ABSTRACT
Binjamin Wilkomirski’s Fragments: Memories of a Childhood 1939-1948 was first published in German in 1995 and caused an immediate sensation (Wilkomirski 1996). It purported to be one of the very rare records of a Jewish child from Latvia who survived Nazi genocide: its author claimed to have lived in both Majdanek and Auschwitz. Anna Karpf reviewed it at length in The Guardian, praising it as ‘one of the great works about the Holocaust’, and Katharine Viner ranked the book with works by Elie Wiesel, Anne Frank, Paul Celan and Claude Lanzmann (Karpf 1998: 2; Viner 1998: 2). It was very favourably reviewed by Maria Ross in the Daily Mail, Patricia Lee in the Literary Review and Paul Bailey in the Daily Telegraph. Holocaust historians hailed it as a masterpiece and it won the National Jewish Book Award in the USA, the Jewish Quarterly Literary Prize in the UK, and Le Prix de Mémoire de la Shoah in France. A favourable review of the book appeared in the specialist medical journal, Medicine,
Conflict and Survival ( James 1999: 432). Since then it has been published in thirty countries and translated into sixteen languages, including Japanese. Wilkomirski toured the world relating his story, giving moving, tearful interviews, readings and performances, often to Holocaust survivors. He has also given lectures, appeared on TV in documentary films, and helped set up counselling for Holocaust survivors.
