New Books In Genocide Studies

Today I talked to Carol Rittner and John K. Roth about their edited volume The Memory of Goodness: Eva Fleischner and her contributions to Holocaust Studies (National Catholic Center for Holocaust Education, 2022) Rittner and Roth have continued their longtime partnership by editing and introducing a compilation of writings by Eva Fleischner. Fleischner was an important historian of the Holocaust, contributing to our understanding of the origins of anti-Jewish thought as well as to the study of rescuers. Her essays about teaching the Holocaust and how to integrate themes of goodness and the role of the church are insightful and important. But she played perhaps an even more important role in responding to and shaping discussions about how Catholics individually and the Catholic Church as an institution should respond to the Holocaust. Rittner and Roth reproduce a number of these essays, provide an invaluable and extensive chronology, and provide additional context that illuminates Fleischner's contributions.