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Miriam Shaviv

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Miriam Shaviv,

Miriam Shaviv

Opinion

My cure for Holocaust fatigue

December 13, 2013 11:26
2 min read

About 10 years ago ago, I felt myself getting Holocaust fatigue.

Not that – God forbid – I stopped caring about the terrible atrocities or the national tragedy. Rather, I had reached saturation point. I had been surrounded by Holocaust stories and history for so long, I did not feel the need to know any more.

The immediate trigger was working as the Jerusalem Post’s literary editor. About one in three books being sent to me concerned the Shoah, and I became desperate for other material to fill my pages and other books to nab from the office.

Over the previous decade, movie makers began to address the Holocaust in a more sophisticated way, with Schindler’s List, Life is Beautiful and other films. I only watched a couple. My feeling was that many of these movies grappled with facts and moral questions which were revolutionary to depict on film, but had been addressed many times during my own Jewish education. They were made—I felt — for people who did not really know about the Holocaust, not for people like me who grew up with Holocaust classes, youth group activities and Yom Hashoah ceremonies.