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A Damaged Mirror: a story of memory and redemption

A Damaged Mirror is a 2014 "novelized" memoir by Yael Shahar and Ovadya ben Malka. The book explores the moral dilemmas of a former member of the Birkenau Sonderkommando, Ovadya ben Malka. The book was reissued in 2015 with a new Foreword by Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo.

Plot Summary

The book opens with Yael reaching out to a rabbi for a rabbinic judgement for “Alex”. In subsequent correspondence with the rabbi, Rav Ish-Shalom, we learn that Alex's real name is Ovadya. He was deported to Birkenau from his home in Salonika, Greece at the age of 17. His mother and sister were gassed on arrival and Ovadya was sent to the Sonderkommando, the group of prisoners responsible for running the machinery of murder.

Ovadya wants the rabbi to serve as a rabbinic judge--essentially to put himself on trial for what he did in Birkenau. “The fact that good people can be forced to do wrong doesn’t make them less good,” he says. “But it also doesn’t make the wrong less wrong.” However, he is unable to speak of what he did to survive, and his past is gradually revealed in a series of letters to the rabbi and to Masha, a woman who was forced into prostitution during the war. He is able to tell her what he cannot speak aloud.

Yael, born two decades later in America, has no connection with Ovadya, and yet she haunted by a mysterious memory of something she could not have lived. In an attempt to understand the source of these memories, she sets out on a quest to Europe and eventually Israel. Her quest to learn what and how she remembers is bound up with Ovadya’s search for forgiveness and atonement. She too is unable to speak of the harrowing glimpses revealed by memory, but Ovadya holds the key to fitting the pieces together.

The second half of the book follows Ovadya in his spiritual quest, under the guidance of Rav Ish-Shalom. The rabbi sets him the task of bearing witness for those who perished in the gas chambers, but, scarred by the memory, Ovadya is reluctant to tell what he saw. Little by little, his memory returns, and he finds that he had suppressed even the good memories of his childhood in Salonika. Eventually, a breakthrough occurs and he is able to do what is required by Jewish Law—to journey back to Birkenau and make a formal confession to the souls of those he feels that he has wronged.

External links

A Damaged Mirror: A story of memory and redemption.

Jewish Book Section Review

Interview with author Yael Shahar

The Story of Shmuel the Glazier, as told to Ovadya ben Malka. Accidental Talmudist

This article about a nonfiction book on World War II is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

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+[[File:Cover Paperback March2015.png|thumb|A Damaged Mirror: a story of memory and redemption]]
 '''A Damaged Mirror''' is a 2014 "novelized" memoir by Yael Shahar and Ovadya ben Malka. The book explores the moral dilemmas of a former member of the [[Auschwitz concentration camp|Birkenau]] [[Sonderkommando]], Ovadya ben Malka. The book was reissued in 2015 with a new Foreword by Rabbi [[Nathan Lopes Cardozo]].
 ==Plot Summary==
-The book opens with Yael reaching out to a rabbi for a rabbinic judgement for a man who goes by the name of “Alex”, but refuses to go by his real name, Ovadya. In subsequent correspondence with the rabbi, Rav Ish-Shalom, we learn that Ovadya was seventeen years old when he was deported to Birkenau from his home in Salonika, Greece. His mother and sister were gassed on arrival and Ovadya was sent to the Sonderkommando, the group of prisoners responsible for running the machinery of murder.
+The book opens with Yael reaching out to a rabbi for a rabbinic judgement for “Alex”. In subsequent correspondence with the rabbi, Rav Ish-Shalom, we learn that Alex's real name is Ovadya. He was deported to [[Birkenau]] from his home in [[Salonika]], Greece at the age of 17. His mother and sister were gassed on arrival and Ovadya was sent to the [[Sonderkommando]], the group of prisoners responsible for running the machinery of murder.
-More than sixty years later, Ovadya is ready to face the past in search of atonement. “The fact that good people can be forced to do wrong doesn’t make them less good,” he says. “But it also doesn’t make the wrong less wrong.” However, he is unable to speak of what he did to survive, and his past is gradually revealed in a series of letters to the rabbi and to Masha, a woman who was forced into prostitution in during the war. He is able to tell her what he cannot speak of aloud.
+Ovadya wants the rabbi to serve as a rabbinic judge--essentially to put himself on trial for what he did in Birkenau. “The fact that good people can be forced to do wrong doesn’t make them less good,” he says. “But it also doesn’t make the wrong less wrong.” However, he is unable to speak of what he did to survive, and his past is gradually revealed in a series of letters to the rabbi and to Masha, a woman who was forced into prostitution during the war. He is able to tell her what he cannot speak aloud.
-Yael, born two decades later in America, has no connection with Ovadya, and yet, she haunted by a mysterious memory of something she could not have lived.  In an attempt to understand the source of these dark memories, she sets out on a quest to Europe and eventually Israel. Her quest to learn what and how she remembers is bound up with Ovadya’s search for forgiveness and atonement. She too is unable to speak of the harrowing glimpses revealed by memory, but Ovadya holds the key to fitting the pieces together.
+Yael, born two decades later in America, has no connection with Ovadya, and yet she haunted by a mysterious memory of something she could not have lived.  In an attempt to understand the source of these memories, she sets out on a quest to Europe and eventually Israel. Her quest to learn what and how she remembers is bound up with Ovadya’s search for forgiveness and atonement. She too is unable to speak of the harrowing glimpses revealed by memory, but Ovadya holds the key to fitting the pieces together.
-The second half of the book follows Ovadya in his spiritual quest, under the guidance of Rav Ish-Shalom. The rabbi sets him the task of bearing witness for those who perished in the gas chambers, but, scarred by the memory, Ovadya is reluctant to tell what he saw. Little by little, his memory returns, and he finds that he had suppressed even the good memories of his childhood in Saloniki. Eventually, a breakthrough occurs and he is able to do what is required by Jewish Law—to journey back to Birkenau and make a formal confession to the souls of those he feels that he has wronged.
+The second half of the book follows Ovadya in his spiritual quest, under the guidance of Rav Ish-Shalom. The rabbi sets him the task of bearing witness for those who perished in the gas chambers, but, scarred by the memory, Ovadya is reluctant to tell what he saw. Little by little, his memory returns, and he finds that he had suppressed even the good memories of his childhood in Salonika. Eventually, a breakthrough occurs and he is able to do what is required by Jewish Law—to journey back to Birkenau and make a formal confession to the souls of those he feels that he has wronged.