“Alex” does not con­sid­er the Jews heroes for hav­ing sur­vived, includ­ing him­self. He does not demo­nize the Nazis although he expe­ri­enced the War­saw ghet­to, forced march­es and con­cen­tra­tion camps. He crit­i­cizes Amer­i­can Jews for their intense iden­ti­fi­ca­tion with the Holo­caust. He believes that instead of ​“nev­er again,” Amer­i­can Jews should put the Holo­caust behind them. Of course, few sur­vivors agree with him. 

His back­ground is a con­fus­ing mix of tra­di­tion­al Judaism and sec­u­lar pur­suits. ​“I have always felt detached from life.” His Holo­caust expe­ri­ence is a fas­ci­nat­ing nar­ra­tive, quite dif­fer­ent from most of the oth­ers that have been record­ed. ​“The war peri­od remains murky in my mind.”

“Alex’s” lib­er­a­tion took place when he was 18. His res­i­dence in the Stuttgart Dis­placed Per­sons’ Camp was ​“the hap­pi­est peri­od of my life.” An uncle invit­ed ​“Alex” to the Unit­ed States in 1946. Edu­ca­tion led him to a career in com­put­ers. He con­tin­ued to be annoyed with the con­cept of ​“We’ve sur­vived to bear wit­ness.” The com­mer­cial­iza­tion of the Holo­caust in the Unit­ed States con­tin­ued to dis­gust him. 

This unusu­al reac­tion to the Holo­caust expe­ri­ence should be read for its con­trast­ing views and lit­er­ary appeal. Index, maps.