What do you think?
Rate this book
Blessed is the Flame: An Introduction to Concentration Camp Resistance and Anarcho-Nihilism
This book, with a name from a poem by a partisan fighter, takes two things that would not necessarily seem to go together, but that, on second thought, are made for each other.
An introduction to anarcho-nihilism becomes tales of resistance in the Nazi concentration camps, almost all of which failed (in the sense that the resisters died), and for which there was never much hope that they could do anything but fail, which are then analyzed in light of anarcho-nihilism.
This book is an excellent example of taking anarcho-nihilism seriously, as a call to action that has nothing to do with the expectation that we will succeed at making the world better.
For those who are confused about anarcho-nihilism, and also for those who use the word nihilism as a trendy way to talk about the same actions that leftists have been doing for decades, this text will be an especially helpful road sign.
"What does it take to resist in absolutely futile and overwhelming situations?
Inside of the Nazi concentration camps, places designed to eradicate all possibilities for resistance, inmates organized, sabotaged, and reflexively fought back against their oppressors. Within each of these stories we can find a simmering spirit of anarcho-nihilism, a tendency that challenges us to translate our feelings of hopelessness into wild and joyous forms of attack.
Because even if we don't stand a chance, we refuse to be led to the slaughter like sheep."
An introduction to anarcho-nihilism becomes tales of resistance in the Nazi concentration camps, almost all of which failed (in the sense that the resisters died), and for which there was never much hope that they could do anything but fail, which are then analyzed in light of anarcho-nihilism.
This book is an excellent example of taking anarcho-nihilism seriously, as a call to action that has nothing to do with the expectation that we will succeed at making the world better.
For those who are confused about anarcho-nihilism, and also for those who use the word nihilism as a trendy way to talk about the same actions that leftists have been doing for decades, this text will be an especially helpful road sign.
"What does it take to resist in absolutely futile and overwhelming situations?
Inside of the Nazi concentration camps, places designed to eradicate all possibilities for resistance, inmates organized, sabotaged, and reflexively fought back against their oppressors. Within each of these stories we can find a simmering spirit of anarcho-nihilism, a tendency that challenges us to translate our feelings of hopelessness into wild and joyous forms of attack.
Because even if we don't stand a chance, we refuse to be led to the slaughter like sheep."
140 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2016
29 people are currently reading
1332 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 61 reviews
Want to read
April 7, 2022It's easy to get lost in the spectacular stories of man's cruelty to fellow man, that has certainly been my interest ever since I read my first Holocaust biography. As a child we learned about Anne Frank, visiting the house where she hid away with her family until they were captured and sent to Bergen-Belsen. Of course behind the tragedy of their deaths were also the tragedies of romance and passion with certain death looming in the background. How a simple kiss or tender touch feels in those moments cannot be described unless someone has lived through it. There are innumerable stories similar to Ann Franks' who like Rosa Parks became a symbol of the civil rights movement, became emblematic of the horror's of Fascism and a call to never forget. Of course, definitions of Fascism have changed, now shrouded in the ambiguous language of Nationalism. Which makes Blessed Is the Flame one of the most relevant books I have read recently.
Now, my nihilism is much more bleak than Serafinki's. I see nothing wrong with hopelessness, in face I believe if anything it leads people to take courageous action, as nothing could possibly be worse than the reality of the moment. You have already had every dignity taken away from you, what else is there to do but destroy this monster? What Blessed does is ask important questions about what lessons to take from the Holocaust, which was not an aberration as some think, but the end result of a technological and rational society that turned humans into numbers, slaves and ultimately corpses. IBM and other companies facilitated the immense amount of record keeping. The horrors of bureaucracy were parallel to those of the gas chambers. They facilitated each other. Even if I see nihilism a little differently, Blessed is a unique book, as far as I know there is no other analysis of the immense amount of resistance to the Nazis from an anarcho-nihilist position. It is a call to challenge morality, as people in the death camps had to do. I'm interested in this book for that alone.
One part that particularly resonated with me was their take on identity politics. Food for thought in our times:
Now, my nihilism is much more bleak than Serafinki's. I see nothing wrong with hopelessness, in face I believe if anything it leads people to take courageous action, as nothing could possibly be worse than the reality of the moment. You have already had every dignity taken away from you, what else is there to do but destroy this monster? What Blessed does is ask important questions about what lessons to take from the Holocaust, which was not an aberration as some think, but the end result of a technological and rational society that turned humans into numbers, slaves and ultimately corpses. IBM and other companies facilitated the immense amount of record keeping. The horrors of bureaucracy were parallel to those of the gas chambers. They facilitated each other. Even if I see nihilism a little differently, Blessed is a unique book, as far as I know there is no other analysis of the immense amount of resistance to the Nazis from an anarcho-nihilist position. It is a call to challenge morality, as people in the death camps had to do. I'm interested in this book for that alone.
One part that particularly resonated with me was their take on identity politics. Food for thought in our times:
Rather than dwell on the question of passivity during the holocaust, I am inclined to celebrate the fact that any resistance happened at all! Alongside the deeply misanthropic and depressing insights we might gleam from the camps, there is also a great deal for us to cherish. For all of us who have witnessed our own resistance networks stifled by state surveillance, interpersonal conflict, hopelessness, and the material strain of keeping food on the table, the Lagers provide proof that even in the most overwhelming situations people can find creative and sustained ways to fight back.Just as Haftlinge were marked with badges to create artificial echelons within the camps, we too carry badges of imposed social division in such forms as gender, race, and class that function to keep us squabbling over scraps of privilege. That people were able to overcome those violently-imposed divisions and move beyond struggles for better representation within the camp hierarchy should speak volumes to our own lives.
