By Chance I Found a Pencil: The Holocaust
Diary Narratives of Testimony, Defiance, Solace
and Struggle.
Fiona Lisabeth Kaufman
―Submitted in total fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of
Philosophy.‖
October, 2010
Faculty of Arts
School of Historical Studies
University of Melbourne
1
Abstract
Traditional attempts to write about the Holocaust focused mainly on the Nazi perpetrators
rather than the victims themselves. Addressing this historiographical grievance has grown
significantly in the last two decades and this thesis intends to add to the corpus of work
reflecting the voice of the victims. To this end, the Holocaust diary as a special literary
form will be established, constituting its own special genre which constructs meaning,
intention and experience of a particular Jewish diarist at a particular point in history. For
this express purpose I have conceived my own concept, de emplotment, serving to
exemplify the complexity of the process whereby Jewish victims of the Holocaust
reinterpreted the self as their familiar life paradigms had all but disappeared. In doing so,
the Holocaust diarists constructed individual narrative identities grappling with the
seemingly perpetual dilemma of Holocaust scholars even today, namely, representational
adequacy. The answer to the questions as to why the diary genre was conducive to de
emplotment and became the choice of so many Jewish victims who wrote during the
Holocaust will be examined throughout this work. Coupled with the establishment of a
hitherto unfamiliar exploration of the Holocaust diaries focusing on the de emplotment
concept, the theoretical framework of French philosopher Paul Ricoeur will be drawn
upon significantly. Ricoeur‘s contention of narrative construction, the figuration of
narrative identity and the complex relationship between these representations and
intention therein, are pivotal to the central contentions reflected in my research. De
emplotment analyzed in accordance to Ricoeur‘s philosophical paradigm is central to this
study, focusing on the reasons diary writing was conducive to the transitional process the
Holocaust exacerbated. Accordingly, the role of Ricoeur‘s intention and attestation when
formulating a narrative identity is the basis of the diary classifications delineated, namely
narratives of testimony, solace, defiance and struggle. Whilst answers may never be
assumed definitive, the above contentions will be pondered, analyzed and discussed,
enabling conclusions to ultimately be drawn.
2
Declaration
This is to certify that
(i) The thesis comprises only my original work towards the PhD except where indicated
in the preface.
(ii) Due acknowledgement has been made in the text to all material used.
(iii) The thesis is less than 100,000 words in length, exclusive of tables, maps,
bibliographies and appendices or the thesis is (number of words) as approved by the RHD
Committee.
Signed
__________________
Date
_________________
3
Acknowledgments
This thesis would not have been possible without the guidance, generous advice and
suggestions of my supervisor Dr. Dvir Abramovich, from the University of Melbourne.
His encouragement and belief in my topic was integral to the completion of this thesis. Dr
Abramovich‘s openness to new ideas, ability to visualize the end product and astute grasp
of historical research gave me the inspiration I needed to complete this thesis.
I would also like to acknowledge the insightful comments, advice, extensive knowledge
of Holocaust diaries and organizational skills of Dr. Lael Nidam Orvieto from Yad
Vashem. The time she spent with me was invaluable, as was her encouragement. I would
also like to thank Dr. Ziva Shavisky from the University of Melbourne for her time and
encouragement. The staff at Beit Theresienstadt on Kibbutz Givat Chaym Ichud in Israel,
the library staff at Yad Vashem, Jerusalem, The University of Melbourne and, at the
Museum of Jewish Heritage in Warsaw, Poland, (Zydowski Instytut Historyczny) were
all accommodating, helpful and eager to assist, and I humbly thank all those who assisted
me over the last few years. This extends to the School of Graduate Studies at the
University of Melbourne, all of whom were unfailingly helpful. I extend a special thank
you to Dr. Amos Goldberg from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, who offered
insightful and helpful comments in his area of expertise, Holocaust diaries, and was
generous with his time and advice.
I lovingly acknowledge my parents, Freda and Joseph Kaufman, and husband Philip
Symon, without whom this thesis could not have been even contemplated. My parents
believed in me, encouraged me and put up with me for weeks on end so I could achieve
my goal. Conversely, my husband put up with weeks without me, accompanied me on
trips to Europe looking for diaries and researching the lives of diarists, supported my
undertaking wholeheartedly from the beginning, and patiently put up with three and a
half years of talking about Holocaust diaries.
I would like to dedicate this work to my three wonderful children, Sidney, Lior and Adi,
who prove on a daily basis that the Jewish people will never be defeated. And, to my
diarists, who have been a strong presence in my life for several years, I hope I have
stayed true to your words and intentions and have contributed in some way to the words
repeated in so many languages, on so many pages and hidden in so many places in the
hope that someone, somewhere, would know the fate that befell you. Your diaries
survived as testament to the inexplicable, even though most of you did not. The years
spent reading your diaries have been a lesson of life which has enriched me far beyond
the pages of this work.
4
Table of Contents
Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………... 1
Declaration ……………………………………………………………………………..... 2
Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………………. 3
Table of Contents………………………………………………………………………… 4
Forward ……………………………………………………………………….. ………....6
Introduction
The Thesis ………………………………………………………………………………. 9
Chapter 1 An overview
Historical and Theoretical Considerations ……………………………………………..12
The Theoretical Framework: Narrative Identity
Emplotment and De emplotment ………………………………………………………..20
The Questions: Why was the diary narrative conducive to de emplotment .................. 25
What is the Role of Intention and Attestation in Classifying the Holocaust Diaries? …..31
Chapter 2
The Narratives of Testimony……………………………………………………………34
Narrative Identity and the Intent to Testify…………………………………………….. 37
The Drive to Record …………………………………………………………………….44
Testimony and the Paradox of Time……………………………………………………. 49
Describing the Inexpressible: Narratives of Testimony…………………………………55
The Language of De emplotment………………………………………………………..62
A Worm who lives in Horseradish………………………………………………………65
The Voice of the Diary ………………………………………………………………….70
The Private Diary‘s Public Face………………………………………………………. 75
Writing for an Audience…………………………………………………………………81
Chapter 3
Narratives of Defiance
Rethinking Defiance: The Dilemma……………………………………………………. 83
Defiance Redefined: Further Considerations …………………………………………... 88
Intentionality as Defiance………………………………………………………………. 94
Breaking the Silence: Authentic Defiance through Narration …………………………..97
The Dichotomy of the Private and Public Face of Narratives of Defiance…………….103
The Narrative of the Self as an Expression of Defiance………………………………..108
Defiant Narratives: The Diary as Defiance …………………………………………….113
A Worm Who lives in Horseradish……………………………………………………..119
5
Chapter 4
The Narratives of Solace …………………………………………………………….... 123
Finding Solace in the Act of Writing………………………………………………….. 126
Intent to Console………………………………………………………………………. 133
Mimesis and Solace ……………………………………………………………………139
Dear Diary: The Dialogue of Life………………………………………………………141
Consoling the Self through Narrative…………………………………………………..149
Reconciling Consolation and Recording One‘s Own Destruction……………………..156
The Diary as a Place of Refuge…………………………………………………………161
Chapter 5
The Narratives of Struggle…………………………………………………………….. 166
―Seeing is not Believing‖ …………………………………………………………… 168
Assimilating the Struggle Linguistically ………………………………………………173
The Struggle to Write…………………………………………………………………. 176
Intentionality and the Dichotomy of the Private and Public Voice…………………….184
The Struggle of the Self through Diary Narrative……………………………………...192
The Collective Struggle through Diary Narrative……………………………………... 199
The Separation of Narrator and Protagonist: The Narration of Struggle ………………204
Chapter 6
Conclusion: Why a Diary? ……………………………………………………………..211
Conclusions about the Diary and De emplotment ……………………………………..217
Conclusions about Intention and Attestation as Reflected in the Diary Narratives … 223
By Chance I found a Pencil …………………………………………………………..227
Bibliography
Primary Sources………………………………………………………………………...231
Secondary Sources……………………………………………………………………...234
6
Forward
By Chance I found a Pencil It is difficult to write, but I consider it an obligation and am determined to fulfill
it with my last ounce of energy. I will write a scroll of agony in order to remember
the past in the future. 1
Indeed, Chaim Kaplan‘s Scroll of Agony contributed to the past being remembered in the
future. During the Holocaust all those who dared write a song, draw a picture, write a
diary or note to someone in danger, left behind a legacy which lives on. Literature of the
Holocaust constitutes a unique body of work, and in many ways combines not only
personal testimony, but historical facts and psychological insights into human suffering
and behavior in unthinkable circumstances. Jewish life and values are also illuminated
through primary sources and provide a unique window into human nature in the shadow
of death, which was the Jewish reality of Nazi Europe. Diarists who inspired this work
such as Chaim Kaplan quoted above, wrote so profoundly of love, cultural activities and
education, coupled with testimonials of murder, deportations, starvation and personal
despair. Gonda Redlich, for example, in the Terezin Ghetto, touches on his feelings for
his beloved, education and the birth of his son, sharing small details of his private joy
which would have taken on even more joyous proportions in the wake of the surrounding
starvation and deportations.2 By the same token, Elisheva Binder‘s diary, written in the
Stanislawow Ghetto, is a poignant illustration of how ―life in the shadow of death‖ was
pursued, giving vivid and devastating descriptions of the death and horror she was
experiencing. 3 Such horror notwithstanding, she writes about a young man who left her,
which in historical context is an innocent and touching reminder of the human paradox of
the will to live coupled with growing hopelessness in the wake of imminent death.
1 Chaim Aron Kaplan, Scroll of Agony: The Warsaw Diary of Chaim Kaplan , editor and translator
Abraham, I. Katsch (Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1999), 30.
Originally published as "Megilat Yissurim: Yoman Ghetto Vasha" (Hebrew).
Chaim Kaplan himself called the diary the Scroll of Agony. Chaim Kaplan and his wife were murdered in
Treblinka.
On a personal note my own family was murdered in Treblinka apart from my paternal Grandfather who
fled Poland in 1939 after securing a visa to Australia. I visited the town he was born in, Falencia, two years
ago and the train tracks to Treblinka were still visible. 2 Gonda Redlich, The Terezin Diary of Gonda Redlich, Egon Redlich, edited and translated by Nora
Levine, Saul S Friedman, Laurence Kutler (Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky, 1992).
Redlich‘s choice of Hebrew for the diary was deliberate, offering him practice with the language he hoped
to use in a Jewish Homeland). I have also seen his diary at Yad Vashem, where the original diary is on
display. Interestingly, he wrote the diary in Hebrew during the week and Czech on the Sabbath. Gonda
Redlich was murdered in Auschwitz in 1944. 3 Elisheva Binder, Accord of Pain and Hope: The Story of the Jewish Community of Stanislawaw (Hebrew)
(Jerusalem: Yad Vashem Publications, 2006).
The original diary is in the Jewish Historical Institute of Warsaw (Zydowski Instytut Historyczny), and can
be viewed at Yad Vashem, archive M49P/267.
Elisheva Binda is assumed to have been murdered in a shooting operation when the ghetto was being
liquidated. The exact circumstances of her death are not known. Her diary was found in a ditch on the side
of the road which was the execution site for the Stanislawow Jews. Her last entry trails off mid sentence.
7
Although several other literary genres were penned during the Holocaust, it is diaries
which this thesis will focus on. Across Europe diaries were penned, descriptions
poignantly attempting to adapt to, and represent in words, the abnormal situation in
which the diarists were living. The dilemma of living in an incomprehensible world yet
grappling at maintaining normalcy is a dominant theme within the diaries analyzed, as is
defining the new paradigm of life forced upon the victims under Nazi rule.
It is acknowledged that there are many Holocaust diaries not examined in this thesis. Yet,
I believe those evaluated represent an expansive insight into Jewish life in Europe during
the Holocaust. In order to portray the diversity of Jewish diarists and their experiences,
diaries written by men and women, religious and secular, western and eastern European,
teenage and elderly, scholars and workers, have been analyzed. Due to the constraints of
time, space, availability of texts and reliable English translations thereof, the diaries
reflected upon are representative but not exhaustive. As such, this thesis purports to
analyze a cross section of diaries which represent their authors.
For the most part, the diaries highlighted in this thesis are translations from the original
languages they were written in. Apart from those written in Hebrew which I was able to
read in their original form, this must be considered a pointed obstacle to any study of the
Holocaust diaries, as the inevitable alterations in the process of translation are
unavoidable.4 Most translators indicate their endeavors to stay true to the feeling and
style of the diarist, but naturally, some nuances must be subtly changed. Quoting the
diary in context is vital to this work, and this author has endeavored to quote the diaries
in the context in which they were written.
The very existence of the Holocaust diaries is attributable to the considerable efforts of
the diarists themselves. Most went to great lengths to bury, hide and hand over their
manuscripts for safe keeping, which exist today largely in archives, mainly in Israel,
Europe and America. For the most part, the Holocaust diaries were penned in the ghettos,
in hiding and in transit labor camps. Certainly there were a few written in death camps,
but a notably small number have survived. I personally viewed several original diaries, at
Yad Vashem in Israel on microfilm, in the archives and as part of the exhibits open to the
public. In addition, I viewed diary entries written in the Warsaw Ghetto at the Museum
of Jewish Heritage (Zydowski nsttytut Historycny), in Warsaw, as part of the museum‘s
permanent exhibit, which also houses the milk jars that Emmanuel Ringelblum hid and
buried his diaries in. In Budapest original diaries were exhibited in a temporary
exhibition at the Jewish Museum, which is situated on the site of the Jewish ghetto
established under Nazi rule. Poignantly, at Bet Theresienstadt, an Israeli Kibbutz founded
by survivors of the Czech ghetto Theresienstadt, I viewed shelves of diaries, most of
which have still not been archived nor bound, and can consequently be viewed in their
original form. Some of these diaries have unauthorized translations into English,
translated by the Kibbutz members themselves, but for the most part remain unpublished.
4 The diaries written in Hebrew, such as Chaim Kaplan‘s Scroll of Agony and Gonda Redlich‘s Y‘oman
shel Dan (The diary of Dan), were written in Hebrew so they would not be understood if found by the
Nazis. These authors had studied Hebrew as was common practice in the Jewish communities throughout
Europe.
8
All the diaries used in my work have been translated and published in several languages,
including English. Several organizations in Israel serve to authorize translations, usually
in conjunction with the surviving members of the diarist‘s family, or in some cases, such
as Avraham Tory, the diarist him or herself.
Whilst the word diary often conjures up a bound notebook which one is often able to
lock, the diaries I saw had no such embellishments. Written on pieces of paper that were
hard to obtain, and in some cases faded notebooks, the Holocaust diaries are often faded
and battered. However, despite their appearance, most are very discernable as diaries,
each entry carefully dated, and in handwriting still clearly legible. Most the diarists allude
to the difficulty in finding paper to write on, and a pencil to write with, hence the title of
this work.
Although many of those who wrote diaries during the Holocaust were murdered, the
diary narratives have allowed future generations to understand not only what happened
physically to the murdered millions, but to gauge, to the extent that is possible, inner
feelings, changing perceptions and reactions to a new and inexplicable reality.
9
Introduction
The Thesis
Traditional attempts to write about the Holocaust focused mainly on the Nazi perpetrators
rather than the victims themselves. Addressing this historiographical grievance has grown
significantly in the last two decades and this thesis intends to add to the corpus of work
reflecting the voice of the victims.5 Primary sources such as diaries are able to bring a
subject to life in a way that no other factual information can do, which was the primary
motivation for this study of individual diary narratives. Historically, diaries can help one
build up an authentic view of the period being studied, unlike a text book or post
Holocaust memoir, which tends to select and edit. The authentic documents from the
Holocaust period also serve to humanize this atrocity which is so difficult in terms of
numbers and horror to actually internalize. In short, the Holocaust diary narratives imbue
the reader with an authentic yet subjective historical perspective of the period. Through
these diary narratives one is able to almost feel and believe the progressively catastrophic
situation of the Jews, and can better try and understand how the Nazis perpetrated their
unprecedented deeds without the constraints of historical hindsight. Diaries from this
period depict clearly and poignantly, the thinking, language, behavior and dilemmas
faced by their authors, and in their raw and unedited form are incomparable historical
records. They further highlight the metamorphosis that each diarist experienced,
reflecting the extreme definition of life that was forced upon them.
Historical discourse presupposes cultural context and shared meaning and in this respect,
the term Holocaust diaries used throughout this work pertains to the diaries written by
Jewish victims under Nazi rule, although the term Holocaust was coined in hindsight.
Historical discourse encompasses not only events per se but fuses these events with texts
which define the period, thereby enriching our knowledge of the participants in those
events and history itself. Diary testimonials from this period are a blend of personal and
historical narrative, combined with autobiographical reflections which lack historical
hindsight, thus giving a unique perspective of the Holocaust as it unfolded. Subsequently,
the reader is presented with a special genre of writing, blending episodic events and
narrative which offers a unique insight into the life stories of those who wrote them.
Arguably the diary has a close relationship to the autobiography genre and within this
paradigm this dissertation further intends to delineate the goals and themes appearing to
dominate the redefined lives of the Holocaust diarists. These include bearing witness,
solace, defiance and the ongoing internal and physical struggle of the diarists. The diaries
represented evidence the responses of those who wrote them, to not only the
incomprehensible situation surrounding them and the new reality they were facing but
also to the dilemma of how to represent their unprecedented circumstances in words. As
5 Largely inspired by Saul Friedlander, the voice of the Holocaust victim has been the focus of most
authors quoted in this thesis. A special volume of essays, originally appearing in the journal History and
Memory, published as Probing the Limits of Representation: Nazism and the Final Solution, (U.S.A:
Harvard University Press, 1992), is representative of scholarly works reflecting the voice of the victim.
10
a response to the situation confronting both the Jewish community at large and the
individual, the diary fulfilled varying needs for different authors. For example, diary
writing provided a therapeutic outlet for some who were in desperate need to
communicate to the world what was happening to them, in addition to trying to make
sense of it themselves. Conversely, recording the incomprehensible events may have
exacerbated the hopelessness of the situation for other diarists. In some instances writing
a diary provided a personal outlet for survival in that it gave the writer a feeling of
defiance and personal identity which they had been stripped of, whilst helping
communicate feelings of love, despair, panic, horror and shock in a situation which no
longer allowed them to do so publicly.
This dissertation further attempts to interpret not only the truths the diarists espoused but
the intention of the diarists and the meaning their words have conveyed and been
understood as representing, by post Holocaust generations. It is this intention which
forms the basis of the diary classifications delineated in this study. By and large, this
study adheres to the basic premise that representations of history are indeed just as
significant as reality itself. Any study of the diaries written during the Holocaust cannot
simply rely on lists of events recorded by the diarists, as these events need to be arranged,
analyzed and interpreted. Each diary is a narrative which is unique and highlights the
experience and intentions of one individual, at that particular time in history, in the
context of an unprecedented horror. In this respect, the historiography of the Holocaust
can certainly be played out through the authentic diaries written during the event. Based
on this contention, the Holocaust diaries not only provide a legitimate tool of
investigation into events, but are compelling narratives which tell the ―life stories‖ of
their authors. Consequently, this work highlights these diaries as a significant medium
through which knowledge of the Holocaust can be obtained. Despite the fact that
subjectivity is often scorned by historians, there is no doubt, in the words of James E.
Young, that:
Nothing is more true than the consequences for a life that issue from
the manner in which this life may have been narrated the previous day.
The diaries assume a historical importance far beyond whatever facts they
could deliver…the incontrovertible truth of the ways in which their
narratives of events may have constituted the basis for actions within these
same events. 6
In short, this thesis aims to establish the Holocaust diary as a special literary form,
constituting its own special genre which constructs meaning, intention and experience of
a particular Jewish diarist at a particular point in Jewish history. Although the diaries of
the Holocaust have been examined by a host of scholars, this dissertation examines the
diaries from a different perspective. As such, I have conceived my own concept, de
emplotment, which will serve to exemplify the complexity of the process whereby Jewish
victims of the Holocaust essentially reinterpreted the self as their familiar life paradigms
had all but disappeared. In doing so, the Holocaust diarists constructed individual
6 James E. Young, "Between History and Memory: The Uncanny Voices of the Historian and Survivor,"
History and Memory 9, Spring-Winter, no. 2 (1997):47-58, 56.
11
narrative identities grappling with the seemingly perpetual dilemma of Holocaust
scholars even today, namely, representational adequacy. Penned in response to Nazism,
the Holocaust diaries seemingly manage to not only reflect personal experience but to
preserve the shared narrative of disbelief. 7 Certainly, epistemological problems are
deliberated throughout the diary narratives, due to the discrepancies between what the
diarist was actually witnessing and believing, coupled with the quandary of how to make
such inexplicable events believable to future generations. Exemplifying this, Etty
Hillesum wrote in her diary, December, 1942, from the Dutch Transit camp, Westerbork:
My fountain pen cannot form words strong enough to convey even
the remotest picture of these transports.8
It will be argued that this study establishes a hitherto unfamiliar exploration of these
diaries focusing on my own de emplotment concept and drawing significantly from the
theoretical framework of French philosopher Paul Ricoeur. Ricoeur‘s contention of
narrative construction, the figuration of narrative identity and the complex relationship
between these representations and intention therein, are pivotal to my central contentions.
Essentially, this work will examine how de emplotment, that is, the process of redefining
a life story, within Ricoeur‘s philosophical paradigm, was conducive to diary writing as
opposed to other genres. Furthermore, this dissertation aims to reflect upon the role of
Ricoeur‘s supposition of intention and attestation when formulating a narrative identity,
and the application of this premise in regard to the Holocaust diarist. In turn, my findings
will serve to justify the basis for the thematic diary classifications, which will presently
be delineated. The pertinent research questions central to this work will now be briefly
outlined. Although answers cannot ever be assumed definitive, these speculations which
will be pondered, analyzed, discussed and ultimately answered in the conclusion.
7 Amos Goldberg, " The Victim‘s Voice and Melodramatic Aesthetics in History," History and Theory, 48,
issue 3 (2009): 220-237.
The term disbelief is referred to by Saul Friedlander, who discusses the dilemma of domesticating disbelief
as one faced by historians of the Holocaust. It is a dilemma he believes can never be solved. See, Saul
Friedlander, The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939-1945. HarperCollins, USA,
2007, Introduction, pages xxvi. 8 Etty Hillesum, Etty: The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum 1941-1943, ed. Klaas A.D. Smelik,
translated by the Etty Hillesum Foundation (U.S.A: Wm B Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2002), 584.
First published as Etty: De nagelaten geschriften van Etty Hillesum 1941-1943, (Amsterdam: 1986, 2002).
Etty Hillesum was a Dutch Jew murdered at Auschwitz.
12
Chapter One
An Overview
Historical and Theoretical Considerations The ghetto was dealt a horrific blow this morning. What only yesterday what
had been considered impossible and inconceivable became, tragically, a fact. 9
The diaries of the Holocaust record private moments in history which, for the most part,
survived the authors. However, so aptly noted in Alexander Zapruder‘s collection of
Holocaust diaries, however, it is not possible for a diary to reconstruct the life of the
author, thus reminding the post Holocaust reader that whilst the diaries often survived
their authors they should not ever be confused with survival.10
The Holocaust diaries
represent the author‘s personal life story and not that of the collective Jewish story under
Nazi rule, a point which is salient throughout this study. Paradoxically, it appears that the
authors of the diaries appeared to be able to record facts more simply than they were able
to actually comprehend them. In his Warsaw Ghetto diary Janusz Korczak remarked on
the new chapter in Poland's history without the foreboding evident in his later diary
entries. The simplicity of the statement, and the enormity of the ramifications thereof is
reflected in the words recorded on July 27th
, 1942: "You must listen my friend, to history‘s
program speech about the new chapter. " 11
The aim of this thesis is to highlight the redefinition or de emplotment of individuals
throughout Europe as Nazi policy became all encompassing. To this end, analyzing a
wide range of European diarists is an extension of the traditional paradigm of classifying
eastern and western victims, thereby enhancing unique individual responses during the
Holocaust and strengthening my argument pertaining to the redefinition of life under
Nazi rule. Thus established, however, the geographic distinctions and the differing
experiences of the Jewish populations therein need to be acknowledged.
Both Western and Eastern European Jews were the targets of anti Semitic legislation,
deportations and eventually mass murders under Hitler‘s reign of terror. Eastern
European Jews, however, had long been the victims of anti Semitic rhetoric and certainly
had inferior status in the countries in which they lived.12
Moreover, Eastern Europe had
9 Josef Zelkowicz, In Those Terrible Days, ed. Michal Unger, translated from Yiddish by Naftali
Greenwood (Jerusalem: Yad Vashem Publications, 2002), 261.
Josef Zelkowicz was murdered in Auschwitz after the liquidation of the Lodz Ghetto. His diary was hidden
by Nachman Zonabend, one of the Jews left behind in the ghetto after the deportation, to perform various
custodial jobs. After surviving the war, Zonabend retrieved the diaries from Poland and forwarded the work
to the YIVO Archives in New York and to Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, Israel. The quotes used in this work
come from the Zonabend Collection at Yad Vashem. 10
Alexandra Zapruder, ed. Salvaged Pages: Young Writers of the Holocaust (New Haven: Yale University
Press, 2002). 11
Janusz Korczak, Ghetto Diary (U.S.A: Yale University Press, 1978), 105. 12
Martin Gilbert, The Holocaust: The Jewish Tragedy (Great Britain: Fontana Press, 1986).
Yehuda Bauer, Rethinking the Holocaust (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002).
13
long been rife with social and political problems in addition to economic depression.
Jews in these countries were considered foreigners, often being used as scapegoats to
explain these problems. In contrast, Western European Jews were for the most part
considered to be integrated into the various states in which they lived. 13
Western
European Jews tended to be active in the public sphere and were successful both
economically and in terms of status in society, and many in fact had assimilated into
these nations, unlike their eastern European counterparts. Subsequently, despite the same
tragic outcome regardless of geographic division, the application of anti Jewish policies
of the Nazi regime differed between the east and the west. Ghettos were primarily
established in the east, and were characterized by overcrowding, starvation, disease and
death. They finally dissolved when their inhabitants were transported to death and
concentration camps. Conversely, the Western European Jews were concentrated in
transit camps. Ghettos were not established in the west, perhaps because of the higher
status of the Jews in these countries, or out of fear that the westernized and more liberal
countries would not react positively to such an act.14
Furthermore, concentration camps
and death camps were established exclusively in Eastern Europe, thereby necessitating an
elaborate deportation system of Western European Jewry to the east when the Final
Solution was launched by the Nazis. Tragically, although the fiber of Western and
Eastern European Jews differed, deportations and ultimately mass murder, made no
geographic distinction.15
The diarists writing during the Holocaust had the daunting task of not only recording
what they were experiencing but trying to make sense of it. In essence, determining what
the purpose of each new event meant and the subsequent response to this new
development became the cornerstone of those witnessing the Holocaust. The diaries
selected for this study reflect a cross section of diarists recording throughout Nazi
Europe. Despite differences not only geographically, but culturally and socially, in
addition to differences in age and gender, all the diarists represented in this work were
Jewish and fell victim to the Nazi policy of annihilation of their people.
