The Shadow and the Flame

This is a gripping account of the battles of small groups of survivors to shape the memory of the Holocaust. McAuley takes a vast historical theme and tells it as a story of fully drawn individuals. Moving, compelling, relevant to our times, and beautifully written – Simon Kuper
In sensitively and accurately depicting the multi-faceted identities, complex personalities, and diverse voices of the men and women who first set out to chronicle the perpetration of the Hitlerian ‘Final Solution of the Jewish Question,’ James McAuley has successfully brought to life the critically important origins of the historiography of the Holocaust. At a time when the persecution, oppression, suffering and systematic genocide of European Jewry during World War II is far too often exploited and relativized, The Shadow and the Flame is certain to become required reading and an essential resource for scholars, theologians and students of history alike who seek to understand the purpose and significance of recording, preserving and perpetuating anguished and agonized memory – Menachem Rosensaft
James McAuley has written an extraordinary book—one that I didn’t know could be written. The Shadow and the Flame is profoundly moving in its navigation of how the meaning of the Holocaust has been memorialized. It is essential reading – Edmund de Waal, author of The Hare With Amber Eyes
In the decades after 1945, survivors, scholars, and writers in Europe, America, and Israel debated the story of the slaughter of the European Jews — what to call it, how to record it, who had the standing to speak about it. The Shadow and the Flame tells the story of that debate, and reminds us that the creation of public memory is never accidental, and never permanent. James McAuley reminds us that individual choices helped shape what we remember, and will continue to define how we interpret the past – Anne Applebaum, author of Autocracy Inc
At a time of surging antisemitism, this powerful book studies how Jewish thinkers memorialized the systematic extermination committed by Nazi Germany and its European collaborators. This challenging and insightful book grapples with the unmasterable legacy of the genocide of six million Jews while upholding the dignity of Jewish experience – Gary Bass, author of Judgment at Tokyo
A stunning, harrowing and deeply humane book. The Shadow and the Flame is an impeccably researched account of the men and women who first set out to record the Holocaust, bearing witness while laying the foundations of how the world would remember. In telling their stories, McAuley offers a poignant look at how memory is claimed and shaped, and at what is lost when remembrance becomes doctrine. Essential and timely – Clarissa Ward, author of On All Fronts

James McAuley is the author of The House of Fragile Things, which won the 2021 National Jewish Book Award. He is a journalist and former Paris correspondent for the Washington Post, and his work has appeared in The Economist, Times Literary Supplement, New York Times, and New York Review of Books, among others. He holds a PhD in French history from the University of Oxford, where he was a Marshall Scholar. He lives in London.

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