Jean-francois steiner biography

A Holocaust Controversy: The Treblinka Affair in Postwar France

Samuel Moyn

How has the world come to focus on the Holocaust and why has it invariably done so in the heat of controversy, scandal, and polemics about the past?These questions are at the heart of this unique investigation of the Treblinka affair that occurred in France in 1966 when Jean-François Steiner, a young Jewish journalist, published "Treblinka: The Revolt of an Extermination Camp."

A cross between a history and a novel, Steiner’s book narrated the 1943 revolt at one of the major Nazi death camps.

Abetted by a scandalous interview he gave, as well as Simone de Beauvoir’s glowing preface, the book shot to the top of the Parisian bestseller list and prompted a wide-ranging controversy in which both the well-known and the obscure were embroiled.

Few had heard of Treblinka, or other death camps, before the affair.

The validity of the differe