November 8, 2018
A just-slightly-generous 5 stars from me. This is available for reading and printing on theanarchistlibrary.org here:
http://theanarchistlibrary.org/librar...
My reading of this book and my plugging it now feels like my own personal end-cap to this round of election season bullshit, so strong has been the resonance of its message of rebellion against dehumanization (and the complicity therewith). After a banger of a book, one of the concluding sections starts with an quote by Lev Zlodey & Jason Radegas which reads, "The Machine has fabricated a landscape in which even at the depths of suffering it is less unpleasant to choose among the officially proffered options than to resist, to transgress, to fight back, to step out of line. The lessons of the Holocaust were well learned. We will walk through the very last door as long as it is the easiest of a well managed set of choices."
If you've been considering looking into nihilism– a word, like anarchism, that means different things to different people– I personally suggest starting here rather than with the more dense, theory-laden offerings or the social media-savvy reactionaries hovering around certain scenes associated with the term. I could hit you with some very book review-sounding words like COGENT, ACCESSIBLE, or MOVING (and they'd all be true) but honestly, I just really fucking liked this little book. It was worth reading for the stories of concentration camp resistance alone. I thought, at the outset, that its exploration of nihilistic ideas might feel a little too grafted on, but this thing flows in a quite sensical way and with a very balanced composure, if you ask me. It's meditations on organizational and strategic issues in light of their cross-reading of concentration camp resistance and anarcho-nihilism is tight.
I was even capable of getting over the disappointment of seeing references to the reactionary, pro-rape Church of ITS and its choir boys, especially because: a) this was written before ITS careened oh-so-comfortably into its latter-day cascading series of turns for the worse, b) even at this early juncture, this author has some critical commentary upon them, and c) i think i may have even heard through the grapevine that this author does not currently remain enamored of them. I believe it, too. This author is clearly not a reactionary or an edge-lord Writing to Shock as an occupation (not that there's anything wrong with a little good old-fashioned freaking out the norms).
Anyway, I said i wasn't gonna write a full review so just go read this shit at http://theanarchistlibrary.org/librar...
"My experience of these stories became even richer when I started to realize that one of the most widespread and crushing fears for those who entered the camps was of not having their stories heard, of being forgotten by history. Primo Levi observed that the most commonly reported nightmare in the Lagers was not one of death or torture, but the alienation of clogged mouths and muted words. “Why,” he asked, “is the pain of every day translated so constantly into our dreams in the ever-repeated scene of the unlistened-to story?” With this in mind, reading diaries and memoirs becomes less of a dry historical excavation, and more of an interaction with those who staked their last shreds of energy on the hopes that they would not be forgotten. Because the Nazis worked so vigilantly to erase the Ballastexistenzen from history, to forget them would be “akin to killing them a second time.”
In remembering these voices, we also have the opportunity to carry on past struggles and to turn the stories of those who came before us into fodder against our oppressors. As we all know, history is written by the victors, and so the narratives of Progress and Great Men offered to us by society generally serve only to reinforce power. Benjamin warned that “even the dead will not be safe from the enemy if he wins” and that “this enemy has not ceased to be victorious”. The fact that the Nazi holocaust has been consistently wielded to justify the murder and oppression of the Palestinian people epitomizes how the dead can be reanimated to perpetuate cycles of domination. Similarly, looking at all the ways that historical revisionism has been used (occasionally by anarchists) to minimize the holocaust and perpetuate anti-semitism in the form of conspiracy theories reminds us that we simply don’t have the option of letting history rest in its grave. By engaging ourselves in this project called “history”, we can find ways to turn past struggles against current forms of domination and to “ensure that the memory of the dead continues to haunt the living.” I see this happening all around me with People’s History posters and Silvia Federici reading groups, with land acknowledgments and Haymarket handbills. History does not need to be neutral, but rather can fly in the face of domination and help to sharpen and expand our conflicts against the powerful. As our Chilean friends have declared: “Insurrectionary memory is our weapon!” It is my hope that this text can contribute to this ever-expanding arsenal."
http://theanarchistlibrary.org/librar...
My reading of this book and my plugging it now feels like my own personal end-cap to this round of election season bullshit, so strong has been the resonance of its message of rebellion against dehumanization (and the complicity therewith). After a banger of a book, one of the concluding sections starts with an quote by Lev Zlodey & Jason Radegas which reads, "The Machine has fabricated a landscape in which even at the depths of suffering it is less unpleasant to choose among the officially proffered options than to resist, to transgress, to fight back, to step out of line. The lessons of the Holocaust were well learned. We will walk through the very last door as long as it is the easiest of a well managed set of choices."
