Binjamin Wilkomirski - First Publication

First Publication

First published in German in 1995 by the Jüdischer Verlag (part of the highly respected Suhrkamp Verlag publishing house), Bruchstücke was soon translated into nine languages; an English translation with the title Fragments appeared in 1996, published by Schocken. The book earned widespread critical admiration, but nowhere was it as enthusiastic as in Switzerland and in the English-speaking countries, and won several awards, including the National Jewish Book Award in the United States, the Prix Memoire de la Shoah in France, and the Jewish Quarterly literary prize in Britain. The book sold well, but in contradiction to common belief it was not a bestseller. (Maechler, 2001a, pp. 111–128; Oels, 2004, pp. 376–9) Some critics even compared Wilkomirski to Elie Wiesel, Primo Levi and Anne Frank. He was invited to participate in radio and television programs as a witness and expert, and was interviewed and videotaped by reputable archives. In his oral statements Wilkomirski elaborated on many aspects which remained unclear or unexplained. For example, he provided the names of the concentration camps in which he claimed to have been interned (Majdanek and Auschwitz), and added that he had been the victim of unbearable medical experiments. (Maechler, 2001a, pp. 22–83)