Consequently, reflecting Alexandra Garbarini‘s conclusion in her benchmark book on
Holocaust diaries, acknowledging the heterogeneity of the victims in regard to wartime
perceptions, personal experience and responses is essential when analyzing the coping
mechanism of the victims of Nazism. As such, whilst the differences between Eastern
and Western European countries and their respective governments under the Nazi
occupation are acknowledged, the trauma and disbelief was apparent in all Holocaust
diaries analyzed, regardless of the language in which they were written or the country in
which the author resided.16
Subsequently, the liberty of analyzing diaries from all over
Europe was deemed essential to individualize the victims of the Holocaust and negate the
13
Ibid. 14
Gilbert, The Holocaust: The Jewish Tragedy 15
Gilbert, The Holocaust: The Jewish Tragedy.
The Final Solution was the code name for Hitler‘s plan to systematically annihilate the Jews of Europe,
numbering approximately 11 million at that time. 16
Alexander Garbarini, Numbered Days: Diaries and the Holocaust (New Haven: Yale University Press,
2006).
14
foreboding expressed in the diary entry of Etty Hillesum penned in Westerbork Transit
camp in the Netherlands, on August 24th
, 1943:
Could one ever hope to convey to the outside world what has happened here today?
I ask my companion. The outside world probably thinks of us as a gray, uniform,
suffering mass of Jews, and knows nothing of the gulfs and abysses and subtle
differences that exist between us. 17
In defining the word ―history‖, philosopher Georg Wilhem Friedrich Hegel noted that it
encompassed both an objective and a subjective meaning.18
In keeping with this
observation, Amos Funkenstein argues that facts do not exist in isolation, but rather, gain
their own meaning when understood within a particular context constructed by the
historian whose narration makes and shapes the fact.19
He claims that facts, unlike
fictional narratives, are construed of events that exist outside the writer‘s consciousness,
and, in a hermeneutical paradigm the historical narrative does not merely represent facts,
but participates in their making.20
In other words, narratives capture the meaning of
events insofar as the writer selects, modifies and interprets events in the context in which
he or she is writing. Narrative history and the epistemic adequacy of these histories need
to be assessed individually, as many appear to be at odds with history‘s professed aim of
representing the facts. As such, the narratives or stories of history should be viewed as a
personal construction of a particular moment in history as the writer alone is responsible
for the choice of facts being recorded, wording, arrangement and the like.
Chaim Aron Kaplan actually immortalized this sentiment with his own words, written in
his Warsaw Ghetto Diary, on August 27th
, 1940:
But for the sake of truth, I do not require individual facts, but rather
manifestations which are the fruits of a great many facts that leave their
impression on the people‘s opinions, on their mood and their morale.
And I guarantee the factualness of these manifestations because I dwell
among my people and behold their misery and their souls‘ torment. 21
A narrative is a theoretical concept, which, as defined by philosopher Paul Ricoeur, is a
particular mode of thinking which not only creates and transmits cultural traditions but
also builds identity. 22
Narratives convey meaning to the reader through a narrative
identity and as they are self created, shaped and preserved by the narrator they may be
17
Hillesum, Etty: The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum 1941-1943, 653. 18
Amos Funkenstein, " History, Counterhistory and Narrative, " in Probing the Limits of Representation,
ed. Saul Friedlander (Great Britain: Harvard University Press, 1992), 66-81. 19
Amos Funkenstein, Perceptions of Jewish History (Berkley: University of California Press, 1992). 20
Ibid. 21
Kaplan, Scroll of Agony: The Warsaw Diary of Chaim Kaplan, 302.
Chain Kaplan himself wrote the diary in Hebrew, and called it his ―scroll of agony‖. Chaim Kaplan and his
wife were murdered in Treblinka. 22
Paul Ricoeur, Oneself as Another, translated from French by Kathleen Blamey (Chicago and London:
University of Chicago Press, 1990), 113-140.
Ricoeur denotes chapters as "Studies" and gives a detailed discussion about narrative in the fifth and sixth
studies.
Any references cited from this book will cite "study" rather than the word "chapter,"
15
described as a mirror in which we discover what it means to be human.23
Amos
Goldberg‘s pioneering work ―Diaries as Life Stories‖ theorizes that narrations construct
individuality and human identity.24
His work emphasizes the human element of
Holocaust research, highlighting man and the nature of man in crisis, illustrated through
the Holocaust diaries, as the focus of his research. 25
Goldberg, together with Friedlander,
La Capra, Lang a host of others have brought victims to the center of Holocaust
historiography. Diary writing may be considered just one of the many responses of
Jewish victims trying to make sense of the senseless fate that had befallen them.
Traditionally, many studies of the Holocaust tended to relegate the victims into a
collective group, and this thesis joins the growing body of work that brings the individual
victims to the fore. Historian Saul Friedlander, a Holocaust survivor himself, writes:
It is too often forgotten that Nazi attitudes and policies cannot be fully assessed
without knowledge of the lives and indeed the feelings of the Jewish men, women
and children themselves. 26
Rather than analyzing the diary narratives within a psychological paradigm as Goldberg
advocates, my research focuses on the recurring narrative themes found in the diaries,
such as defiance, struggle, solace and bearing witness as the protagonists endeavor to
redefine their new reality. In addition, the construction and role of a narrative identity
will be examined by analyzing how the diarists dealt with the unthinkable situation they
were faced with. Goldberg‘s conclusion that the diarists during the Holocaust exemplified
their perceptions of their predicament by constructing life stories through their diaries is
pivotal to the premise of this work. 27
The diary as a genre is about the author‘s heart and
mind and, during the Holocaust was a personal response to the situation being
experienced, constructing meaning and intention of a particular diarist at a particular
moment in history.
During the Holocaust, the diarist wrote with an awareness of the contingent present
coupled with a sense of the writer‘s own personal contingency, and in this respect the
diaries included in this work all tried to make allowances for the circumstances they
perceived as out of their control. 28
Put simply, the diarist responds to the inexplicable,
namely, everything familiar and recognizable being reconfigured into a completely new
reality, coupled with the growing realization that the diary may survive their own
physical destruction.
Pointedly, representing the Holocaust was a dilemma faced by the diarists writing during
the Holocaust, and has similarly remained as such for post Holocaust scholars. ―There in
23
Ibid. 24
Amos Goldberg, Holocaust Diaries as Life Stories, Search and Research Number 5 (Jerusalem: Yad
Vashem, 2004). 25
Ibid. Man here is generic for people. 26
Saul Friedlander, The Years of Persecution, Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1933-1939 (Great Britain:
Phoenix Books, 1997). 27
Ibid. 28
Berel Lang, "Review of Oskar Rosenfeld and the Realism of Holocaust History, On Sex, Shit and
Status, " History and Theory, 43, May (2004): 278-288.
16
Auschwitz something happened, that up to now nobody even considered possible‖, writes
German philosopher Jurgen Habermas. 29
In 1990, scholar and child Holocaust survivor,
Saul Friedlander, convened a conference entitled ―Nazism and the Final Solution:
Probing the Limits of Representation.‖ Essentially, he aimed to bring to the fore issues
that were debated about historical representation of the Holocaust and the nature of
truth.30
Largely spurred on by heated debates between Carlo Ginzberg and Hayden
White, and the awareness as a historiographer, of the tendency to remove the victim from
Holocaust studies, Friedlander hoped to at least begin to clarify how and if, the Holocaust
could ever be represented. On the one hand, White argued that once the same literary
tools as novelists use are implemented to write about the Holocaust, facts and fiction will
be confused. Ginzburg, on the other hand, maintained, that a document does not express
reality, but rather, only itself, and is therefore considered a fact. 31
Friedlander wanted to
find the ―middle ground‖, as he called it, that is, the medium between historical narrative,
historical truth and relativity, which would allow at the very least, adequate
representation of the Holocaust. 32
The ensuing arguments pertaining to the limits of
representation of Holocaust writing and responsible historical documentation will be
examined throughout this dissertation. This undertaking involves discussion pertaining to
the human capacity to recall traumatic events and the deconstruction of texts which may
normalize the Holocaust. Moreover, the authenticity of events actually lost when putting
unspeakable horrors into believable language will also be addressed. Clearly, when
considering the theoretical framework in which to work, the Holocaust diaries should be
considered literary historical narratives, illustrating not only the shifting reality the
diarists had to comprehend on a daily basis, but the events they perceived as reality and
therefore acted upon.
Shlomit Rimmon Kenan‘s groundbreaking work on narration and representation of
historical events reveals that narratives associated with one discipline need to be fused
with the methodology of other disciplines, in order to be analyzed adequately. Put
differently, whilst analyzing one form of narrative, such as a diary, the methodology and
system of concepts based on another branch of learning can enhance the understanding of
the narratives. 33
This approach to a narrative fuses together many aspects of the
narrative, such as cultural, psychological and philosophical spheres, and in doing so gives
the narrative authenticity. 34
In various ways, an interdisciplinary approach is logical in
light of the complexity of the Holocaust. Historians, sociologists, psychologists, artists,
poets and journalists have all tried to analyze both the victims and perpetrators of this
29
Jurgen Habermas, The New Conservatism: Cultural Criticism and the Historians Debate (Cambridge
Massachusetts: MIT Publications, 1989), 163. 30
James E. Young, " Toward a Received History of the Holocaust," History and Theory 36, no. 4
(1997): 21-43.
Articles in History and Memory, Volume 9, issue1/2, 1997 revolved around the perpetual question of how
the Holocaust can be represented, and consisted of papers given at the conference addressing this question.
This was a special issue in honor of Saul Friedlander‘s 65th
birthday and the articles pertain to probing
representation of the Holocaust and the issue of witnessing and perceiving what was being witnessed. 31
Young, ―Between History and Memory: The Uncanny Voices of the Historian and Survivor.‖ 32
Young, ―Toward a Received History of the Holocaust.‖ 33
Leona Toker, ed. "Narrative as a Way of Thinking," Journal of Literature and History of Ideas: Special
Edition in Honor of Shlomith Rimmon, Kenan 4, no. 2, June (2006) :163-174. 34
Ibid.
17
period. Consequently, insofar as the political, social, religious and psychological state of
the diarist, many disciplines need to be exacted to understand the historical truth of that
particular diarist. 35
In compliance with Rimmon Kenan‘s theoretical framework, James
E. Young claims that studies pertaining to the Holocaust are by nature interdisciplinary as
the enormity of this event naturally encompasses philosophical, political, religious and
historical factors. 36
For example, when studying many historical events such as the
origins of war, reasons can be found, understood and agreed upon by historians.
Paradoxically, this is not the case when analyzing the Holocaust. In fact, the opposite
may be true. The more one attempts to understand the Holocaust, it may be argued, the
more perplexing it actually becomes. In depth studies about anti Semitism, the aftermath
of World War One and the subsequent rise of Nazism, fail to explain the Final Solution,
how it was perpetrated by seemingly average citizens, how bystanders watched it happen
or how and why the world remained silent. An attempt to understand unprecedented,
systematic genocide necessitates crossing boundaries and recognizing that truth perhaps
is the fusion of historical events, perceptions and how the events were not only
understood but how they were recorded. Historical events and texts are intertwined with
the perceptions of those bearing witness to them, as the Holocaust diaries clearly
illustrate.
Whilst recognizing the interdisciplinary necessity in regard to studying the Holocaust,
and the fact that diaries are not always classified as literary texts, the research presented
in this thesis has a different focus. The significance of the Holocaust diary from a literary
perspective, as an individual response crossing the traditional boundaries of geography
and culture and the intent of the diarists per se will be examined. Throughout this critical
analysis of diarists, the focus is on the response to Nazi persecution at different stages of
Nazi domination and across cultures, coupled with the varying redefinition of reality that
the Jewish populations of Europe underwent, namely, de emplotment. It is evident that
the Holocaust diaries are historical, psychological, cultural and sociological documents.
Thus recognized, these domains are markedly embedded in the analysis of the de
emplotment of the individual diarists across Europe.
Debates as to how the Holocaust literature should be interpreted are basically
epistemological, begging the question as to how far we take Holocaust studies out of the
human realm and make it academic. The epistemological approach resides within this
thesis, arranges and categorizes events recorded in the diaries and attempts to analyze and
give meaning to them as narratives. To this end, the Holocaust diaries should arguably be
viewed as historical narratives with added dimensions, because they are, as Berel Lang
advocates, texts in which the boundaries of historical and literary representation
converge.37
Still, one has to be aware of the danger of making them too human and
ordinary, thus eradicating the true uniqueness and horror of annihilation by gassing and
35
Shlomit Rimmon Kenan, A Glance Beyond Doubt: Narration, Representation, Subjectivity (Columbus:
Ohio State University Press, 1996). 36
James E Young, Writing and Rewriting the Holocaust: Narrative and Consequence of Interpretation
(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1998). 37
Berel Lang, "The Representation of Evil: Ethical Content as Literary Form," in Act and Idea in the Nazi
Genocide (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1990).
18
cold blooded murder. The atrocities surrounding the diarists and encompassing their lives
gave rise to the literature the diarists produced and in turn, the way the post Holocaust
generations interpret and perceive their words will determine how the Holocaust and its
victims are remembered. Essentially, an epistemological study depends on the procedures
of investigation, justification of these findings and subjective evidence. However,
historians need to consider the basic epistemological problem faced when trying to
theorize about the Holocaust, namely, knowing or understanding the systematic
annihilation of millions and the trauma associated with it. It is in fact beyond the capacity
of a post Holocaust historian to actually record the trauma and devastation of the
Holocaust. Even diaries penned during this period cannot explain the events and cannot
record the experience per se. The experience and the facts can never be reconciled.
Theorists such as Saul Friedlander and Dominick La Capra have attempted to bridge the
gap between trauma, the role of witnessing the unthinkable and representation of mass
murder. Both scholars grapple with Holocaust representation, as do countless others, such
as Carl Ginzberg, Lawrence Langer, Hayden White, James Young and Sidra De Koven
Ezrachi, to mention a few. La Capra‘s complex work distinguishes between the
documentary model of history which seeks objective facts, and constructivism, claiming
that truth is based on narratives and interpretation.38
La Capra‘s work propounds that
writing about the Holocaust presents the historian with a problem of transference in the
most traumatic form, and that writing about this event can lead to language breakdown
and subsequent silence, or result in normalizing abnormal and extreme events. 39
The
attempt to perhaps compare the Holocaust to other genocidal histories is paradoxical
claims La Capra, because in the attempt to make the Holocaust unique through such
comparisons, the opposite is actually achieved. In other words, uniqueness may be
diminished through historical comparisons. Friedlander too, writes of the dangers of
normalizing the Holocaust. Exemplifying this was his response to philosopher Martin
Broszat‘s theory, which propounded that Nazism had to be viewed within the context of
World War Two, thus implying that the Final Solution was merely a small part in the
greater picture.
Today, the Hebrew term ―Shoah,‖ translated as catastrophe, is acknowledged as an
equally accepted term as the English usage of the word Holocaust, which I have used
throughout this thesis. Whilst both words were not exclusively coined to denote this
catastrophe, both have come to be almost exclusively associated with the Nazi
extermination of the Jews of Europe during World War Two. My choice of using the
word Holocaust is based on the predominant use of this term in academic works both in
38
Dominick La Capra, "Representing the Holocaust: Reflections on the Historians Debate," in Probing the
Limits of Representation: Nazism and the Final Solution, ed. Saul Friedlander (U.S.A: Harvard University
Press, 1992), 108-127.
A detailed discussion of La Capra‘s contention may also be found in the reference below.
Dominick La Capra, "Revisiting the Historians Debate", History and Memory, 9, no. 1-2, Fall, (1997): 80-
112. 39
Ibid. Transference is a term coined initially by Freud, who claimed that a traumatic event often meant
that the repercussions of that event were transferred to the victim in later life and characterized by
inappropriate repetition of past feelings or actions to the present.
19
Israel and outside.40
Notably, it is the English term used by the Yad Vashem Memorial
Museum in Israel, which calls itself the Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance
Authority. The name of the International School for Holocaust Studies at Yad Vashem,
where a lot of my research was conducted, also led to the academic decision to
incorporate the term Holocaust throughout my thesis. In addition, the capitalized word
Holocaust appears in the English translation of the Israeli Declaration of Independence
and was the term used throughout the 1961 trial of Adolph Eichmann.
This work propounds the unique historical nature of the Holocaust which is illuminated
through the Holocaust diarists whose narratives attest to the unprecedented nature of this
historical period. In the words of Saul Friedlander:
"Indeed, normal life with the knowledge of ongoing massive crimes committed
by one‘s own nation and one‘s own society is not so normal after all." 41
40
Notable examples of this are Yehuda Bauer‘s Rethinking the Holocaust, Saul Friedlander‘s The Years of
Extermination, Scream the Truth at the World: Emmanuel Ringelblum and the Hidden Archive of the
Warsaw Ghetto, published by the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Warsaw, Amos Goldberg‘s Holocaust
Diaries as Life Stories, David Patterson‘s Along the Edge of Annihilation: The Collapse and Recovery of
Life in the Holocaust Diary. These works are cited throughout my work and illustrate the usage of the term
Holocaust in Holocaust research. 41
La Capra, ―Representing the Holocaust: Reflections on the Historian Debate,‖ 124.
20
The Theoretical Framework
Narrative Identity, Emplotment and De emplotment
Knowledge and history as traditionally understood were transformed after the Holocaust.
The attempt to comprehend the ultimate meaning of what happened is perhaps seen most
clearly through those who were there. As such, it is not the events alone that this thesis is
concerned with, but, the uniqueness of each diary, each diarist and the understanding that
each writer engaged in a certain action at a particular time in order to try and come to
terms with his or her drastically changed reality through the construction of a narrative
identity. In this respect, this work engages in active construction of the possible
perceptions and intentions of the diarists, in accordance with the paradigm of Paul
Ricoeur. The emplotment, that is, the causal story and causal mechanisms, all woven
together, produce an outcome. Paradoxically, the outcome was often the disintegration of
the diarist‘s life narrative as all the recognized domains they considered ―life‖, such as
their culture, religion, employment, family, and a future, no longer existed. The
Holocaust diary reveals the development of the life narrative as the narrators readjusted
both internally and externally to their new reality.
In the light of the considerable body of work written about narration, representation and
hermeneutics, this study categorizes the Holocaust diaries as narratives, analyzing the
diaries within the framework of Ricoeur‘s theory of narrative and emplotment. Ricoeur‘s
theory is justifiably central to my analysis as his groundbreaking philosophical paradigm
focused on the relationship between narrative emplotment and the articulation of the self
linguistically. It is this affirmation together with his claim that words constituting action
and articulation of the self bear witness to who we are, both individually and within each
individual‘s social and cultural context, which I believe is reflected within the Holocaust
diaries. The use of Ricoeur‘s model is further justified through his argument that human
subjectivity is primarily linguistic and that the capacity to formulate intentions in words
is tantamount to enacting them. In short, his model of narrative emplotment as the heart
of one‘s identity is pivotal in regard to my examination of the Holocaust diaries.
Thus noted, it is certainly acknowledged that there are other theoretical models that could
have been employed to examine diaries of the Holocaust. One perspective, for example,
would be Jewish scholarship pertaining to private and introspective writing such as
diaries.42
However, Ricoeur‘s model of emplotting events into a narrative which in
essence formulates not only intentions linguistically, but the will to enact the words, was
deemed the most effective paradigm for my analysis. This theory enabled me to examine
the Holocaust diaries as personal narratives constructed by narrative identities searching
for the meaning to their inexplicable fate.
Ricoeur‘s theory essentially propounds the idea that life stories are a continual process of
reorientation, through which these life stories achieve and maintain a level of
42
An innovative Jewish perspective for example, is highlighted in Susan Handelman‘s Slayers of Moses:
The Emergence of Rabbibinc Interpretation in Modern Literary Theory (Albany: State University Press,
1982).
21
understanding regarding not only the events one is experiencing, but to the thought
processes involved in internalizing and making sense of these events. 43
Establishing a
causal link between events, as opposed to merely stating chronological facts, emplotment
offers a level of understanding and personal interpretation to the event being witnessed.
Consequently, mere sequences of events may be transformed into meaningful life
narratives. In doing so, selection of facts and a plot structure is undertaken by the writer,
in this case the diarist, according to his or her political, religious, national, social or other,
context. Narratives are therefore emplotted differently by different people, depending
upon their particular life contexts. In this framework, the diaries of the Holocaust are
supremely important narratives as they represent the reality of the diarists.
Within Ricoeur‘s paradigm, furthermore, narratives are formulated through a narrative
identity, in essence a fusion between describing an event, interpreting an event and
recording it.44
Narrative identity is a form of self interpretation and mediates between the
events and the telling, and as such are fluid in nature and display a multiplicity of
identities mimicking the reality of the human being. Narrative identity is a linguistic
construction created by the narrator to represent life through contextually familiar
paradigms, and a construction through which the narrator has to juggle roles between
social, cultural, religious, gender and other varying roles which make up a real life. 45
The intention of this work is to reflect the narrative identities formulated by diarists
during the Holocaust who were faced with the disintegration of all familiar life contexts.
The dominant themes deciphered within the diaries analyzed, namely, narratives of
testimony, defiance, solace and struggle will further be examined. Moreover, this work
will demonstrate how, through the construction of narrative identities, the complexities of
the event, human suffering and individual stories have been passed on to future
generations.
Literature pertaining to narrative and autobiography differentiates between the narrator
and the protagonist, both agents serving the linguistically constructed narrative identity.
Whilst the narrator is generally the narrating ―I‖ in a narration, that is the person telling
the story, the protagonist is by definition the character central to the story. In other words,
the narrator may narrate a story about a protagonist who has a separate linguistic identity.
Unlike other literary genres, even autobiographical writing, the nature of diary writing
fuses the narrator and protagonist into one voice. However, within the inexplicable
context of the Holocaust there is evidence that this traditional assertion in regard to diary
writing shifted. To that end, later chapters in this work conclude that the trauma of Nazi
rule and the continued desire to continue one‘s diary saw a gradual split between the
narrator and protagonist, perhaps as the only mechanism which could allow the diarist to
continue recording the unspeakable.
43
Paul Ricoeur, Narrative Context and Contestation, ed. Morny Joy (Calgary, Atlanta: University of
Calgary Press, 1997). 44
Paul Ricoeur, "Life in Quest of Narrative," in Narrative and Interpretation: Essays on Paul Ricoeur, ed.
David Wood (Great Britain: Routledge, 1991), 20-34. 45
Moniler Fludernik, "Identity/Alterity," in The Cambridge Companion to Narrative, ed. David Herman
(New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 260-273.
22
Echoing the term emplotment, in a negative form, is my own term de emplotment,
introduced in the opening chapter and coined to describe the negative reorientation of the
diarists during the Holocaust. This reorientation was a response to a new reality in which
the experience was one of disorientation, confusion and sheer disbelief in regard to the
drastically altered circumstances. The implausibility of events was such that it became
almost impossible to internalize or emplot them, thereby forcing the diarists to create
completely new historical narratives within an unprecedented historical context. This was
undertaken through the construction of a narrative identity, reflecting disbelief at the
declining situation as the causal links between events fast became incomprehensible,
inducing in turn a completely new context in which a life story had to be construed.
Emplotment involves a narrative based on familiar contexts, be it cultural, religious,
gender based or the like. In other words, when recording an event, prior conceptions,
knowledge and perceptions are drawn upon to construct new meaning to this event.
Identity is forged through an accumulation of past experiences, the present situation and
future expectations, which generate continuity and meaning to the narrator.46
During the
Holocaust, the crisis was of such an enormous magnitude that the individual was
dramatically separated from what was valued and familiar. The familiar context
eradicated, de emplotment, espousing the reconstruction and redefinition of the life story,
recorded and based on an entirely new context, was heeded. Emplotment involves the
fusion of a text and the reader. The same holds true for de emplotment, wherein the
demise of the familiar life paradigm, reconstructed and redefined for a life without a
meaningful past, present and perhaps no future other than certain death, had to be
narrated with intent to unify future readers with the text.
As the gradual linear process of the usual life story no longer existed under Nazi rule, life
had to be reconstructed rapidly and drastically, as illustrated through the diaries penned
during this period. Highlighting this drastic redefinition of life in the Ghetto is Chaim
Kaplan‘s perceptive lament that a ―worm that lives in horseradish thinks it is sweet‖.47
Through the various categories that have been delineated in this work the de -emplotment
of the diarists in every sphere of life will be examined, including emotional, physical,
cultural, religious and geographical displacement, which was common to the diarists
across Europe during Nazi rule. Narration, as distinct from a story, is fluid and transforms
events into an entity which is separate to the narrator.48
Essentially, in order to be classified as a narrative, discourse involving interaction and
sequence is necessary.49
Notably, the discourse of a narrative is a linguistic
representation of events resulting in a written text which needs to be read in order to
46
Ibid. 47
Kaplan, Scroll of Agony: The Warsaw Diary of Chaim A. Kaplan, 374, (diary entry written on July 15th
,
1942).
This saying is based on an old Yiddish saying meaning you get used to anything if you have do it for long
enough. This was a cynical comment about his deteriorating situation and how the Jews of Warsaw were
not only redefining their new reality but assimilating new norms. 48
H. Porter Abbot, "Story, Plot and Narration," in The Cambridge Companion to Narrative, ed. David
Herman (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 39-52. 49
Ibid.
23
abstract meaning. 50
To this end, the identity of the narrator, in this case the Holocaust
diarists, becomes comprehensible to the reader through the process of emplotment, which
fuses the narrator and the events into one, whilst constructing the identity of the writer.51
Meaningful narrations are produced in the form of discourse based on a certain social,
cultural and historical reality which represents the social norms of the narrator. During
the Holocaust the norms of society were not only eradicated, but were replaced with an
incomprehensible new reality. Whereas emplotment is based on a past which affects the
present, and an assumed future, based on the societal norms of the narrator, this mimesis
no longer existed in any form, and it is this which has led to the coining of my term ‗de
emplotment‘. The past no longer had any meaning to the Holocaust diarist, the present
made no sense and the future was deportation, violence, loss of loved ones and
ultimately, death. Emplotment therefore deviated into de emplotment, as life experience
could no longer be mediated through a familiar paradigm.
When considering a theoretical framework, much thought was given in regard to the
possibility of fact and fiction being confused when taking on a historiographical and
epistemological approach. Historical facts may be described as events assigned to a
specific moment in history. Those events not only occurred at a given moment, but at a
specific location, and were observable by those witnessing them. Whilst there is a level of
interpretation of such events, that is, a narrative, a level of facts recorded by so many is of
prime importance in regard to the diaries of the Holocaust.
