It’s been my unhappy experience to discover that the majority of first-person D-Day stories are to some degree inaccurate. Often this is because the individual experienced such a narrow view of the massive operation that he misinterpreted what he saw. In other cases, it is a result of fading memory or unintentional exaggeration. And then there are the cases in which people alter the facts to enhance their reports or their reputations. […]
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Neumüller’s article falls way short of the ‘profound analysis’ proffered by his editors, or the ‘comprehensive analysis’ or ‘scientific context’ he himself reaches for. In many respects, Neumüller’s failure to deliver a coherent, documented, detailed, and, above all, believable narrative was inevitable from the start. He comes to the task with the wrong skill set. […] Moritz Neumüller’s active suppression, in his article, of the public complaints levied at Halliday … obscures the fact that a deep-seated and long-standing professional jealousy, and a concomitant battle over the psycho-geography of London, lay at the heart of Halliday’s entire campaign against Butturini. […] The Mercedes Baptiste Halliday narrative legitimised Gian Butturini’s detractors, and kept them respectable. On paper, it superficially resembled a clear, ideological position, fuelled by a defiance of racial injustice. In actuality, it was a subterfuge, a mere foil – albeit one cut from noble principles – to hide the pettiest and basest of motives: the green-eyed monster of professional jealousy. […] |
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Scratch a Good American: Anti-Semitism in the USSR (1988)
“Scratch a good American,” says the Oriole,” “and you’ll find a good German.” Ari had just scratched a good American. […]