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Holocaust Literature Given Critical Scrutiny in Volume
BY ALLEN A. WARSEN
"The Holocaust and the
Literary Imagination" by
Lawrence L. Langer (Yale
University Press, 1975) is a
critical study of what the
author calls the "literature
of atrocity" and David Rous-
set calls "Litterature Con-
centrationnaire."
The basic question posed
by the author is whether art
can "indeed conjure a real-
ity that itself must remain
forever unredeemable?"
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T. W. Adorno asserts, "To
write poetry after Ausch-
witz is barbaric." George
Steiner writes, "The world
of Auschwitz lies outside
speech as it lies outside rea-
son."
Other critics disagree.
They believe that the gen-
uine artist is capable of
recreating the experience
of the Holocaust. Elie Wie-
sel expressed it thus, "In
the beginning there was
the Holocaust. We must
therefore start all over
again . . . What it was we
may never know, but we
must proclaim, at least,
that it was, that it is. We
must invent reason; we
must create beauty out of
nothingness."
And out of nothingness
- great poetry was created.
Nelly Sachs was one of its
creators: "We the res-
cued,/Beg you:/ Show us
your sun, but gradually./
Lead us from star to star,
step by step./Be gentle
when you teach us to live
again/Lest the song of a
bird,/Or a pail being filled
at the well,/Let our badly
sealed pain burst forth
again/and carry us away
("0 the Chimneys").
Out of nothingness also
great art was created. A
good example is Picasso's
"Guernica." Adorno relates
this anecdote about Picas-
so's masterpiece: ". . . a
German officer in occupied
France who visited Picasso's
studio and, seeing the
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April 9, 1976 29
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
"Guernica," asked the
painter "Did you make
that?" — to which Picasso is
said to have replied: "No —
you did."
Death is one of the prob-
lems Langer examines. He
is concerned with death as it
is reflected in the literature
of atrocity, especially in the
works of Jean Amery, Wie-
sel and Ladislav Fuks. The
author tells of the example
Amery cited "of an SS-man
who slit open a prisoner's
belly and filled it with sand,
and suggests that, given
such possibilities, an indi-
vidual would scarcely oc-
cupy himself with whether
one must die, or that he
must, but how it would hap-
pen." ("Beyond Guilt and
Atonement" by Jean
Amery).
Another book the author
dissects is Elie Wiesel's
"Night" which should
have been titled
"Nightmare." It is a book
about the dominion of
death which only a survi-
vor of a death camp and a
master of words like Elie
Wiesel could have created.
Here is a scene reminis-
cent of an occurrence that
took place 2,000 years ago.
"The two adults were no
longer alive. Their tongues
hung swollen, blue-tinged.
But the third rope was still
moving: being so light, the
child was still alive . .
"For more than half an
hour he stayed there, strug-
gling between life and
death, dying in slow agony
under our eyes. And we had
to look him full in the face.
He was still alive when I
passed in front of him. His
tongue was still red, his
eyes were not yet glazed.
"Behind me, I heard (a)
man asking:
"Where is God now?"
"And I heard a voice
within me answer him:
"Where is He? He is hang-
ing here on this gallows . . .
"That night the soup
tasted of corpses."
In what literary genre can
horrors which shatter mind
and imagination be rec-
orded? What art forms can
be devised that will tell of
atrocities that destroy and
disrupt the limits of art?
Realistic? Naturalistic? In
what genre were these
words written?
"The idea of it is send-
ing me out of mind. Has it
Jordan Curriculum
in East Jerusalem
School Followed
JERUSALEM — The
headmaster of the largest
school in East Jerusalem
praised the Education Min-
istry's decision to permit
the resumption of a largely
Jordanian curriculum in
East Jerusalem secondary
schools next year.
The Jerusalem Post re-
ports that under the minis-,
try's ruling, East Jerusa-,
fern's secondary schools can
employ the curriculum fol-
lowed in West Bank schools,
which is identical to that of
Jordanian schools, with the
addition of two obligatory
courses, Hebrew language
and civics.
1111 R I 4 ,0
happened to other people?
Has it ever happened to
parents . . . to have their
children torn from them
and then to be driven to
their deaths, each on his
own? Has what is happen-
ing to us ever happened to
anyone in the world before
. . .?" ("Mr. Theodore
Mundstock" by Ladislav
Fuks).
The books investigated by
Lawrence L. Langer at-
tempt to confront experi-
ences which exceed the
power of comprehension
and imagination.
"The Holocaust and the
Literary Imagination" is a
profound book, vibrantly
written and is a significant
contribution to the Holo
caust literature.
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