Historians Berel Lang and Saul Friedlander acknowledge that no representation of the
Holocaust can ever be adequate, given the enormity of the event. Nevertheless, they both
give credence to the fact that writing from the Holocaust does aspire to give it
authenticity, particularly the Holocaust diary, which was not reliant on memory, but
rather, was written within the context of the Holocaust itself. The diary attributes
importance to segments of life and as such may be considered a momentary interpretation
of the diarist, as opposed to a life reflection. The diary‘s value is intrinsically based on
recording the individual consciousness of the writer and the evolving character of the
narrator, rather than any long range meaning that a memoir may strive towards. Written
during an unspeakably unconscionable period, the diaries from the Holocaust convey the
interpretation of reality of the atrocities the diarist was living through, in essence trying to
make sense of and reflect the growing de emplotment which necessitated a requisite
redefinition of life under Nazi rule. Berel Lang contends that moral authenticity belongs
only to an authentic text, such as the diary written during the Holocaust and subsequently
places the diary in a place of prominence, in contrast to the retroactive memoir written by
the survivor afterwards.52
He explicitly rejects fictionalization of the Holocaust as well as
narrative historical writings, and writes of the singularity and uniqueness of the
50
Teresa Bridgeman, "Time and Space," in: The Cambridge Companion to Narrative, ed. David Herman
(New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007), Chapter 4: 52-65. 51
Ricoeur, Oneself as Another, 1-27.
52
Beryl Lang, "Is it Possible to Misrepresent the Holocaust." History and Theory 34, no. 1, February
(1995): 84. This was written in response to a selection of essays included in History and Theory 33, no. 2, (1994).
24
Holocaust, thereby elevating the diary to supreme significance in relation as authentic
historical narrative, a premise adhered to in this study.
My thesis concurs with Amos Goldberg‘s premise that the diaries of the Holocaust are
life stories through which identities are constructed. 53
Historical discourse, the collection
of written texts which make up history, is limited in regard to the Holocaust, largely due
to the fragmented writings often salvaged years later that were left behind by those living
through it. Furthermore, the diarists censored their diaries, including details they wanted
to include and excluding many events perhaps too confronting and difficult to
comprehend. In fact, a study of the omissions from the diaries could possibly be just as
telling as a study of facts that were recorded, although this thesis does not venture into
this area of study. The emplotment and subsequent de emplotment, which essentially
reconstructed the identity and life of the Holocaust victim, will be examined through the
recurring themes found throughout the diaries. Bearing witness, finding solace, defiance
and struggle, both internal and physical are viewed by this writer as the recurring themes
in the Holocaust diary narratives which are essentially autobiographical life stories
depicting, reflecting upon and substantiating the ‗self‖ through writing. This narrative
genre draws on literary and judicial sources and forces an awareness that emplotted
accounts are shaped by their authors. 54
Within Paul Ricoeur‘s theoretical framework intentionality appears to be the cornerstone
of narrative identity. In other words, the intentions of the narrator are all important when
analyzing narrative identity. It is this premise which is critical throughout this work,
justifying the categorization of diary narratives as narratives of testimony, solace,
defiance and struggle. Put simply, if the diarist intended the diary to be a narrative of
struggle then this work deems it as such. Unlike oral discourse, which is often
spontaneous and fleeting, when creating a written narrative identity, the narrator
organizes and controls the final product. Subsequently the narrative becomes a document
of the self. To that end, the creation of a narrative identity armed the narrator with a
means of processing their new incomprehensible circumstances. Consequently, during
the Holocaust, the diary became a vehicle of what Paul Ricoeur has termed attestation,
namely, a dialogue between the inner and outer self which imbued the narrator with
responsibility to act on the intentions expressed in writing.55
Attestation is tantamount to
bearing witness to the self, propounding the theory that a narrative identity not only
formulates intentions when writing, but in doing so attests to enacting these intentions.
The concepts of intention and attestation are central both to my de emplotment model and
the classification of the diary narratives, and will be substantially expanded upon and
further analyzed throughout this dissertation.
53
Goldberg, Holocaust Diaries as Life Stories. 54
Sarah Mazza, "Stories in History: Cultural Narratives in Recent Works in European History, "American
Historical Review 101, no. 5 (1996):1493-1515.
55
Ricoeur, Oneself as Another, 140-203.
25
The Questions
Why was a diary narrative conducive to de emplotment ?
The answer to the question as to why the diary was the choice of so many Jewish victims
who wrote during the Holocaust is one which will be explored throughout. Although
other genres such as memoirs and letters were written during the Holocaust, diary writing
was arguably a natural consequence of the aforementioned de emplotment process for
several reasons, which will be critically appraised and explored throughout this work.
David Roskies coined the term the ―Modern Library of Jewish Catastrophe‖, when
writing about the literature of mass destruction.56
The diaries written on the brink of mass
destruction are certainly part of this library. For the purpose of clarity, a diary may be
defined as a record of events recorded contemporaneously, usually composed of periodic
dated entries.57
This definition holds the diary as distinct from a memoir in that the
memoir tends to be a longer narrative, does not generally have dated entries and is written
with no hindsight. Andy Alaszewski asserts that a diary is a ―document of life‖, par
excellence, documenting both public and private events significant to the author.58
He
further denotes that a diary, as opposed to a memoir, is written at regular intervals,
sequenced and chronological, is contemporaneous so as not to be distorted by recall, and,
records what the diarist has selected as important.59
He outlines the characteristics of a
diary, which essentially record a moment in history, noting that whilst the diary is a
unique document representing the inner thoughts of the diarist, failure to destroy it is
ironically a tacit acceptance that someone else may read it.60
This observation is salient to
the Holocaust diarist and the will be examined throughout this work.
Thus established, the Holocaust diary is a literary genre of its own, reflecting the
diversity of the Holocaust experience so often construed only as a collective, Jewish
experience, as opposed to an individual one. Noted historian David Patterson indicates
that the Holocaust diaries are exclusive in terms of literary texts since they have
characteristics which are unique just to their genre.61
For example, unlike a traditional
diary recorded solely for personal reasons, these diaries depict a consciousness of
community and, for the most part, have a Jewish identity.62
In essence, these diarists seek
to recover the world of old, interrogate and question God and the loss of the meaning of
life as they knew it, and to a large extent, question the motives for the meaningless evil
befalling them.63
Put simply, the diary narratives represented in this work focused not
56
Tony Kushner, " Holocaust Testimony, Ethics and the Problem of Representation, "Poetics Today, 27,
no.2, Summer (2006): 275-295. 57
Zapruder, Salvaged Pages: Young Writers’ Diaries of the Holocaust, 444(Appendix 2). 58
Andy Alaszewski, "Diaries as a Source of Suffering Narratives: A Critical Commentary," Health, Risk
and Society 8, no. 1, March (2006): 43-58. 59
Ibid. 60
Alaszewski, ―Diaries as a Source of Suffering Narrative,‖44. 61
David Patterson, Along the Edge of Annihilation: The Collapse and Recovery of Life in the Holocaust,
(U.S.A: University of Washington Press, 1999).
Pages 21-28 outline Patterson‘s discussion about the distinguishing features of the Holocaust diary. 62
Ibid.
There are many reasons cited for the uniqueness of the Holocaust diary, beyond the scope of this thesis. 63
Ibid.
26
only on what was happening but the disbelief as to the fate that had befallen them, all
asking the same question, "why". Avraham Tory‘s words reflected this, when he wrote,
on October 19th
, 1943:
Remember both of you, what Amalek has done to us (sic). Remember and never
forget all of your days; and pass this memory as a sacred testament to future
generations. The Germans killed, slaughtered, and murdered us in complete
equanimity. I was there with them and they sent thousands of people ……men,
women, children, infants----to their death, while enjoying their breakfast, and
while mocking our martyrs (sic). 64
Whilst the unique diversity of diarists throughout Europe is reflected in the diaries of the
Holocaust, it is notable, as mentioned by David Patterson and Alexandra Garbarini, that
the diary narratives also have a common denominator, namely, the transition from a
private diary to a more public diary. 65
This shift coincided with impending annihilation,
growing doom and the need to grasp onto a life narrative that no longer existed. It was
this process, de emplotment, which will be explored and expanded upon in depth
throughout this work, coupled with the role of diary writing in this complex
mechanism.66
Recognizing both the uniqueness and the increasing communal awareness
of the diary narratives, Amos Goldberg also reflects upon the dichotomy between inner
consciousness and outer persona illustrated through the diaries of the Holocaust, more
notable with the growing agony of the writer.67
Dutch diarist Etty Hillesum voiced this
dichotomy and her own personal dilemma when she wrote, Sunday, on September 20th
,
1942:
If I want to be a writer, if I want to write down everything inside me that is
demanding ever more urgently to be put into words, then I shall have to withdraw
from people much more than I do now. I really shall have to shut the door, and join
bloody yet sanctifying battle what seems unyielding material. I shall have to retire
from a smaller community, the better to devote myself to a larger. 68
The diary narratives themselves can be delineated into those written in the early years of
the ghettos, and those written in the consciousness of impending annihilation. Diaries
written in hiding, such as the famous diary of Ann Frank written in Amsterdam, reflect a
different perception of hope and a different level of consciousness of the inexplicable
64
Avraham Tory, Surviving the Holocaust: The Kovno Ghetto Diary, ed. Martin Gilbert, translated by
Jerzy Michalowwicz, historical and textual notes by Dina Porat (Cambridge, Massachusetts and London,
Harvard University Press,1990), 506.
Abraham Tory was a Lithuanian Jew. His diary was entrusted to leaders of the Escape Movement and
recovered after the war. Avraham Tory survived the war and became a lawyer in Tel Aviv. He was also the
secretary General of the International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists. The diary was translated
into Hebrew in 1988, and the English translation is based on the original Yiddish diary and the Hebrew
translation.
Amalek is a biblical character who was a sworn enemy of the Israelites. 65
Patterson, Along the Edge of Annihilation and Garbarini, Numbered Days 66
Ibid. 67
Goldberg, Holocaust Diaries as Life Stories.
Amos Goldberg too discusses the shift from the private to the public domain of many Holocaust diarists. 68
Hillesum, The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum, 1941-1943, 522.
27
situation, for example, than those written in the midst of Warsaw Ghetto, or those of the
Sonderkommado‘s, which tend to be narratives of hopelessness.69
In essence, the diary is
a self contained life story and each entry a closed chapter. Whilst the diary is connected
to the autobiographical genre, it is unique in that each day was the end of a small piece of
history, the diarists recognizing that each day the self was not the same as the day before.
In contrast, the autobiography is often penned after reflecting upon the life as a whole,
and selecting moments and narratives to record. 70
In this sense, the autobiography is
retrospective, whereas the diary is a process of narration in the present thus making it a
spontaneous and momentary response to life.71
Notably, a long diary, such as many of
those written during the Holocaust may read like an autobiography, but the development
and consciousness of the protagonist differs from the narrator of the retrospective
autobiographer.
Allan Berger argues that historians and scholars traditionally tend to use the Anne Frank
paradigm as a benchmark for studying Holocaust diaries.72
This framework, he asserts, is
a false premise, assuming that the survival of a diary is not only tantamount to the
writer‘s survival but speaks for millions therefore reaffirming the human spirit.73
As
literary and historical texts the diaries offer us a window into the perception of the
individual writing, and, in agreement with Berger‘s contention, the research undertaken
for this thesis argues that the traditional ―Ann Frank‖ paradigm actually serves to obscure
the atrocity of the Holocaust by grouping all the diaries together.
The diary was a personal document, albeit recording a communal disaster. Each diary
represents that particular diarist and his or her perceptions and testimony and conveys the
development of that particular person‘s life story. As such, this work propounds that the
Holocaust diaries do not speak for the millions who died, but rather for the individual
who wrote it. This is a crucial point in bearing witness. Moreover, in adherence with the
theoretical framework which will subsequently be outlined, an understanding of the
writer‘s perspective, the forces influencing the compilation of the text and the context in
which that particular text was written are crucial to understanding the diarist‘s narrative.
The affirmation of the human spirit so famously discussed in Anne Frank‘s diary is
certainly absent in many other diaries as the diarists realized that death was imminent,
failing to ever really comprehend how and why such actions could ever be perpetrated.
When analyzing the diaries as literature, the despair in some should not be obscured by
the hope of another. Indeed, it is evident that many diarists concluded that there were no
answers and that people are not always good and that simply, there was no explanation
69
Sonderkommandos were camp prisoners who were forced to do all the dirty work in the crematoria and
gas chambers. They were usually Poles or Jews and usually young men. After three of four months they too
were put to death as the Nazis did not want any witnesses to their heinous crimes. 70
Victoria Stewart, "Holocaust Diaries: Writing from the Abyss," Forum of Modern Language Studies 41,
no. 4 (2005): 418-426. 71
Karl J Weintraub, " Autobiography and Historical Consciousness," Critical Inquiry 1, no.4, June (1975):
821-848. 72
Allan Berger, " Book Review of Alexandra Zapruder‘s Salvaged Pages," Modern Judaism 24, no. 2,
May (2004):179-182. 73
Ibid.
28
for the fate that befallen them. This is exemplified so clearly in the insightful words of
the young Moshe Flinker, written on November 30th
, 1942 in Belgium:
Unlike the Spaniards (in the Spanish Inquisition), for instance, who gave our
religion as their reason, the Germans are not even trying to justify their persecutions;
it is enough that we are Jews. The fact that we were born Jews is sufficient to explain
and justify everything. 74
Since there are varying styles of diaries from the Holocaust period, it is pertinent to point
out that some of the boundaries of thematic classification may be blurred. For example,
some of the diaries tend to have letter type entries included, such as Etty Hillesum‘s and
some, such as Janusz Korczak, include a fictional narrative such as his story of the Planet
Ro, one of many diaries which include allegories and metaphors describing their
unbelievable predicament. 75
Emmanuel Ringelblum‘s ―Oneg Shabbat,‖ alternatively, is a
historical, more than a personal diary.
By definition, a diary is a self sustaining autobiography, essentially recording private
thoughts.76
The Holocaust diaries may not be traditional diaries in one sense, as they were
generally written as a response to the traumatic situation in which the diarist found him or
herself suddenly thrown into. Fundamentally, the Holocaust diary is a special diary,
which reflects not only the self performing daily rituals and recording daily happenings,
but has the added dimension of testimony. Moreover, the Holocaust diary is a subjective
narrative in which the private persona seemed to adopt a public one as the situation
declined. Unlike the traditional diary, the diary written during the Holocaust changed as
diarist‘s reality shifted, and the self, primarily the narrator, constantly had to
recontextualize and redefine his or her social, religious and cultural contexts, one of the
most salient points this thesis makes. Significantly, the Holocaust diarist did not reflect
upon the future as other diarists, but wrote in the face of doom and recorded daily
struggles to recover a life, despite the day‘s destruction and interrogated humanity and
God.77
David Patterson contends that the Holocaust diaries were not only personal
accounts, but also reflected a consciousness of a communal ordeal.78
Typically, the
Holocaust diarist described the decline and disappearance of life as they knew it on a
personal level, a communal level, a Jewish level and on a human level. Consequently, it
is not only the redefinition of a lost life so often portrayed within the diary but responses
to the new reality are repeatedly described, explained and made reference to. For
example, putting a name to a personal diary may be perceived as the diarist‘s
74
Moshe Flinker, Young Moshe’s Diary: The Spiritual Torment of a Jewish Boy in Nazi Germany
(Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 1971).
Quoted from Zapruder, Salvaged Pages: Young Writers’ Diaries of the Holocaust, 101.
Moshe Flinker was taken from the Belgian transit camp Malines, and from there to Auschwitz-Birkenau,
where he was murdered. 75
This small fictional narrative can be found on pages 82-84 in the Ghetto Diary. 76
Alexandra Garbarini, "To Bear Witness where Witness needs to be Borne: Diary Writing and the
Holocaust, 1939-1945" (Ph.D, UCLA, 2003).
(Authorized from microfilm master copy, UMI, obtained at Yad Vashem). 77
David Patterson, " Through the Eyes of Those Who Were There," Holocaust and Genocide Studies 18,
no. 2, Fall (2004): 274-290. 78
Ibid., 276.
29
understanding of his or her situation and to their almost sacred obligation to bear witness.
Signing a name represents ownership and attests to the existence of a person. In this
respect, most the diaries included in this work are unique as the authors give their names
to the diaries, again highlighting not only their existence but the sacred obligation they
felt to record.
Although many of those who wrote personal testimonies during the Holocaust were
murdered, they have certainly provided a vehicle for the survival of the memory of those
killed. Omer Bartov notes the tendency to reduce the Holocaust into a historical event
which can actually be understood.79
This historiographical paradox is enhanced through
the words of so many diarists who feared their experience could never be fully
comprehended in the future. Ironically, the epistemological and hermeneutic issues
pertaining to representation of what the diarists were witnessing and experiencing are the
very issues post Holocaust scholars still have to grapple with. Although it is still difficult
to adduce an understanding of the Holocaust, every effort has been made to heed the
wishes of the diarists who wanted to be written into the future. Chaim Kaplan lamented,
January 16th
, 1940:
I sense the magnitude of this hour and my responsibility to it. I have an
inner awareness that I am fulfilling a national obligation. My words are not
rewritten, momentary reflexes shape them. Perhaps their value lies in this….
My record will serve as a source for the future historian. 80
Ostensibly the analysis undertaken has been restricted to diaries written during the period
of the Holocaust itself (1938-1945). Consequently, post Holocaust literature penned by
authors such as Eli Wiesel and Primo Levi, although vital to the understanding of the
Holocaust, are not analyzed. The diaries help probe the thoughts of these authors, to
investigate the extent to which they perceived what was happening to them and to explore
the extent to which these diaries served as a vehicle of solace and resistance, a vehicle for
recording internal and external struggles, in addition to bearing witness to tragedy beyond
belief. Survival literature penned in the aftermath of crisis focuses more on the horror of
Nazism, the unprecedented outcome of the Holocaust and the writer‘s own survival story,
as opposed to the daily horror, bewilderment of those writing during this period and the
hope they were desperately trying to maintain in the face of daily atrocities. Diaries were
written in the absence of the post Holocaust knowledge and it is exactly this lack of
hindsight that this work intends to evaluate as it reflects the feelings and experience of
living through the Holocaust perhaps more realistically than after the fact. Survivors
writing after the Holocaust faced different issues to those writing at the time. Recording
their stories after their liberation, Holocaust survivors asked different questions,
transcending the question of not just why, but why they particularly had survived while
others had not. Survivor accounts have a different focus, which in some respects may be
more ―well rounded‖ than live accounts, in which the writer is not always exactly aware
79
Omer Bartov, " Defining Enemies, Making Victims," American Historical Review 103, no. 3, June
(1998): 771-816. 80
Kaplan, Scroll of Agony: The Warsaw Diary of Chaim A. Kaplan, 104.
30
of what is going on. The memoirs written after the Holocaust gauge the entire picture,
understand perhaps the magnitude of what had actually taken place, if at all possible, and
place their own personal story somewhere in all the suffering and death. However,
memory can be selective, which may account for the difference between eye witness
testimonies and secondary survivor literature, which lead to my decision to confine this
work to diaries written between1939-1945 exclusively.
31
What was the Role of Intention and Attestation in Classifying the Holocaust Diary
Narratives?
Integral to the diary genre and classifying the Holocaust diaries represented in this work,
is the narrative identity constructed by the Holocaust diarists which enabled them to not
only formulate intentions but to commit to enacting them. Arguably, the narrative
identities were fluid which therefore enhanced the commitment to their intentions, which
naturally shifted as their circumstances became more inexplicable. A feature of this work
and of the narrative identities which were constructed during the Holocaust is the
development of my own concept of de emplotment. This term echoes emplotment, but is
in fact the reverse, namely, the loss of the customary narrative of self which emplots life
in the traditional trajectory of beginning, middle and end, fusing together events within
familiar paradigms to give meaning to the life story. De emplotment defines the
disintegration of the familiar paradigms, the traditional life trajectory and the fusion of
emplotted events. This loss necessitated the redefinition of the self and all familiar life
paradigms, resulting in the diary narratives which, for the most part, survived their
narrators. This concept will be developed and analyzed throughout my work and is
pivotal to both the classification of the Holocaust diaries and to the construction of the
narrative identities within.
Primarily, this work takes a qualitative approach in that the categorization of the diaries
and the interpretations therein are subjective and based on the diarist‘s interactions with
the context in which they were writing. James E. Young argues that on the same basis of
present day journalism, perceived to be accurate because the journalist is reporting live,
the diaries of the Holocaust convey historical facts which shed light on the horror they
were witnessing. 81
This notwithstanding, Amos Funkenstein contends that the notion of
historical facts can only be brought to life when these facts are put into context, and in
this respect journalism and diary writing are actually diametrically opposed. Funkenstein
notes:
The very notion of historical facts evolved from that which was perceived
first as self evident to that which became meaningful only in its context,
whether delivered by an eye witness or subsequent historian. 82
This thesis also takes this epistemological and hermeneutic approach, attempting to
understand the diaries written during the Holocaust, to interpret these diaries and
highlight the uniqueness of the diaries as historical documents. However, as Gertrude
Koch so astutely notes, the real difference between the epistemological and the
hermeneutic is only analytical, namely, the blurred division of knowing and
understanding.83
This distinction is pertinent at this juncture in that even witnessing and
81
Ibid. 82
Funkenstein, Perceptions of Jewish History, 22-49.
Quoted from James E. Young, " The Uncanny Voices of Historian and Survivor," History and Memory 9,
no. 1-2, Spring-Winter (1997): 47-58, 52. 83
Gertrude Koch, "Against All Odds or the Will to Survive: Moral Conclusions from Narrative Closure,"
History and Memory 9, no. 1-2, Fall (1997): 393-408.
32
living through this horrific period did not mean understanding it. Throughout this
dissertation the Holocaust diaries will be classified thematically in accordance to what
has been perceived as the central intentions of the individual diarists. The crucial
importance accorded to intentionality will be delineated in great detail in the following
chapters, but suffice to note that intention is considered quintessential to my central
contention. Markedly, any attempt to classify literary texts confronts the blurring of
classification, and the Holocaust diaries are no exception. Undeniably, the boundaries of
diary narrative classifications are sometimes obscured and fluid, shifting throughout the
aforementioned de emplotment process. Inasmuch as it was possible, the perceived
intention of the diarists themselves was the basis of diary classifications within this work.
Inherently, the Holocaust diary was a vehicle of self construction which was a
linguistically constructed text essentially reflecting the social, historical and emotional
position of the diarist. This being so, it may be concluded that Philipe Lejeune‘s
autobiographical pact, claiming that reading a life story binds the narrator and the reader
into a special relationship, can be extended to diarists and their audience.84
In fact, as will
be reflected upon in later chapters, the adaption of the diary to a future audience was
characteristic of most Holocaust diarists, whose attempts to present the self and the
unprecedented situation in which they found themselves, became almost tantamount to
survival. Lejeune‘s pact is inextricably bound together with intent of the diarist, reverting
back to Fothergill‘s claim that the most defining feature of a diary is the sincerity of the
diarist‘s claims. 85
Logically, sincerity may be extended to encompass intention, thus
according the definitive feature of the Holocaust diary the sincerity of the diarist‘s
intentions.
Examining the Holocaust diary as a literary text illuminates the claim that this distinct
genre was often a logical choice by the Holocaust writer for reasons which will be
outlined at length in the body of this work. The diaries represented will be analyzed
according to the themes of testimony, defiance, solace and struggle which appeared
repeatedly throughout the diaries represented in this dissertation. Furthermore, the diaries
will be reflected upon within the theoretical framework of French philosopher Paul
Ricoeur‘s supposition of emplotment, narrative identity and intentionality. This
framework best reflects what was arguably the impetus fuelling diarists during the
Holocaust, and to that end is arguably the most valid basis for the diary classifications
within this work. Within Paul Ricoeur‘s theoretical framework, intentionality appears to
be the cornerstone of narrative identity, elevating the intentions of the narrator to central
importance when analyzing narrative identity. It is this premise which is critical
throughout this thesis, justifying the classification of the aforementioned diary narratives.
Put succinctly, if the diarist intended the diary to be a narrative of struggle then this work
deems it as such. Unlike oral discourse, which is often spontaneous and fleeting, when
creating a written narrative identity, the narrator organizes and controls the final product.
84
Philippe Lejeune, "The Autobiographical Pact," in On Autobiography, ed. Paul John Eakin, translated by
Katherine Leary (Minneapolis: Minneapolis University of Minnesota Press, 1989).
Originally published as L’Autobiographie (1971). 85
Steven Rendall, " On Diaries," Diacritics 16, no. 3, Autumn (1986): 57-65.
33
Subsequently the narrative becomes a document of the self. To that end, the creation of a
narrative identity armed the narrator with a means of processing their new
incomprehensible circumstances.
During the Holocaust, the diary became a vehicle of what Paul Ricoeur has termed
attestation, previously referred to as a dialogue between the inner and outer self which
imbued the narrator with responsibility to act on the intentions expressed in writing.86
Attestation is tantamount to bearing witness to the self, thus contending the theory that a
narrative identity not only formulates intentions when writing, but in doing so attests to
enacting these intentions. It is this thesis which will be expanded upon throughout this
work. In addition, Paul Ricoeur‘s intricate theory on narrative identity stated that not only
is intention the cornerstone of narrative identity, but the difference between the narrator‘s
perception of self and relationship to others is also intrinsic to the narrative identity. 87
Ricoeur called this gap appropriation, a process through which the narrator derives
meaning by combing personal experiences with others and a sense of self. 88
To this end,
the diarists, created a narrative identity with a definitive intent within the context of their
own reality, positioning the self within a continuum which is always subjective thereby
reminding us that each diary narrative written during the Holocaust was indeed a personal
response to Nazism.
Giving a voice to the victims, which has recently come to the fore of Holocaust
historiography, was long relegated to secondary importance by historians, and the
Holocaust diaries help accord this long overdue recognition to the victims of Nazism.
Reporting is not the aim of this work, but rather, interpreting and constructing meaning,
intention and experience of the diarists, as proposed within the theoretical framework of
philosopher Paul Ricoeur.89
Naturally, subjective classifications have been adhered to
within this work, but to the greatest extent possible the intentions of the diarists
themselves have been considered. The implicit differences of intent are the cornerstone of
what noted author and survivor Eli Wiesel has repeatedly insisted, namely, that the
difference between a text such as a diary, and a historical document reflects the
conjecture that ―the ultimate mystery of the Holocaust is that whatever happened took place in the soul. "
90
86
Ricoeur, Oneself as Another 87
Ibid. 88
Ibid. 89
Paul Ricoeur, Narrative Context and Contestation, ed. Morny Joy (Calgary, Atlanta: University of
Calgary Press), 1997. 90
Eli Wiesel, quoted in Patterson, Through the Eyes of Those Who Were There, 276.