If you've been considering looking into nihilism– a word, like anarchism, that means different things to different people– I personally suggest starting here rather than with the more dense, theory-laden offerings or the social media-savvy reactionaries hovering around certain scenes associated with the term. I could hit you with some very book review-sounding words like COGENT, ACCESSIBLE, or MOVING (and they'd all be true) but honestly, I just really fucking liked this little book. It was worth reading for the stories of concentration camp resistance alone. I thought, at the outset, that its exploration of nihilistic ideas might feel a little too grafted on, but this thing flows in a quite sensical way and with a very balanced composure, if you ask me. It's meditations on organizational and strategic issues in light of their cross-reading of concentration camp resistance and anarcho-nihilism is tight.
I was even capable of getting over the disappointment of seeing references to the reactionary, pro-rape Church of ITS and its choir boys, especially because: a) this was written before ITS careened oh-so-comfortably into its latter-day cascading series of turns for the worse, b) even at this early juncture, this author has some critical commentary upon them, and c) i think i may have even heard through the grapevine that this author does not currently remain enamored of them. I believe it, too. This author is clearly not a reactionary or an edge-lord Writing to Shock as an occupation (not that there's anything wrong with a little good old-fashioned freaking out the norms).
Anyway, I said i wasn't gonna write a full review so just go read this shit at http://theanarchistlibrary.org/librar...
"My experience of these stories became even richer when I started to realize that one of the most widespread and crushing fears for those who entered the camps was of not having their stories heard, of being forgotten by history. Primo Levi observed that the most commonly reported nightmare in the Lagers was not one of death or torture, but the alienation of clogged mouths and muted words. “Why,” he asked, “is the pain of every day translated so constantly into our dreams in the ever-repeated scene of the unlistened-to story?” With this in mind, reading diaries and memoirs becomes less of a dry historical excavation, and more of an interaction with those who staked their last shreds of energy on the hopes that they would not be forgotten. Because the Nazis worked so vigilantly to erase the Ballastexistenzen from history, to forget them would be “akin to killing them a second time.”
In remembering these voices, we also have the opportunity to carry on past struggles and to turn the stories of those who came before us into fodder against our oppressors. As we all know, history is written by the victors, and so the narratives of Progress and Great Men offered to us by society generally serve only to reinforce power. Benjamin warned that “even the dead will not be safe from the enemy if he wins” and that “this enemy has not ceased to be victorious”. The fact that the Nazi holocaust has been consistently wielded to justify the murder and oppression of the Palestinian people epitomizes how the dead can be reanimated to perpetuate cycles of domination. Similarly, looking at all the ways that historical revisionism has been used (occasionally by anarchists) to minimize the holocaust and perpetuate anti-semitism in the form of conspiracy theories reminds us that we simply don’t have the option of letting history rest in its grave. By engaging ourselves in this project called “history”, we can find ways to turn past struggles against current forms of domination and to “ensure that the memory of the dead continues to haunt the living.” I see this happening all around me with People’s History posters and Silvia Federici reading groups, with land acknowledgments and Haymarket handbills. History does not need to be neutral, but rather can fly in the face of domination and help to sharpen and expand our conflicts against the powerful. As our Chilean friends have declared: “Insurrectionary memory is our weapon!” It is my hope that this text can contribute to this ever-expanding arsenal."
January 30, 2018
This is an incredible, thought-provoking book. It combines stories of (hopeless) resistance during the Holocaust in the concentration camps with a theoretical explication of anarcho-nihilism, to potent effect. Too much leftist organizing is predicated upon a better future, leaving a better world for our kids, and a sense of majority among the working class. What if there is no hope, if the best future for our kids doesn't depend on perpetuating the system, and we'll never have working class majority for social change? Well, we fight nonetheless! We fight for the pure joy and freedom of it! This book does much to deconstruct many leftist paradigms for social change, and leaves us with pure, unbridled action and recalcitrance.
April 12, 2016
A tacky example of taking a thing one is interested in and trying to read it alongside hip anarchist texts.
June 28, 2022
The most inspiring book I've read about the holocaust, it's also the first I've read that focuses on resistance and comes from an anarchist perspective.
Update: I read it a second time and it was just as inspiring, if not more.
Update: I read it a second time and it was just as inspiring, if not more.
March 19, 2021
As someone new to the Holocaust literature this was a tough read at first. The brutal portrayal of horrors within these camps was mind numbing.
As a nihilist with a dwindling hope on a global mass uprising, the spontaneous acts of resistence by the prisoners surrounded by absolute hopelessness sparked joy within me. The author seamlessly couples these acts with anarcho- nihilist thoughts along with apt criticism of organized resistence.
“Why do people stay attached to conventional good-life fantasies — say, of the enduring reciprocity in couples, families, political systems, institutions, markets, and at work — when the evidence of their instability, fragility, and dear cost abounds?” In the Nazi camps, these cruel optimisms had a name: paroles, which referred to optimistic rumours that spread through the camps, usually about the war nearing an end or the partisans nearing the camp walls. The false sense of hope that such rumours offered was both a lifeline for desperate people, and a perpetual deterrent for resistance. What cruel optimisms might we be clinging to in our current situations?"
As a nihilist with a dwindling hope on a global mass uprising, the spontaneous acts of resistence by the prisoners surrounded by absolute hopelessness sparked joy within me. The author seamlessly couples these acts with anarcho- nihilist thoughts along with apt criticism of organized resistence.
