The story of how the Nazi genocide of the Jews became an almost daily source of controversy in French politics. Joan Wolf argues that from the Six-Day War throughout the trial of Maurice Papon in 1997-98, the Holocaust developed from a Jewish trauma into a metaphor for oppression.
"This subtle, scholarly, discerning book is more than a study of "the politics of the Holocaust" in post-World War II France; it is also an examination of how a series of events, starting with the Six-Day War in 1967, led to drastic changes in the relationship between French Jews and the French Republic."--Stanley Hoffmann, Foreign Affairs
"[T]he book's strengths are manifold. Not only does Wolf thoroughly explain the Holocaust's emergence as a significant theme in French public life, but she also expertly shows the ways in which Jews and non-Jews interpreted the past differently, leading to misunderstandings between them."--Journal of Modern History
"Wolf has written a fine study of memory, ethnicity, and assimilation in postwar France. She makes a valuable contribution not only to recent French history but also to Holocaust studies and the history of memory."
