This volume extends the theoretical scope of the important concept of empathy by analysing not only the cultural contexts that foster the generating of empathy, but in focusing also on the limits of pro-social feelings and the mechanisms that lead to its blocking. From the Contents: 5. From Sympathy to Empathy (Jay Winter). 7. Looking Away in Nazi Germany (Aleida Assmann); 10. 'For ye know the heart of the stranger': Empathy, Memory, and the Biblical Ideal of a 'Decent Society' (Jan Assmann)