Published in 1975, Charles Reznikoff’s book-length poem Holocaust is a collage of witness testimonies from the Nuremberg Military Tribunal and the trial of Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem.

“By using the language of others he attends to the “object” of genocide without imaginative or philosophical flourish, and by reciting it again in his own rhythm he becomes a second witness to its truth. Ultimately, the reader responds not to the poet but to the testimony itself.” writes Kathryn Crim in the Boston Review.

(the most common reaction when i tell people i am taking a subject in holocaust studies is : oh. cheery topic! and the most common question, of course, is : why? and there are a number of possible responses. one is : between 1900 and 1987 169 million civilians were murdered by governments and government-like organizations. there were also an additional 34 million military dead ones. the war instigated by the nazis was responsible for the deaths of 49 million people.* this is over a period spanning only about 10 years.

who would not be interested in that? how could you not want to know why? how did this happen? i would like to find out, in the same way that some people want to find out how an engine works, which is something i have zero interest in. i don’t know why. in some ways it would be more useful to know how an engine works, especially when you get in your car and it doesn’t start.

oh well i guess i’ll have to call the nrma racv.)

*professor yehuda bauer - address to the bundestag 27 january 1998