handling unique events such a s H i m s h i m a , the Vie,m a r e Wmr, o r the Holocaust. These it has sadly leftto the historians. Other than a few brave souls such as Irving L o u i s H o m w i t z , Helen F e i n . T h e o d o r e Abel, and Vahakn D a d r i a n , s o c i o l o g y has abandoned the Holocaust to others; yet it does n o t mean that the~e "others" have abandoned their "sociology." T h e theologian R i c h a r d R u b e ~ e i n (1978) in his The Cunning o f History applies a Weberian ~ m the Holocaust, and Rubenstein, best k n o w n for his "death o f Ood" theology, is not a sociologist, but a rabbi! W h y has he found sociology, W e b e r i a n sociology, with its focus on m o d e m / t y , bureancracy and authority, so laden with riches and w e sociologists have not?. Raul H i l b e r g , a professor o f Imliti~d s c i ~ c e and the preeminent h i s t m ~ a o f the Holocaust f r o m the G e r m a n point-of-view - D a w i d o w i c z w o u l d b e his munterpm~ f r o m the Jewish perspecfive) -- is we.H-known for his (Hilberg 1983) m o n ~ t a l The ~ c tion of the F.urope,.an Jews, Iocognized as the definitive w o r k on the subject. It trees 9 Weberism

~ o r k

emphasizing the role af

bureaucratic rules, roles, and regulations in the systematic ~ a t i o n o f n e a r l y every Jew in Europe. A n d H/Iberg is n o sociologist. F i n a l l y a sociologist, and not surprisingly 9 n c ~ - A m e r i c a n -7 q , ~ . , . , , gauman. Professor Emeritus o f S o e i o l o t n / a t the University

REVIEW ESSAY

185

Holocaust. Bauman h o w e v e r goes beyond bureaucracy to a study o f the very n a m ~ o f modernity. H e writes: H i lb e r g is a historian. Rubenstein is a theologian. I have keenly searched the works o f sociologists for s t a t e m ~ t s expressing similar awareaess o f the ttrgeacy o f the task posited by the Holocaust; for evidence that the Holocaust p r e s e t s , among other things, 9 challenge to sociology as 9 profession and It body o f academic knowledge. Whe~ against the w o r k done by historians or theologians, the bulk o f -_co_d_emic sociology looks more like a collective exercise m forgetting and eye-closing. By and large, the leesons o f the Holocaust have left little trace on sociological c o m m o n sense ... I do not k n o w o f many occasions on which sociologists, qua sociologists, confsouted publicly the evidence o f the H o l o -

e a n ~ (pp. 9-1o). B a m m m continues with a short description o f one suzh occasion: 8 s y m p o s i u m on "Western Society A f t er the Holocaust" c o n v e n e d in 1978 by the Institute for the Study o f Contemporary Social P r o b le m s , and the debate there b e t w e s a Rubenstein and the e m l n , ~ t W e b e x i ~ scholar and sociologist Guenther Roth (see: Legters 1983). W e desperately need another symposium on j u s t such a subject. Bauman explores s o c i o l o g y ' s attitude toward the H o l o cJ-b't and explains it o n several levels. I f at all discussed in sociological texts, the H o lo c a u s t is at best offered as a sad cxampl 9 o f "nntamed innnt~ human

aggressiveness'; or as "privatization," the ~ ,

particolaristic

experieace of the Jews, a wmtter simply between Jews and their anti-Semites; or as 9 defense of Israel or as a rationalization for Zion/st

