Cadaverland: Inventing a Pathology of Catastrophe for Holocaust Survival. The Limits of Medical Knowledge and Historical Memory in France, Michael Dorland (Lebanon, NH: University Press of New England for Brandeis University Press, 2009), xi + 275 pp., cloth $45.00

Abstract

The publication of a new volume by the Tauber Institute for the Study of European Jewry is an occasion of scholarly anticipation. The latest book in the series is no exception. Cadaverland: Inventing a Pathology of Catastrophe for Holocaust Survival focuses on the nature, scope, and implications of the treatment of Holocaust survivors in post-World War II France. Professor Michael Dorland of the School of Journalism and Communication at Carleton University in Ottawa is neither a historian nor a clinician, but is rather a journalist, film critic, and novelist. Yet, through his diverse experience he has acquired an exceptional depth of knowledge and insight. Professor Dorland's book, while not an easy read, is an engaging and unique exploration of how French doctors analyzed the impact of the concentration camps on Holocaust survivors. The author devoted ten years to writing this work, and the result is a nuanced combination of historical, cultural, political, sociological, and psychological approaches to the study of the Holocaust.