The Memory of Goodness: Eva Fleischner and Her Contributions to Holocaust Studies ed. by Carol Rittner and John K. Roth

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Memory of Goodness: Eva Fleischner and Her Contributions to Holocaust Studies ed. by Carol Rittner and John K. Roth Eugene J. Fisher The Memory of Goodness: Eva Fleischner and Her Contributions to Holocaust Studies. Edited by Carol Rittner and John K. Roth. Greensburg, PA Seton Hill University, 2022. Pp. 249. $19.95, paper. Anyone interested in Jewish-Christian relations should read this book. It begins with a summary of the work of Eva Fleischner (1925–2020). She was half-Jewish on her father's side and fled Europe in 1938. The book contains twelve essays by Fleischner in three parts. In the first she narrates how she became involved in Shoah studies. She discusses the challenges of teaching the Holocaust to Christians and Jews because it raises questions about the validity of Christianity since the perpetrators were Christians. She provides a summary of the history of the Christian teaching of contempt, which paved the way for racial Antisemitism. While Jews could "escape" Christian persecution by converting to Christianity, under Antisemitism one was doomed to death simply for being a Jew. The fourth essay in this section discusses the "crucial importance" of the Holocaust for Christian self-understanding, given the horror of the genocide. In the second section, "Rescue and Responsibility," Fleischner describes her interviews with those in France who hid Jews from the Vichy government and the Nazis. This is an uplifting set of stories of real people, mostly women, risking their lives to save those in peril of death. The chapter asks why there were so few, and it asks readers what they might have done in those dire circumstances. This can be the source of deep dialogue among Christians and between Christians and Jews. She goes on to speak of the struggle of Jewish children who were saved in Catholic homes and were often baptized and raised as Catholics to accept, after the war, the fact that they were actually Jews, which many of them, having been hidden when very young, never knew. Again, this is deeply moving and digs deeply into how each of us can understand who we are. The section ends [End Page 317] with a reflection of a Jew who is asked for forgiveness by a dying Nazi. The Jew does not answer but remains silent. Fleischner notes, citing Elie Wiesel, that only the victims can forgive those who harmed them, and the victims are dead. The Nazi must seek forgiveness from the God of Israel if he or she is sincerely repentant. The final section of the book deals with Jewish-Christian relations during and since the Shoah. She describes how the Catholic Church and other Christian traditions have re-thought the ancient Christian teaching of contempt toward Jews and Judaism since Auschwitz, reformulating their teachings and working to accept the reality of the irrevocable (cf. Romans 9–11) covenant between the God of Israel and the people of Israel. The covenant emphasizes the fact that Jesus lived and died a pious Jew of his time and sought to rejuvenate his people, the Jews, relying on the only Bible he knew, the Hebrew Scriptures. She delves deeply into the spirituality of Pope Pius XII, his good qualities, and the fact that he did not fully live up to the challenges of his time. The book concludes with a search into the life and works of the great Jewish thinker, Abraham Joshua Heschel, which helped both Jews and Christians to redefine their relationship toward a full encounter with their past and a hope for a better future for all. To do this we—Catholics and other Christians—need to encounter anew the living God in a living people, the Jews, and in their faith and lives. Eugene J. Fisher Saint Leo University, St. Leo, FL Copyright © 2022 Journal of Ecumenical Studies