Memory Monsters (film)

What would you do to survive?..The Yad Vashem Memorial Complex sends a young Israeli historian to Poland—to serve as a guide for delegations of government officials, school groups, students, and soldiers through the former death camps of Auschwitz, Treblinka, Sobibor, and Majdanek… He had prepared himself carefully for this work. He knew that the most important thing for someone in his position was to not let the horrors of the past invade your life. He was sure he could handle it. But he overestimated his strength…In this book, Ishai Sarid challenges the reader, inviting them to contemplate what we usually prefer not to trouble ourselves with.ReviewsA warning to us all: we must not let the past consume the present.The New York Times Book ReviewReading this bold, powerful, brutal book is a painful and agonizing experience. But an absolutely necessary one. Especially today.Yedioth AhronothIshai Sarid is right: today, the belief that our cultural memory can restrain hatred and fanaticism seems more questionable than ever.LiberationThis uncompromising book is deafening.Le TempsPerhaps this is the most important book about the Holocaust and the memory of the Holocaust written in the last ten years.Bill Niven, Member of the British Holocaust AssociationPerhaps the most significant book on morality and sacrifice. Alongside Primo Levi and Hannah Arendt, Ishai Sarid forms a "holy trinity."Navit BarellThe author reveals to the reader an unpleasant truth, often hidden behind an overly optimistic view of humanity, and argues that studying the horrors of the Holocaust does not make this world any better. And "never again" most often means "never again… for us."Mitchell Abidor, Jewish CurrentsThe author follows the hero in a spiral toward a nervous breakdown, while exploring memory and its associated risks—and criticizing how Israel uses the Holocaust to shape a national identity…Publishers WeeklyThe novel is an original variation on one of the most important themes in post-Holocaust literature: while countless writers have asked whether humanity can be found in the profoundly inhuman, Sarid vividly shows how preoccupation with and obsession with the inhuman can affect one's own humanity. If this is not an indictment of perpetuating the Holocaust, it is certainly a profound and uncompromising examination of its multilayered politics. Ultimately, Sarid refuses to apologize for Jewish anger, and condemns the despicable forms it sometimes takes.A bold, masterful exploration of the banality of evil and the nature of revenge.About the AuthorIshai Sarid was born in 1965 in Tel Aviv. He is the son of the renowned journalist and politician Yossi Sarid and the grandson of Israel's third prime minister, Levi Eshkol, after whom he was named.He completed five years of service in the Israel Defense Forces as an intelligence officer. He studied law at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and earned a master's degree from Harvard University. He worked as an assistant criminal prosecutor and now practices law privately.He is published in the Israeli press and writes a column for the newspaper Haaretz.Author of six bestselling books.His novel "Limassol" was awarded the Gran Prix de Littérature Policière (France, 2011) for best crime novel, the SNCF Award (France, 2011), and the Maria Giorgetti International Award (Italy, 2013). The novel "The Third" received the Bernstein Prize (Israel, 2016).Sarid's books have been published in twelve languages.