“Why do people stay attached to conventional good-life fantasies — say, of the enduring reciprocity in couples, families, political systems, institutions, markets, and at work — when the evidence of their instability, fragility, and dear cost abounds?” In the Nazi camps, these cruel optimisms had a name: paroles, which referred to optimistic rumours that spread through the camps, usually about the war nearing an end or the partisans nearing the camp walls. The false sense of hope that such rumours offered was both a lifeline for desperate people, and a perpetual deterrent for resistance. What cruel optimisms might we be clinging to in our current situations?"
September 13, 2016
I personally have many disagreements with various nihilist tendencies, some of which are incredibly divergent (which are nonetheless cited together as if they referred to a common thread). First off being the Aragorn-esque rejection of action entirely, which the author makes explicit rejection of while regularly quoting Aragorn. Then there's the vangaurdist tendency of the CCF and the FAI. I found it odd that despite a having a chapter on Organizations, there was no critique of these "informal" organizations.
These are of course minor flaws in an overall great book. It was engaging and fascinating for someone like me who had no prior knowledge of concentration camp resistance.
These are of course minor flaws in an overall great book. It was engaging and fascinating for someone like me who had no prior knowledge of concentration camp resistance.
September 4, 2020
This year there were quite a few prison riots in Italy. I felt we, as radicals, had much to learn from these events but could not exactly put my finger on what. Blessed is the Flame looks into holocaust resistance and takes valuable lessons. A very interesting book.
January 26, 2021
A great read just for the history of it but this is also a pretty good example of why nihilists are so depressed
September 1, 2024
Blessed is the flame tells stories of resistance in concentration camps, followed by explanations of anarcho-nihilism. It is very interesting to read about the mass uprisings, the spontaneity of some acts, the pure despair at times, and overall how people fight in concentration camps.
The author easily flows from one topic to another, drawing different connections between subjects.
"My experience of these stories became even richer when I started to realize that one of the most widespread and crushing fears for those who entered the camps was of not having their stories heard, of being forgotten by history. Primo Levi observed that the most commonly reported nightmare in the Lagers was not one of death or torture, but the alienation of clogged mouths and muted words. “Why,” he asked, “is the pain of every day translated so constantly into our dreams in the ever-repeated scene of the unlistened-to story?” With this in mind, reading diaries and memoirs becomes less of a dry historical excavation, and more of an interaction with those who staked their last shreds of energy on the hopes that they would not be forgotten. Because the Nazis worked so vigilantly to erase the Ballastexistenzen from history, to forget them would be “akin to killing them a second time.”
In remembering these voices, we also have the opportunity to carry on past struggles and to turn the stories of those who came before us into fodder against our oppressors.
They talk a bit about the concept of jouissance which baedan uses. It is an ecstatic energy, felt but never captured, that pushes us away from any form of domination, representation, or restraint, and compels us towards fierce wildness and unmitigated recalcitrance. It is “the process that momentarily sets us free from our fear of death” and which manifests as a “blissful enjoyment of the present,” or a “joy which we cannot name.”
"Rather than dwell on the question of passivity during the holocaust, I am inclined to celebrate the fact that any resistance happened at all! Alongside the deeply misanthropic and depressing insights we might gleam from the camps, there is also a great deal for us to cherish. For all of us who have witnessed our own resistance networks stifled by state surveillance, interpersonal conflict, hopelessness, and the material strain of keeping food on the table, the Lagers provide proof that even in the most overwhelming situations people can still find creative and sustained ways to fight back. Just as Häftlinge were marked with badges to create artificial echelons within the camps, we too carry badges of imposed social division in such forms as gender, race, and class that function to keep us squabbling over scraps of privilege. That people were able to overcome those violently-imposed divisions and move beyond struggles for better representation within the camp hierarchy should speak volumes to our own lives."
The author easily flows from one topic to another, drawing different connections between subjects.
"My experience of these stories became even richer when I started to realize that one of the most widespread and crushing fears for those who entered the camps was of not having their stories heard, of being forgotten by history. Primo Levi observed that the most commonly reported nightmare in the Lagers was not one of death or torture, but the alienation of clogged mouths and muted words. “Why,” he asked, “is the pain of every day translated so constantly into our dreams in the ever-repeated scene of the unlistened-to story?” With this in mind, reading diaries and memoirs becomes less of a dry historical excavation, and more of an interaction with those who staked their last shreds of energy on the hopes that they would not be forgotten. Because the Nazis worked so vigilantly to erase the Ballastexistenzen from history, to forget them would be “akin to killing them a second time.”
In remembering these voices, we also have the opportunity to carry on past struggles and to turn the stories of those who came before us into fodder against our oppressors.
They talk a bit about the concept of jouissance which baedan uses. It is an ecstatic energy, felt but never captured, that pushes us away from any form of domination, representation, or restraint, and compels us towards fierce wildness and unmitigated recalcitrance. It is “the process that momentarily sets us free from our fear of death” and which manifests as a “blissful enjoyment of the present,” or a “joy which we cannot name.”
"Rather than dwell on the question of passivity during the holocaust, I am inclined to celebrate the fact that any resistance happened at all! Alongside the deeply misanthropic and depressing insights we might gleam from the camps, there is also a great deal for us to cherish. For all of us who have witnessed our own resistance networks stifled by state surveillance, interpersonal conflict, hopelessness, and the material strain of keeping food on the table, the Lagers provide proof that even in the most overwhelming situations people can still find creative and sustained ways to fight back. Just as Häftlinge were marked with badges to create artificial echelons within the camps, we too carry badges of imposed social division in such forms as gender, race, and class that function to keep us squabbling over scraps of privilege. That people were able to overcome those violently-imposed divisions and move beyond struggles for better representation within the camp hierarchy should speak volumes to our own lives."
