Rediscovering Traces of Memory by Jonathan Webber

Rediscovering Traces of Memory by Jonathan Webber

The present-day traces of the Jewish past in Poland are complex. Jewish life lay in ruins after the Holocaust. Much evidence of ruin remains, but there are also widespread traces that bear witness to the elaborate Jewish culture that once flourished there, even in villages and small towns. One also sees places where Jews were murdered by the Germans in the war: not only in death camps and ghettos, but also in fields, forests, rivers, and cemeteries. After the war forty years of communism suppressed even the memory of the destroyed Jewish heritage. Today, by contrast, the historic Jewish culture of Poland is increasingly being memorialized, by local Poles as well as by foreign Jews. Synagogues and cemeteries are being renovated, monuments and museums are being set up. There are festivals of Jewish culture, hasidic pilgrims, and Jewish tourists; and local people who rescued Jews during the war are being honoured. In rediscovering the traces of memory one also finds clear signs of a local Jewish revival.

This extensively revised second edition includes forty-five new photographs and updated explanatory texts. Together they suggest how to make sense of the past and discover its relevance for the present. This innovative, multi-layered book will appeal to everyone concerned with questions of history, memory, and identity.

Jonathan Webber, Professor of Philosophy, Cardiff University

Jonathan Webber is Professor of Philosophy at Cardiff University. He has published papers on moral philosophy and philosophy of psychology in leading academic journals including Analysis, European Journal of Philosophy, Journal of Moral Philosophy, Mind, and Philosophical Quarterly. He is the author
of the monograph The Existentialism of Jean-Paul Sartre, editor of the collection of essays Reading Sartre: on Phenomenology and Existentialism, co-editor of From Personality to Virtue: Essays in the Philosophy of Character, and translator of Sartre's book The Imaginary.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780253221858
ISBN 10	0253221854
Title	Rediscovering Traces of Memory
Author	Jonathan Webber
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Indiana University Press
Year published	2009-09-15
Number of pages	186
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.