34
Chapter Two
The Narratives of Testimony
― And he is a witness whether he has seen or known of it;
if he does not utter it, then he shall bear his iniquity.‖ (Leviticus 5:1)
For the historian diaries and memoirs have always been an important part of historical
understanding. However, in regard to the Holocaust this did not seem to be the case until
recently and increasingly, diaries are becoming recognized as a necessity to
understanding the nature of the evil that befell the Jews of Europe. They illustrate the
daily life of the Jewish victims across Europe and are a window into the violent settings
in which they were living. Reflecting unrevised brief moments in time and history, the
Holocaust diaries described events linked to these historical interludes and recorded them
for posterity. Essentially, the diarists recorded their changing perceptions and
interpretations of the inexplicable circumstances through which they were living, trying
to make sense the extraordinary historical framework unfolding. Their shifting
interpretations and records of the struggle to redefine their lives need to be acknowledged
as significant historical material and should be regarded as vital historical documents,
each one signifying its own authentic history. This chapter probes into how, as the
situation became increasingly deplorable and incomprehensible, the Holocaust diarists
wrote of the need to bear witness, creating narrative identities to do so, realizing that they
were living through an unprecedented historical moment.
Reiterating the original premise, the diaries evaluated in this work represent a cross
section of individuals and their response to their individual circumstances. It is
acknowledged that cultural, geographic, social and religious circumstances affected the
diarists‘ interpretations of events they recorded. As such, there is no attempt to judge
extremities or suffering but rather, to highlight and reflect upon the personal de
emplotment of Jewish individuals across Europe and how they perceived their shifting
reality. Historical discourse generally assumes a fundamental understanding that an
event has occurred, which is then substantiated by texts and shared meaning. This was
not the case during the Holocaust. Historically it is conceded that under the Nazi Regime
Eastern European diarists confronted an entirely different reality to the diarists in
Western Europe. However, the sampling of diary narratives reflected upon in this work
strengthens my argument that throughout Europe Jews who eventually fell victim to the
Nazi policy of annihilation all had to grapple with a transformed reality, and could only
surmise about their predicament, albeit in varying degrees. The diarists only represent
themselves and their own interpretations of what the Nazi actions inferred. Nevertheless,
in taking the liberty of crossing boundaries of geography, age, culture and gender to focus
on Jewish responses to Nazism across Europe, this work accentuates the individual‘s
redefinition of his life narrative.
Bearing witness is arguably its own classification and did not necessarily constitute
defiance, consolation or a struggle if not deemed as such by the diarists. Some wrote to
simply testify to the unprecedented and unbelievable events they were witnessing. As anti
Jewish activities increased and the situation for Jews became increasingly dangerous, the
35
need to bear witness was heightened. Chaim Kaplan reflected this need on May 2nd
, 1942,
as deportations from the Warsaw Ghetto to death camps became more and more frequent:
In a spiritual state like the one I find myself at this time, it is difficult to hold a pen,
to concentrate one‘s thoughts. But a strange idea has stuck in my head since the war
broke out—that it is a duty I must perform. This idea is like a flame imprisoned in
my bones, burning within me, screaming: Record! 91
Diary writing was a response to a situation which was so extreme that many felt they had
a responsibility to record it. It was undertaken during the Holocaust for varied reasons,
depending upon varied contingent factors such as geography, social, religious and
cultural circumstances and individual personality. The Holocaust diarists had to
recontextualize their lives and de-emplotted their life narratives by redefining and
reversing the sequence of life events which had constituted their daily existence. In other
words, the sequence of events in a life which make it meaningful became unraveled. Life
no longer had a familiar sequence and in many cases became a series of foreign events
seemingly unlinked.92
Writing a diary almost became an urge or impulse in response to the Nazi onslaught. This
is evidenced by not only the words of the diarists themselves, but by the substantial
number of diaries written during this period that have been unearthed. Ester Captain, in
her work on diaries of captivity, notes:
The twentieth century, with two World Wars and many smaller wars, shows
the birth of testimonies of captivity: literature that wants to testify. The internees'
diaries were written in order to be read and to inform. They ask for a reader. And,
I think, they ask for an academic reader as well. In order to recognize the existence
of these diaries as testimonies of captivity literature, they can be very well studied in
their own right. That is to say: as major informants in research. 93
James E. Young also notes in regard to Holocaust diaries that…
…….the closer writers came to the ghettos and death camps, the more likely
they were to redefine their aesthetic mission as one of testifying to the cries
against them and their people. 94
Exemplifying this, Herman Kruk wrote from the Vilna Ghetto number two in Lithuania,
on September 29th
, 1941:
These lines should remain as a sign of the time in which I write them, as a
91
Kaplan, Scroll of Agony: The Warsaw Diary of Chaim A. Kaplan, 144. 92
The essence of what I have called de emplotment. The diarists were forced to undo what had become
their familiar life narrative and the new narrative made no sense and seemed to have no continuity. 93
Esther Captain, "Written with an Eye on History: Wartime Diaries of Internees as Testimonies of
captivity Literature, "Tydskrif-vir nederlands-en-Afrikaans 5, no. 1, June (1998). 94
James E, Young, "Interpreting Literary Testimony: A Preface to Rereading Holocaust Diaries and
Memoirs," New Literary History 18, no. 2, Winter (1987), 406.
36
memory of this difficult and terrifying time. These lines so far, the pages
from__ to ___and the pages _ to ___, were written in the most awful chaos and
in the most dreadful circumstances. 95
Exemplifying the narratives of testimony which will now be expanded upon, Abraham
Lewin also voiced the intent to bear witness, when he wrote from the Warsaw Ghetto, on
June 6th
, 1942:
We want our sufferings, these birth pangs of the messiah, to be impressed on
the memories of future generations and on the memory of the whole world. 96
95
Herman Kruk, The Last Days of the Jerusalem of Lithuania: Chronicles from the Vilna Ghetto and the
Camps 1939-1944, Translated from Yiddish by Barbara Harshav, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
(New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2002), 121.
It seems that because of an oversight Kruk never filled in the pages.
The Vilna Ghetto was divided into two ghettos. 96
Abraham Lewin,, A Cup of Tears: A Diary of the Warsaw Ghetto, ed. Antony Polonsky, translated by
Christopher Hutton (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, Institute for Polish Jewish Studies, 1988), 129.
37
Narrative Identity and the Intent to Testify
Intentionality appears to be the cornerstone of narrative identity since the intentions of
the narrator are all important when analyzing narrative identity. Unlike oral discourse,
which is often spontaneous and fleeting, when creating a written narrative identity the
narrator controls the final product. Subsequently the narrative becomes a document of the
self. In fact, the creation of a narrative identity armed the narrator with a means of
processing their new incomprehensible circumstances. Distinctively, as a result, the diary
became a vehicle of attestation. The narratives which frame intentions are essentially
incomplete as human intentions are always in a state of flux, as evidenced by the fluid
diary narratives. Whilst diary writing was undertaken by some to defy, for consolation or
recording their own personal struggle, bearing witness appears to be a common theme in
the Holocaust diaries penned throughout Europe, and it is this intention that will be
expanded upon in this chapter.
Paul Ricoeur‘s theory of narrative identity claims that a narrator fuses ―selfhood‖, that is
personal identity which is temporal, and ―sameness‖, the permanence of character that
makes each individual unique, to construct a unique narrative identity and history.97
Ricoeur further notes that the synthesis of these character traits is offset by the interaction
of the two with the social, cultural and religious context in which the author is writing,
which he terms ―the other‖. Within this framework this work theorizes that the narrative
identity of the Holocaust diarist realized the demise of the previous identity as the
contextual paradigm of old had all but disappeared. Stripped of all human vestiges and
therefore unable to pass on what they were witnessing in person, many constructed a
narrative identity through which they could emplot their tale. Narratives essentially
represent the narrator, and may be considered a strategy used by the narrative identity to
help organize the experience they wish to communicate to an audience.98
Notably, it is
possible only to focus on the narrative identity as it appears in a diary, which cannot be
substituted for the narrator him or herself. The diarists created an identity by mediating
their experience, selecting what to include and engaging in telling the story. It is therefore
deemed significant that the narrator is distinguishable from the story being narrated,
imbuing the narration with a life of its own.99
It is this which constitutes a narration as
opposed to a story, which does not involve the fusion of events into a whole. A narrative
identity is, however, created by words alone and can never replace the human suffering
being recorded.
Amos Goldberg refers to the Holocaust diaries as autobiographical texts, a classification
which requires further discussion.100
Whilst the diaries are certainly life narratives this
work makes a clear distinction between autobiography and diary. The autobiography is a
genre of which diary writing is an offshoot, is retrospective and reflects the development
97
Paul Ricoeur, Time and Narrative, Volume 1, Translated by Kathleen McLaughlin and David Pellauer
(Chicago, London: University of Chicago Press, 1984): 31-52. 98
David Herman, ed. "Introduction," in Cambridge Companion to Narrative (New York: Cambridge
University Press, 2007): 3-21 99
Porter Abbot, Story, Plot and Narration, 39-52. 100
Goldberg, Holocaust Diaries as Life Stories.
38
of a narrative identity, often with personal motives in mind101
The autobiography focuses
on reshaping and creating a sequential narrative which has motive, namely, to highlight
the life of the narrator, emphasizing facts deemed significant by the author. The end
result is therefore a life narrative that has produced a contrived narrative identity which
has shifted and transformed, developed and been restructured throughout the narrative
with intent to impress the motive of the narrator on those reading it. 102
In contrast, the
diarist as a narrator does not have the intent of producing a structured narrative identity
but rather, focuses on daily events, reflects rambling and random thoughts and is often
repetitive. The autobiography transcends small daily details and focuses on the deeds and
deemed importance of the narrator, and unlike a diary is not ordered on a daily basis but
rather on periods within the life story. Conversely, the diary is a sequential register of the
self, flexible and uncontained in nature, and in this respect a diary narrative has a
different intent to an autobiography. Arguably, intent and motive and the implications
thereof are the basis of narrative identity, forming the basis of this thesis. An
autobiography is written retrospectively, is revised and edited, and, time is not the focus
as is the case with diaries. Whilst autobiographical narratives can focus on one event for
many pages without disclosing the timeframe of events, the completion of a diary entry
signifies the end of that particular event at that particular moment. In fact, it is the
timeframe of dated diary entries that gives the reader access to the act of writing which is
unique to the diary narrative.103
Consequently, whilst deemed life narratives and
autobiographical in nature, a diary stands alone as a literary genre.
It may be observed that the diary was selected by diarists as a response to Nazism
because it was perceived as a record which would be the most accurate and least self
indulgent by a future audience. Whereas autobiographies per se focus on the life story of
the narrator, a diary does not necessarily focus on a life story but rather, facts in a life. In
writing a diary the narrator becomes an observer and an investigator, creating an identity
based on plot, selecting events, individual character and experience and social context.104
Once again the liberty of crossing geographic boundaries is considered pertinent to this
work which is a study of how European Jewry redefined their identities in varying stages
as Nazism became all encompassing. Notably, as the situation worsened, the drive to
write became stronger, perhaps indicative of growing despair. Writing became more and
more difficult and almost impossible in the death camps themselves, as evidenced by the
very small proportion of diaries unearthed from the ruins of these camps. Renata Weiss
Laqueur‘s groundbreaking doctoral thesis (1971) examining diaries written in
concentration camps, noted in her opening discussion as to what motivates someone to
write a diary.
The motivations of the concentration camp writer were quite different. In addition
to the fact that he could not rely on being able to read or even look at his notes again,
his writing was due less to a desire for self clarification or interpretation of what he
101
Linda Anderson, Autobiography (U.S.A and Canada: Taylor and Francis Publisher, First Edition, 2002). 102
Ibid. 103
Teresa Bridgeman, "Time and Space," in The Cambridge Companion to Narrative, David Herman ed.
(New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 52-65. 104
Sidonie Smith and Julia Watson, Reading Autobiography: A Guide for Interpreting Life Narratives
(Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2001).
39
was undergoing than to a strong need to communicate or at least describe his
extraordinary experience. 105
The Holocaust diaries reflect how each narrator selected and edited, struggled and
grappled with their new reality. To that end, each diary represents the de emplotment,
that is, the unraveling of the life events that had thus far emplotted a meaningful life for
the narrator, of one small life story, that of its author. The day to day accounts are
spontaneous and offer no revision, thereby allowing the post Holocaust reader, reading in
retrospect, to try and comprehend how someone in such a catastrophe defined the
paradigms of reality. Observances were detailed. For example, at a time when rumors of
death camps were rife and deportations frequent, fifteen year old Mary Berg observed on
May 8th, 1942, from the Warsaw Ghetto.
The Germans have decided to make a film of life in the ghetto. Early this
morning, they set up a powerful camera in front of 20 Choldna Street and
took pictures of the street. Later they entered one of the most elegant
apartments and ordered the table to be set. From a nearby restaurant they
confiscated the most exquisite plates with meat dishes, cakes, and fruit…..
probably the only fruit available in the ghetto.
She continued:
Recently I have not been seeing my friends as often as before, except for
Eva Pikman, who lives round the corner. It is now very dangerous to take
long walks in the ghetto. Life, however, follows its regular course. The stores
are open, although there are very few foods to be had. The theatres are open
as usual, and there are some good plays. The community imposes new taxes
and tributes every day. 106
It is noteworthy that on the very same date, also in the Warsaw Ghetto, on May 8th
, 1942,
Emmanuel Ringelblum wrote:
The ghetto has calmed down somewhat since the massacre of April 18
(when 52 people were shot down in the street). People have become a little
more optimistic. They‘ve begun to believe that the war will be over in a
few months and life will return to normal. The good mood has been aided
by the false communiqués that have been become widespread with the
cessation of true accounts after Friday‘s massacre. What is in these
communiqués? Well, first we learn that Smolensk has been retaken through
105
Renata Weiss Laqueur. " Writing in Defiance: Concentration Camp Diaries in Dutch, French and
German, 1940-1945 "( Ph.D, New York University,1971). 106
Mary Berg, The Diary of Mary Berg: Growing up in the Warsaw Ghetto, ed. L Shneiderman (One
World Publications, 2006), 144.
This diary was first published as ―Warsaw: A Diary‖, in 1945. Mary Berg is one of the few diarists who
survived the war. In fact, her family managed to leave Europe and arrived in America before the war was
over, presumably because of her mother‘s American citizenship, and her diary was subsequently published.
As such, her diary was the first one to be published and she was considered a living witness to the atrocities
perpetrated by the Nazis. She talked about her diary until the 1950s, after which she dissociated herself
from it and the past and refused all interviews.
40
an airdrop of 60,000 soldiers who joined forces with the Russian army camped
west of Smolensek. 107
He continued, in the same entry:
They are filming the ghetto. They spent two days shooting the prison and
the Council. They drove a crowd of Jews to Smocza Street, then ordered the
Jewish policeman to disperse them. At another place They (sic) shot a scene of a
Jewish policeman about to beat a Jew when a German comes along and saves
the fallen Jew.108
On this particular date, both Ringelblum and Berg make note of the fact that the Nazis
had decided to film the Warsaw Ghetto in an effort to prove to the world that rumors
about the ghettos were untrue. This is an event which may be considered a historical fact
as it was observed by many at a given moment in a particular place, the Warsaw Ghetto,
on May 8th
, 1942. As narrators, each diarist, in the context of age, gender, social standing
and personal perspective, wrote their own personal perception of their realities and, in
doing so, created a recognizable narrative identity. Both diarists made reference to the
deception of the German film. Ringelblum, however, attempted to record the mood, the
feelings and wartime events within the context of his limited knowledge of what was
actually going on, whilst Berg, a teenage girl, wrote a more intimate narrative recording
her own situation which seemed to be becoming more precarious. Perceptions and
personality are personified within these diary entries, written on the same date, in the
same place, but with different ―eyes‖. Noted historian David Patterson observed that
Ringelblum and Berg were motivated to record in very different ways and, that the
generic constraints demonstrated by each diarist are just as significant as the selection of
details each chooses to include. 109
Arguably, witnessing an event is one thing, but
actually recording it is another. The synthesis of witnessing and recording is the basis of
authentic historical records. However, in the case of the Holocaust, it was almost a case
of seeing was ―not believing‖, and it is this assumption that needs to be kept in mind
when analyzing the diaries. As such, the horror of the events being witnessed may never
be fully recorded for the simple reason that recording or representing such events was
almost impossible. This is embodied by the simple words of Chaim Kaplan, describing in
essence the extreme loss of what constitutes community and all the familiar paradigms
therein. He wrote on February, 1st, 1941:
107
Emmanuel Ringelblum, Notes from the Warsaw Ghetto, ed. and translator, Jacob Sloan (New York:
Mc. Graw Hill Book Company, 1958), 260.
Emmanuel Ringelblum was a historian whose mission was to record for posterity all that he was
witnessing. He organized the now famous ―oneg shabbes, a group who collected and recorded notes from
the Warsaw Ghetto. It is still the most detailed description to have survived from this period. His notes
were hidden in milk containers which he ordered to be hidden after realizing he was not going to survive. A
survivor of the Oneg Shabbat writers went back to recover them after the war, and most were recovered and
can be viewed today in the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Warsaw. Emmanuel Ringelblum, his wife and
son were executed in the Warsaw Ghetto in 1944. 108
Ibid., 266 109
Patterson, Along the Edge of Annihilation: The Collapse and Recovery of Life in the Holocaust Diary,
9.
41
The Jews are deprived of any benefit whatever from any institution for social good, be
it governmental, municipal, or public. As a result, even our beautiful hospital in Czyster
Street has been confiscated. 110
The same week, Chaim Hasenfus, also in the Warsaw Ghetto wrote, on February 3rd
,
1941:
These are very stressful days. There‘s been a third registration of Jewish men
born between 1881 and 1926. The purpose is to place them in labor camps.
Apart from that, two German civilians showed up today looking for furniture:
fortunately they didn‘t anything they liked. Beggars have been pounding on the
door saying that thousands of Jews from the provinces have been resettled in
Warsaw, which could spark a typhus epidemic. 111
Likewise, Mary Berg‘s testimony reads as follows:
February 5th
, 1941:
There is panic among the inhabitants of Sienna Street, for the rumor has spread
that the street will be cut off from the Ghetto, allegedly because of the extensive
smuggling that is carried on here. But this is certainly not the real reason, for the
same is true of all the border streets and if one is to cut off, the smuggling will
simply move over to the next one. The Germans themselves are circulating rumors
that Sienna Street will be left to the Jewish inhabitants if they pay a contribution.
This must be the real reason for the threat….the Germans want to get a large sum
of money out of the inhabitants of the Ghetto. 112
When trying to construct meaning, the deconstruction of these texts was evaluated in an
attempt to shift and complicate the meanings both explicit and implicit, in these
fragments of history, as Alexandra Zapruder has aptly called these diaries.113
For
example, implicitly these diarists claim authority about the events they were witnessing
as they were not only physically living under the brutal Nazi regime, but they were
Jewish. Their diaries are constructed on the inherent understanding that their narratives
will have credibility to their future readers for these reasons, whilst explicitly outlining
particular events. The narrative identity therefore has therefore made an implicit and
explicit claim to future readers. These narratives have both intimacy and distance in that
they reflect the personal concerns and observations of the person writing them and record
facts deemed to be important to that particular writer. The above diary entries further
illustrate how diarists chose to record specific facts meaningful to their own lives,
perhaps because they witnessed an event right near to where they lived, or because they
knew someone on Sienna Street, or in the hospital on Czyster Street or because beggars
had come to their residence. The emerging dichotomy even in the earlier stages of the
ghettos, between Ricoeur‘s selfhood, sameness and the other (society) is evident. The
110
Kaplan, Scroll of Agony: The Warsaw Diary of Chaim A Kaplan, 219. 111
Chaim Hasenfus, in "Words to Outlive Us," ed. Michal Grynberg (London: Granta Books, 2003), 31.
Chaim Hasenfus wrote a diary between late 1939 and the first half of 1941. He worked as an accountant in
a bank in the Warsaw ghetto. His fate is unknown. 112
Berg, The Diary of Mary Berg: Growing Up in the Warsaw Ghetto, 38. 113
Zapruda, Salvaged Pages, 7.
42
new identity appears to be increasingly based on just being Jewish, although the
aforementioned diarists write ―them,‖ and refer to ―the Jews‖, indicating a certain
distance between the narrators and the situation. This being the case reflects Ricoeur‘s
claim that a narrative identity positions itself within the narrative, and in doing so a
narrative discourse is created. 114
This argument is intrinsic to de emplotment narrative.
The self builds an identity through events, which frame intention, identification with
others and determine ones perception of his place in society.115
As anti Jewish decrees
increased, the ingredients of selfhood dissolved and the once clearly defined place in
society as a Jew, a Pole or German and so on no longer existed. Meaning could no longer
be extracted from life and nothing made sense. The life story no longer had any
foundations upon which an identity could be defined meaningfully.116
Narrative identity within the framework of Paul Ricoeur‘s theory is generally linked with
the past and the future, which defines the continuity of a life story for the narrator.117
Emplotment of events is based largely on a pre understanding of one‘s reality and
meaningful structures within one‘s world, and these factors are relied on by the narrative
identity, which is, it must be emphasized, a linguistic identity. To that end, the diaries
penned during the Holocaust reflect the past of that particular diarist and only that
individual. Despite the very different circumstances of diarists, even those writing from
the same ghetto, the diarists apparently constructed narrative identities which enabled
them to record the events they were witnessing and redefine their own lives.
Inasmuch as the diary is a narration, the narrator is writing a story in which true feelings
cannot be felt or really experienced the reader. In many respects, reality had already
shifted drastically, as exemplified by the diarists quoted above. The past was no longer a
viable measure for future events and meaningful societal structures had been eradicated,
necessitating de emplotment, namely, the retelling of the story and a reversal of what had
been considered ―life‖ but no longer existed in any familiar paradigm. Furthermore, a
narrative is not just a description, but follows a trajectory of opening, middle and end,
whilst reflecting the social and cultural context of the narrator. This is fused with a
dialectic and sequence, which distinguish a narrative as a literary genre.118
During the
Holocaust the trajectory of the life story was interrupted, and the narrative shifted to an
unprecedented dialectic. Narrations tend to move forward through time, signifying a
beginning, middle and end. De emplotment ushered in a new narrative in which there was
a new incomprehensible beginning emerging and an end which was unknown. The
discourse between the self, the event and the future audience reflected the redefinition of
a life narrative with an unprecedented trajectory.
The diarists developed a narrative identity which allows the post Holocaust reader to
actually feel they ―know‖ the narrator after reading their diaries. One becomes familiar
114
Ricoeur, Oneself as Another, 40-56. 115
Ibid. 116
Ibid. 117
Paul Ricoeur, Time and Narrative, 31-50. 118
Marie Laure Ryan, "Toward a Definition of Narrative," in The Cambridge Companion to Narrative, ed.
David Herman (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 22-35.
43
with the particular diarist‘s way of thinking, feelings and torment as one reads each diary
entry. Paul Ricoeur‘s theory of narrative identity, characterized by the dialectic of
selfhood and sameness, may be further explained as the fluid individuality of each person
and the permanence of character genetically inherent in every personality which makes
that person a recognizable entity, both of which interact with a familiar society. 119
As
such, understanding the underlying and unspoken factors is just as important as the facts
presented themselves, and each diarist quoted above, Kaplan, Berg and Hasenfus, have
made subjective choices in their entries, each in the context of age, circumstance and the
like which reflects how each narrator reacted to the changing circumstances. Thirty five
year old Hasenfus, fifteen year old Berg and sixty one year old Kaplan each had their
own perspective, highlighting the pertinent point that each narrative represents that
person only, not the six million dead. Nevertheless, each is in his or her own way, is a
piece of the history the post Holocaust generation has used to weave together an authentic
understanding of this period.
119
Ricoeur, Oneself as Another, 113-125.
44
The Drive to Record
The shift from the traditional paradigm of reading diaries and their analysis as historical
and literary narratives has only been addressed within the scholarly community in the last
two decades. One of the central objectives of this thesis is to contribute to the growing
corpus of academic studies which formally analyses and acknowledges the importance of
Holocaust diaries as both literary and historical narratives which reflect the drastically
redefined the lives of the victims. Consequently, the premise that the diaries written
during the Holocaust can be analyzed in a meaningful way, as both personal and
historical documents, is pivotal to this work. In keeping with the theoretical framework of
emplotment, the diaries highlight how the changing perceptions of the diarist, the
changing ―life stories‖ were the basis of constructing their individual narratives, thereby
providing crucial details about the Holocaust which cannot be salvaged from memoirs or
literature written in the post Holocaust period. The de emplotment of their life stories in
which the past was no longer relevant and the future one of doom, coupled with the
attempt to assimilate incomprehensible events, became more discernable as the situation
of the Holocaust diarists declined. The following diary entries from Terezin illustrate this.
Alice Ehrmann wrote, on October 20th
, 1944:
Orders. The last section heads (Elbert, Klapp, Gonda Redlich), 80 percent of the
doctors, complete cripples, deathly tuberculosis, deathly ill children without their
parents, mothers of deathly ill children left behind. It is too terrible to even feel
unhappy. Father left (the small) fortress (about) fourteen days ago: destination
unknown.120
Gonda Redlich, mentioned in Ehrmann‘s diary entry above, also recorded the liquidation
of the ghetto, on October 6th
, 1944.
It seems they want to eliminate the ghetto and leave only the elderly and people of mixed origin. In our generation, the enemy is not only cruel but also full of
cunning and malice. They promise (something) but do not fulfill their promise.
They send small children, and their prams are left here. Separated families. On
one transport a father goes. On another, a son. And on a third, the mother.
Tomorrow we go, too, my son. Hopefully, the time or our redemption is near. 121
Once again, the narratives are a mix of personal anguish and historical narrative, which
accentuates the Holocaust diary as a unique genre. Both entries were written in October
1944, when the inmates of Terezin were being transported to their deaths. It is apparent,
when reading the diaries, that every new situation meant a new writing persona,
reflecting the theory that narratives are personal and based on interpretation. Experience
120
Zapruda, Salvaged Pages, 403.
I viewed the diary at Bet Theresienstadt, a Kibbutz in Israel, established by Theresienstadt survivors, file
no. 570 in the archives, but have chosen the above translation cited as it appeared more accurate than the
older translation. Alice Erhmann survived the war, changed her name to Aliza Shik, and became a member
of this Kibbutz. 121
Redlich, The Terezin Diary of Gonda Redlich, 161.
This was the last entry Redlich recorded in his diary. Terezin is also known as Theresiensdtat.
45
is mediated through a complex web of social, cultural and personal experience and even
the same event is recorded differently by different diarists, as evidenced in the above
quotes. Furthermore, when in hiding, or under threat, the entries seem more guarded and
perhaps more personal. As the situation worsened and the transportations increased, the
entries become more testimonial and melancholy. Understood in this historical context,
the narratives discussed had the twofold purpose of attempting to bear witness and coping
with the unexpected predicament being experienced. Erhmann pointedly mentioned
appointed ghetto leader, Gonda Redlich, and wrote almost as an outside observer to the
inexplicable end of the Terezin Ghetto. Conversely, Redlich, who had just become a new
father, lamented the destruction of family life and he too, attempted to testify to the
impending catastrophe. Both entries attested to the restructuring of their already
catastrophic reality and, the new reality recorded by both diarists and both entries
portrayed both a private and public persona. This fusion of private grief and the
recording of historical events demonstrates how the diary is inherently a dialogue of
sorts, between the inner and outer narrative identities. Further highlighted through these
entries is how the perspectives of each diarist differed not only throughout Nazi Europe,
but within the same ghetto or geographic confine.