July 27, 2020
A really interesting book. It is exciting to read how people organize, sabotage and fight inside the concentration camps. At the same time it feels a bit of forced the way the author wants to put together some practices made by the people inside the camps.
May 22, 2023
Reject all
Destroy all
Liberate all
Destroy all
Liberate all
November 19, 2024
We have been so well trained that if we don’t think we can win we won’t resist.
Nihilism as a reorientation away from cruel optimism and toward jouissance. What possibilities does accepting doom open?
Resistance for the sake of resistance - because it is the only meaningful response to the world we can imagine - then becomes key. This doesn’t require hope. Nothing can sway our convictions.
How then can we engage in forms of revolt that cultivate immediate joy? How can we reorient toward liberation in the present? Then, even in the failures we can celebrate and even create resiliency.
My favorite chapters / essays:
Spontaneous Resistance and Time (Particularly the section on Messianic time)
Reflections: Cruel Optimism
Nihilism as a reorientation away from cruel optimism and toward jouissance. What possibilities does accepting doom open?
Resistance for the sake of resistance - because it is the only meaningful response to the world we can imagine - then becomes key. This doesn’t require hope. Nothing can sway our convictions.
How then can we engage in forms of revolt that cultivate immediate joy? How can we reorient toward liberation in the present? Then, even in the failures we can celebrate and even create resiliency.
My favorite chapters / essays:
Spontaneous Resistance and Time (Particularly the section on Messianic time)
Reflections: Cruel Optimism
March 22, 2018
What if your resistance did nothing? What if your protests were in vain? What if no one heard a word you said? Or, that they do, and they still didn't care? What if all this were true and it still cost you everything? Not one less tear shed? Not even your own? The test for the heart of a revolutionary.
August 10, 2017
some of the intersections seemed a bit forced, and despite an impressive amount of research into resistance anecdotes, the ethical/moral side to Holocaust studies was lacking in study. however i did learn a lot and am very glad i read it, the author has a very engaging style.
April 13, 2020
A comprehensive and beautifully written book about an ugly and horrific time in history.
March 9, 2026
This book was recommended to me by a friend after I had an essay of mine published that was critical of nihilism in resistance spaces. After reading this book, I must admit that I was too harsh on nihilism and this book detailed it in a very compelling way. Looking at nihilism as resistance even in the scope of utter and absolute defeat made it something inspiring. I had, unfortunately, not known much about resistance movements inside the concentration camps, but that really put the theory into perspective; here were people who had no knowledge if rescue was coming and quite literally everything was stacked against them to psychological make everyone believe resistance was futile, and even with this belief resistance still happened. My view on nihilism had been mostly from the Russian nihilist movement, but seeing it in the lens of concentration camp resistance really created a new understanding for the term for me.
Furthering that, nihilism wraps a bit more realness into anarchism. Anarchism is by its very nature incredibly optimistic, and nihilism allows for the acknowledgement of failure—not as discouragement but as a reality check. In this way, there is a certain peace to nihilism that forces the revolutionary to act in ordinance to higher ideals. Revolution is thus then not about creating a better future for you and yours, but about resisting evil.
Absolutely stunning book that I think everyone should read, especially everyone in resistance/activist/leftist spaces. No matter where you fall politically—anarchist, socialist, communist, and maybe even liberal—you will be able to get a lot from this book.
Furthering that, nihilism wraps a bit more realness into anarchism. Anarchism is by its very nature incredibly optimistic, and nihilism allows for the acknowledgement of failure—not as discouragement but as a reality check. In this way, there is a certain peace to nihilism that forces the revolutionary to act in ordinance to higher ideals. Revolution is thus then not about creating a better future for you and yours, but about resisting evil.
Absolutely stunning book that I think everyone should read, especially everyone in resistance/activist/leftist spaces. No matter where you fall politically—anarchist, socialist, communist, and maybe even liberal—you will be able to get a lot from this book.
June 29, 2021
I started reading this book a while ago, and don't regret it in the slightest. This book is so well written, and the author easily flows from one topic to another to draw connections between concentration camp resistance and our own situations without doing it in an overbearing or offensive way.
I do also think there is valid room for criticism (I personally feel that there isn't enough critique of the CCF as an organization in the book), but overall love the points expressed in this book. It's the sort of thing that once you read, you can't get out of your head.
I'm not going to write a full review of this book, but I will say that it is easily one of my favorites that I will recommend to friends and continually re-read.
I do also think there is valid room for criticism (I personally feel that there isn't enough critique of the CCF as an organization in the book), but overall love the points expressed in this book. It's the sort of thing that once you read, you can't get out of your head.
I'm not going to write a full review of this book, but I will say that it is easily one of my favorites that I will recommend to friends and continually re-read.
