Dr. James Hatley Publishes Book on Holocaust  

SALISBURY, MD -- Suffering Witness: The Quandary of Responsibility in the Aftermath of the Irreparable by Dr. James Hatley, associate professor of philosophy in the Charles R. and Martha N. Fulton School of Liberal Arts at Salisbury State University, is scheduled for release by the New York State University Press in October. Hatley’s book questions why witnessing the Holocaust, which he terms the Shoah, is so pressing a responsibility for us who live in its aftermath.

Hatley, who is especially interested in the feeling of overwhelming inadequacy burdening our efforts in this endeavor, makes his argument by drawing on the intellectual and literary testimony of several survivors of the Holocaust, including that found in the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas, as well as, in the prose and poetry of Primo Levi, Taduesz Borowski and Paul Celan. The work is an outcome of many years of instruction, as well as research on this subject and the reactions of his students to their study of the event plays a crucial part in how he comes to develop his own account of being a responsible witness to it.

Dr. Sandor Goodhart, head of Jewish studies at Purdue University said, "As we reflect upon a century of violence and extremity, I predict that Hatley’s meditation will set the stage for all serious future discussions of these matters ."

Claire Katz, a former instructor at SSU who is currently holding a joint appointment to the Philosophy and Jewish Studies departments at the Pennsylvania State University, has praised Hatley’s work as "an elegant reading," one which "demonstrates the power of literature within a philosophical framework."