Kenneth Ellman

It is like confronting the past in the present

This book has much to commend it. A very, very, powerful presentation that sears those interviewed into your mind. Herb Brin with a not fully explained cooperation of the German Government, interviews Officials of Germany, private executives of German Foundations and other Germans in positions of social prestige. And he does it reasonably well.
The confrontation and I do call it a confrontation with Germany, has Brin asking simple but straight forward questions. How were all these people murdered? How were all these children killed? These are not new questions but to have them posed to those in power in Germany in 1991 and insist on an answer opens up a dialog that I have just not read before.
An example is this extract from the conversation with Dr. Klaus Kinkel, State Secretary for the German Ministry of Justice on the murder of six million Jewish men, women and CHILDREN:
“Brin–These people who did the killing knew. They knew what they were doing.
Kinkel–I could tell you terrible things that I have heard from my friends in Israel. What I have heard has left me speachless. Of course we know it happened…
Brin–Does he (Dr. Kinkel) have any comments about the American nazi lovers who are going about insisting that the Holocaust is a myth, that it never happened.
Kinkel–In my official capacity as the executive in the Federal Ministry of Justice, I can say there can be no question that the tragic Holocaust took place and this has also been declared by our Supreme Court. …”

The power of this Brin Book is not just the questions asked and answered it is who is doing the answering. This is not a history book. This book is not an account of the Holocaust nor a record of it in any way. But this book is an attempt to go to the land that committed these crimes against humanity and to ask those in power there today to explain, explain and answer. Something comes through this book that is haunting. It is short and very much to the point. It is a powerful and respectable confrontation and conversation with Germany. It is worth buying and reading. You will read it over and over again. I don’t understand why this book has not received much more comment and awareness.
Kenneth Ellman
email:ke@kennethellman.com