Sources of Holocaust Insight: Learning and Teaching about the Genocide

by John K. Roth

Sources of Holocaust Insight maps the odyssey of an American Christian philosopher who has studied, written, and taught about the Holocaust for more than fifty years. What findings result from John Roth's journey; what moods pervade it? How have events and experiences, scholars and students, texts and testimonies--especially the questions they raise--affected Roth's Holocaust studies and guided his efforts to heed the biblical proverb: ""Whatever else you get, get insight""? More sources than Roth can acknowledge have informed his encounters with the Holocaust. But particular persons--among them Elie Wiesel, Raul Hilberg, Primo Levi, and Albert Camus--loom especially large. Revisiting Roth's sources of Holocaust insight, this book does so not only to pay tribute to them but also to show how the ethical, philosophical, and religious reverberations of the Holocaust confer and encourage responsibility for human well-being in the twenty-first century. Seeing differently, seeing better--sound learning and teaching about the Holocaust aim for what may be the most important Holocaust insight of all: Take nothing good for granted.

306 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 2, 2020

About the author

John King Roth is an American-based author, editor, and the Edward J. Sexton Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Claremont McKenna College (CMC) in Claremont, California. Roth taught at CMC from 1966 through 2006, where he was the founding director of the Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights, which is now the Mgrublian Center for Human Rights. Best known for his contributions to Holocaust and genocide studies, he is the author or editor of more than fifty books. In 1988, he was named the U.S. National Professor of the Year by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

Reviews

[Steven Godby · Rating 5 out of 5]

If there was a single book to summarize the moral quandaries of the Holocaust, then it is Roth’s Sources of Holocaust Insight. Roth’s retell his journey in Holocaust studies by stating his relationship with various writers and scholars. He summarizes their position and then his agreement or disagreement. I found the last chapter the most compelling with the contrast between Steven Pinker and Jean Amery, between hope and despair, between trust and chaos, between having a center and homelessness. Amery writes that torture does not end because “whosever was tortured, stays tortured….” A tortured person loses “trust in the world.” Sources of Holocaust Insight should be considered a classic. It requires a re-reading, serious reflective, and a reimagining of our moral view.

[E · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great scholar and a very important book. His chapter on Primo Levi’s Gray Zones is a must read.