The Avengers Reading Guide & Discussion Questions

1. "It is like no Holocaust story I have ever heard. There are no cattle cars in it, and no concentration camps. It takes place in underground hideouts and forest clearings, and in the ruins of German cities after the Second World War" [p. 3]. So begins Rich Cohen's book The Avengers. Clearly Cohen is drawn to the story of Abba, Ruzka, and Vitka because of its powerful difference from most Holocaust stories that Jewish children are told. What is the effect, particularly upon a child's mind, of having the Holocaust as a formative narrative of identity?
   
   
2. As in Tough Jews, Cohen is driven by a discomfort with the idea of Jews as passive victims. Does The Avengers alter the impression that Jews were led "like sheep to the slaughter"? Why were the partisans largely unsuccessful in getting Jews to join them in resistance to the Nazis? Is it troubling that Abba, Vitka, and Ruzka left members of their own families behind in ghettoes that would eventually be taken by the Nazis?
   
   
3. What are some of the possible ethical responses to the genocide the Nazis engineered? Is the Talmud's "an eye for an eye" a more appropriate response than the Christian concept of "turning the other cheek"? Was Abba Kovner's plot to poison Nazis in the Nuremberg camp a sensible and moral response? On page 213, Cohen calls Kovner a "fanatic," the leader of a group of avengers whose "mere existence was their victory." Should Kovner be considered a fanatic, a hero, or both?
   
   

Unless otherwise stated, this discussion guide is reprinted with the permission of Vintage. Any page references refer to a USA edition of the book, usually the trade paperback version, and may vary in other editions.