By now I am having trouble making it through this book about Holocaust survivor Siggi Wilzig. Not because he wasn't an impressive guy, he clearly was. I'm sure he could and would have run circles around me in almost any context, or just outlasted me. But it's kind of a shitty book. Because he admires Siggi so, the author, Joshua Greene, heaps golly-gee-shucks praise on him for business practices which, viewed objectively, would be worthy of considerable eyebrow-raising if not more, like browbeating and intimidating clients into giving him more business. Basically the whole book suffers from the author's lack of objectivity and the rose-tinted corneas.
But is has been worth the price of admission just to read the story of Wilzig's experience in Auschwitz. It is all too easy to forget what happened there. If anything it reminds me that I should probably make sure my kids have seen at least Nacht und Nebel (which I'm pretty sure we watched at Seawell) if not Shoah (which I never watched in its entirety). We need to remember what has happened and could happen if we're not careful.
Wilzig was instrumental in the founding of the Holocaust Museum in DC. For that reason alone I should probably continue to pick my way through his bio, despite its failings as a book.
No comments:
Post a Comment