Reflections from a Dark Glass: Reply to Grey

In Recent Years, much of my interest has been on what knowledge of the Holocaust and Holocaust studies stirs in the witness and bystander (Prince, 1985a, 1998). I do not believe that it is possible to think meaningfully about the Holocaust without self-examination. In his assault on my book, Alan Grey admonishes me for my “idiosyncratic biases.” Grey might have done well to consider some of his own “idiosyncratic biases” in deciding to review my book, as well as his reading of it. To begin with, Grey should have disclosed the unpleasant personal relationship between us that might have had a bearing on his decision to review the book and his reaction to it. More importantly, he could have tried to reflect on his own attitudes about the Holocaust that are portrayed throughout the review. Had he done so, perhaps he could have permitted reasonable consideration of important issues, rather than produce a distorted picture. In his characterization of the book, Grey misreads, misunderstands, misrepresents, selectively attends, and quotes out of context. His review betrays a lack of understanding of the book's approach, what it presents as findings, and, most importantly, about the Holocaust itself. It may have significance, however, as an example of the reactions the Holocaust elicits.

The underlying assumption of Legacy, the context in which the children of survivors were studied, is that the Holocaust was a historical event of massive significance, one that defined the twentieth century and fully justified the historian George Kren's (1980, 1984) characterization of it as a “historical novum.” As Marcus and Wineman (1985) write,

Many scholars have claimed the Holocaust is a unique event and in many ways an unparalleled event in human history with wide-ranging transformational consequences for the human situation. Philosophers … theologians … and historians … have all viewed the Holocaust as an unprecedented event with radical consequences … for how we understand the

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