August 22, 2023
A short and passionate polemic about the experiences of those who resisted within the Nazi concentration/extermination camps, and what this tells us about anarcho-nihilism. The survey and commentary about the Holocaust was incredibly powerful and poignant, centering around the question of how one should act when one's actions have no conceivable hope of changing anything. The collected stories of doomed but determined acts of resistance were incredible. Unfortunately, the last couple of chapters gets much less interesting, as it shifts away from the Holocaust and dives into an unpersuasive and rather superficial critique of "organization". Still, overall this short booklet is well worth reading by radicals of any stripe.
June 11, 2022
I am far from being a nihilist, but the book held to its promises. It is a great introduction to violent resistance in concentration camps during WWII, and to nihilist thought and methods. The book is honest with its own limitations (focus on resistance as "attacks", non-exhaustive set of examples and nihilist concepts, only looking at similarities and not at divergences).
One big blindspot that is not recognized though, and it is ironic considering the topic, is racialisation and all its consequences including collective consciousness, Yiddish cultural backgrounds and the heritage of struggle against pogroms, etc.
Of course one can hardly expect nihilists tending towards individualism to focus on such sense of "community".
One big blindspot that is not recognized though, and it is ironic considering the topic, is racialisation and all its consequences including collective consciousness, Yiddish cultural backgrounds and the heritage of struggle against pogroms, etc.
Of course one can hardly expect nihilists tending towards individualism to focus on such sense of "community".
September 7, 2025
thank you transgender anarcho-nihilist-hedonist roblox player who showed me this work
September 1, 2021
Blessed is the Flame was such an interesting read! I generally don't find much of value in the philosophical perspective offered by nihilism. I find it self-indulgent, easily lapsing into hedonism, and generally (definitionally) short-sighted. The lack of interest in the future, and the concept of a better world, and the drive to help people (both individuals and populations)... it always rubbed me the wrong way.
Serafinski did an *excellent* job of presenting another perspective on the whole phenomenon of nihilism through their work on concentration camp resistance. Because this work addressed my concerns so well, that's how I'll break down this review:
Self-indulgence: I am trying to avoid any gauche claims of self-indulgence on the part of prisoners because their unenviable state in the death camps denied them any real opportunity for such things, but there was the relief offered by the opportunity at self-actualization in the form of (often suicidal) rebellion.
Hedonism: Of course, because this work focused on the philosophy in concentration camps, there was no hedonism (save perhaps the orgastic exaction of justice in fleeting moments of extreme rebellion).
Helping people: Nihilism often ignores other actors. Why wouldn't it? If nothing matters then what is the point of sacrificing your own well-being to aid another person? In Serafinski's presentation of camp life and rebellion, though, there is an intense thread of solidarity among the prisoners. They aren't fighting for a "future" of liberation per se because (as I'll describe below) the concept of futurity is denied them. BUT they are all working together. Their actions against the guards or structures within the camps are well-coordinated and do provide them with a sense of self-actualization. I was struck by stories of prisoners who attacked guards knowing full-well that the reprisal by the guards would involve hundreds of executions. While originally I would have been appalled at the "lack of foresight" of these activists, Serafinski does a good job contextualizing and explaining it. For these people, death was a certainty. The only autonomy offered in many cases was the choice to sacrifice oneself in a display of anger and violence.
Futurity: THIS. This is the part that blew me away. My critique of nihilists as unfocused on the future - as ignorant to the goal of progressivity - it's not fair at all in this case. These prisoners faced certain death. The concept of "tomorrow" was so assuredly unassured that they had no real sane choice but to live in the moment. In Walter Benjamin's terminology, there was no sense of "futurity" for those in the camps. This stands, for me, in stark contrast to some other perspectives shared by prisoners in the camps - notably, Viktor Frankl's perspective enumerated in Man's Search for Meaning. Whereas Frankl kept hope alive, and focused on the autonomy found in making choices to work productively towards a future (through writing, for example, or philosophizing - both tactics he used), many of the subjects highlighted in Blessed is the Flame sacrificed all hope. Their meaning was found in the actions they could perform against their oppressors, and it wasn't conditioned by the inevitable outcomes. A prisoner would step out of line and strike a guard with a hammer, and the next day 200 prisoners would be executed by firing squad. Following that, 3 more prisoners would step out of line and strike guards with hammers and so on. This is not because those prisoners were stupid, or couldn't do the basic calculus re: what would happen to their compatriots. It is because - for them - there was no future. The people in those lines were already dead. It was their most basic instinct that drove them to resist, and they lost nothing when they were reprimanded, as their very existence had ceased to carry meaning without an action like that. The innate need to express individual actualization in these hopeless situations ties into anarchist notions of rebellion against oppression and power structures.
This concept of disappearing futurity and the exuberant action which it can evoke did raise other questions for me:
What will it take to move from rhetoric of an impending climate apocalypse to a loss of futurity?
Do people regularly feel this loss of futurity in war zones? Can it be combatted?
100% would recommend this easy read. Yes, books on the holocaust are gruesome. Because the Holocaust was gruesome. But it is such an amazing look at a very complex, very human phenomenon.
Education: 1 Star
Entertainment: 1 Star
Thesis: 1 Star
Readability: 1 Star
Inspiration: 1 Star
5/5
Serafinski did an *excellent* job of presenting another perspective on the whole phenomenon of nihilism through their work on concentration camp resistance. Because this work addressed my concerns so well, that's how I'll break down this review:
Self-indulgence: I am trying to avoid any gauche claims of self-indulgence on the part of prisoners because their unenviable state in the death camps denied them any real opportunity for such things, but there was the relief offered by the opportunity at self-actualization in the form of (often suicidal) rebellion.
