Overview

An exceptional document of an extraordinary life, The Soul of Things is the memoir of Holocaust survivor va Fahidi. Since the memoir was first published in Hungarian in 2004 under the title Anima Rerum, Fahidi has become a household name in Hungary and in Germany. Featured in countless interviews and several prize-winning documentary films, at the age of ninety-five she is a frequent speaker at Holocaust commemorations in Hungary, Germany, and elsewhere. The Soul of Things combines a rare depiction of upper-middle-class Jewish life in pre-war Hungary with the chronicle of a woman's deportation and survival in the camps. Fahidi is a gifted writer with a unique voice, full of wisdom, humanity, and flashes of dark humour. With an unsentimental, philosophical perspective, she recounts her journey from the Great Hungarian Plain to the extermination camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the forced labour camp of Mnchmhle, and back. The English edition includes a new introduction by historians va Kovcs and Judith Szapor, the original prefaces to the Hungarian and German editions, an essay on the Mnchmle Camp by Fritz Brinkman-Frisch, and extensive notes providing historical and cultural context for Fahidi's narrative.

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9781487507442

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Reviews

Eva Fahidi's Soul of Things Memoir of a Youth Interrupted is a gripping, circular story that starts and ends with the Holocaust as experienced by the author in her young age and then as re-visited by her and her past campmates. This story cannot but encompass also the entire life and demise of many other Hungarian and European families and communities. Born in 1925, Eva Fahidi recounts in her Soul of Things - Memoir of a Youth Interrupted the story of the twentieth century including disastrous mega-destruction events and ever-optimistic attempts to reconstruct and rehabilitate humanity, compassion, and humor, despite all. Holocaust survivor Eva Fahidi's memoir encompasses her entire life, lived through almost the entire twentieth century and well into the twenty-first. In her last years, Fahidi is engaged in promoting discussion of the Holocaust by both its perpetrators and ultimate victims. Thus, she calls for reconciliation and human bonding against the dark evidence of history. - Ilana Rosen, Ben Gurion University of the Negev One of the best books in the genre of survivor accounts. - Randolph L. Braham, author of The Politics of Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary

Eva Fahidi's Soul of Things Memoir of a Youth Interrupted is a gripping, circular story that starts and ends with the Holocaust as experienced by the author in her young age and then as re-visited by her and her past campmates. This story cannot but encompass also the entire life and demise of many other Hungarian and European families and communities. Born in 1925, Eva Fahidi recounts in her Soul of Things - Memoir of a Youth Interrupted the story of the twentieth century including disastrous mega-destruction events and ever-optimistic attempts to reconstruct and rehabilitate humanity, compassion, and humor, despite all. Holocaust survivor Eva Fahidi's memoir encompasses her entire life, lived through almost the entire twentieth century and well into the twenty-first. In her last years, Fahidi is engaged in promoting discussion of the Holocaust by both its perpetrators and ultimate victims. Thus, she calls for reconciliation and human bonding against the dark evidence of history. - Ilana Rosen, Ben Gurion University of the Negev

Author Information

Éva Fahidi is an activist and author who has captivated audiences with her life story as an Auschwitz survivor. Judith Szapor is an associate professor in the Department of History and Classical Studies at McGill University.

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