Community Views

Editor's Notebook

Survivor Testimonies
Require Understanding

Hearing A Dissenting
Opinion On 'Peace'

SIDNEY BOLKOSKY SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

PHIL JACOBS EDITOR

Last month, the ful and informed listeners and in-
University of terlocutors, those who would en-
Michigan-Dear- gage in some sort of dialogue with
born hosted a re- survivors. And immedi-
ception introduc- ately we encounter
ing its program for resistance, difficul-
transcribing and ties, perhaps in-
"'`I cataloguing Holo- surmountable
caust survivor oral obstacles: Do we
histories to enter want to dredge up
them on OCLC, an internation- the old pain; won't
al library network. Transcripts talking relieve the
and tapes now will be available burden of the past
to scholars, students and re- by some sort of
searchers around the world.
catharsis? Should-
Ralph Applebaum, designer of n't we have the sto-
the exhibits at the U.S. Holocaust ries to defy and de-
Memorial Museum, spoke of the feat deniers?
connection between those ex-
After the ques-
hibits and the hundreds of hours tion of whether to
of testimony to which he listened talk comes the cor-
before formulating each.
relative question of
Last March, the 15th annual how. More times
Holocaust conference, co-spon- than I rare to recall
sored by the University of Michi- in the course of in-
gan and Hillel in Ann Arbor, terviewing victims
presented Hank Greenspan's re- of the Holocaust
markable voice play Remnants; who survived, I have been con- is unlikely that testimony will.
Unzere Kinder, the last Yiddish fronted by survivors with, "Why
Ambivalent, at the very least,
film produced in Poland in 1947; are you asking this? You can't un- about telling their children about
an "evening with survivors" and derstand; you weren't there."
their experiences, perhaps fear-
Claude Lanzmann's superb doc-
What language will suffice to ing to traumatize them, many
umentary Shoah.
communicate "unspeakable survivors thus compounded the
Each of these events seemed memories"? I don't mean what other reasons for silence. What
to subtly but powerfully converge tongue, but what words? Surely to tell them? How detailed? How
on the themes of talking versus we use and understand the same describe the dehumanization of
silence, themes that have words, old words, to describe ex- their children's relatives as well
plagued victims of the Holocaust perience. But they don't work. If as themselves?
who survived from the liberation survivors did not speak out after
Steven Spielberg, after doing
to the present.
they came here, it wasn't only be- Holocaust education an unques-
Questions raised by this sub- cause no one wanted to listen; it tionable service with his film, has
ject, like most questions about was also in part because of their now founded an organization
the Holocaust, ought not receive frustration with ordinary lan- called "Survivors of the Shoah
simple answers.
guage to convey such extraordi- History" whose task it will be to
Any person — student, schol- nary events and emotions.
interview 60-70 survivors a day,
ar, historian, filmmaker, inter-
How, too, will someone convey each for about 30 minutes.
viewer, writer, museum designer, the simultaneity of the sounds,
After a tangled history of
playwright — who enters the fire smells, physical actions that en- breaking the silence, we should
of the realm of the Holocaust ex- gulfed them, smothered them, all recognize the importance, the
ploits the victims. Those who lis- suffocated and exhausted them? vital necessity, of survivor testi-
ten to Holocaust testimonies, We speak serially, in sentences monies. But we should be aware
speak or write about them, en- and not in simultaneous clumps of the painful extraction of those
gage in the same activity of ex- of words.
testimonies, sometimes squeezed,
ploitation. Even some of the
This aspect of the language gasped, exhumed from deeply
survivors themselves, if they problem does not appear for the buried memories under harrow-
speak and/or write, become first time; it has haunted great ing circumstances and sometimes
aware of this painful observation, literary artists, psychologists, with debilitating emotional and
this activity that compounds the philosophers of language for mil- physical effects.
problems of speaking, writing or lennia. But now comes this dis-
Some have said that their
listening.
astrous impediment to clear nightmares were relieved; none,
No motive totally "justifies" communication inflated in its cost as far as I know, is free from
this: not "educational purposes," because of the subject.
those nightmares. Others have
or "memory" or fighting Holo-
Language, then, may be the confided that speaking, remem-
caust deniers. We use the testi- first hinderance; but the other, bering, has grown even more dif-
monies of witnesses and that, by more obvious deterrents to speak- ficult; yet most continue to feel
definition, implies exploitation. ing grow more intense each year. obligated to retell their stories.
Given that, perhaps we can sal- "Dredging up the pain" may both-
Years ago, Elie Wiesel issued
vage the integrity of the testi- er us all, but the pain often is not a "Plea for Survivors," in which
monies, the witnesses, the far from the surface anyway. "Not he expressed his anger and frus-
victims who survived and those a day goes by," one of my friends tration about widespread lack of
who did not by listening, writing, has said, "that memories from understanding or sensitivity. In
speaking and thinking about the Holocaust don't interfere with effect, he asked the rest of us to
them with deeper sensitivities to my life."
leave the survivors alone.
the difficulties which attend per-
Confronting and refuting the
Perhaps the time has come for
sonal Holocaust histories.
deniers may prove beneficial for us to listen more carefully, more
Such solicitude demands care- those who have been puzzled by deeply to survivor testimonies;
their outrageous claims, but if and perhaps, paradoxically, the
Sidney Bolkosky is professor of his-
tory at the University of Michi- mountains of historical docu- time has come to leave them in
ments have not quieted them, it peace.
gan-Dearborn.

