Auschwitz: The place where millions were killed by the Nazis and which many thousands now visit each year. A mass grave of unspeakable proportions - and now a tourist destination. The focus of this extraordinary work, part autobiography, part fiction, part history, is on the sightseers, the voyeurs, the curious that are drawn to visit. It is a book that actually questions why we need to look: what is there to uncover? The author also asks how can one write about Auschwitz in the 21st century in a time when the last generation of survivors is soon to be lost. This beautiful, powerful and innovative work experiments with new forms correspondence, reflections, dreams, a travelogue that mirror the fragmentary legacy of the Holocaust itself and, at the same time, captures its contradictions and sometimes its absurdity. The backbone of Auschwitz is a series of emails between the author and acclaimed Franco-American writer Raymond Federman (1928- 2009). At the age of 14 Federman was hastily thrust into the small upstairs closet of their Paris apartment by his mother just before she, his father and two sisters were taken to Auschwitz, where they were killed. Federman spent a lifetime trying to find a language appropriate for the enormity of the Holocaust and his part in its legacy, ultimately espousing laughterature - laughter as a means of survival.
