Israeli historian Saul Friedlander wins German Book Trade's 2007 peace prize

[Marcus Marulus]

Israeli historian Saul Friedlander wins German Book Trade's 2007 peace prize

The Associated Press

Published: October 14, 2007

FRANKFURT, Germany: Israeli historian Saul Friedlander was awarded the top prize at the annual Frankfurt Book Fair on Sunday in recognition of his narratives documenting the Nazi Holocaust.

"Saul Friedlander gave a voice to the grievances and cries of those human beings who were turned to dust — he gave them memory and a name," the German Book Trade association said in awarding Friedlander its 2007 peace prize.

"The acknowledgment of human dignity forms the basis for peace among mankind, and Saul Friedlander returned to the murdered millions the dignity of which they had been robbed," it said.

Friedlander's family emigrated from Czechoslovakia in 1939 to France in a bid to escape the Nazis.

While Friedlander himself managed to avoid arrest by staying at a Catholic boarding school under an assumed name, his parents were captured and deported to Auschwitz, where they died in 1942.


In his acceptance speech, Friedlander highlighted letters written by his parents before they were killed as examples of how the views of individuals are of "general importance for the representation of history."
"If we listen to these cries, then we do not need to ritualize or institutionalize remembrance," the 75-year-old told the 1,000 guests at the ceremony.

Friedlander, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, was given the €25,000 (US$35,500) peace prize on the final day of the annual book fair in an award ceremony at Frankfurt's St. Paul's Church.

Following the award presentation, a 44-year-old man rushed at German President Horst Koehler when he had left the church and grabbed his suit, but was quickly arrested and did not harm the head of state.

Among Friedlander's best-known works is his two-volume collection "The Third Reich and the Jews."

The association said Friedlander was chosen for his firsthand approach to Holocaust history.

"Friedlander is one of the last historiographers to have witnessed and experienced the Holocaust — a genocide that was announced early on, planned openly and carried out with machinelike precision," the association said. "Friedlander rejects the distanced approach often associated with the writing of history: He creates a space for incomprehensibility — the only possible reaction to such an unfathomable crime."

Previous winners of the award include German sociologist Wolf Lepenies in 2006, outspoken Turkish author and Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk, and former Czech President Vaclav Havel.

The prize was first awarded in 1950.

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