The Müselmann at the Water Cooler

Eli Pfefferkorn

Open Access Published by Academic Studies Press 2011

The Müselmann at the Water Cooler

Eli Pfefferkorn
Funded by: National Endowment for the Humanities and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Humanities Open Book Program

In the series Reference Library of Jewish Intellectual History

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781618116857

Overview
Contents

About this book

Winner of the 2012 Helen and Stan Vine Canadian Jewish Book Award in Holocaust Literature. A survivor of concentration camps and the Death March, Eli Pfefferkorn looks back on his Holocaust and post-Holocaust experiences to compare patterns of human behavior in extremis with those of ordinary life. What he finds is that the concentration camp Muselmann, who has lost his hunger for life and is thus shunned by his fellow inmates on the soup line, bears an eerie resemblance to an office employee who has fallen from grace and whose coworkers avoid spending time with him at the water cooler. Though the circumstances are unfathomably far apart, the human response to their situations is triggered by self-preservation rather than by calculated evil. By juxtaposing these two separate worlds, Pfefferkorn demonstrates that ultimately the human condition has not changed significantly since Cain slew Abel and the Athenians sentenced Socrates.

Author / Editor information

Eli Pfefferkorn (PhD Brown University) has served as Director of Research at the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, worked as a reviewer for the Literary Supplement of Haaretz, and edited the periodical “Hebrew Literature in Translation.” He has worked as a professor at Haifa and Tel-Aviv Universities and has been a guest lecturer at Brown University. He is also the recipient of a Fulbright-Hays Scholarship.

Reviews

MBD:
"The book is an arresting reading experience both for the manner in which Pfefferkorn writes and the conclusions that he conveys. Not surprisingly, given his adult life-long dedication at the personal and scholarly level to writing, drama, poetry and prose, Pfefferkorn is a superb literary craftsman and stylist. His book is truly memoir as literature."

Sir Martin Gilbert, official biographer of Winston Churchill and author of The Second World War (Weidenfeld and Holt, 1989):
“Pfefferkorn has a lively style and a fascinating story to tell: his insights and his perspectives deserve a wide audience.”

John K. Roth, Edward Sexton Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, Claremont McKenna College:
“Pfefferkorn’s experience and his memoir about it are both unusual in the field of Holocaust studies. He experienced the Shoah and survived it, played a crucial role in the establishment of the United States Holocaust Museum, and has made substantial academic contributions as well. His memoir is well done, and will make an important contribution to the field of Holocaust studies.”

Topics

General Interest

Frontmatter Open Access Download PDF	I
Table of contents Open Access Download PDF	VI
Foreword Michael Berenbaum Open Access Download PDF	VIII
Preface Open Access Download PDF	XII
Glossary Open Access Download PDF	XVII
In the Beginning there was Bread and Freedom and Apathy Open Access Download PDF	1
One or Two? Open Access Download PDF	5
A Journey Back in Time Open Access Download PDF	6
Quo Vadis? Open Access Download PDF	11
The Amphibian Feet and the Soprano Voice Open Access Download PDF	15
Three Levels of Knowing Open Access Download PDF	22
Getting High on Zinger Tea Open Access Download PDF	24
Carrying the Armband Jude Open Access Download PDF	31
A Tom Sawyer Adventure Open Access Download PDF	35
Caught in the Web Open Access Download PDF	44
From the Armband to the Yellow Triangle Open Access Download PDF	47
A World that Has to be Imagined to Make it Real Open Access Download PDF	48
A Mother Mourning her Children Open Access Download PDF	52
The Plasticity of Human Nature Open Access Download PDF	55
Dodging the Muselmann’s Netherworld Open Access Download PDF	60
Virtual Reality Open Access Download PDF	62
Beware the Yellowish-Green Colour Open Access Download PDF	64
Irena — My Willowy Sister Open Access Download PDF	69
Protecting my Lebensraum Open Access Download PDF	76
Looking into the Pistol’s Muzzle Open Access Download PDF	78
Mottos reflecting the Shifting Situations Open Access Download PDF	81
The Messiah is Nigh Open Access Download PDF	82
The Predator Matrons Open Access Download PDF	84
Jedem das Seine — To Each his Own Open Access Download PDF	87
The Bond and the Rule Open Access Download PDF	89
“April is the Cruellest Month” Open Access Download PDF	90
Latter-Day Messiahs have come Open Access Download PDF	93
Death Stalking Life Open Access Download PDF	94
At the Birth of a Dream Open Access Download PDF	96
My Initiation into Scooping Humus Open Access Download PDF	98
The Schnitzel Riddle Open Access Download PDF	104
Israel and I — An Uneasy Co-Existence Open Access Download PDF	108
The Sabra Model Open Access Download PDF	110
The Other Open Access Download PDF	118
The New Day’s Rhythm Open Access Download PDF	122
The Temptation of the Cross Open Access Download PDF	124
Harold Fisch — My Patron Saint Open Access Download PDF	127
A Subject of Interest Open Access Download PDF	134
The Lure of the London Stage Open Access Download PDF	137
Humouring the Jewish Agency Open Access Download PDF	139
The Fateful Sukkah Meeting Open Access Download PDF	140
My Brother — Yusuf Open Access Download PDF	144
In the Aftermath of the Six-Day War Open Access Download PDF	147
A Critic at Large Open Access Download PDF	149
Kosher Style Open Access Download PDF	156
Black Cats versus White Cats Open Access Download PDF	158
An Immodest Proposal Open Access Download PDF	166
Hosanna Open Access Download PDF	167
Chomsky and I Open Access Download PDF	175
From Providence to the Holy Land Open Access Download PDF	177
The Yom Kippur War Open Access Download PDF	180
Touching the Past with Dieter Open Access Download PDF	184
Pfefferkorn versus the State of Israel Open Access Download PDF	186
The Latter-Day Hellenists Open Access Download PDF	192
Imitatio Dei Open Access Download PDF	195
The Bitburg Offence to Memory Open Access Download PDF	197
The Water Cooler Metaphor Open Access Download PDF	200
In Image and Word Open Access Download PDF	201
The Life of Pi Open Access Download PDF	203
My Secret Garden Open Access Download PDF	205
Speak No Evil of Man: He, Himself, is Testimony to It Open Access Download PDF	207
The Lost Generation Open Access Download PDF	211
Index Open Access Download PDF	214

Language: English
Publisher: Academic Studies Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;General/trade;
Pages
- Main content: 244
Keywords: memoir; Holocaust Survivor; Shoah; concentration camps; Müselmann; Death March; ghettoization; Majdanek; deportation; self-preservation; human psychology; Jewish Social Studies; United States Holocaust Museum; Memorial Council; Second World War; WWII; immigration to England; Zionists; Palestine; Machal; Israel

eBook

Published: December 17, 2017
ISBN: 9781618116857