Language:
English
Year of publication:
1994
Titel der Quelle:
Jews in Eastern Europe (Jerusalem)
Angaben zur Quelle:
23 (1994) 46-63
Keywords:
Grossman, Vasiliĭ.
;
Grossman, Vasiliĭ.
Abstract:
Both of Grossman's novels deal with the period of the Second World War and the Holocaust. Analyzing the evolution of Grossman's Jewish national consciousness from "For a Just Cause" to "Life and Fate" (a continuation of the former novel), discusses also how he dealt with the subject of antisemitism. If in the earlier novel, Grossman, following the Soviet ideological line, indicated that antisemites were a negligible minority in Soviet society, in the later novel he went against the official line and showed that antisemitism was a widespread phenomenon amongst the non-Jewish population during the war. He also tried to explain its roots and psychology. Both Ehrenburg and Grossman were assimilated Jews whose Jewish identity was aroused by the Holocaust. However, whereas Ehrenburg saw antisemitism as a prejudice which was dying out, Grossman regarded it as a complicated and dynamic phenomenon.
Note:
An abridged version appeared in "Jews in a Changing World" (1997).
URL:
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