Hedonism: Of course, because this work focused on the philosophy in concentration camps, there was no hedonism (save perhaps the orgastic exaction of justice in fleeting moments of extreme rebellion).
Helping people: Nihilism often ignores other actors. Why wouldn't it? If nothing matters then what is the point of sacrificing your own well-being to aid another person? In Serafinski's presentation of camp life and rebellion, though, there is an intense thread of solidarity among the prisoners. They aren't fighting for a "future" of liberation per se because (as I'll describe below) the concept of futurity is denied them. BUT they are all working together. Their actions against the guards or structures within the camps are well-coordinated and do provide them with a sense of self-actualization. I was struck by stories of prisoners who attacked guards knowing full-well that the reprisal by the guards would involve hundreds of executions. While originally I would have been appalled at the "lack of foresight" of these activists, Serafinski does a good job contextualizing and explaining it. For these people, death was a certainty. The only autonomy offered in many cases was the choice to sacrifice oneself in a display of anger and violence.
Futurity: THIS. This is the part that blew me away. My critique of nihilists as unfocused on the future - as ignorant to the goal of progressivity - it's not fair at all in this case. These prisoners faced certain death. The concept of "tomorrow" was so assuredly unassured that they had no real sane choice but to live in the moment. In Walter Benjamin's terminology, there was no sense of "futurity" for those in the camps. This stands, for me, in stark contrast to some other perspectives shared by prisoners in the camps - notably, Viktor Frankl's perspective enumerated in Man's Search for Meaning. Whereas Frankl kept hope alive, and focused on the autonomy found in making choices to work productively towards a future (through writing, for example, or philosophizing - both tactics he used), many of the subjects highlighted in Blessed is the Flame sacrificed all hope. Their meaning was found in the actions they could perform against their oppressors, and it wasn't conditioned by the inevitable outcomes. A prisoner would step out of line and strike a guard with a hammer, and the next day 200 prisoners would be executed by firing squad. Following that, 3 more prisoners would step out of line and strike guards with hammers and so on. This is not because those prisoners were stupid, or couldn't do the basic calculus re: what would happen to their compatriots. It is because - for them - there was no future. The people in those lines were already dead. It was their most basic instinct that drove them to resist, and they lost nothing when they were reprimanded, as their very existence had ceased to carry meaning without an action like that. The innate need to express individual actualization in these hopeless situations ties into anarchist notions of rebellion against oppression and power structures.
This concept of disappearing futurity and the exuberant action which it can evoke did raise other questions for me:
What will it take to move from rhetoric of an impending climate apocalypse to a loss of futurity?
Do people regularly feel this loss of futurity in war zones? Can it be combatted?
100% would recommend this easy read. Yes, books on the holocaust are gruesome. Because the Holocaust was gruesome. But it is such an amazing look at a very complex, very human phenomenon.
Education: 1 Star
Entertainment: 1 Star
Thesis: 1 Star
Readability: 1 Star
Inspiration: 1 Star
5/5
December 8, 2025
An engaging and forceful in introduction to anarcho-nihilism. It boldly looks at brutality in Holocaust concentration and extermination camps and the spontaneous acts of resistance despite in the face of inevitable death. For the author, anarcho-nihilism is negation of an irredeemable, totalizing system and the jouissance of that negation with no investment in a future or outcome. I only give it 3-stars because though it is powerful, I found it ultimately unconvincing and lacking sustained discussion of the shortcomings or critiques of this type of nihilism.
If anarcho-nihilism is essentially negation, doesn't that bind anarcho-nihilism to the persistence of what it negates? Without oppression, does anarcho-nihilism have any reality?
What ethical posture must one have to see a totalizing system as irredeemably violent? Doesn't it require an ethical orientation to appreciate acts of resistance in concentration camps in the face of inevitable death? If so, these ethical orientations need to be articulated.
Are the possible solipsistic consequences of anarcho-nihilism (p.55) worth it?
If anarcho-nihilism is essentially negation, doesn't that bind anarcho-nihilism to the persistence of what it negates? Without oppression, does anarcho-nihilism have any reality?
What ethical posture must one have to see a totalizing system as irredeemably violent? Doesn't it require an ethical orientation to appreciate acts of resistance in concentration camps in the face of inevitable death? If so, these ethical orientations need to be articulated.
Are the possible solipsistic consequences of anarcho-nihilism (p.55) worth it?
May 18, 2021
A surprisingly effective distillation of seemingly unrelated elements. One of the best statements of the anarcho-nihilist position as it relates to real conflict in the real world.
May 11, 2021
Amazing. Hard work and disturbing but also liberating. Also a captivating introduction to the subject.
May 28, 2023
I was definitely surprised at this, I was coming into this worried how the anarcho-nilihism would be used and thankfully the juxtaposition between those concepts and the historic accounts of concentration camp resistance is done pretty well and respectfully.
