The challenge for a nonfiction writer is to achieve a poetic precision using the documents of truth but somehow to make people and places spring to life as if the reader was in their presence.
Simon SchamaRead
It's not right to think about all of Jewish-German history as shrouded by the smoke of the crematorium.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Jewish-German history should not be solely defined by the Holocaust; there is more to it than tragedy.
Simon Schama emphasizes that the Jewish-German narrative is often overshadowed by the horrors of the Holocaust. While the tragedy of the crematorium is a significant event, it is crucial to recognize the rich cultural, intellectual, and social contributions of Jewish communities in Germany throughout history, as well as the complexity of their experiences beyond the dark chapters.
Themes
JewishGermanHolocaustHistoryCulture
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture on the importance of remembering diverse historical narratives.
More from Simon Schama
All quotes βIn its Greek origins, historia meant inquiry, and from Thucydides onwards, the past has been studied to understand its connections with the present.
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Jewish history turns out not to be an either/or story - as in, either pure Judaism detached from its surroundings or else assimilation - but rather, for the vast majority, the adventure of living in between.
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I understood when I was quite small that there were two special things about the Jews. That we'd endured for over 3,000 years despite everything that had been thrown at us, and that we had an extraordinarily dramatic story to tell.
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History is admirably dangerous. It is not the soft option. Teachers need to be grown up and brave. Sensitivity is fine, but it stops at the door of honest narrative.
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History gives you insight of the same quality of truth as poetry or philosophy or a novel.
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