The Girl Who Stole My Holocaust
A Memoir
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4.3 • 4 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
“She took from me the belief that absolute evil exists in this world, and the belief that I was avenging it and fighting against it. For that girl, I embodied absolute evil ... Since then I have been left without my Holocaust, and since then everything in my life has assumed a new meaning: belongingness is blurred, pride is lacking, belief is faltering, contrition is heightening, forgiveness is being born.”
The Girl Who Stole My Holocaust is the deeply moving memoir of Chayut’s journey from eager Zionist conscript on the front line of Operation Defensive Shield to leading campaigner against the Israeli occupation. As he attempts to make sense of his own life as well as his place within the wider conflict around him, he slowly starts to question his soldier’s calling, Israel’s justifications for invasion, and the ever-present problem of historical victimhood.
Noam Chayut’s exploration of a young soldier’s life is one of the most compelling memoirs to emerge from Israel for a long time.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this shattering memoir, former Israeli army officer Chayut details his long, painful journey of self-realization. Raised in a town where the commemoration of the Holocaust and its perpetrators is continually stressed, Chayut was eager to perform his compulsory military service. As a soldier, he was certain that he belonged "to the most moral army in the world." A chance encounter with a terrified 10 year-old Palestinian girl planted the seed that eventually forced Chayut to face the fact that "For that girl, I embodied absolute evil." Slowly he realized that, while he had thought of himself as a noble warrior, he was himself guilty of a thousand petty, sadistic acts; pointless humiliations intended to keep a subject people in their place. Chayut is now active in "Breaking the Silence", a group of former soldiers who testify about their misdeeds in the occupation of Palestine. And though he is Israeli, he must be understood as the universal soldier: trained to obey, numbed by experience, taking out his frustrations on those who can't fight back. Chayut could be any one of us, anywhere; if only we all had the courage to face ourselves so unflinchingly.
