The essays in THEY BORE WITNESS probe the writings of the major authors who endured the horror of the Holocaust in the camps or hiding in plain sight. These European and Israeli authors are among the finest writers their countries have produced, regarded as such by literary and social critics in their own as well as those in other lands. Whetever literary techniques employed - realism, magic realism, stream of consciousness, or variations thereof- these men and women, in being forced to confront head-on the issues of good and evil, of social and moral responsibility, of life and death, have produced a body of work that goes beyond the specifics of their own time and place.

GABRIEL MOTOLA  has published essays, articles, and book reviews in such journals as The Nation, New York Times Book Review, American Scholar, and Sewanee Review. After retiring from Bronx Community College, he taught at The New School, where he created the syllabus for “Literature and Film of the Holocaust.”