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In this volume dedicated to understanding, mourning, and thinking about the great human tragedy of Holocaust, we present the reviews of four books, which approach this matter from different vantage points. The first book is a compendium of terms and concepts related to Holocaust (and other massive trauma as well). The distinguished Israeli psychoanalyst, Ilany Kogan, reviews this edited volume by Danieli et al. A widely respected contributor to the psychoanalytic literature on Holocaust, exile, and mental pain (Kogan, 1990, 1993, 1995), Kogan elucidates the essentials of this compendium in a thoughtful manner while not overlooking the difficulties of reviewing such a diverse and comprehensive volume.
The next three books deal with the psychologies of the cruel perpetrator, the tacit collaborator, and the resilient survivor respectively. First, Ira Brenner, a noted contributor to Holocaust studies and psychoanalytic literature on dissociation (Brenner, 1988, 2000; Kestenberg and Brenner, 1996), carefully evaluates Fritz Redlich's recent and widely respected biography of Adolf Hitler. Next, Andrew Klafter offers a sophisticated reading of John Cornwell's book on Pope Pius XII who is known to have aided and abetted Hitler's rise to power and failed to speak out against the Nazi machinery of violence. Finally, Eric Lager solemnly celebrates the personal sojourn of Egon Balas, a sojourn that is intermittently poignant, terrifying, ironic, and sad but ultimately redemptive and triumphant. Not only did the remarkable Balas preserve his body and mind during and after his concentration camp experience, he was also able to salvage and, later, enhance his capacities for sublimation and creativity.
There are many illustrious examples of such creativity in the context of Holocaust. Novels such as Sophie's Choice (Styron, 1979) and White Hotel (Thomas, 1981) and films like The Pawnbroker (Allied Artists, , directed by Sidney Lumet) and Schindler's List (United Pictures, , directed