When Night Fell: Short Stories of the Holocaust - Tapa dura

Both survivors of the Holocaust and those who were not there agree that it is impossible to tell what happened during the Final Solution. Language cannot express the horrors of such places as Auschwitz. No piece of writing can adequately imagine the concentration camps, ghettos and death camps. And that is precisely why writers must tell - and retell - what happened there. In "When Night Fell: Short Stories of the Holocaust", Linda S. Raphael and Marc Lee Raphael have collected 27 short stories that interpret the Holocaust. Some of the writers included here, such as Aharon Appelfeld, S.Y. Agnon and Yehuda Amichai, are internationally acclaimed authors. Other writers may be new to many readers, although their pieces are equally moving. This international selection includes stories by writers who experienced the Holocaust personally; other authors wrote about it long after the fact. Some pieces look at individual experience; others take a broader view. In addition to the stories selected, "When Night Fell" contains a useful introduction by the editors, putting the stories in context. Also included are a glossary of unfamiliar terms, a chronology of important events and a suggested reading list.

Linda Schermer Raphael teaches English at George Washington University. Her writings have focused on nineteenth- and twentieth-century literature, narrative theory, and moral skepticism in fiction. Marc Lee Raphael is Nathan and Sophia Gumenick Professor of Judaic Studies and Professor of Religion at the College of William and Mary. He is the author of Profiles in American Judaism: The Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, and Reconstructionist Traditions in Historical Perspective.