persecuticm o f Palestinians. Such discussion is especially w o r r y i n g to Bmunan, as it should be to all sociologists, since i f the Holocaust can l m p p ~ on such 9 massive scale elsewhere, it can happen anywhere. It ig within the ~ o f human possibility. It is human, not inhuman. It is social; n o t asocial. It is 9 laboratory study in a n o n - ~ r y setting. It is a rare yet significant and reliable test o f the hidden p o u i b / l i t i e s o f m o d e m society. T o m Segev, in The Seventh Million, has writUm 9 c.ont~oversial b o o k on the impact o f the Holocaust on Israeli society, f r o m the first w a v e o f s u r v i v o r s in the 1947-1949 through B e n - G u r i o n ' s use o f the ]~ichmmm Trial to "educate" the ~ on to the distorted and confusing messages o f the D e m j a n j u k trial. Is the Holocaust ~ m p i y 9 rationale f o r 9 healthy state o f Israel; 9 refuge f o r J e w s facing genocide anywhere? Is the Holocaust justification for the "Masada C o m p l e x ? " W i l l Israelis g o dw,vn dying o r c o m m i t sui0ide to d e f c ~ l E r e r l Y't~roe/? O r is there 9 new, m o r e mature approach forming? One a little less "sabra," less macho, one c o n f i n e d with the d_,~er spiritual and sociological im~licstions o f the Holocaust? SOIDething on this order is ~ l i v ~mnn,~ra~no ,9n l m J ! .z it ~.~--r -"9 - L , ~, -~':~ . . . . . .

186

CONTEMPORARY JEWRY

Bemno Weiser Varon confronts some o f these demons with grace and wit. Varon is a raconteur extraordinare, peripatetic ambassador at large for Israel, ardent Zionist, Boston University professor o n fin-de-sibcle Vienna, a Mittle-European intellectual. His kind will not pass o n this earth again. V a r o n ' s P~ofessions ofa L u ~ J e w should be read in the context o f the Segev book with the Holocaust as background, and it is a j o y to read. Varon has seemingly been everywhere, met everyone, said all that there had to be mid, and he, at over 80, is

b'flU writing reviews of plays and movies, a kind of modem-day Herzl-like m a s t ~ o f the b o n - m o t nnd the feuilleton. He h ~ survived a~a&sination attempts b y Palestinian terrorists, coups m South America," and m o r e , all "in the service o f the Jewish people." Biographies are difficult to write well, but Varon writes very well. Students will love this book. Finally, I come hack to H i l b e r g ' s Perpetrators, Victims, Bystanders. This book is the capstone o f his professional life. Even the title has influeaced the Holocaust M u s e u m in Washington, D C with its neat divisions o f victims, bystanders, and perpetrators. Yet, I am unhappy with the title. A mq~rate category is needed for the righteous C,emi/r who saved Jewish fives. They were neither victims n o r bystanders, but took the same risks as Jews. A special category is also needed for the refistors: the partimms, ghetto fighters, organizers o f death camp revolts, and soldiers i n the Red A r m y . This is an old ~ t againAt H i i b e r g ' s work. He and H a n n a h A r m ~ t were both taken to task in the wake o f the E i c h n m n n 9 Trial when they and Bruno Bettelheim talked o f Jews who walked like "sheep to slaughter." This time, however, Hiiberg (p. 202, footnoted o n p. 312) does, for example, meationJewish Partisaus (Porter 1982), but again he places this discussion under the section o f "bystanders." R u i m a n e e wag more than simply "by-standing." Yet, sociologists will like this book for two reasons: 1) the style: It is writum like the film 5hoah b y Claude I.anznmnn, in a dry, almost laconic style, n e v e r emotional, always tmflinehingly calm and clear;, and 2) the approach or methodology: These are "case studies" that sociologists can relate to: the "establishment," functionaries, zealots, physicians, lawyers, refugees, the unadjusted, the survivors. T o a sociologist, the Imges resonate with the ezhoes o f C. Wright Mills, Hm2s Gerth, Karl Mannheim, I ~ n l s Wirth, gird George Simmel, but it is chilling to plaze these sociological classics in the context o f the Holocaust and yet they fit like a seamless glove. These sociologists anticipated, experienced, or reacted to the Holocaust, but were unaware o f its influenoe, and yet only n o w do w e see how much o f the fabric o f sociology is based o n the tremendum o f the Holocaust. But n o one ever told us until now.

References H ~ l b c ~ , Rs~l. 1983. The Destruclion of the ~

Jews. 3

REVIEW ESSAY

187

Kerslutw, Ian. 1989. The Nazi Dictactorship. London: Edward Arnold. Legters, Lymm (ed.). 1983. Western Society After the Holocaust. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Porter, Jack Nusan (ed.). 1982. Jewish Partisans: d Documentary of Jewish Resistance in the Soviet Union During W o r m War H. 2 volumes. Iamham, MD: University Press of America. Rubemtein, Richard. 1978. The Cunning of History. New York:

nm .