JEAN AMÉRY: UN «REDUCE» CONTRO LA «RIABILITAZIONE DELLA BARBARIE»

The essay deals with some articles by Jean Améry in which the writer of Austrian origin faces the danger of the «rehabilitation of barbarism», that is the new provision in front of Nazism, the historical significance of it, the crimes that were derived from it. The «champion» of this international trend was Albert Speer, who at the end of the Sixties had entered the German cultural scene accompanied by a substantially favourable wind. These concerns lead Améry to review and correct certain ideas contained in her most famous book (Jenseits voin Schuld und Sühne, 1966). In this regard, particular attention is paid to an article (Im Warteraum des Todes, 1969) in which Améry describes the condition of the victims in what he calls the «Nazi-Ghetto», ie the «insane world» created by the Nazis. His main interlocutors are Hannah Arendt (strongly criticized) and Jean-François Steiner, the author of Treblinka, a controversial 1966 book which was greatly appreciated by Améry. The article concludes with some observations on the historical significance of anti-Semitism in Améry and Arendt.