Good and Evil

Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels deals primarily with the Holocaust, Nazi Germany's systematic attempt during World War II to eradicate European Jews. The novel is filled with vivid imagery of brutality: doors kicked down, people killed outright in their homes or dragged off to camps where they are worked to death, starve, or are gassed and cremated. To prepare the executioners for their task and to lighten their psychological load, Nazi propaganda and legislation for years dehumanizes the Jews, so that their removal will be no more morally troublesome than street cleaning. Many victims go quietly to their fate, playing the prescribed role as well as the tormentors play theirs, but a few at the last moment open their eyes and mouths and show that they are human. This infuriates the tormentors and the brutality mounts.

One of the most horrific scenes, often revisited, finds surviving...