Fermaglich: American Dreams and Nazi Nightmares page i American Dreams and Nazi Nightmares Fermaglich: American Dreams and Nazi Nightmares page ii Brandeis Series in American Jewish History, Culture, and Life Jonathan D. Sarna, Editor Sylvia Barack Fishman, Associate Editor Kirsten Fermaglich Amy L. Sales and Leonard Saxe American Dreams and Nazi Nightmares: “How Goodly Are Thy Tents”: Summer Early Holocaust Consciousness and Liberal Camps as Jewish Socializing Experiences America, 1957–1965 Ori Z. Soltes Andrea Greenbaum, editor Fixing the World: Jewish American Painters Jews of South Florida in the Twentieth Century Sylvia Barack Fishman Gary P. Zola, editor Double or Nothing: Jewish Families and The Dynamics of American Jewish History: Mixed Marriages Jacob Rader Marcus’s Essays on American Jewry George M. Goodwin and Ellen Smith, David Zurawik editors The Jews of Prime Time The Jews of Rhode Island Ranen Omer-Sherman Shulamit Reinharz and Mark A. Raider, Diaspora and Zionism in American Jewish editors Literature: Lazarus, Syrkin, Reznikoff, and Roth American Jewish Women and the Zionist Enterprise Ilana Abramovitch and Seán Galvin, editors Jews of Brooklyn Michael E. Staub, editor The Jewish 1960s: An American Sourcebook Pamela S. Nadell and Jonathan D. Sarna, editors Judah M. Cohen Women and American Judaism: Historical Through the Sands of Time: A History of Perspectives the Jewish Community of St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands Annelise Orleck, with photographs by Elizabeth Cooke Naomi W. Cohen The Soviet Jewish Americans The Americanization of Zionism, 1897–1948 Steven T. Rosenthal Seth Farber Irreconcilable Differences: The Waning of the An American Orthodox Dreamer: Rabbi American Jewish Love Affair with Israel Joseph B. Soloveitchik and Boston’s Maimonides School Jonathan N. Barron and Eric Murphy Selinger, editors Ava F. Kahn and Marc Dollinger, editors Jewish American Poetry: Poems, Commentary, California Jews and Reflections For the complete list of books in this series, please see www.upne.com and www.upne.com/ series/BSAJ.html Fermaglich: American Dreams and Nazi Nightmares page iii American Dreams and Nazi Nightmares Early Holocaust Consciousness and Liberal America, 1957–1965 KIRSTEN FERMAGLICH Brandeis University Press waltham, massachusetts published by university press of new england hanover and london Fermaglich: American Dreams and Nazi Nightmares page iv Brandeis University Press Published by University Press of New England, One Court Street, Lebanon, NH 03766 www.upne.com © 2006 by Brandeis University Press Printed in the United States of America 54321 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Members of education institutions and organizations wishing to photocopy any of the work for classroom use, or authors and publishers who would like to obtain permission for any of the material in the work, should contact Permissions, University Press of New England, One Court Street, Lebanon, NH 03766. This book was published with the generous support of the Koret Foundation. An earlier version of chapter 2 was originally published in American Jewish History 91, no. 2 (June 2003): 205–32. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Fermaglich, Kirsten Lise. American dreams and Nazi nightmares : early Holocaust consciousness and liberal america, 1957–1965 / Kirsten Fermaglich. p. cm. — (Brandeis series in American Jewish history, culture, and life) Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn-13: 978–1–58465–548–0 (cloth : alk. paper) isbn-10: 1–58465–548–8 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Holocaust, Jewish (1939–1945) — Moral and ethical aspects. 2. Holocaust, Jewish (1939–1945) — Psychological aspects. 3. Psychohistory. 4. Elkins, Stanley — Criticism and interpretation. 5. Friedan, Betty — Criticism and interpretation. 6. Milgram, Stanley — Criticism and interpretation. 7. Lifton, Robert Jay, 1926– — Criticism and interpretation. I. Title. II. Series. d804.7.m67f47 2006 301.092'273—dc22 2005035959 Fermaglich: American Dreams and Nazi Nightmares page v For my parents, Lois and Danny Fermaglich And for Jon | v Fermaglich: American Dreams and Nazi Nightmares page vi blank Fermaglich: American Dreams and Nazi Nightmares page vii CONTENTS Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 Chapter 1 “One of the Lucky Ones”: Stanley Elkins and the Concentration Camp Analogy in Slavery 24 Chapter 2 The “Comfortable Concentration Camp”: The Significance of Nazi Imagery in Betty Friedan’s Feminine Mystique 58 Chapter 3 “An Accident of Geography”: Stanley Milgram’s Obedience Experiments 83 Chapter 4 Robert Jay Lifton and the Survivor 124 Conclusion 159 Notes 175 Index 243 | vii