The drive to bear witness, regardless of age, gender or geography, seemed to be an
underlying force of the diary narratives. Amos Goldberg‘s work on Holocaust diaries
argues that the inner voice of the diarist representing the identity of the Jewish victim,
was all but shattered during the Holocaust, whilst the outer persona had to survive on a
daily basis, and therefore managed to write and survive.122
It is this crushed persona, he
argues, who penned a diary, perhaps in desperation to bear witness or believing it the
only viable course of action left to take. Goldberg‘s assertion that a narrative identity is
actually split into two, that of a protagonist and that of the narrator, is apt when analyzing
the will to record and bear witness.123
Once again, the disparity between the Eastern and
Western European diarists is particularly notable in the early war years. In the East, it is
arguable that the protagonist Goldberg defines was in such a state of disbelief as his or
her entire world was collapsing, that the ―narrator‖ needed to bear witness to the events
as if standing on the outside of this catastrophe.124
In the west, whilst there is evidence of
extreme foreboding of catastrophe, the diary entries to not depict the profound shock of
their Eastern European counterparts. However, whilst this parity between diarists in
Eastern and Western Europe was notable, this divide was arguably diminished as the war
years wore on. In fact, in the later years of the war, as Jews throughout Europe were
forced to de-emplot and redefine what embodied the essence of their existence , the
disbelief, shock and assimilation of the new Jewish reality was the narrative of European
Jewry, regardless of their country of origin.
Thus noted, this work disagrees with Goldberg‘s theory of the completely crushed
narrator, advocating that the fluid selfhood in Ricoeur‘s paradigm was the writer‘s
strength, urging the diarist to record and redefine reality into a believable narrative for a
122
Goldberg, Holocaust Diaries as Life Stories.
The inner persona is the narrator in Goldberg‘s work and the outer, public persona is the protagonist. 123
Ibid. 124
Ibid.
46
future audience. The self in this reckoning, was the person telling the story and did not
exist alone but rather, was culturally and socially mediated. 125
As such, while it is
acknowledged that the paradigm of normality had crumbled, this work argues that an
inner strength pushed the narrator to record, albeit within a state of shock and
helplessness. Helplessness, however, is not always synonymous with hopelessness.
Moreover, the intrinsic personality did not change during the Holocaust, although the
social, cultural and religious context did, thus shifting the complex relationship between
the self and society which was now in a state of collapse, resulting in a drastic change in
the life narrative. 126
The urge to write was essentially the urge to encode or make sense
of what the narrator believed was crucial to remember. Again and again the diarists
allude to a sacred mission, namely, testifying. Reflecting this sentiment, Chaim Kaplan in
the Warsaw Ghetto wrote, on July 26th
, 1942:
Some of my friends and acquaintances who know the secret of my diary urge me,
in their despair, to stop writing. Why? For what purpose? Will you live to see it
published? Will these words of yours reach the ears of future generations? How? 127
Avraham Tory from the Kovno Ghetto in Lithuania, also reflected the sacred mission to
bear witness when he revealed the existence of his diary to a priest on July 30th
, 1943.
Describing the event he wrote:
The pulse of life still beating within our bodies and our souls is weeping, but time
is short. This is why I have come to him with a final request: after the death of the
last Jew on Lithuanian soil, he, the priest Vaickus, will be the one to know where to
find my notes, and to pass them on to the person, who, after the war, stands at the
helm of the world Jewry. This is a historical mission: a mission on behalf of the
Jewish blood which has been spilled. The priest will certainly know how to
appreciate the importance of this mission: he must certainly be aware of the
importance of my visit to him. 128
The theory that the fluid self was the narrator and the protagonist the body, which was
perhaps distancing him or herself from the catastrophe, becomes notably more marked as
the physical and emotional states of the writers decline. As opposed to Goldberg‘s
narrator who cries out in hopelessness, one can persuasively argue that the narrative
identity was a multitude of identities configured to not only help the narrator assimilate
the new reality, but to confer strength on the narrator to record for future generations. In
this respect the diary is not an autobiography but rather, a document of testimony penned
to pass on the horror of Nazi Germany. In any life story a person‘s life narrative is fluid
and reflective of changing circumstances. Within the paradigm of normalcy, life changes
occur within a life where contingent factors remain the same. For example, if a family
member dies suddenly, other family members offer comfort, one‘s house is still there or
125
David Wood, "Interpreting Narrative," In Narrative and Interpretation: Essays on Paul Ricoeur (Great
Britain: Routledge, 1991),19. 126
Ibid., relates to Paul Ricoeur‘s theory on the narrative identity. 127
Kaplan, Scroll of Agony: The Warsaw Diary of Chaim Kaplan, 383 128
Tory, The Kovno Ghetto Diary, 446
47
comfort taken through religious institutions and so on. The emplotment of one‘s life
allows for change, even a life changing event, but not for a complete overhaul of every
familiar context. Goldberg argues the crisis during the Holocaust was so vast that the
diarist wrote from sheer hopelessness in a living death state, but this work begs to differ,
although in agreement with the theory of the multi faceted narrator and the depleted state
of the body. Many found strength in their writing and the urge to write gave them inner
strength. In their study of autobiographical narratives, Sidonie Smith and Julie Watson
delineate four autobiographical ―I‖s which are applicable to the diaries of testimony. The
real or historical ―I‖ is the narrator located in the narration at a particular time in history,
whilst the narrating ―I‖ tells the story and the narrated ―I‖ is the protagonist, expressly,
the version of the self chosen to be the narrative identity.129
Finally, the ideological ―I‖ is
the self being placed in cultural context. The fusion of these narrators constitutes the
identity forged in the writing and arguably, each domain is part of the narrator‘s
consciousness and shifting life story. The context in which the Holocaust diarist wrote
naturally affected the narration, but arguably those who wrote were empowered by an
inner strength and the drive to do so. Baruch Milch from Galicia reflected this drive to
write. Believing he was about to die, he wrote to his cousin asking him to make sure the
world saw his diary which he had continued writing despite his progressively drastic
circumstances. On January 31st 1944, he wrote:
You will certainly receive more of these notebooks, soaked with bloody tears.
Collect them and throw them in the face of the whole world; perhaps it will open
their hearts and their eyes to see that the world could have been different, that people
are suffering in vain, and that the time has come to end the wanderings of the Jewish
people. 130
Life stories are complex and multi faceted. Clearly though, the diaries of testimony
appear to have had two distinct agendas in regard to bearing witness. The first, naturally,
was to let future generations know their own personal story, which was integrated with
the intent to record the collective fate of the Jews of Europe. Presemably, diarists wrote
not only to bear witness but to ensure that those reading the diaries in the future would
bear some responsibility for not only passing on what had happened to the Jews of
Europe, but making sure it would never happen again. It is important to restate that my
observations are only based on the diaries represented within this thesis and represent
those diarists explicitly and not the collective Jewish communities from which they
emanated. Highlighting the urge to bear witness and pass on his personal experience to
future readers, Herman Kruk from Lithuania wrote a note which he attached to his
chronicles, stating:
To those who may find this material. The materials gathered here….the chronicle
129
Smith and Watson, Reading Autobiography: A Guide for Interpreting Life Narratives, see chapter 3
referring to autobiographical acts. 130
Baruch Milch, Can Heaven Be Void, ed. Naphtali Greenwood, translated to English by Helen Kaye
(Jerusalem: Printiv, Yad Vashem 2003), 208.
Translated from Polish into Hebrew by Renata Jablonska. Originally published as ―veulay ha shamayim
rekim (Hebrew) in 1999 by Yad Vashem and Yedioth Ahronot Newspaper.
Baruch Milch survived the war and moved to Israel, where he lived until his death.
48
along with all the documents, manuscripts, and other texts—were collected, written
and preserved in the most difficult days of my life, from 1941-1943. I beg the honest
discoverer to respect my wish, preserve the materials, and carefully ship them to my
friends or relatives. 131
131
Herman Kruk, The Last Days of the Jerusalem of Lithuania: Chronicles from the Vilna Ghetto and the
Camps 1939-1944, translated from Yiddish by Barbara Harshav, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research,
(New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2002), forward of his diary.
Herman Kruk was killed on September 18, 1944, in Klooga, Estonia, just hours before the Red Army
liberated the area.
49
Testimony and the Paradox of Time
In accordance with Paul Ricoeur‘s paradigm, time is experienced in two ways which
converge to make a life narrative meaningful. 132
The first is a linear progression of time,
understood as days, weeks, years and universally recognized divisions of time. 133
The
second form of time he terms ―phemenological‖, constituting the division of time as past,
present and future.134
Inherently, the order of the phemenological presupposes the linear
because something that happened yesterday, for example, is understood as being in the
past. This philosophical approach basically considers intentionality as part of
consciousness, arguing that people are always conscious of something which gives
meaning to their existence. Emplotment brings the aforementioned perceptions of time
together, helping a narrator to not only narrate a story, but to render it meaningful, both
for the narrator and the reader. The concepts of past and future fuse together with linear
events and in doing so bring order and meaning to events and time. De emplotment is the
antithesis. The Holocaust diarists‘ perception of time and context were largely altered as
a result of the upheaval they endured under Nazism. To that end, the concept of the past
and future could not be fused together as linear events to bring order and meaning to their
lives.
Substantiating this claim are the repeated references to this bewildering displacement
within the Holocaust diaries. Narrating a life story based on a known past and building a
future within the context of the expected life story, no longer existed. Suddenly, the Jews
of Europe were thrust into the unknown, and the narratives written during this time must
therefore be seen in this context. Writing a narrative involves combining variables and
diversity into a known context which transform it into a story. However, under Nazism
the known context no longer existed, the variables became a bevy of unthinkable acts
unimagined in pre war Europe and the diary narratives shifted to a new realm, previously
inconceivable to the writers. Freedom, prosperity and autonomy to live as Jews had
disappeared. Meaningful structures such as family units, private homes and synagogues
were no longer viable and even symbolic structures under Nazism shifted. For example, a
yellow Star of David, previously a symbol of pride and religious affiliation took on new
symbolism, identifying the Jew as a victim. Within this new and foreign context the
diarists set to work recording the inconceivable. Chaim Kaplan recognized this dilemma
throughout his diary. When recording the final liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto, July
31st, 1942, he wrote:
My powers are insufficient to record all that is worthy of being recorded. Most of all
I am worried that I may be consuming my strength for naught. Should I too be taken
all my efforts will be wasted. My utmost concern is for hiding my diary so that it will
be preserved for future generations. As long as my pulse beats I shall continue my
sacred task. 135
132
Ricoeur, Time and Narrative, Volume 1, 31-52 (chapter 2), discusses this in relation to emplotment and
chapter 3, 52-91, expands on this and discusses time in relation to mimesis. 133
Ibid. 134
Ibid. 135
Kaplan, Scroll of Agony: The Warsaw Ghetto Diary of Chaim A. Kaplan, 394-395.
50
As is the case with all private diaries, the Holocaust diaries reflect the passage of time,
through sequential dating designating each day as its own small history, a feature which
makes it a unique literary genre. Tragically, the diaries reflected upon in this work have
the added dimension of recording chronology and time sequence in the context of
transformed circumstances, which made the passage of time central to their fate. Only
time would determine the end of the horror they were witnessing, and, in turn, the fate of
their families, communities and whether they themselves would survive or not. The linear
progression of narration predominantly carries the implication of closure, as previously
mentioned.136
With regard to the Holocaust, however, closure may have been too
traumatic for the diarist to confront, as it was often his or her own death. Alternately, as is
the case in several of the entries, the narration itself heeded the de emplotment process.
Violence, deportations, separation from loved ones and even death, became the norm.
The future, usually emplotted in accordance with the past was all but eradicated and
rather, became death or a ―living death.‖
Pondering why in fact the diary was the choice of so many people living throughout the
Holocaust, as opposed to memoirs or narratives of another form, several conclusions may
be ventured. The diary as an autobiographical genre differs to biographies,
autobiographies and even letters in which personal time and collective time of society do
not always correlate.137
To elucidate, a significant event may be recorded in a biography
or other life narrative a long time after the event, bringing in to the narrative selective
memory and a reflective view of the event. A personal diary, however, is directly based
on the contingency of time, is unrevised and in the words of Berel Lang, comes as close
to performing events it cites rather than describing them.138
Perhaps at the end of the day,
a completed diary entry was able to give the diarist closure as each entry itself was a
small completed history of that particular moment. It may be surmised that an entry with
a beginning and an end gave the writer the belief that he or she had recorded a complete
record of the inconceivable in the event of something happening to the diarist the next
day. Time was running out and it must have been very comforting for the diarist to feel
that the diary entry was a finished product. To that end, this feeling would have been
repeated at the end of each journal entry, when the writer had completed the day‘s entry,
and the narrator would have had the comfort knowing that if he or she died the following
day, the testimony would be complete for future generations. An unfinished chapter or
memoir could not have offered the closure that was so necessary for the writer who
believed that death was imminent. This is reflected in diary entries across Europe. For
example, Rutka Laskier in the open Ghetto of Bedzin, Poland, wrote on February 20th
,
1943:
If only I could say, it‘s over, you die only once….But I can‘t, because despite
all these atrocities want to live, and wait for the following day. That means
136
Michael Dintenfass, "Truth‘s Other: Ethics, the History of the Holocaust and Histiographical Theory
after the Linguistic Turn," History and Theory 39, no. 1, February (2000). 137
Smith and Watson, Reading Autobiography 138
Andrew Leak and George Paizis, eds. The Holocaust and Text: Speaking the Unspeakable
(Great Britain, U.S.A: Mc. Millan Press, 2000), 20.
51
waiting for Auschwitz or labor camp. 139
On February 8th
1943, in the Kovno Ghetto, Abraham Tory also wrote poignantly of his
changed perception of time.
There is a somber mood in the Ghetto. No one knows the reason for this, but
everyone senses that living conditions have deteriorated. No one knows what
tomorrow will bring. 140
Gonda Redlich also paid homage to the passage of time, noting from Thereseinsdadt
(Terezin) in Czechoslovakia, on October, 24th
, 1943:
Why does man take pleasure in killing his fellow man? Does he really feel happy
and content? The war has lasted more than four years. We don‘t dare suggest
that the end may come soon, even if it is possible to foresee its end. 141
On Friday, October 29th
, 1943, Anne Frank pondered the essence of time from the attic in
Amsterdam:
Sleep makes the silence and the terrible fear go by more quickly, helps pass the
time, since it is impossible to kill it. 142
History is essentially concerned with the fusion of events which can be assigned to a
particular time, and to events which were observable and to some extent, perceivable. As
such, the recording of history tends to become a blend of facts and narrative, namely, the
perception of the person recording it at the time and the writer‘s selection of facts.
Witnesses to historical events by and large write within the context of their own life
experience when recording, and even the passage of time is generally understood in a
familiar context. For the most part, those recording an event usually see a beginning,
middle and some sort of closure, often citing a date or week or month in which the
change took place or came to fruition, simply because this is the traditional context by
which people emplot life narratives.143
During the Holocaust, however, even the concept
139
Rutka Laskier, Rutka’s Notebook, January-April, 1943, ed. Daniella Zaidman-Mauer (Jerusalem: Yad
Vashem Publications, 2007), 44.
This diary was only made public in 2007, having been kept at home by Rutka‘s best friend, Stanislawa
Sapinska, a Polish gentile, until then. On her 80th
birthday she told her nephew about the diary and he
consequently contacted Yad Vashem about it. After it was authorized as authentic, it was published, and
Rutka‘s half sister living in Jerusalem was found. Rutka was murdered in Auschwitz at the age of 14. 140
Tory, Surviving the Holocaust: The Kovno Ghetto Diary, 202. 141
Redlich, The Terezin Diary of Gonda Redlich, 133.
Gonda Redlich‘s diary was discovered by Czech workers in the attic of a house they were working in, in
1967. Gonda Redlich was murdered at Auschwitz in 1944. 142
Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl, The Definitive Edition, eds. Otto Frank, Miriam Pressler,
translated from Dutch by Susan Massotty (England: Penguin Books, 1995), 139.
The diary was. Anne Frank‘s diary was hidden by Miep Gies during the war. It was recovered after the war
and subsequently published by her father, who was the only surviving member of her family.
Anne Frank died from Typhoid in Bergen Belsen, 1945, just before her sixteenth birthday. 143
Jonathan A Carter, "Telling Times: History, Emplotment and Truth," History and Theory 42, February
(2003):1-27.
52
of time had to be restructured because the witnesses generally perceived the end to be
their own personal death or destruction. As previously explained, emplotment gives
meaning to a sequence of events, links them together and therefore offers representation
of the event to the reader. De emplotment, the displacement and subsequent
reconstruction of one‘s life narrative which could no longer be emplotted as a linear
sequence, is illuminated through the Holocaust diary entries. This is simply because it
was unprecedented to be recording the relocation and annihilation of one‘s own
community or one‘s own perceived death. Previously, time had been viewed as the
natural progression of life, but during the Holocaust the concept of time took on a new
meaning. One day could mean life or death. The sequence of events was almost
impossible to link together as the situation was simply inconceivable, and the projected
life story of the diarist had to be quickly and drastically adjusted.
Primarily, the diarists were selecting and arranging events they themselves could not
comprehend, and in doing so had to de-emplot, which they did by creating new social,
historical, cultural and even linguistic contexts. Consequently, any concept of future,
family, employment and the like had to be restructured in the light of the extreme new
reality, and it was this that many tried to record in their testimonies. The entries quoted
below, whilst written in disparate contexts, nevertheless mirror the shift in the life
narrative apparent in the Holocaust diaries that reside in this thesis. Regardless of the
extent to which the diarist had to redefine his or her reality, it seemed drastic to that
writer in that context. As time wore on and the situation was assimilated into reality,
further de emplotment ensured, and continued until the unthinkable end. Illuminating
this process, Etty Hillesum wrote on July 4th
, 1942, shortly before she was transported to
the transit camp of Westerbork:
One must not think too far ahead. I still have a bed with clean sheets. And tomorrow
morning there will be breakfast and running hot and cold water, and he will be ringing
me up. Tomorrow is taken care of. No good thinking further ahead. In the past the
kind of tiredness I am feeling used to make me despair. I thought it would never pass
and, as it were, projected it onto the days that followed, and of course I went on being
tired. I shall go to bed now, and perhaps everything will be different tomorrow. 144
Moshe Flinker, the young Belgian also managed to capture this sentiment through his
narrative discourse when he wrote on November 30th
, 1942, shortly before his transfer to
a transit camp, and unbeknown to him, his death in Auschwitz:
As a thought I was unable to follow through my plan for ―tomorrow‖ nor for the
day after tomorrow nor the day after that. I thought that even today (after four days)
I would not be able to continue writing, because I had let so much time go by, but I
gathered courage and told myself not to be weak. And so now I continue what I have
begun. 145
Chaim Kaplan also depicted time on July 23rd
from the Warsaw ghetto, when he wrote:
144
Hillesum, The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum, 1941-1943, 470. 145
Zapruda, Salvaged Pages, (Moshe Flinker's Diary), 101.
53
Today‘s impressions require an artist‘s pen. They are so great that they are not
subject to forgetfulness, for what is carved deep within the soul is not easily forgot.
Their vividness will not be lessened if I write it down tomorrow. 146
Paul Ricoeur argues that a text, such as a diary, provides a configuration of time,
prefigured in the practical field and refigured in the text‘s reception.147
As such, a writer
emplots events and turns them into a story, turning the sequence into a meaningful
whole.148
The linear progression which Ricoeur outlines actually moves a narrative along
to its conclusion, which was a horrific one for the Holocaust diarist who had to piece
together, arrange and articulate the inexplicable situation through which they were living.
So many diary entries capture the de emplotment of the protagonists, illustrating how the
concept of time became synonymous with death, destruction and doom and was therefore
understood in a new context. Time no longer enabled the emplotment of events leading to
an assumed conclusion. The diarists had to reshape their thinking and somehow record an
unprecedented situation, a theme to be discussed in more depth throughout this work. A
day took on a new meaning as life narratives were redefined. At some point the
experience during the Holocaust changed from being anti Semitic in a familiar context, to
unprecedented anti Semitism. Previous hatred and prejudice which had constituted anti
Semitic vitriol was reduced to being transported to a death camp. These sentiments are
expressed repeatedly throughout the diaries of the Holocaust, as illustrated by the
following entries, written in June 1942, when the deportations had begun in earnest. Once
again the liberty of crossing geographic boundaries accentuates the redefinition of life
each diarist constructed as their life stories became unraveled, albeit in varying degrees
depending upon where they were situated.
On June 27th
1942, Chaim Kaplan wrote from the Warsaw Ghetto:
Day followed day and they became weeks and months and years, but with all our
trouble and sorrow, we did not feel the burden of life so much. On the contrary, we
felt a little easier, because as the days went by redemption came nearer. But now it is
not like that. I do not exaggerate when I say that we have reached a state of lack of
breath. There is simply no air. Every minute is like a thousand years. Every day is a
never ending eternity. 149
Moreover, Etty Hillesum wrote, on June 23rd
, 1942, from the Netherlands, as she too,
reconstructed her reality.
Each day I shed more petty concerns and keep my mind on the few great things
that matter in life. 150
Emmanuel Ringelblum referred the changing concept of time from the Warsaw Ghetto,
on June 25th
, 1942, when he wrote:
146
Kaplan, Scroll of Agony: The Warsaw Diary of Chaim A. Kaplan, 381. 147
Ricoeur, Time and Narrative, 52-91.
J.P Connerty, "History‘s Many Cunning Passages: Paul Ricoeur‘s Time and Narrative," Poetics Today, 11,
no. 2, Summer (1990): 383-403. 148
Ibid. 149
Kaplan, Scroll of Agony: The Warsaw Diary of Chaim A. Kaplan, 362. 150
Hillesum, Etty, The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum 1941-1943 , 443.
54
No compassion can be expected from the Germans. Whether we live or die depends
on how much time they have. If they have enough time, we are lost. If salvation
comes, we are saved. 151
June 26th
, 1942, Janusz Korczak, also in the Warsaw Ghetto lamented in his diary:
Is death not such an awakening at a point when there is no apparent way out?
Every man can surely find five minutes in which to die….I have read that somewhere. 152
The concept of time was altered during the Holocaust. The emplotment of events which
had taken a lifetime to arrive at were reduced to a rubble in a few short months, de-
emplotting even the concept of time as it had once been perceived. Psychologically, the
diary was the least confronting mode of bearing witness as the diarist dealt with daily
events on a daily basis, giving the illusion of time being on their side. No matter how
traumatic the event was the narrative ended as the day did, unlike other modes of life
narratives which had no definitive end. A new day meant a new chance of survival. Time
assisted the narrator to keep a semblance of normalcy, allowing the diarists to record not
only horrifying and life changing events, but the small matters which constitute a normal
life. In other words, the time restriction of a diary entry usually involved some discussion
of waking, sleeping, eating (or not) and some personal interaction with a family member
of the community.
In this capacity, the diary is unique.
151
Ringelblum, Notes from the Warsaw Ghetto, 298. 152
Korczak, Ghetto Diary, 72.
55
Describing the Inexpressible
Narratives of Testimony
Diarists writing throughout the Holocaust faced the problem the post Holocaust
generation still faces, that is, how to represent the Holocaust. The diarists faced the
dilemma of wanting to record for the future and wanting to be believed. A further
dilemma faced by the diarists was that the narrative identity created through the narrator
was more than likely to survive the diarist himself and thus a believable testimony had to
be created which would survive long after the narrator‘s assumed death. Given that the
events were so unbelievable, most chose to describe them in a calm tone, albeit alluding
to the horror and shock they were experiencing. Notably, the diarists made choices about
what to include and exclude and these choices are significant in themselves. Berel Lang‘s
fascinating essay on Oskar Rosenfeld notes that diarists almost never give details, for
example, about sanitary conditions, which by all accounts must have been horrific.153
This does not hinder the authenticity of the diary as a historical document, but in many
ways enhances it as a personal history not only of a particular community, but a particular
person. Diarists needed to bear witness but had to choose what events to include.
According to many, they felt it was a responsibility they bore to not only future
generations but to those who had already been murdered by the Nazis. Abraham Lewin
wrote, on Monday, August 16th
, 1942, amidst the growing deportations to what they
perceived to be death camps:
The Germans lust for Jewish blood knows no bounds, it is a bottomless pit.
Future generations will not believe it. But this is the unembellished truth, plain
and simple. A bitter, horrifying truth. 154
Amos Goldberg describes the illusion of normalcy prevalent in many of the diaries.155
This may have been indicative of the all pervading trauma being experienced as the
situation worsened. As previously stated, very few diaries were written from the death
camps themselves and whilst the world, for example, clung to the hope expressed in the
diary of Anne Frank, one must always keep in mind that this diary was written in hiding
in Amsterdam and not in the barracks of Bergen Belsen where she died. Particularly
crucial to understanding de emplotment is to acknowledge the illusion of normalcy within
such extraordinary circumstances, which began to pervade the diary entries.
Unprecedented events such as the deportations, witnessing daily murders, starvation and
violence, began to be part of the daily recordings. To this end, the distinction between the
experience and the recording was vast, a juxtaposition which presented an ongoing
dilemma which could only be bridged though words. Ricoeur‘s claim that formulating
intention linguistically often imbues the narrator with the obligation of carrying out this
intention is salient here.156
In this case, the intention was to bear witness at all costs, and
the very act of writing arguably signified the responsibility the diarists felt to record the
153
Berel Lang, "Oskar Rosenfeld and the Realism of Holocaust History: On Sex, Shit and Status," History
and Theory 43, May (2004): 278-288. 154
Lewin, A cup of Tears: A Diary of the Warsaw Ghetto, 157. 155
Goldberg, Holocaust Diaries as Life Stories 156
Ricoeur, Oneself as Another, 67-73.
