Constructing a Collective Memory of the Holocaust: A Life History of Two Brothers' Survival

Berger uses his father's and uncle's life histories as the basis for this cross-generational study combining personal narrative and sociological analysis. While Michael Berger was interned at SS camps in Poland, his brother Shlomo escaped the camps by passing as a Christian with a Polish construction crew and as a member of the Polish Partisans and the Soviet Army. The brothers' stories of success through luck, daring, and skill help explore a central problem of social theory: the relationship between human agency and social structure. Berger addresses the influences of prewar conditions on wartime adjustment and offers observations on memories of suffering and the implications for contemporary victimization politics and postmodern social thought. Portions appeared first in The Sociology Quarterly (v.36, no.1). Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.