On vaccines, lies, and Auschwitz

And the usefulness of performative anger when the facts are more and more against you

In the fall of 2008, I visited Auschwitz.

I was in Poland to talk about my novels, and I’m Jewish, and it seemed wrong not to go to the site, to try to understand what is impossible to understand.

I remember two things most clearly. The first is how big the camp was. There’s essentially nothing left of it, of course. But the open field where the bunks and…