56
indescribable.157
Nevertheless, the narrative identity can never actually be complete, and
an event can never be fully represented through a narrative, simply because it is a
linguistic construction. As such, narrative identities constructed by the diarists can never
encapsulate the true horror of the moments they record. Rutka Laskier‘s diary, which
depicts her own personal narrative about the pain of becoming used to atrocity, puts this
thought into words so clearly. In Smith and Watson‘s paradigm, she displayed the
narrating ―I‖, telling her experience in first person, and the ideological ―I ―as she wrote
within the new, horrific cultural and social context available to her. After witnessing a
soldier bash a baby‘s head on an electric pylon on February 6th
, 1943, she noted:
I am writing this as if nothing happened. As if I were in an army experienced
in cruelty. But I am young, I‘m 14, and I haven‘t seen much in my life, and I‘m
already so indifferent.158
One may speculate that this reaction may be attributed to the lack of ability to describe
events or as part of the de emplotment process, namely, the ―coming apart‖ of the threads
of life. Furthermore, it may have been a decision of these diarists to make their
unbelievable predicament believable. As such, instead of using emotive and hysterical
tones, those wishing to bear witness may have made a conscious choice to use language
which would not be construed as over dramatic and unbelievable to future readers. Amos
Goldberg argues that the normalcy of the abnormal depicted in the diaries, namely, the
destruction of the identities of the diarists, is attributed to their loss of dignity and identity
on both conscious and unconscious levels. 159
Goldberg further claims that the
normalization of such atrocities reflects the numbness which characterizes trauma.160
Certainly, life stories are essentially shaped by cultural ideals and norms, personal
interests, social standing and subjective perceptions of one‘s place in society. The diarists
during the Holocaust were faced with a crisis of such magnitude that arguably a dramatic
separation of individuals from what constituted life as they understood it, was
triggered.161
Consequently, the life narration based on the world of the protagonist,
sequencing and events which are emplotted purposefully to give a life meaning, were all
depleted. The narration of the Holocaust diarists did not start with the usual equilibrium
of a life narrative but rather, from a point of disequilibrium. As such, the narrators, in this
case, the diarists, transformed their narratives to represent unprecedented events for a
future audience. Goldberg argues that in essence, the impulse to write may have been the
response to the meaningless death awaiting the writer.162
This is disputable as it arguably
signifies the opposite, that is, the last vestige of dignity and strength left in the writer at
the time of writing, an argument validated by the scant amount of diaries written in the
death camps at which time the victim was in a state of living death. The diaries from
Eastern Europe highlight this more dramatically, but those from Western Europe, such as
157
Ibid. 158
Laskier, Rutka’s Notebook: January-April, 1943, 39. 159
Goldberg, Holocaust Diaries as Life Stories. 160
Ibid. 161
Mark R. Luborsky, "Analysis of Multiple Life History Narratives," Ethos 15, no. 4,
December (1987): 366-381.
Goldberg, Holocaust Diaries as Life Stories 162
Ibid.
57
Etty Hillesum, reflect the same impulse and spirit to record as they too were facing
transportation to transit camps. In the words of Chaim Kaplan, July 26th
, 1942:
I feel that continuing my diary to the very end of my physical and spiritual
strength is a historical mission which must not be abandoned. My mind is still
clear, my need to record unstilled, though it is now five days since any real food
has passed my lips. Therefore I will not silence my diary. 163
Emmanuel Ringelblum also wrote of the importance, almost sacred mission, of bearing
witness. He wrote, on February 27th, 1941:
The drive to write down one‘s memoirs is powerful: Even young people in
labor camps do it. The manuscripts are discovered, torn up, and their authors
beaten. 164
The young Mary Berg noted an inner voice urging her to record, in the Warsaw Ghetto,
June 15th
, 1943:
I have not written anything here for a long time. What good does it do to write:
who is interested in my diary? I have thought of burning it several times, but some
inner voice forbade me to do it. The same inner voice is now urging me to write
down all the terrible things I have heard during the last few days. 165
Much has been written about the ability of the human to actually reconstruct trauma and
it is beyond the scope of this work. Even trauma experienced in the immediate past is
perhaps impossible to record in words. However, the strength of the diarist recording
spontaneously is just that. Note the inner voice described by Berg, which this work
perceives as a voice of strength. Although Dori Laub, a survivor and psychoanalyst who
argues that it was almost impossible to witness the Holocaust accurately at the time, this
thesis questions this premise. Laub argues that those living in trauma do not have the
ability to transcend a traumatic event of the magnitude of the Holocaust. To the contrary,
the diary entries which reside in this thesis reflect a deep insight into the particular event
the diarist was recording. The diaries are legitimate and insightful documents of events of
the time simply because they did not have to grasp the magnitude of the Holocaust and its
catastrophic end that they were unaware of. With the passage of time it becomes apparent
that many of the diarists did perceive their demise, albeit not on the scale that we know
now to be the Holocaust. For example, Chaim Kaplan‘s Scroll of Agony certainly
reflected deep insight and was a ―scroll of agony‖ in every sense of the word, as
illustrated by his diary entry on November 26th
, 1940:
Jewish Warsaw has turned into a madhouse. A community of half
a million people is doomed to die, and awaits execution of their sentence.166
163
Kaplan, Scroll of Agony: The Warsaw Diary of Chaim A Kaplan, 383-384. 164
Ringelblum, Notes from the Warsaw Ghetto, 133. 165
Berg, The Diary of Mary Berg: Growing Up in the Warsaw Ghetto, 222. 166
Kaplan, Scroll of Agony: The Warsaw Diary of Chaim A Kaplan, 206.
58
Evidently, the Holocaust diarists, whilst perhaps lacking perception as to the magnitude
of the crime taking place in its entirety, certainly had an understanding of the enormity
not only in regard to their personal suffering, but the unprecedented suffering of the
European Jewish communities at large. This assertion is based on the repeated diary
narratives alluding to the destruction of European Jewry coupled with stated intentions to
bear witness to this incomprehensible historical interlude. It is this fact that gives the
diary legitimacy. To be sure, there was no overall comprehension of the genocide as
comprehended today, but there was apparent understanding of the unprecedented nature
of events, even if the term and concept of Holocaust had not yet been coined.
Anne Frank voiced this on May 25th
, 1944:
The world‘s been turned upside down. The most decent people are being
sent to concentration camps, prisons, lonely cells, whilst the lowest of the low
rule over the young and old, rich and poor. One gets caught for black
marketeering, another for hiding Jews or other unfortunate souls. Unless you‘re
a Nazi, you don‘t know what‘s going to happen to you from one day to the next. 167
This work suggests that personal trauma and the trauma at large, was comprehended by
many who wrote diaries in Nazi Europe. Certainly the true intent of the Nazis may not
have been comprehended. Nevertheless, the diaries analyzed in this thesis all reflect a
point in time at which the narrator explicitly recognized the unprecedented nature of his
or her dire situation. Whilst the diaries are only fragments of history they signify
authentic historical documents written by authors who understood their own personal,
unfolding tragedy. In the words of Herman Kruk, on June 23rd
, 1941, who decided to stay
in Vilna as people fearing the outbreak of war between Germany and the Soviet Union
fled:
The Germans will turn the city Fascist. Jews will go into the Ghetto—I shall
record it all. My chronicle must see, must hear, and must become the mirror
and the conscience of the great catastrophe and of the hard times.168
Despite the arduous task of finding the words to describe the events they were
witnessing, the drive to record and bear witness is arguably evidenced simply by the
existence of the Holocaust diaries. In the passage below the narrative identity is based on
the narrated‖ I‖, that is, the subject, rather than the narrating ―I‖ as distance between the
narrator and the event is profound. The writer denotes the pronouns ‗they‖ and ―we‖ and
―us,‘ which allowed distance from the trauma, simultaneously enabling a narrative to be
constructed. Showing this insight Emmanuel Ringelblum wrote on September 22nd
, 1942:
They don‘t want to admit to the world that they have murdered all the Jews
of Warsaw, so they leave a handful behind, to be liquidated when the hour
strikes twelve-not just the toothache, but also for the world to see. Hitler will
use every means in his power to ―free‖ Europe of all the Jews. Only a miracle
can save us from complete extermination: only a speedy and sudden downfall
can bring us salvation. 169
167
Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl, the Definitive Edition, 305. 168
Kruk, The Last Days of the Jerusalem of Lithuania, 47.
59
It becomes apparent that Ringelblum set out to craft a rich documentary on the fate of
Jewish society in the Warsaw Ghetto by gathering different perspectives of the events
taking place, collating the information and hiding the archives to be found after his
possible murder. He succeeded in his endeavor, these archives heeded by the post
Holocaust generation as valid and authentic historical narratives depicting history in the
making. Moreover, the documents he collated seemingly done so with the full
understanding of the unbelievable events he was bearing witness to. Ringelblum‘s
archives, along with so many other diaries recovered from the Holocaust, reflect the
human side of the Holocaust, recording for all time so many details of the Nazi apparatus
and human suffering that would have otherwise gone unsaved.
Petr Ginz, the 14 year old diarist from Prague, is an outstanding example of bearing
witness with insight and perception of the situation in which he found himself at such a
tender age. He calmly wrote of the notification of his impending transport, using the
narrating ―I‖ throughout. It is arguable that his tender age gave him clarity and the ability
to write so calmly. This can only be surmised. This entry is undated but was written in
Thereisenstadt, probably a few days after the transport.
I sat down in front of a typewriter in the legal department and began
cleaning it. Suddenly the phone rang. It was the typewriter repair shop,
telling me to go the workshop immediately. I was very surprised, because
it was normally I who phoned them (that‘s when I tore a string somewhere)
rather than the other way around. But I kept my surprise to myself, collected
my things, and walked to the workshop. As soon as I entered, Wolf said
calmly: ―You‘re in it, don‘t worry about it. ― When Wolf said this memorable
sentence to me I remained surprisingly calm. I said goodbye to them in case
I didn‘t see them again.170
The same entry continues:
Finally I arrived home and knocked on the door.‖ Who is it?‖ Mummy asked from inside. ―Me.‖ Mummy opened, surprised that I
was home so early. ―Mancinla, don‘t get frightened, I‘m in a transport.‖
Mummy was immediately beside herself; she started crying, she didn‘t
know what to do. I comforted her. 171
169
Ringelblum, Notes from the Warsaw Ghetto, 325-326.
Ringelblum‘s notes were found in a rubberized milk can in 1950. ―My dear‖ was in fact Ringelblum‘s
diary. 170
Petr Ginz, The Diary of Petr Ginz 1941-1942, ed. Chava Pressburger, translated by Elena Lappin (New
York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2007), 18.
Petr Ginz died at Auschwitz in 1944, aged 16.
Ginz was a prodigy in many respects. He was also an artist and a replica of his drawing ―Moon Landscape‖
was taken by Israeli astronaut, Ilan Ramon, in the space shuttle Columbia in 2003. This shuttle exploded
when entering earth‘s atmosphere and all the astronauts were killed. The original drawing can be seen at
Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.
This diary was found by someone who bought an old house in Prague. He kept the old notes he had found
and only when he saw the space shuttle tragedy did he realize what he had in his attic, and contacted Yad
Vashem. The entry is undated. 171
Ibid., 19
60
In these words the true dilemma of how to record the unprecedented situation is
exemplified. The diary entry above example illustrates Ginz‘s desire to bear witness to an
unprecedented situation that he understood the implications of, in words that could be
comprehended. His unwillingness to become hysterical is notable. This further
illuminates the de emplotment thesis whereby the narrator‘s fluid self reacts to the new
reality by rendering the past obsolete and acknowledging a future deviating from
previous expectations. This young boy already wrote of deportations and labor camps as
part of his reality, reflecting the shift from schoolboy in Prague to Jewish prisoner, which
he seems to have assimilated into his reality. In other words, Peter Ginz, who was a child
prodigy, had already determined that life had indeed changed for the Jews of Prague, as
evidenced by his reference to the transport.172
This is tantamount to de emplotment,
namely, reflecting the assimilation of a new reality and the seeming disparity between the
traditional life trajectories therein.
Henry Wermuth writes that the role of the witness writing an account is generally to
show that whatever it was that the witness saw was actually true.173
He adds that this is
true for both the secondary and primary Holocaust literature. In this respect the testimony
demands objectivity rather than hysterical language, as perhaps the young Ginz
unintentionally understood. Significantly, the use of everyday language which is simple,
yet descriptive, can be misleading to the reader in that it never captures the true trauma of
the period. Putting the unimaginable into words is a daunting task. Joesf Zelkowicz
deliberated this almost impossible task when he wrote on Friday, September 4th
, 1942, as
the deportation of the ghetto‘s children began in earnest:
No words, no language, no expression can in any way reflect the atmosphere, the
wailing, and the sheer panic that have dominated the ghetto since daybreak. One
who describes the ghetto today as flooded with tears is not using a metaphor but
a futile description, since no words can capture the scenes and the spectacles that
unfold in the Litzmannstadt Ghetto wherever you pin your eyes or dup your ears. 174
The inadequacy of words to describe their suffering is a topic which has been
considerably expounded upon.175
Famed Holocaust survivor Eli Wiesel argues that
silence is sometimes the only stance to take when reacting to the Holocaust, stating that
quiet literary words rather than hysteria is the only way to write of such horror. This is so
clearly depicted through the words of one of the anonymous writers of the Oneg Shabbat
172
Younger children‘s diaries do not feature significantly in this work, but this diary is included due to the
perceived level of maturity indicated by the narrator, Petr, who was considered a child prodigy. He was an
accomplished artist, wrote short stories and novels and had a mature grasp of events around him, as
evidenced by the documents and art he left behind. 173
Henry Wermuth, Breathe Deeply My Son: A Survivor’s Tale (London: Mitchell Vallentine Company,
1993). 174
Zelkowicz, In Those Terrible Days: Notes from the Lodz Ghetto, 262-263. 175
The gap between words and experience is repeated by all the Holocaust diarists represented in this
thesis. It also seems to be referred to in the many survivor memoirs and post Holocaust testimonies that I
have read.
61
archives, who wrote that the desire to write was as strong as the repugnance of words, noting
"we hate them because they too often served as a cover for emptiness and meanness. 176
Notably, both primary and secondary sources, however, cannot perhaps capture the full
trauma of the Holocaust. Dow Lewi, a survivor of Birkenau, wrote to his sister in 1945,
stating, with magnificent insight:
― …. you over there, cannot imagine even a hundredth part of the suffering, fear
humiliation and every kind if bullying that we lived through…….people who
live and think as normal people cannot possibly understand.‖177
Reflecting the same sentiments at an earlier stage in a different context entirely, Etty
Hillesum wrote, on July 25th
, 1942:
There is a vast silence in me that continues to grow. And washing around in it
are so many words that make one tired because one can express nothing with
them. One must do more and more without meaningless words the better to find
the few one needs. And in the silence, new powers of expression must grow. 178
The diarists represented in this work all seemingly grappled with the issue of representing
the Holocaust, although of course this term had not yet been coined and the end could not
have even been imagined. However, the unprecedented events were apparent to these
diarists, perhaps evidenced simply by their drive to record. This was so across Europe
and not only in the ghettos, as the above quote reflects.
Analysis of the Holocaust through texts such as dairies often brings to the fore issues of
style and language which may divert attention from the actual events themselves.179
An
entire body of literature has been devoted to the subject of describing the indescribable.
James E. Young notes that the instant a word is written it represents that event, regardless
of the reality of that particular event. 180
As previously discussed, a narrative identity is a
linguistic entity and therefore not synonymous with a real person. In accordance with the
theory of emplotment, life is a question of coding, and each person codes and arranges
events, both in speech and writing, according to his or her own truths. Writing is
culturally, socially, religiously and even geographically constructed, and words are
likewise understood, as arguably the diarists clearly understood. This is the essence of the
narrative identity.
176
Joseph Kermish, ed. To Live with Honor, To Die with Honor: Selected Documents from the Warsaw
Ghetto Underground Archives, Oneg Shabbes (Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 1986), 600-601. 177
Gilbert, The Holocaust: The Jewish Tragedy, 816. 178
Hillesum, Etty: The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum, 1941-1943, 503. 179
Beryl Lang, quoted in Jonathan Morse, "Words Devoted to the Unspeakable," American Literary
History 5, no. 4, Winter (1993): 723. 180
. Young, ―Interpreting Literary Testimony: A preface to Rereading Holocaust Diaries and Memoirs,‖
403-423.
62
The Language of De emplotment
Paul Ricoeur‘s work on metaphors described the metaphor as a bridge between the
meaning of the words between the writer and reader.181
The limitation of language to
describe a life was recognized by the diarists themselves, who alluded to this seeming
dilemma frequently. The diarists highlighted in this chapter wrote with intent to bear
witness. Recognition of the limitations of written language was conceded in numerous
diary entries, and attempts to bridge the divide between what was written and the
potential interpretation of the recorded events was repeatedly alluded to. For example, the
diarists arguably chose to include Nazi terminology to perhaps strengthen their
testimonies to future readers who would grapple to comprehend their words.
The Holocaust period predicated an entire new vocabulary which was assimilated into
European Jewry‘s consciousness, playing a distinct part in the de emplotment of the
Holocaust diary narrators. The incorporation and repeated use of the new language of
Nazism unquestioningly assisted the diarists in redefining their new life paradigms,
enabling them to de-emplot and accept their newly defined status as Jewish victims being
targeted in an unprecedented manner. Inadvertently, the diarists actually constructed not
only a new social and cultural context, but new terminology which would be understood
and incorporated by future generations who would read their diaries and comprehend the
fate of European Jewry. In doing so, the diarists succeeded in describing the inexplicable
and making it meaningful to future readers. For example, despite the fact that diarists in
Western Europe certainly could not have had a full understanding of what was happening
in the east, Poland came to represent potential Nazi horror to the Western European
narrators. Those writing outside of Poland appeared to depict Poland as the symbol of the
unknown and the terrible fate awaiting them, despite the fact that this fate was possibly
not fully understood. Accordingly, the post Holocaust reader understands the new
significance the words transports, deportation and ―Poland‖ as denoted in the diary
narratives. To that end, the connotations and nuances of the shift in vocabulary usage was
assimilated both by the Holocaust diarists and subsequently the post Holocaust
generations. For example, Helene Berr wrote from Paris, on Sunday, November 14th
,
1943, acknowledging the foreboding and danger associated with Poland.
Because what they are doing now is deporting whole families; what do they think
they will achieve? Set up a Jewish slave state in Poland? 182
Anne Frank, in an imagined dialogue, also alluded to Poland as a place of fear and Nazi
activity. On February 3rd
, 1944, she wrote:
181
Paul Ricoeur, "The Metaphorical Process of Cognition, Imagination and Feeling," Critical Inquiry 5,
no.1, Special Issue on Metaphor, Autumn (1978): 145. 182
Helene Berr, Journal (Translated from French by David Bellos, Great Britain: Maclehose Press,
Quercus, 2008), 214.
Helen Berr lived under the German Occupation in Paris. In 1944, Helen and her family were arrested and
transported to Auschwitz. She participated in a dreaded Death March from Auschwitz to Bergen Belsen,
where she died in 1945, only days before the liberation.
63
Jan: You shouldn‘t include the Jews. I don‘t think anyone knows what is going on
in Russia. The British and Russians are probably exaggerating for propaganda
purposes, just like the Germans.
Annexe: Absolutely not. The BBC has always told the truth. And even if the news
is slightly exaggerated, the facts are bad enough as they are. You can‘t deny that
millions of peace loving citizens in Poland and Russia are being gassed. 183
Even as transports were arriving in Theresienstadt, Czechoslovakia, Gonda Redlich noted
that more extreme circumstances awaited the Jews in Poland, when he wrote on March
7th
, 1942:
The transports to Poland and exemptions are a terrible job. Who has the right,
based on appeal, to be exempted from the transport? The young people? The
elderly? There is no answer. And it seems you always miss something. 184
The language of de emplotment and redefinition meant that words were redefined and
understood within the new paradigm of Nazism, as illustrated in the aforementioned
quotes. For example, resettlement was understood as being sent to a concentration camp
somewhere in Eastern Europe, and deportations were understood as signifying death.
Words assumed a new meaning, the new language being further assimilated by the
narrative identities created by the diarists as the war continued. Language was
internalized in conjunction with the new reality of those recording the events, simply
because the realities of those recording events had to not only be drastically adjusted, but
recorded in a believable way for posterity. Once again, the urge to write perhaps helped
the diarist internalize the new reality which was no longer recognizable.
Essentially, a narrative schema transforms knowledge into the language used to relay a
story. Narratives about the Holocaust, however, reveal tensions between the experience
and the ability to record the event. The diarist had to emplot a situation which was
unprecedented. As Mishler notes, emplotment requires scaffolding of knowledge, which
reconstructs the meaning past experiences gives, and builds layer upon layer on this
familiar context.185
In this sense, the narrative is generally a structured representation of
past experience, the expectation of what will happen, emplotment into what actually does
happen and the fusion of these factors into the life of the narrator. As such, the
emplotment of life narratives in the Holocaust essentially shifted to de emplotment of life
narratives. Previously meaningful contexts became irrelevant and past experiences could
not be built upon, resulting in the traditional scaffolding of knowledge being rendered
increasingly meaningless.
During the Holocaust there was no precise knowledge or understanding of what was
happening, and the end appeared to be death. The layers which serve to scaffold a life
narrative and give a life meaning were rendered inoperable, giving way to a new
incomprehensible reality, as expressed so concisely by Etty Hillesum in December, 1942:
183
Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition, 182. 184
Redlich, The Terezin Diary of Gonda Redlich, 25. 185
Deborah Schiffren, "We Know That‘s It: Retelling the Turning Point of a Narrative," Discourse Studies,
5, no. 4, (2003): 335-562.
64
True, things happen here that in our past our reason would not have judged
possible. But perhaps we have faculties other than reason in us; faculties that
in the past we did not know we had but possess the ability to grapple with the
incomprehensible.
65
A Worm who lives in Horseradish 186
Rachel Feldhay Brenner discusses the idea of assimilating a new experience into a
familiar context, which is crucial to understanding the de emplotment process. Just as
emplotment does not actually explain events but is the story per se, de emplotment is the
reverse. It does not explain the events which culminated in the disintegration of life, but
highlights the new context and definition of life.
Feldhay Brenner uses the example of Kafka‘s Metamorphosis to reflect upon how people
in fact never break away from familiar patterns of thinking but rather, have to adjust and
represent an event with new patterns which then become acceptable.187
It bears merit to
briefly extend on Feldhay Brenner‘s thesis. In Kafka‘s work Metamorphosis, Kafka gives
Gregor, who wakes up one morning and finds he has transformed into a huge insect
(monstrous Vermin), a voice through which we, the readers, hear his thoughts and know
him as Gregor. This is despite the fact that his transformation from a person to an insect
prevents him from communicating as he used to. As this is a work of literature,
everything is read, but his family in the story, of course, do not read words, but rather
communicate with him using new patterns of communication. The readers processes the
language of the story and the family featuring in it, transforming the man into an insect
and all the implications of this transformation, by using familiar patterns of language, and
not, as one may expect, by any extra information we actually receive from the author. We
understand that Gregor is some type of strange bug although we may not be able to
describe him, and we attempt to make meaning from what the protagonist himself does
not and cannot communicate to the reader himself. 188
This example is apt here. When
one reads the Holocaust diaries, sense is made as to what was happening to the diarists, as
unprecedented as it was, by adapting to the familiar language of the Holocaust that in
essence the diarists helped to create. For example, when the diarists write of deportations
the reader understands that this denotes being rounded up in cattle cars and transported
from their homes to and unknown destiny, perhaps as rumors confirmed, to concentration
or death camps. The theory of comparative reasoning asserts that people need to
assimilate new ideas into familiar context, and this is essentially what the diarists bearing
witness were forced to do.189
This de emplotment is evident in the Holocaust narratives,
and, just as Gregor in Kafka‘s classic had to get used to his new predicament so too, the
diarists illustrate a readjustment to their new life. Reflecting this are the words of Chaim
Kaplan, who wrote, on July 9th, 1942:
There is a well known saying: A Worm who lives in horseradish thinks it is sweet.
We have been like prisoners since the time we were pushed into the ghetto. The life
of captivity, the yoke of edicts which never cease and are daily renewed, the degradation
which has been our daily fare, the poverty and depression which grow as sources of
186
An old Yiddish Proverb: ―To a Worm who lives in Horseradish, the whole world in Horseradish‖. This
is quoted in Chain Kaplan‘s diary, ―Scroll of Agony‖, meaning that when someone is in a situation, no
matter how extreme, he or she adjusts to the new reality. 187
Rachel Feldhay Brenner, "Writing Herself against History: Ann Frank‘s Self Portrait as a Young Artist,"
Modern Judaism 16, no. 2 (1996): 105-134. 188
Franz Kafka, Metaphorphisis (New York, Bantam Classics, 1972). 189
Feldhay Brenner,‖Writing Herself against History: Ann Frank‘s Self Portrait as a Young Artist.‖
66
sustenance are cut off—the whole martyrology (sic) which is devouring us on every
hand, and which has reduced us to objects of contempt unworthy of being thought of
as men even in our own eyes—these things have made us into possessors of noble
virtues; into people who are hurt but do not strike back, who hear themselves
disgraced but do not react; and most of all, into people who are content with little. 190
Herman Kruk in Lithuania also voiced this dilemma when he noted the concept of
normalizing the abnormal. He wrote on January 27th
, 1943:
…when they kill thousands, we say it is painful, inhuman, beastly; and when
seven are killed we say almost the same thing. Where is the proportion? Not only
have we lost everything else, now we have lost our send of proportion. We cry for
1000 as we cry for 10,000…Did we then mourn less for the 30,000 annihilated
Vilna Jews than for the hundreds of thousands of Warsaw Jews? 191
The questions of the post Holocaust generation as to how the Holocaust can ever be
represented was one the diarists to had to contend with. This is precisely what the term de
emplotment encapsulates, essentially trying to recontextualize familiar anti Semitism,
culture, language and the like, into a new context, and record it. As such, the diarists
made their language calm and descriptive in an effort to assimilate new terms such as
deportations, death camps and the like in a bid to be believable and detached from the old
reality. The diarists bearing witness reflect a new emplotment, that is, a new linear
progression of events which actually culminated in deportation and death
It is reasonable to speculate that bearing witness during the Holocaust almost became a
matter of duty. 192
Diarists wrote so the memory of what had occurred would be passed
on to future generations, ostensibly writing themselves into the future in anticipation of
commemorating the lives of those they assumed would not survive. 193
Additionally, the
very fact that the diarist put his or her name to the diary emphasizes the desire of the
diarist to take responsibility for his or her testimony.194
The existence of so many diaries
adds credence to the contention that diarists wrote to write themselves into history,
recording not only the events they were witnessing, but attesting to their own identity and
existence. The concept of Ricoeur‘s selfhood cannot be separated from society, and is the
part of the human being which bears the ability to respond to circumstances.195
In doing
so, the diarists became responsible for their actions, understanding the enormity of the
situation which had befallen them.196
The responsibility to record was undertaken by the
self, the part of someone who responds and adapts to a new situation, whereas the part of
190
Kaplan, Scroll of Agony: The Warsaw Diary of Chain A. Kaplan, 374. 191
Kruk, The Last Days of the Jerusalem of Lithuania, 454. 192
Lasker Wallfisch and Wermuth, Breathe Deeply My Son. 193
Ibid., 58 194
It is of note that many anonymous diaries have been unearthed over the years, often assumed
anonymous because pages have been lost, torn, illegible and so on, but not assumed to be so because the
diarist wished to be anonymous. Much literature pertains to a narrator‘s name being penned as being
synonymous to the stamp of metaphorical survival in a time of trauma, which is beyond the scope of this
work to delve into. 195
Ricoeur, Narrative and Interpretation. This is the basic premise of Ricoeur‘s paradigm. 196
Ibid.