In terms of an introduction to these accounts, this is also done pretty well with a lot of references and research. Of course the subject matter makes this an incredibly difficult read, this is accounts of organising in the most hopeless situations with only a handful of survivors. It is beyond harrowing in parts, but if you can get through it, I would urge people to read about these accounts of resistance against all hope, both here and in other pieces of work. The book mentions reading these accounts and testimonies and the importance of remembering as to 'forget them would be “akin to killing them a second time.”'
When it comes to the anarcho-nihilism, I'm not really convinced of the entire idea itself, but I still get the aspects of how, against all hope, against all odds, revolt.
This is a short read, so if you are able to read this, I would recommend it mainly for the accounts on resistance.
In terms of an introduction to these accounts, this is also done pretty well with a lot of references and research. Of course the subject matter makes this an incredibly difficult read, this is accounts of organising in the most hopeless situations with only a handful of survivors. It is beyond harrowing in parts, but if you can get through it, I would urge people to read about these accounts of resistance against all hope, both here and in other pieces of work. The book mentions reading these accounts and testimonies and the importance of remembering as to 'forget them would be “akin to killing them a second time.”'
When it comes to the anarcho-nihilism, I'm not really convinced of the entire idea itself, but I still get the aspects of how, against all hope, against all odds, revolt.
This is a short read, so if you are able to read this, I would recommend it mainly for the accounts on resistance.
May 25, 2021
In the past 10 years or so (at least as far as I've been paying attention), nihilism has gained a lot of steam, whether because of a certain movie, or because of Eugene Thacker, or because of the world at large (although those last two are obviously related). Nihilist is, like anarchist, like feminist, and probably a lot of other labels that I know and care less about, so broad that claiming the label, or using it on someone, doesn't say much without a lot of additional explanation. I tend to like that, since labels are notoriously simplistic at the very best of times, so labels that are self-sabotaging are the kinds that I enjoy.
This book, to get back to nihilism (lol), explains the kind of nihilism that I appreciate and that makes sense to me given, again, where we're at now. It's the clearest explanation I've found, in a field where people were calling militant action nihilist, using nihilist like the x in x-treme sports or something.
This book, like Desert, is both depressing and inspiring, but most of all clarifying.
This book, to get back to nihilism (lol), explains the kind of nihilism that I appreciate and that makes sense to me given, again, where we're at now. It's the clearest explanation I've found, in a field where people were calling militant action nihilist, using nihilist like the x in x-treme sports or something.
This book, like Desert, is both depressing and inspiring, but most of all clarifying.
February 11, 2019
A great read and an excellently researched book. Yes, it could have gone into much more detail on many of the organizations mentioned, but that's an opportunity for others to write a more detailed work on them. Since most of my exposure to history on concentration camps has been through movies and mainstream history texts, this works really helps you get a better psychological framework life under total control and the futility of doing anything in that kind of situation.
There are a lot of negative connotations with nihilism, but I think this text helps present a case of where there is only meaning where there isn't any. It'll help you roll that bolder up the mountain, but not feel anguished when it just rolls back down again.
There are a lot of negative connotations with nihilism, but I think this text helps present a case of where there is only meaning where there isn't any. It'll help you roll that bolder up the mountain, but not feel anguished when it just rolls back down again.
August 27, 2025
"I will burn this planet down, before I spend another minute living among these animals." - Omni-man
July 22, 2022
kort en heel leesbaar boek over verzet in concentratie- en exterminatiekampen, de meest hopeloze en onderdrukkende contexten voor verzet, en hoe dit aansluit bij (anarchistisch-)nihilistische ideeën: "negation" en "jouissance". Negation is het idee van de complete negatie/vernietiging van het huidige systeem (dit staat tegenover (eventueel radicale) hervormingen van het systeem) om van 0 opnieuw te beginnen, zonder te veel dromen of ideeën over een "mogelijke toekomst" na deze negatie. Jouissance is het soort wild plezier, een extatische energie, die ons overvalt en vrijstelt van alle onderdrukking, identiteit, angst en dood -- en ons in dat moment de kans biedt om koppig in te gaan tegen autoriteit.
Bon ja, ik ben zelf niet echt een nihilist, maar Serafinski is wel heel overtuigend, en ik zie wel het nut in van vele nihilistische ideeën, al is het maar als reality check en een soort "hopeloze hoop". (want nihilisten geloven niet per sé dat er ooit een revolutie komt, dat het systeem ooit valt, dat klimaatverandering tegengehouden zal worden, maar tegelijk is het aanvaarden van die futiliteit soms geruststellend. het moét ons niet lukken, het belangrijkste is dat we gewoon IETS doen. voor de jouissance. omdat het de meest betekenisvolle reactie is op de wereld waarin we leven. voor dat onmiddellijke plezier en momenten van bevrijdding)
Bon ja, ik ben zelf niet echt een nihilist, maar Serafinski is wel heel overtuigend, en ik zie wel het nut in van vele nihilistische ideeën, al is het maar als reality check en een soort "hopeloze hoop". (want nihilisten geloven niet per sé dat er ooit een revolutie komt, dat het systeem ooit valt, dat klimaatverandering tegengehouden zal worden, maar tegelijk is het aanvaarden van die futiliteit soms geruststellend. het moét ons niet lukken, het belangrijkste is dat we gewoon IETS doen. voor de jouissance. omdat het de meest betekenisvolle reactie is op de wereld waarin we leven. voor dat onmiddellijke plezier en momenten van bevrijdding)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 61 reviews