Art from agony: Vasily Grossman and the Holocaust

Discusses the Holocaust theme in Grossman's novel 'Life and fate'. The book was banned by Soviet censorship and the manuscript confiscated by the KGB in 1961. The reason was not only the Holocaust theme, which was forbidden in the Soviet Union, but also the criticism of Stalinism in Grossman's work. A copy of the manuscript was smuggled to the West and published there in 1980. It was only published in the Soviet Union in 1989. The authors show that the novel is based on historical fact and Grossman's personal tragedy. Based on archival material the authors reveal the history of the Berdichev massacre.