67
the character deemed sameness by Ricoeur, was the part of the person not coping with the
new context. This was the inner persona who asked, ―who am I‖ and was unable to
comprehend what was happening but continued writing nevertheless. Amos Goldberg
notes that the diarist had the impossible task of recording something not fully understood
whilst the inner self, in essence the ethical dimension of the narrator, was nonetheless
driven to record.197
Whether or not Goldberg‘s claim can be substantiated, the narrative
identities of the diarists narrated the events they were witnessing with clarity, signifying
at the very least, acknowledgment of a new reality into which horrific events, death and
the disintegration of the Jewish community had been assimilated.198
Acknowledging this,
Chaim Kaplan wrote on July 26th, 1942:
I feel that continuing my diary to the very end of my physical and spiritual strength
is a historical mission which must not be abandoned. My mind is still clear, my need
to record unstilled,(sic) though it is no five days since any real food has passed my lips.
Therefore I will not silence my diary. 199
The diaries examined in this work certainly became critical historical journals, although
not all the writers intentionally set out to write history, but rather, began personal diaries
in the face of crisis and later redefined their purpose for writing in the face of
unimaginable horror. To this end, Carlo Ginzburg asserts that
―even the voice of one single witness gives some access to the domain of historical
reality, and allows us to get nearer to some historical truth. 200
Essentially, one must acknowledge that witnesses may be compromised by their
subjectivity. Naturally, it would have been difficult to record the Holocaust in any mode,
because making sense of such an enormous atrocity would have confounded the diarists.
This leads us back to the quintessential question of Saul Friedlander. Can Nazism and the
Final Solution be represented in any mode? Is it possible for any of our cultural, religious
or social norms to provide a paradigm adequate to make sense of such an extreme event?
Berel Lang equated diary writing in this period as ―intransitive writing‖, stating that
writing through such an inconceivable event writing became a means of comprehending
the incomprehensible.201
He advocates that the diarist did not write independently of him
or herself, but rather, ‗wrote himself‘ to help make sense of his reality. In this respect,
historical reality is actually played out to the diarist and revealed to the writer in the
process. Arguably, this does not imply that the narrative of the diarist was in any way
compromised. On the contrary, the events recorded by the diarists were the events they
were living through every day, every minute, and the events that they and the other
victims judged and perceived as their reality and subsequently acted on, thereby making
this historical narrative authentic in every sense of the word. 202
197
Goldberg, Holocaust Diaries as Life Stories 198
Ibid. 199
Kaplan, Scroll of Agony: the Warsaw Diary of Chain A. Kaplan, 383-384. 200
Young, ―Towards a Received History of the Holocaust,‖ 23. 201
Ibid. 202
Ibid.
68
In contrast to Goldberg‘s assertion, James E. Young claims that trauma actually enhanced
the clarity of the diary writer during the Holocaust, arguing that as their situation
worsened, those writing knew that the more realistic the testimony was, the more validity
it had as testimonial evidence. As such, he claims:
In the minds of the victimized writers and artists, if concrete action was
to be taken in response to these atrocities, concrete evidence needed to be
delivered to the world in as many forms as possible. 203
The diarists needed to give meaning to their suffering. Alexandra Garbarini agrees with
Young who concluded that in regard to their own reality, namely, religious background
and historical past, those writing diaries not only witnessed their small part in the
Holocaust, but understood what they were witnessing. Although words defy such an
extreme human condition, writing is a construction of events as perceived by the person
writing. As such, whether or not the accuracy of the Nazi apparatus was totally
understood or not, the diaries are a particular understanding of the events, and to that end,
are authentic historical testimony. The diarists had an almost impossible task in many
respects, because they were writing the unbelievable, knowing perhaps that future readers
would find their stories incomprehensible to some extent. Young writes that like a photo
or eyewitness, the diaries are the truth of the writer‘s reality. He notes that any stories
which "emerge from the accounts are not deviations from the truth but part of the truth in any
particular version. " 204
Despite the apparent understanding of events some of the diarists lay claim to, it was of
course impossible for them to comprehend exactly what was happening all over Europe
as they simply had no means to do so. This does not diminish the fact that the diarists
capture the level of suffering, torture, misery and torment of the events while
experiencing them. Writing during the event has a level of truth which distance does not
always allow. Dr. Emmanuel Ringelblum wanted the exact details to be recorded for all
time, reflecting his depth of insight into the tragic situation he was in. However, his
fellow diarists were aware of problems involved in bearing witness to what seemed to be
incomprehensible. For example, Chaim Kaplan wrote in the Warsaw Ghetto, August 27th
,
1940:
― I risk my life with my writing, but my abilities are limited; I don‘t know all the
facts; Those that I do know may not be sufficiently clear and many of them I write
on the basis of rumors whose accuracy I cannot guarantee.‖ 205
The diaries of the Holocaust provide an insight into a particular moment in time for the
person writing it, although the full implications of Nazism had yet to be fully understood.
In accordance with the theory of emplotment, the diarists narrated their life stories, but as
the events transpired the protagonist was forced to recontextualize the plot, thus shifting
the context of his or her narrative. Interestingly, many diaries did not actually refer to
203
James E Young, ―Interpreting Literary Testimony: A Preface to Rereading Holocaust Diaries and
Memoirs,‖ 406. 204
Ibid., 416 205
Kaplan, Scroll of Agony: The Warsaw Diary of Chaim Kaplan, 30.
69
Nazis, but rather, to the writer‘s own suffering. The writers of the diaries could only
understand their own small piece of history. This is perhaps why post Holocaust literature
written by survivors is almost more chilling than the accounts written by those in the
camps and the ghettos. Joseph Kermish, the first director of the Yad Vashem Archives in
Jerusalem, noted the essence of bearing witness for the Holocaust diarist.
The Record must be hurled like a stone under history‘s wheel in order to stop
it. One can lose all hopes except one---that the suffering and destruction of this
war will make sense when they are looked at from a distant historical perspective.
From sufferings, unparalleled in history, from bloody tears and bloody sweat, a
chronicle of days of hell is being composed, in order that one may understand the
historical reactions that shaped the human mind in this fashion and created
government systems which made possible the events in our time through which
we passed. 206
206
Joseph Kermish, ed. To live With Honor and Die with Honor, Selected Documents from the Warsaw
Ghetto Underground Archives Oneg Shabbes (Jerusalem: Yad Vashem Publications 1986), 704.
70
The Voice of the Diary
Within the Holocaust diaries the narrative identity appears to be comprised of two
implicit voices. The first personifies a form of self interpretation, constituting the private
consciousness of the narrator, the self as Ricoeur theorizes, which is unique to one
particular narrator. The second embodies the public voice of the diarist, which came to
the fore as the narrator realized with increasing awareness, the unprecedented situation
being faced. In doing so the narrator realized what Sidra DeKoven Ezrachi described as
the necessity of the reader and the words to interact, if their stories were going to be
recorded for future generations.207
In other words, to be understood the story had to be
told in language comprehensible to future readers. The fusion of these two voices will
now be analyzed.
A broad range of diaries are referred to in this work. These diaries, while written at
different times and without knowledge of the situation in other areas, countries, ghettos
or camps, share a similar theme. Essentially, the inability to comprehend not only what
was happening but why it was happening, why it was happening to them and making
sense of a world they could no longer comprehend, is indicated almost without exception.
Avraham Tory typified this on May 4th
, 1943:
I have seen, many times, these pictures of the wandering Jew—in books, newspapers,
and pamphlets. And each time I am seized by terror. My soul weeps. Master of the
World. Why? Why ?208
Pointedly, the historical importance of leaving behind evidence of the atrocities being
witnessed is embodied within the Holocaust diary entries. This is discernable even in
diaries which were initially very personal accounts, yet somehow began to shift in focus
as the horror unraveled and became more incomprehensible. The entries below
poignantly reflect the changing reality of the author, the growing awareness of doom and
desperation and the shift from the private to the public. The de emplotment of Gonda
Redlich is evident as his circumstances grew more desperate and the story subsequently
recontextualized. He wrote from the Terezin ghetto, outside Prague, on September 14th
,
1942:
― My dearest, I haven‘t seen her for nine months. But she is just as she was…..my dearest, my dearest, I am happy, God willing we will be
together, happy together,‖209
The mood of the narrative tragically changed to the following, as evidenced by the
narrative recorded on October 24th
, 1942:
Again a crisis. All week, day and night we make up transports without
stopping. Tension, fear, and confusion rule those designated for travel
207
Sidra DeKoven Ezrachi, By Words Alone: The Holocaust in Literature (Chicago and London:
University of Chicago Press, 1980). 208
Tory, The Kovno Ghetto Diary, 319 209
Redlich, The Terezin Diary of Gonda Redlich, 71.
71
and, at times, also those ―who decide.‖210
The narrative becomes even more poignant as Redlich‘s reality in the Terezin
(Theresienstadt) becomes more hopeless as he refers to the progressive acceptance of
their new abnormal reality. Redlich encapsulated the essence of my term de emplotment
when he wrote, on November 23rd
, 1943:
They have forced us to agree in writing to infanticide. There is fear everywhere.
It‘s reign is terrifying—difficult to bear. Fear and depression turn men into evil
animals. What am I saying? Even evil animals do not kill their children. What are
they doing to us? I signed an affidavit that I would kill my child. Then, afterward,
I sat down to hear the case of a young man who committed an offence with his
friend‘s documents. I must judge. I who signed…..The other judges debate every
formal point. For me, it‘s amusing. I am indifferent. Abortions. Yet they order the
beautification of the city. 211
The progression of the narrative identity above reflects the shift in the life story and the
assimilation of Redlich‘s new reality. The self indulged in a romantic lament in the first
entry, but slowly moved towards a more public recording as the situation worsened.
Conventional historical documents, even memoirs, attempt to organize the Holocaust in a
traditional historical form. In fact, even survivor memoirs often present history with a
beginning, middle and end, often conveying a sense of closure.212
In many ways,
Alexander Garbarini notes, this form of historical narrative contradicts the
incomprehensible suffering of this period, which can best be captured by diaries written
on the spot. Acclaimed historian Israel Gutman also notes that the history of the
Holocaust, until recently, essentially revolved around the decision making process of the
Nazis, the motivations of the perpetrators and the mechanism and technology of
genocide.213
He further claims that a large body of this work involves trying to
comprehend the enormity of the crime, a task being addressed by the rise in survivor
testimonies. Gutman asserts that primary Jewish sources in particular, have given a
broader historical perspective which has expanded the core of historical truth.214
In his
work on the Oneg Shabbat documents, Gutman notes that the significance of the
Holocaust diaries as authentic narratives is the fact that they reflect the
―Holocaust by the victims themselves, as the Jews perceived it then and there,
in real time, at the moment when they were experiencing all the horrors.‖215
210
Ibid., 80 211
Ibid., 136. 212
Garbarini, To Bear Witness Where Witness needs to be Borne: Diary Writing and the Holocaust 1939-
1945. 213
Israel Gutman, Emanuel Ringelblum: the Man and the Historian ( Jerusalem: Yad Vashem
Publications,2006). 214
Ibid. 215
Ibid., 9
72
Likewise, Alexandra Garbarini hypothesizes in her study of the Holocaust diaries, that Jewish diarists also wrote in order to write themselves into the future consciousness of the post
war generation. 216
Many modern scholars of the Holocaust have argued that since it was almost impossible
for the witnesses to fully comprehend the enormity of their trauma, their testimonies must
be viewed as flawed in some respects. As previously stated, however, this work argues
that the evidence epitomizes the claim that many who wrote diaries did indeed
understand the enormity of their situation, despite ignorance pertaining to details about
the deportations and the Final Solution. In fact, each new entry may be perceived as an
affirmation of an understanding of the situation, imbuing the diarist with the feeling of
continuity and writing him or herself into history. The narrative identity slips in and out
of the inner and outer voices throughout each diary, as illustrated by the personal
consciousness of death‘s proximity and the knowledge of someone being shot outside
being blended together in the entry below.
Janucz Korczak wrote, July 21st, 1942:
It is a difficult thing to be born and to learn to live. Ahead of me is a much easier task: to die. After death, it may be difficult again, but I am not bothering
about that………..
Ten O‘clock. Shots: two, several, two, one, several. Perhaps it is my own blacked
out window.
But I do not stop writing. On the contrary: it sharpens (a single shot) the thought. 217
Many certainly did write to ―write themselves into the future‖, and managed to do. So
many of the diaries appear to be a mixture of private thoughts, details of war and
persecution, historical narrative, a means of passing on information to the outside world
and a psychological escape. Chaim Kaplan, whilst attesting to a level of understanding as
to the unprecedented crisis he was witnessing, reflected the quandary of a total lack of
understanding as to why this was happening. In a diary entry written on May 30th
, 1942,
he pondered the nightly slaughters which appeared to have become commonplace in the
Warsaw ghetto, and lamented:
The lack of reason for these murders especially troubles the inhabitants of the
Ghetto. In order to comfort ourselves we feel compelled to find some sort of system
to explain these nighttime murders. Everyone, afraid of his own skin, thinks to himself:
If there is a system, every murder must have a cause; If there is a cause, nothing will
happen to me since I am absolutely guiltless. But my friend Hirsch, who is a very
clever Jew, thinks differently. The system is a lack of system. The guiding principle is
the annihilation of a specific number of Jews every night. They go to the files and
indiscriminately draw out a card, and whoever is picked: he is destined to die.
Hirsch‘s opinion has earned him many enemies. People do not want to die without a
cause. 218
216
Gabarini, Numbered Days: Diaries and the Holocaust, 5. 217
Korczak, Ghetto Diary, 101.
Janusz Korczak had a chance to escape but chose to walk with dignity to the transport with the children
from his orphanage. He and the children were murdered at Treblinka. 218
Kaplan, Scroll of Agony: The Warsaw Diary of Chaim A. Kaplan, 344-345.
73
Kaplan delved into the deeper questions that most of the diarists, at some stage of their
entries, appeared to ask. Why? The common thread in the diaries examined pertains to
how overwhelmed the diarists were by the unexpected violence and suffering they are
experiencing, in addition to the sheer terror they are living through. The writers were not
martyrs to any cause, but rather, victims because they were born Jewish. There were no
explanations as to why such atrocities were being perpetrated in the Ghettos, the transit
camps, the work camps and the death camps. Poignantly, the majority of diary entries
read, and reread, reflected a deep level of moral and intellectual consciousness, of writers
who grasped the seriousness of the predicament fully, but could not grasp the reasons
behind it. Janusz Korczac knowingly wrote, on July 27th
, 1942:
―Jews go east. No bargaining. It is no longer the question of a Jewish grandmother
but of where you are needed most—your hands, your brain, your time, your life.
Grandmother. This was necessary only to hook on to something, a key, a slogan.219
The extreme circumstances of the ghettos and camps transformed diary writing to
sometimes a life saving pastime, giving the writer the chance to escape, resist and record
history, which was becoming more horrific daily, themes which will be expanded upon in
the next chapters. David Patterson notes that the diary allowed a deeper sense of self, and
that the diary listened to the writer when the outside world was turning away, thereby
enhancing the de emplotment process. 220
In his diary Janusz Korczak so touchingly
exemplifies this with his own words on July 18th
, 1942:
Writing a Diary or a life story I am obligated to talk, not to converse.221
This is reflected in the words of Etty Hillesum, May 29th
, 1942:
It is sometimes hard to take in and comprehend, oh God, what those
created in Your Likeness do to each other in these disjointed days. 222
Much has been written of the difference between witnessing an event and actually
recording the event, even if the diarist is recording it a few hours after. In the words of
Etty Hillesum, who touchingly wrote in December, 1942:
True, things happen here that in the past reason would not have judge
possible. But perhaps we have faculties other than reason in us, faculties
Hirsch, the clever Jew referred to, is understood to be an imaginary person invented by Kaplan to represent
the dark reality of the Warsaw ghetto and the annihilation of Europe‘s Jews which he realized was the aim
of Nazism. 219
Korczac, Ghetto Diary, 103. 220
Patterson, Along the Edge of Annihilation: The Collapse and recovery of Life in the Holocaust Diary,
29-59. 221
Korczak, Ghetto Diary, 96 222
Hillesum, Etty: The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum 1941-1943, 384.
Etty Hillesum was murdered at Auschwitz.
74
that in the past we didn‘t know we had but that possess the ability to
grapple with the incomprehensible. I believe that for every event, man has
the faculty that helps him deal with it. 223
223
Hillesum, The letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum: 1941-1943, 586.
75
The Private Diary’s Public Face
Markedly, as the situation of the Holocaust diarist declined, each entry became not only
an affirmation of de emplotment but tantamount to survival. Inherently, a diary is a
private document, intended for the writer alone. When reading the Holocaust diaries it is
visibly detectable that as those writing during the Holocaust de-emplotted and assimilated
their new reality, private thoughts often shifted to more public observations or a
combination of the two. This conclusion may be drawn from the evidence that many
diarists hid their diaries in the hope that they would be found afterwards or with the slim
hope that they themselves would survive to retrieve the diary in person. The
transformation in the nature of diary writing, from personal to a more historical
document, recording events as they unfolded, is vividly perceptible, and will be expanded
upon later in this thesis. This shift is exemplified by Chaim Kaplan‘s prolific words,
written February 20th
, 1940:
The time may come when these words will be published. At all events, they will
furnish historiographic material for the chronicle of our agony. This obligates
those who are writing impressions to record every event, every small detail which
might shed light upon the darkness of foul depraved souls. It is beyond my capabilities
to record every event in organized form. Perhaps other people will do this when the
appropriate time comes. But even events recorded in reportorial style are of historical
value. In them truth is reflected --- not a dry embalmed truth but a living, active truth
proclaiming before the whole world:― behold, there is no pain like unto mine. Listen
and you will hear. 224
It is this observation that perhaps accounts for the reason that many diarists initially
starting personal diaries, began to adopt a more public voice, shifting from the personal to
historical realm. Redefinition of the self was patent as the situation shifted. Victoria
Stewart observes a marked difference between witnessing and bearing testimony, noting
that Holocaust diarists took on a new persona once perceiving the enormity of their
circumstances, perceptibly being driven to record historical events.225
This is in
accordance with Goldberg‘s protagonist and narrator being fused together to create a
narrative identity, whereby the diarist created a protagonist and narrated a story in which
he or she was the central character. In doing so, a barrier between the inner trauma and
the events being recorded was contrived, assisting the diarists to assimilate their new
reality.226
Etty Hillesum for example, made frequent reference to her inner self and the
struggle to reconcile the self and her new reality. Reflecting this, she wrote on
Wednesday morning, June 11th
, 1941:
The inner world is as real as the outer world. One ought to be conscious of that.
It, too, has its landscapes, contours, possibilities, its boundless regions. And man
himself must be a center in which the inner and outer worlds meet. 227
224
Kaplan, Scroll of Agony: the Warsaw Diary of Chaim A. Kaplan, 121. 225
Victoria Stewart, "Holocaust Diaries: Writing from the Abyss," Forum of Modern Language Studies 41,
no. 4 (2005): 418-426. 226
Goldberg, Diaries as Life Stories. 227
Hillesum, The letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum: 1941-1943, 60.
76
To record the event, the diarists displayed some understanding as to what it was that he or
she was witnessing, albeit subjective and limited in some cases. It is striking that many
diarists perceived their predicament to a great extent, which makes their narratives
valuable historical documents. Etty Hillesum wrote clearly of the plan to murder all the
Jews, noting that her fate has been sealed, repeating this terrible prophecy many times
throughout her diary. The blend of personal and public is exemplified when Hillesum
noted on Friday, July 3rd
, 1942:
…the reality of death has become a definite part of my life: my life has,
so to speak, been extended by death, by my looking my death in the
eye and accepting it, by accepting destruction as part of my life and
no longer wasting my energies on fear of death or the refusal to
acknowledge its inevitability.228
Furthermore, she noted, in December, 1942, that:
The whole of Europe is gradually being turned into one great prison
camp. The whole of Europe will undergo the same bitter experience.
To simply record the bare facts of families torn apart, of possessions
plundered and liberties forfeited, would soon become monotonous. Nor
is it possible to pen picturesque accounts of barbed wire and vegetable
swill to show outsiders what it is like. Besides, I wonder how many
outsiders will be left if history continues along the paths it has taken. 229
It is difficult to assess how much the writers knew of events in Europe and how much
they simply felt instinctively. It is evident, however, that to whatever extent their
perception of the situation they were living through was, the unprecedented nature of
events was detected and internalized. Gonda Redlich wrote in the fortress city of Terezin,
outside Prague in Czechoslovakia. Converted by Heydrich to be a model ghetto,(although
it was in fact a transit camp on the way to Auschwitz), Redlich saw through the Nazi ploy
and wrote with insight and foreboding about events unfolding. He distinctly realized the
imminent doom and hid his diary just prior to his transportation, perhaps with the
knowledge that he was being deported to his death. Redlich wrote, in October 1942:
We will be a model ghetto in order to cover up the blood that is being
spilled in the east, the great injustice, the dead…And we are forced to
write and read: The situation of the Jews in Germany isn‘t bad…..Not……230
Across Europe diarists recorded the onslaught of Nazism with varying levels of
understanding of the trauma they were experiencing. Victor Klemperer in Dresden,
Germany, noted, in October 1941:
Ever more shocking reports about deportations of Jews to Poland. They
228
Ibid., 464 229
Ibid., 581 230
Redlich, The Terezin Diary of Gonda Redlich, 75.
The diary was only unearthed in 1967.
77
have to leave almost literally naked and penniless. Thousands from Berlin
to Lodz.231
Writing in chronological order, bearing witness to the fact that these deportations and
murders were taking place on mass, acknowledging, to the degree they were able to, the
enormity of the Nazi crimes, the Holocaust diarists continued to write. They palpably
referred to the fact that they were witnessing a new historical reality, and were almost at a
loss as to how to record it. Yet, most created narrative identities which were able to
incorporate the new Nazi ―vocabulary‖ describing a new reality made up of ghettos,
badges, Aryans, deportations and resettlement. The use of so many words now common
in the post Holocaust generation, such as deportations, resettlements, ghettos and
―actions,‖ repeatedly used in the diary entries, reinforces the acknowledgement and
understanding of the new order in which they were entrenched. Despite the obvious lack
of hindsight, many diarists strikingly recognized the unprecedented nature of Nazism
historically. The diary narratives below, recorded across Europe on the same day, Yom
Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, highlight not only the dramatic
reorientation of the diarist, but the drive to record for posterity. Emmanuel Ringelblum
explained, as the horror unfolded, on Yom Kippur, September 22nd
, 1942:
They don‘t want to admit to the world that they have murdered all the
Jews of Warsaw, so they leave a handful behind, to be liquidated when
the hour strikes twelve—not just for the toothache, but also for the world
to see. Hitler will use every means in his power to ―free‘ Europe of all
the Jews. Only a miracle will save us from complete extermination, only
a speedy and sudden downfall can bring us salvation. 232
Mary Berg, on the same day in the Warsaw Ghetto, September 22nd
, 1942, also narrated a
mix of personal anguish and historical events:
Yesterday was Yom Kippur, and on this sacred day the Nazis, as is their custom,
chose to blockade Ostrowska and Wolynska Streets. Out of the 2,500 policemen,
they singled out 380 for continued service, and more than 2,000 others were deported,
together with their families. 233
The assimilated Victor Klemperer, who had actually converted to Protestantism, also paid
homage to Yom Kippur, noting in Dresden, on September 21st, 1942:
Today is Yom Kippur, and this very day the last 26 ‗old people‘ are sitting in
the Community House, from where they will be transported early tomorrow.234
231
Victor Klemperer, I Shall Bear Witness: The Diaries of Victor Klemperer, 1933-1941, translated by
Martin Chalmers (Phoenix, 1999), 537.
Originally published as Ich will zeugnis ablegen bis zum letzten. Victor Klemperer survived the war and
later returned to Germany, where he lived until his death. 232
Ringelblum, Notes from the Warsaw Ghetto: the Journal of Emmanuel Ringelblum, 325-326.
Yom Kippur is the Day of Atonement, the holiest fast day in the Jewish calendar. 233
Berg, The Diary of Mary Berg: Growing up in the Warsaw Ghetto, 18.
The difference in dates between Ringelblum and Berg‘s diary is probably because Ringelblum tended to
put a few days writing into one entry. In other words he writes September-October 6 and so on. Yom
Kippur that year was probably September 21.
78
On the same day, Yom Kippur, in the Kovno Ghetto, Avraham Tory also penned a diary
narrative attempting to record the treatment of the Jews, noting:
Today, the Day of Atonement, the director of the workshops, Hoenigman, visited
the Council to discuss the issue of clothing. Later, Koeppen and a German physician
inspected our health institutions. They went in the direction of the hospital, where a
prayer meeting was taking place. The praying Jews were only warned at the last
moment, but succeeded in dispersing before the Germans came. 235
In Terezin Gonda Redlich described the continuing transports which did not stop even on
Yom Kippur, naturally a deliberate tactic of the Nazis to further degrade their Jewish
victims. Redlich wrote, on Yom Kippur, September 21st, 1942:
Evening. I accompanied my dearest and returned home. A transport from
Berlin arrived. They traveled all day, Yom Kippur. 236
The above narratives reflect recurring themes that illustrate the paradox of what had
become life for Jewish people across Eastern Europe. One of the traditional arguments
against the use of the narrative as a historical document is the blurring of the distinction
between fact and fiction. The argument being that the narrator writes events as he or she
interprets them and may thus not be accurate. However, the above entries reflect the
authenticity of Holocaust diaries as vital historical documents depicting an awareness of
the historical reality against which the attempts to construct viable life stories were being
made. The above diary entries illustrated the reality in which the diarist was living,
depicting the projected narrative of deportation and ultimately a terrible fate.
To this end, Yom Kippur conceivably symbolized Goldberg‘s protagonist, juxtaposing a
remnant of the old life with the new narrative of deportations, transports and liquidation.
Explicitly, the diary narratives from Eastern European repeatedly emphasize the paradox
of Yom Kippur and the deportations. Writing on Yom Kippur is strictly forbidden for the
orthodox Jew and would even have been unusual for the more secular Jew in Europe
during this period. However, the diarists felt the need to record what was happening on
the most solemn day in the Jewish calendar. The narratives illuminate the startling new
reality they were facing, namely, the personal struggle to keep their Jewish and individual
identity and the explicit aim of the Nazis to eradicate it, coupled with the need to record
their predicament for posterity.
234
Victor Klemperer, To the Bitter End, The Diaries of Victor Klemperer 1942-1945, translated by Martin
Chalmers (Phoenix, 2000), 180. Originally published as Ich Will Zeugnis ablegen bis zum letzten, 235
Tory, The Kovno Ghetto Diary, 136. 236
Redlich, The Terezin Diary of Gonda Redlich, 72.
