Essays on Antisemitism, Anti-Zionism, and the Left

Essays on Antisemitism, Anti-Zionism, and the Left is a personal life-wrenching collection of writings by Jean Améry (1912-1978). Born Hans Chaim Meier in Vienna, Austria, to a Jewish father killed in World War I, whom he never knew, Améry was raised by his Catholic mother in a household committed to Catholic ideals and teaching. Edited by Marlene Gallner, the essays attempt to find meaning and consolation in the liquidation of two-thirds of European Jews in the lands of Christendom.

Améry was a philosophy and literature student in Vienna and fled to Belgium in 1938 to escape rising antisemitic violence in his native Austria. In Belgium, he participated in the resistance against the Nazi occupation of Belgium and was arrested as a political prisoner. He was soon discovered to be of paternal Jewish descent and was sent to Auschwitz and other detention camps; he eventually was liberated by the British from Bergen Belson in 1945. His experiences during the Shoah were made famous by his collection of autobiographical essays Jenseits von Schuld und Sühne, translated into English as At the Mind's Limits: Contemplations by a Survivor of Auschwitz and Its Realities ((Klett-Cotta, neuausg edition, 1977). The book launched his writing career, which included two decades of journalistic and other independent writing assignments, leading to his acclaim as a critic of New Left opposing antisemitism and anti-Zionism policy of various hues, particularly in Germany.

Leftwing antisemitism and Shoah-related issues detailed in At the Mind’s Limits are reflected in the present volume of ten translated German essays, ranging in length from four to eighteen pages, and written in the 1960s and 1970s. Améry tackles issues of composition, interpretation, and political messaging for contemporary times. His methodology is to help the reader access ethical and philosophical teachings and meanings derived from the genocidal Shoah, and to reconnect to the Land of Israel as a safe and welcome refuge for wandering and persecuted Jews. Améry engages ethics, history, narrative, wisdom, and more as philosophical conduits to reason about the evils of antisemitism, the misrepresentation of the Zionist idea, and humanity’s role in perpetuating both. Positing, identifying, and defending a Hebrew-Jewish style of philosophy—justice must be pursued, tikkun `olam (“mending the world”), the Jewish homeland is a necessary refuge, etc.—the author pointedly states that stark elements of centuries-old antisemitism had emerged in post-war Leftist anti-Zionism. People and sources are consulted and identified by the editor’s footnotes; also, a number of relevant personal interviews are cited.    

In the epilogue, the editor Marlene Gallner, Alvin Rosenfeld (Foreword), and Irene Heidelberger-Leonard, who wrote the epilogue, indicate that Amery’s interpretation of the Shoah as a singular horror remains applicable today. In my view, his writings suggest agreement with the US Holocaust Memorial Museum’s unequivocal rejection of analogies between the Shoah and other events, contra the position of some 375 scholars and academics who write in an open letter to the New York Review of Books (July 1, 2019) that “the very core of Holocaust education is to alert the public to dangerous developments that facilitate human rights violations and pain and suffering; pointing to similarities across time and space is essential for this task.” The letter surmises that rejecting any possible analogies to the Holocaust is ahistorical.                                        

Améry would defiantly disagree, according to this volume. Hitler(ism), Nazism, fascism, and the Holocaust are bandied about these days in the political arena, social media, academic conferences, commencement speeches, and classrooms without restraint, meaning, and purpose. Clarification, accuracy, and objectivity in reporting and transmission are sine qua non for proper learning, teaching, and transmission. Travel bans targeting individual Muslim countries are said to mirror the policies of Nazi Germany in its day; train tracks leading to Auschwitz-Birkenau purportedly interweave with stoppage points at the US southern border; illegal immigrants held in detention camps on the Texas border are likened to victims of Nazi death camps; and the analogies go on ad absurtum. But the incarceration and murder of Jewish children should not be used to legitimatize concern of detained children at the border (however valid those concerns are). Améry believed strongly that the Holocaust as Shoah is not to be taken lightly, summarily, or analytically. Zachor (“Remember”) and “Never Again” are cautionary reminders to cleanse the ugliness of current politics and mudslinging, but not to obscure the memory of the Nazi Judeocide with today’s crises at the borders of Texas and Gaza and so on. Proper remembrance of the Shoah includes concern for and respectful legal action on behalf of migrants, but it does not necessitate conflating current injustices with the Holocaust.

If the prospects of Palestinian-Israeli dialogue are not bright, then it is the business of responsible intellectuals and thinkers among the combatants to make them bright. Learning the complexity of the historical, religious, cultural, psychological, and political factors of the Palestinian national movement is imperative for Israelis (Jews). Similarly, Palestinians (Arabs, Muslims) must learn that Jewish self-pride as expressed in peoplehood, religion, and the statehood of Israel are answers to Jewish identity, survival, and never-ending Jew hatred. Blatant lies and deceit from Hamas and supporters may earn international sympathy but it will not advance a Palestinian state. Welcome forums that discuss a range of issues that emanate from tunnels and walls which divide enemies thus seeding animosity, strife, hatred. Obliterate evil inclination and deconstruct meginnat lev (lit., “covering of the heart” but interpreted as ‘obstinacy,’ ‘hardness,’ and ‘dullness’ caused by inflicted sorrows) from under the Heavens. Finally, as in the Beginning, “Let there be Light” to dispel the darkness and to bridge the divide. 

I suspect that Jean Améry, who affirms his Jewishness but with it “no God, no history, and no Messianic nationalist anticipation” (19), would agree.

Zev Garber is emeritus professor and chair of Jewish Studies and philosophy at Los Angeles Valley College.

Zev Garber

Date Of Review:

July 28, 2023