Jurgen Matthaus
Approaching an Auschwitz Survivor
Oxford University Press

Among sources on the Holocaust, survivor testimonies reflect both the personality of the narrator and the conditions and perceptions prevailing at the time of narration.. This book represents a departure, bringing Holocaust experts Atina Grossmann, Konrad Kwiet and Jurgen Matthaus together to analyze the testimony of one Holocaust survivor; Helen Zippi Spitzer Tichauer was sent to Auschwitz in 1942, she met her future husband in a DP camp and they moved to New York in the 1960s. Beginning in 1946, Zippi devoted many hours to talking with a small group of scholars about her life. Her wide-ranging interviews are uniquely suited to raise questions on the meaning and use of survivor testimony. This book's new, multifaceted approach toward Zippi's unique story combined with the authors' analysis of key aspects of Holocaust memory, its forms and its functions, makes it a rewarding and fascinating read.