Goals for Exposing the Inconsistencies in Fénelon’s Holocaust Memoir

Abstract

In this chapter Eischeid discusses her two primary goals in exposing the manufactured incidents and embellishments in Fania Fénelon’s Holocaust memoir Playing for Time. Eischeid’s first goal is to reveal how deeply embedded many of these embellishments are in Holocaust scholarship, writing, and remembrance and how they are now accepted as truth. The intent is absolutely not to criticize respected Holocaust scholars and institutions, rather to change the way in which Fénelon’s work is utilized and cited. The second goal of Eischeid’s study is to insure that the voices of Fania’s colleagues in the orchestra are fully heard—at last—and that their testimonies assume equal weight in the pantheon of remembrance.