Lawrence L. Langer, a literary scholar who found the Holocaust an event so vast and evil that it defies moral framing, died on Jan. 29 at his home in Wellesley, MA. He was 94.

Across some 15 books and monographs, Dr. Langer insisted on an interpretation of the Holocaust as a moral black hole. Reason, Humanism and Enlightenment values had no function in the concentration camps, he said.

At Simmons College, he created what is believed to be the country’s first academic course on literature and the Holocaust. He also set to work on his first book, The Holocaust and the Literary Imagination, which was a finalist for the 1976 National Book Award, and is today considered a founding text in the field of Holocaust studies.