❑

Not everyone is Mr. Leiter, it's still critical to
so sure about the listen. He will admit that Is-
tidal wave of raelis are weary, but he also
Middle East contends that the weariness
peace. Yet, as if cannot lead into a lazy, whole-
shaking hands sale turnover of Israel. This, un-
with a terrorist der the Rabin government, is
is as politically what he sees happening.
correct as wear-
We see this as a war
ing a certain process, not a peace process,"
baggy pair of jeans, some of our Mr. Leiter said. "History has
friends and neighbors are often shown that appeasement of ter-
too embarrassed or intimidat- ritory has led nations to war.
ed to voice a dissenting opinion. Rabin has yielded territory, he's
Is making peace with Jordan yielded on other issues as well.
such a good thing? On the sur- They want more, he gives them
face, of course, it looks wonder- more. But at some point, the
ful. Open borders, shared Palestinians are going to draw
industries, another place for the line. What we have,
American tourists to visit. But Jerusalem, is what they want.
what about the man or woman And we won't have a leg to
in the crowd whose voice is stand on if we reach that point
drowned out by the commotion in the momentum."
of peace? What about Jordan's
Israeli settlements and their
demands on water rights? What settlers have been the subject
about Jordan's outlook on the of major controversy since Is-
West Bank and hundreds of rael started talking with the
thousands of Palestinians who PLO.
might want to return there?
Now, Mr. Leiter and his or-
What about King Hussein's feel- ganization are working with-
ings for Jerusalem?
in the system with an eye
Is making peace with Arafat toward seeing the Rabin gov-
such a wonderful thing? Jews ernment fall in 1996. For Mr.
are still being killed by Arabs. Leiter and the YESHA Coun-
Arafat has a ceiling for deliver- cil, the election is a race to stop
ing prosperity to his people. At the momentum of the Rabin
the same time, there are heav- government, a race to get more
ily armed Palestinians who Israelis questioning the "peace"
would love nothing more than and finally to get his voice
for Mr. Arafat to fail, to go heard by Diaspora Jews, even
away.
if his message is unpopular.
Yechiel Leiter, a leading fig-
"This is a crucial time," he
ure in YESHA, an organization said. "People don't have to agree
representing the voice and con- with me. But there's a voice of
cerns of the settlement move- anxiety and concern among the
ment, was in town Tuesday, settlers. Why should Jews, Is-
speaking under heavy security raelis, be willing to listen to and
at Young Israel of Greenfield. accept the word of others, in-
Mr. Leiter's message is what cluding the PLO, before they
many American Jews probably hear the concerns of their fel-
won't want to hear. He talks of low Jews? That's what we're
peace, especially the accord saying."
with the Palestinians, with
So many have called for cau-
skepticism. There's a danger in tion and guarded movement to-
listening only to one side even ward peace. We call them
when it comes to what looks "experts" and "scholars."
like peace. Israelis and even Di-
Mr. Leiter calls for exami-
aspora Jews are tired of the bat- nation and taking a hard, dis-
tle, tired of the image of Israel senting look at this peace. He's
being a dangerous place among called a "fanatic."
nations. Maybe we're even tired
Maybe the people who had
of reaching into our pocket- the courage to settle Israel in
books to send more money for the 1940s were also "fanatics."
the urgency of Israel's survival. If they listened to the "scholars"
Whether or not we agree and "experts," the face of Israel
with Mr. Leiter, he believes the would be different. If there was
battle has not stopped in spite an Israel at all.
of a handshake on the White
You owe it to yourselves and
House lawn. Instead, he feels a your children, if you really
dangerous momentum that will deeply care about Israel, to lis-
be difficult to overturn could ten to the scholars and the fa-
damage Israel and its people natics.,While you are listening,
more severely than at any time peel away the labels, because
during recent history.
behind them we're all Jews. At
For all of his critics, and this time in Israel's history,
there are many respected schol- Yechiel Leiter's word needs to
ars and experts in Middle East- be accounted for as well as any-
ern affairs who don't side with one else's. ❑

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