Fermaglich: American Dreams and Nazi Nightmares page viii blank Fermaglich: American Dreams and Nazi Nightmares page ix ACKNOWLEDGMENTS It is a really good thing that book acknowledgments are not like the Acad- emy Awards ceremony. Because I’m sure the music would start playing on me before I’d even mentioned my graduate adviser, and I definitely wouldn’t get time to thank my husband. Also, I would be seriously underdressed. The first person who must be thanked for helping me to complete this manuscript in a timely fashion is Raphael Benjamin Fermaglich Gold, who knew just when to shut up. A number of institutions provided me with the funding necessary to re- search and write this book. Fellowships from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at New York University and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University enabled me to conduct my research. The American Jewish Archives and the Feinstein Center for American Jewish History at Temple University awarded me additional funds for research. And funds from the Internal Research Grant Program, the Kussy Scholar- ship, and the History Department at Michigan State University have al- lowed me to conduct additional research, as well as to complete the writing of this book. Librarians and archivists at a number of institutions eased the research process considerably. Librarians at the Manuscripts and Archives Division at Yale University, at the Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute at Harvard University, and in the Rare Books and Manuscripts Collection at the New York Public Library were attentive and helpful. I am particularly grateful to archivist Melanie Yolles at the New York Public Library for organizing and helping me to view materials that had been until then unused. Librarians at New York University’s Bobst Library, Harvard University’s Widener and La- mont Libraries, and the Michigan State University library also facilitated my research. The subjects of this book, as well as their family members, associates, and administrative assistants, have been critical to my research process. I thank Aaron Aronow, George Bellak, Stanley Elkins, Betty Friedan, Robert Jay Lifton, and Joel Milgram for generously giving their time and energy to submit to several long interviews. Moreover, Betty Friedan and Robert Lifton | ix Fermaglich: American Dreams and Nazi Nightmares page x deserve thanks for making their personal files available to scholars, as does Alexandra Milgram, who has made her late husband’s papers accessible. I am truly grateful to these men and women for allowing me to pry into their own and their loved ones’ lives. My graduate adviser, Lizabeth Cohen, was a crucial presence in the de- velopment of this book. She consistently and enthusiastically supported my work, even as I veered farther and farther from her own field of research. Hasia Diner, Thomas Bender, Jeffrey Shandler, and Stephen J. Whitfield of- fered important criticism of my work while I was a graduate student; I am particularly grateful to Hasia Diner for her comments on parts of the man- uscript as it neared completion. Many others have helped me in private discussions and at conferences with both intellectual and practical matters as this project developed, in- cluding Andrew Heinze, Karla Goldman, Laura Levitt, Peter Novick, Riv- Ellen Prell, Alex Sagan, Rona Sheramy, Michael Staub, Beth Wenger, and James Edward Young. Thomas Blass was generous enough to speak with me about his own work on Stanley Milgram, and to give me several impor- tant references for my own work. Daniel Horowitz offered kind reassu- rance on my research on Betty Friedan. And attendees at the Scholars Con- ference on American Jewish History in June 2002 helped me to redirect and shape my argument at a crucial stage in the writing of this book. I owe my editor at Brandeis University Press/University Press of New England, Phyllis Deutsch, a debt of gratitude. She has enthusiastically en- couraged my work since I first approached her several years ago, and she has shepherded this book through the publication process with both speed and sensitivity. Comments from Jonathan Sarna and Pam Nadell made the manuscript immeasurably better. And copy editing by Will Hively and tech- nical assistance from Richard Pult and Jessica Stevens helped me to focus on the details that I typically overlook. I have been tremendously fortunate to have become a member of the History Department and the Jewish Studies program at Michigan State Uni- versity as I revised and completed this manuscript. My friends and col- leagues (past and present) at MSU have provided a genuinely collegial and supportive environment to develop this mansucript. I am particularly