Once again it is pertinent of note that traveling on Yom Kippur was strictly prohibited as this was a day of
prayer, fasting and reflection. Yom Kippur is considered the holiest day of the year and the continuation of
transports and the deliberate actions of the Nazis on this holy day naturally made clear the status of the
Jews. Even writing would have been prohibited by the orthodox on Yom Kippur, perhaps a telling action
by Redlich and the other diarists who recorded on Yom Kippur, as to how their lives had shifted so
drastically.
79
In various ways, the Holocaust diaries are a unique genre of writing simply because the
Holocaust was unprecedented in history. An entire group of people was selected for
extermination for no reason other than the fact that they were classified as Jewish. The
authors of these diaries wrote for personal reasons but perhaps changed their focus when
they realized that death was imminent. In doing so, their diaries can be viewed as
historical narratives with meaning transcending even what the writers originally set out to
record. The diaries had meaning for those recording the events but may have even more
meaning to the post Holocaust audience. This is so because one is able to place the
writings in historical context and realize how important these authentic records are in
hindsight. In this respect each is a life narrative in itself.
When reading the Holocaust diaries, as Young observes, we read for knowledge and not
for evidence, and in order to learn what happened in a particular ghetto, camp, street or
home at a particular time during this incomprehensible period.237
Nechama Tec rightly
points out that all researchers are in search of the truth, as they perceive it to be.238
Conventionally, the greater the time gap between recording an event and the event itself,
the more questionable the testimony becomes, thus illuminating the value of the
Holocaust diaries historically. Perhaps the diaries are the not the complete historical
narrative so many search for, but, as Tec claims, they should be viewed as observations
of a particular time and place, written with the interests of the writer in mind. This does
not diminish in any way, their importance in Holocaust documentation. Each document is
a finished product in itself, and although the diaries were written by individuals and
therefore may not be the truth for other Holocaust victims, each reconstructs its own
history.239
A sufficient number of diaries have been unearthed to put all these truths
together. Regardless of accuracy of dates and chronology, the experience of the horror,
terror, disbelief, deportations and atrocities of the Nazi apparatus were described, in so
many different writing styles, in diaries written simultaneously, throughout Europe, as
expressed by Felicity Nussbaum who noted in her work on diaries:
The diarist or journalist may record himself in order to produce an
enabling fiction or a coherent and continuous identity; or he may record
himself and recognize to the contrary, that the self is not the same yesterday,
today, and tomorrow. 240
―It is beyond my pen to describe the destruction‖ lamented Chaim Kaplan, again and again in
his scroll of agony.241
Yet, Chaim Kaplan, Emmanuel Ringelblum, Etty Hillesum, Ann
Frank, Victor Klemperer, Gonda Redlich, Elisheva Binder and countless others grappled
237
Young, Interpreting Literary Testimony: A Preface to Rereading Diaries and Memoirs. 238
Nechama Tec, "Diaries and Oral History: Some Methodological Considerations," Religion and the Arts
4, no. 1 (2000): 87-95. 239
Ibid. 240
Felicity Nussbaum, "Toward Conceptualizing Diary," in Studies in Autobiography, ed. J. Oherney,
(Oxford: Oxford Press, 1988), 134. 241
Kaplan, Scroll of Agony: The Warsaw Diary of Chaim A.Kaplan, 29.
This was written on September 12th
, 1939. Even early on Kaplan recognized the unprecedented nature of
events and, in different words, expressed this sentiment throughout his diary.
80
with this difficulty. They wrote for themselves and for the lost millions. They attempted
to describe the indescribable. The diarists attempted and succeeded in writing themselves
into the future. Perhaps as compilations and reflections of an unprecedented event they
are incomplete, which somehow authenticates them as honest documents of a period
which is almost impossible to represent. Samuel Becket‘s words so fittingly describe the
almost sacred responsibility the diarists felt to bear witness, when he states:
There is nothing to express, nothing with which to express, nothing from which
to express, no power to express….together with the obligation to express. 242
242
Samuel Becket, quoted in Alvin H. Rosenfeld, A Double Dying: Reflections on Holocaust Literature
(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1980), 8.
81
Writing for an Audience
A text is only meaningful if it can be read and understood. Ricoeur‘s theory of
emplotment was later elaborated on by Hayden White who fused emplotment and
historical writing.243
Ricoeur‘s framework stated that for emplotment to be meaningful it
had to be based on understanding meaningful structures, transforming events into a story
and finally the story being understood by the reader. 244
Emplotment and the subsequent
de emplotment highlighted throughout this work is predicated on a reciprocal relationship
between the narrative identity and the audience which, given the public voice of many of
the diarists, was written with a view to being understood by future readers. A narrative
identity claims authority on experience rather than evidence, and in turn, the reader has
different expectations when reading the texts. Put simply, a Jewish person penning a
diary under Nazi rule commanded a level of authority because the reader would hopefully
perceive the diarists‘ cultural authority to narrate that story.245
Consequently, the
narrative is understood and accepted as being a true and authentic record of the time.
Notably, an action alone does not bring meaning to the reader, but rather, within the
framework propounded by Mikhail Bakhtin, the cultural, social and linguistic context
make the text readable and meaningful.246
In accordance with Bakhtinian theory, an audience is created through both the social and
cultural context of the writer and of the audience they perceive.247
To that end, words are
a manifestation of cultural, social, religious or national context, written at a certain time
for a certain reader. Thus established, utterances, grammatical structure, the language per
se and genre, essentially target a particular audience whom the narrator believes will find
the words meaningful.248
This work argues throughout that the assumption of cultural and
social context was eradicated during the Holocaust, presenting the Holocaust writer with
a unique dilemma, namely, representing an unprecedented reality in understandable
words. In effect, this was tantamount to producing a meaningful cross cultural text,
inclusive of all the considerations which must be met for a culturally and socially diverse
audience to appreciate the narrative. The Holocaust diarist had no choice but to use
familiar trope to record the unfamiliar, and in all probability had no single audience in
mind when writing their diaries, for the simple fact that those populating their worlds
were doomed to die or exile.
243
Hayden White, Metahistory: The Historical Imagination in Nineteenth Century Europe (Baltimore:
John Hopkins UP, 1973).
White‘s theory asserts that a historian answers questions through emplotment, argument and ideological
context. This is his theory of Metahistory. 244
Ricoeur, Time and Narrative, volume 1, 52-62.
Ricoeur outlined this as Mimesis 1 a plot based on understanding of world structures, Mimesis 2, the
mediating function bringing facts and events together to transform into a story and mimesis 3, the story
being understood by the reader. 245
Smith and Watson, Reading Autobiography: A Guide for Interpreting Life Narratives. 246
Ibid. 247
Mikhail Bakhtin, The Dialogic Imagination (Austin, Texas :Texas University Press, 1981). 248
Ibid.
82
Diary writing assumedly assisted the de emplotment process by reinforcing the reality of
Nazism. Ironically, however, writing progressively served the paradoxical role of
bolstering disbelief as to the inexplicable circumstances of Nazism. In this capacity, the
narratives of testimony relegate an overwhelming responsibility to record for future
generations, recording for an audience they themselves do not articulate in detail for the
simple reason that their familiar context was doomed to eradication and the future
therefore belonged to the unknown.
This thesis claims that the public face of the Holocaust diary makes it a unique genre
through which the narrators created narrative identities that would be understood and
believable in the future. The use of Nazi terminology reflected this, perhaps highlighting
the understanding that the Nazis themselves would record history using the same terms,
thus adding credence to their own shocking revelations. The Holocaust diarists recorded
simply and accurately, giving dates, geographic details and names. In doing so, the
audience, imagined or real, was unquestionably recognized as pivotal by the diarists who
were writing themselves into the future.
83
Chapter Three
Narratives of Defiance ―Yidn Farshraybt‖ (Jews, write it down)249
I do not know who of our group will survive, who will be deemed worthy to work through our collected material. But one thing is clear to all of us. Our
toils and tribulations, our devotion and constant terror, have not been in vain.
We have struck the enemy a hard blow.250
Rethinking Defiance
The Dilemma
On October 15
th 1942, Emmanuel Ringelblum wrote, as if he knew the questions of
future generations:
Why didn‘t we resist when they began to resettle 300,000 Jews from Warsaw?
Why did we allow ourselves to be led like sheep to the slaughter? Why did
everything come so easy to the enemy? Why didn‘t the hangman suffer a single
casualty? Why could 50 SS men (some say fewer), with the help of a division of
some 200 Ukrainian guards with an equal number of Letts carry out the operation
so smoothly? 251
Holocaust historian Berel Lang has extensively addressed Ringelblum‘s lament. He notes
that even asking why the Jews did not resist assumes that ―they,‖ the Jewish victims,
actually had a choice. 252
Ironically, Ringelblum himself did not realize the extent of his
plight until it was too late. In fact, it is arguable that only with hindsight can one even
begin to comprehend the fate which befell the Jews of Europe. Lang claims that even
submitting the inevitable question as to what Jews did to defy the Nazis takes the
Holocaust out of context, as it does not account for the extreme social, cultural, religious
and economic control of the Nazis.253
Instead, the opposite should really be asked,
namely, how did the Jews manage to resist, actively or spiritually, to the extent to which
they did.
249
Sophie Dubnov Erlich, The Life and work of S.N Dubnov: Diaspora Nationalism and Jewish History(the
Modern Jewish Experience), ed. Judith Vowles, translated by Jeffrey Shandler (Bloomington: Indianapolis,
1991), 247.
These were the last words of Simon Dubnov, in Yiddish, as he went to his death in Riga, 1941. 250
Ringelblum, Notes from the Warsaw Ghetto, 295. 251
Ibid., 310.
―Letts‖ refers to Indo-European people, allied to the Lithuanians and Old Prussians, who inhabited a part of
the Baltic provinces of Russia. 252
Berel Lang, "Is it Possible to Misrepresent the Holocaust," History and Theory 34, number 1, February
(1995): 84-89.
Berel Lang, Post Holocaust Interpretation, Misinterpretation and the Claims of History (U.S.A: Indiana
University Press, 2004).
Suffice to note that almost no scholar writes or has written about the Holocaust without some discussion of
defiance or resistance. Citing a few examples are Yehuda Bauer‘s ―Rethinking the Holocaust, Saul
Friedlander‘s ―The Years of Extermination,‖ and, Martin Gilbert‘s ―The Holocaust: The Jewish Tragedy.‖ 253
Ibid.
84
The concept of resistance or defiance conjures up acts motivated by the intention to stop,
resist or limit the power of an oppressor physically. Only in 1961, with the publication of
the groundbreaking work by Raul Hilberg documenting the destruction of European
Jewry under Nazism, and two years later, Hannah Arendt‘s publication following the
Eichmann trial in Israel, (1963), did a heated debate about the Jewish response to Nazism
emerge.254
Until then, literature involving resistance during the Holocaust was based on
the few examples of armed resistance carried out in the ghettos and the camps.
Consequently, the perception and definition of resistance during the Holocaust was
perceived as minimal. The assumption of Jewish passivity during the Holocaust gave rise
to an entire corpus of academic work pertaining to the redefinition of what defiance under
such extreme circumstances constituted. 255
The perplexities of defining resistance under such extreme circumstances were officially
addressed at Israel‘s Holocaust memorial, Yad Vashem, in 1968. 256
It was at this
conference, the first of its kind, where the term resistance began to be slowly redefined,
and a process which even to the present day is still in flux. Traditionally, the definition of
resistance included any form of active, physical resistance, such as escape or uprising.
The definition of unarmed resistance as a response to Nazism has come to encompass a
general term for emotional, cultural and spiritual resistance. This involved public praying,
cultural activities, underground publications, smuggling arms, recording events and any
act constituting defiance against Nazi rule at high personal risk. Inasmuch as the terms
―passive‖ and ―resistance‖ are a contradiction, this paradox has been bridged by the
enormity of the Holocaust, a historical event which has given rise to many new
definitions, words and concepts essentially constituting a language of its own.257
Unarmed or spiritual resistance is thus a term which has become part of the
comprehensive Holocaust language incorporated into the post Holocaust consciousness.
Henri Michel, in the special Yad Vashem edition devoted to resistance after the
aforementioned conference, articulated several factors which have helped lead to my
conclusion that writing may be considered a form of defiance.258
He noted that armed
resistance needs certain conditions if it is to succeed.259
For example, at the very least, he
argued, partisan fighters need to have at their disposal numerous and well trained troops,
external aid to replenish weapons, a route of escape and a place for troops to take refuge
and care for their wounded and sick.260
The element of surprise, a route of escape, places
254
Boaz Cohen, "Holocaust Heroics: Ghetto Fighters and Partisans in Israeli Society and
Historiography,"Journal of Political and Military Sociology 31, no. 2, Winter (2003): 197-213. 255
Ibid.
This refers to Raul Hilberg, The Destruction of the European Jews (1961), and Hannah Arendt, Eichmann
in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil, (1963).
See ,Yehuda Bauer, Rethinking the Holocaust (Yale University Press, 2002). 256
Henri Michel, " Jewish Resistance and the European Resistance Movement," Yad Vashem Studies V11
(1968): 7-16. 257
This refers to words such as deportations, concentration camps and concepts such as genocide which
have been incorporated into our everyday language. As such, passive resistance, a seeming dichotomy,
takes on a new meaning in contest of the Holocaust. 258
Michel, Jewish Resistance and the European Resistance Movement. 259
Ibid. 260
Ibid.
85
to hide and the ability to collect information about the enemy are further requirements
essential to the success of a partisan uprising.261
Moreover, financial aid and support from
a sympathetic element of the population into which the fighters could withdraw into are
further denoted as necessary to any effective resistance movement. When one closely
examines the conditions of the Jewish population under Nazi rule it becomes clear that
not even one of the above conditions could be remotely met. In fact, the living conditions
of Jews under Nazi rule were the antithesis of the above mentioned circumstances, which
made any coordinated armed resistance impossible on any level. Emmanuel Ringelblum
expressed this in June, 1942, offering his astute evaluation of the declining situation in
the Warsaw Ghetto.
My friend asked in anger, up to when….how much longer will we go ―as sheep
to slaughter?‖ Why do we keep quiet? Why is there no call to escape to the forests?
No call to resist? This question torments all of us but there is no answer to it
because everyone knows that resistance, and particularly if even one single German
is killed, its (sic) outcome may lead to a slaughter of a whole community, or even of
many communities.262
This sentiment is expressed by the young Rutka Laskier, writing from the Bedzin,
Poland, about the ongoing dilemma of whether or not to actively resist. She wrote, on
February 6th
, 1943:
Then I looked beyond the fence and I saw soldiers with machine guns aimed at
the square in case someone tried to escape (how could you possibly escape from
here?)(sic) 263
Julius Feldman echoed a similar sentiment on April 9th
, 1943 when he wrote:
Yesterday we witnessed a hanging and our clothes were painted in yellow stripes
to make any kind of escape impossible. 264
Perceptively, addressing the same questions as Ringelblum, perhaps anticipating the
questions of future generation, Helene Barr from Paris also noted in her diary, on
Monday, December 13, 1943:
261
Ibid. 262
Joseph Kermish, "Emmanuel Ringelblum‘s Notes Hitherto Unpublished," Yad Vashem Studies, V11
(1968) : 178.
This chapter was part of the special Yad Vashem publication on the Jewish Catastrophe and Resistance,
held at Yad Vashem in 1968.
Emmanuel Ringelblum not only founded the Oneg Shabbat Archive Program in the Warsaw Ghetto, but
was also the main contributor. Not all of these archives have been recovered, and some were damaged to
the extent that they could not be deciphered. The above quote was taken from notes written by Ringelblum
himself, and reflect, as the author of the article wrote, Ringelblum‘s ―impressive power of observation‖ and
profound approach in the evaluation of events (ibid).
Many chapters and writings of Ringelblum‘s diary and the Oneg Shabbat Archives will probably never be
recovered. 263
Laskier, Rutka’s Notebook: January –April 1943, 37. 264
Julius Feldman, The Krakow Diary of Julius Feldman, translated from Polish by William Brand (Great
Britain: Quill Press, 2002), 71.
86
If anyone reads these words after it has happened, he or she will be struck as by
the hand of Keats and will ask: Yes, how? How could you have done nothing? 265
The above factors, coupled with physical isolation, lack of space for any operation to be
organized secretly and the inability to care for the wounded, further worked against the
possibility of any effective armed reaction to Nazism.266
The impossibility of escaping to
any welcoming element of the outside population must also be considered when defining
resistance during the Holocaust. At the same time, there was no cooperation between the
allied forces and the Jewish population and a severe lack of finances, further negating any
possibility of the success of an armed uprising against Nazi perpetrators.267
The inability
to replenish arms and manpower and the severe psychological disadvantage of the Jewish
population contributed further to the impossibility of any effectual armed uprising against
the Nazis. Traditional cultural and social organizations no longer performed the role they
once had in local Jewish communities and the Jewish populations of Europe were
rejected by the societies in which they had once flourished, further deeming any armed
resistance doomed. Physically, the Jews of Europe were disadvantaged through starvation
and disease, once again diminishing the hope of any successful anti Nazi uprising.268
Inherently one is led to conclude that the overall situation of Jews under Nazi rule made
armed resistance all but impossible. Dutch Diarist Abel Herzberg voiced this observation
from Bergen Belsen, on August 15th
, 1944:
We are nothing any more. We have been lifted out of the universe, we receive
nothing, and we give nothing. No influence reaches us from outside, no influence
flows out from us. Not a single force acts upon us, no counter force emanates from us.
All that exists is desire-we sense it-to destroy us. We experience it as a natural law, as
we experience the laws of gravity, of cold and heat, and we resist with bitterness, with
silence, with avoidance, by preserving our physical strength to the utmost, by being
frugal with our movements. 269
Holocaust academic Nechama Tec has written extensively on the issue of resistance, and
her arguments further enhance the claim that diary writing was a form of defiance, given
the extraordinary circumstances under which these diaries were penned. Tec notes that
history has proven that all resistance, even in circumstances favorable to resistance, is a
process, requiring time, which Jews did not have, to mature. 270
This critical fact, she
asserts, together with the isolation of ghettos and work camps, degradation of the Jewish
population, disease and starvation, anti Jewish laws, severe violence and punishments
265
Berr, Journal. 266
Ibid. 267
Ibid. 268
Ibid. 269
Abel J. Herzberg, Between Two Streams: A Diary from Bergen Belsen, translated from Dutch by Jack
Santcross (London: I.B Tauris Publishers in Association with the European Jewish Publication Society,
1997).
Abel Herzberg survived the war and returned to Amsterdam. 270
Nechama Tec, " Jewish Resistance, Omissions and Distortions"( Lecture presented at the Miles
Lemmon Center for the Study of Jewish Resistance, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Center
for Advanced Holocaust Studies, October 15, 1998).
87
together with an onslaught of psychological measures against Jews, ensured a very small
chance of Jewish armed resistance. 271
Chaim Kaplan detected this towards the end of his
diary, when the liquidation of the ghetto was underway, and the fate of Warsaw‘s Jews
sealed. His entry on July 26th,
1942 stated:
A whole community with an ancient tradition, one that with all its faults was the
very backbone of world Jewry, is going to destruction. First they took away its means
of livelihood, then they stole its wares, then its houses and factories, and above all
its human rights. It was left fair prey to every evildoer and sinner. It was locked into
a ghetto. Food and drink was withheld from it: its fallen multiplied on every hand;
and even after all this they were not content to let it dwell forever within its narrow,
rotten ghetto, surrounded with its wall through which even bread could be brought
in only by dangerous smuggling. Nor was this a ghetto of people who consume without
producing, of speculators and profiteers. Most of its members were devoted to labor,
so that it became a productive legion. All that it produced, it produced for the benefit
of those same soldiers who multiplied its fallen. Yet all this was to no avail. There was
only one decree. Death. 272
This chapter will examine how writing as a form of defiance was inherent to the de
emplotment process, assisting the diarists to respond to their predicament and maintain a
level of control over their drastically transformed national, religious and personal
identities. Over the last few decades, much of the literature pertaining to the Holocaust
has been redefined, a shift which will also be addressed in this chapter.
271
Ibid.
The concept of Muselmann, the ―living dead‖ is used in regard to the Jews under Nazism. This term reflects
the fact that so many Jews were in such a weakened condition that they were alive in name only. It this
respect discussions pertaining to resistance must always be kept in context of the circumstances of the
ghettos, transit camps, labor camps, concentration and death camps. 272
Kaplan, Scroll of Agony: The Warsaw Diary of Chaim Kaplan, 385.
88
Defiance Redefined
Further Considerations
This thesis highlights the historiographical shift towards the victim as being pivotal to
any Holocaust study. Subsequently, the understanding of what constitutes defiance in
such an extraordinary context deserves analysis in this chapter. In regard to the
Holocaust, the words defiance and resistance, and the underlying concepts therein, have
come to be used in ways which do not always conjure up the traditional heroics of these
words. This work favors the Hebrew term “amidah”, now one of the foremost definitions
used to signify the meaning of defiance during the Holocaust. Mark Dworzecki interprets
amidah as a ―comprehensive name for all expressions of Jewish non conformism, and for all the form of resistance and acts by Jews aimed at thwarting the Nazis‖.
273
Yehuda Bauer contends that one should incorporate seemingly passive acts into the
definition of defiance, given the dire and extreme circumstances of the Holocaust.
Certainly, he notes, armed heroic acts were at best sporadic, but unarmed subversive
activities, such as smuggling, and indeed recording events, which were widespread under
Nazi rule, should be considered defiant.274
Oskar Rosenfeld in the Lodz Ghetto echoed
these sentiments, when he wrote in his entry dated January –March, 1942, as the ghetto
was being liquidated:
The tragedy is tremendous. Those in the ghetto cannot comprehend it. For it
does not bring out any greatness as in the middle Ages. This tragedy is devoid of
heroes. And why tragedy? Because the pain does not reach out to something human,
to a strange heart, but is something incomprehensible, colliding with the cosmos,
a natural phenomena, like the creation of the world. Creation would have to start
anew with Genesis…in the beginning God created the ghetto. 275
Much of the academic literature pertaining to the Holocaust further differentiates between
armed resistances, amidah and a third definition termed ―sanctification of life.‘276
Reputedly coined by Rabbi Nissenbaum in the Warsaw Ghetto, "sanctification of life" is
used to describe the preservation of meaningful Jewish life within the ghettos.277
Nissenbaum advocated that historically, enemies of the Jews had sought to destroy the
Jewish soul by decreeing that Jews were not allowed certain rights and were to be
273
Robert Rozet, "Evolving with the Times: Jewish Resistance in Historical Writing," Yad Vashem
Magazine 30, Spring (2003). Amidah may be translated as ―stand up,‖ and in this case stand up against. It is the name of a prayer which
is central to Judaism, and named so because one has to stand up when reciting it. 274
Bauer, Rethinking the Holocaust. 275
Oskar Rosenfeld, In the Beginning was the Ghetto: Notebooks from Lodz, ed. Hanno Loewy, translated
from German by Brigitte M. Goldstein (Illinois: Northwestern University Press, Illinois, 2002), 105.
Originally published as wozu noch welt: aufzeichnungen aus dem getto lodz, 1994.
Oskar Rosenfeld was murdered in Auschwitz in 1944 following the final liquidation of the Lodz Ghetto. 276
Bauer, Rethinking the Holocaust
Rozeti, Evolving with the Times: Jewish Resistance in Historical Writing. 277
Ibid
The Amidah is the name of a Jewish prayer central to Jewish liturgy. The name is taken for the root
―la‘amod‖, to stand. Literally, the standing prayer, as it is said every day, standing. This factor is connected
to the term ―Amidah‖ used here, pertaining to ―stand up to‖ the Nazis.
89
expelled or excluded from society and so on. However, the Nazis, he claimed, took the
unprecedented step of not only seeking to destroy the Jewish soul, but of seeking to
destroy the Jewish body, aiming exclusively not only to strip Jews of their rights but to
strip society of Jews. 278
The concept sanctification of life almost came to oppose the
traditional sanctification of Hashem concept.279
This traditional concept, translated as
sanctifying the Holy God of the Jews, was a response to the persecution of old.
Ostensibly, this acknowledged response opposed armed resistance whilst adhering to the
idea that one could stay faithful to Judaism by refusing forceful conversion or baptism
required to save his or her life. Accordingly, within the traditional Jewish narrative Jews
therefore had the choice of saving their lives, an option which simply did not exist under
the Nazi regime, which aimed for total annihilation of the Jewish communities of
Europe.280
The conception of "Sanctification of Life," describes unarmed actions undertaken
purposely to retain Jewish life under the Nazism, later encompassing acts of defiance
undertaken for the sole purpose of survival.281
This is a term used when describing
Eastern Europe, where the large ghettos were established prior to deportations to death
camps. However, transit camps such as Westerbork in the Netherlands appear to exhibit
evidence of the establishment of organized cultural life, leading to the conclusion that this
term cannot be attributed to Eastern Europe alone.282
Put succinctly, in attempting to
identify and comprehend what constituted defiance in such unspeakable circumstances,
this concept needs to be viewed in context. The quote below attempts to clarify defiance
during the Holocaust, noting that it may be defined as
any attempt to claim sovereignty over a psychological space they fought
to protect, essentially pertaining to any refusal to let the Germans, in the
face of unspeakable barbarity, conquer the spirit.‖283
Inherent in the above statement is perhaps a broader comprehension of how defiance may
be perceived in a situation which renders a human being powerless. Even the concepts of
old pertaining to age old anti Semitism went through de emplotment as Nazi rule called
for a redefinition of not only anti Jewish doctrine but anything resembling human life. In
this respect, defiance may be viewed within an interdisciplinary framework, fusing
historical, religious, psychological and cultural aspects into the overall narrative, thus
broadening the concept of defiance into historical context. Amos Goldberg notes that the
human being needs to be central to any study of the Holocaust, and this thesis agrees with
278
Emile Fakenheim, "The Spectrum of Resistance during the Holocaust: An Essay in Description and
Definition,"Modern Judaism 2, no. 2, May (1982): 113-130. 279
This concept is known as Kaddush Hashem, and was the reason that many Jews choice to die in the pre
holocaust days. However, there was a choice, namely, conversion, and during the Holocaust this choice no
longer existed. Hitler eradicated any chance of Jewish choice through his ideology of Jewish blood
infecting Aryans. In other words, conversion made no difference to blood. 280
Samuel D Kassow, Who Will Write our History: Emmanuel Ringelblum, The Warsaw Ghetto and the
Onegs Shabas Archive (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2007), 333-388. 281
Bauer, Rethinking the Holocaust. 282
Ibid. 283
James M Glass, quoted by Vasilis Vourkoutiotis, "Jewish Resistance During the Holocaust: Moral Uses
of Violence and Will,"Shofar 24, no. 4 (2006): 167-171.
90
this premise.284
As such, the idea of defiance needs to be closely linked to the human
response of the Jews living in Europe under Nazi rule. The struggle in the Ghettos of
Eastern Europe and the transit camps of Western Europe was evident in all spheres of
daily life and included civil resistance, daring to write, acts of sabotage and vengeance.
To this end it is arguable that no matter how small, any activity, in context of the
historical situation, namely, the total unexpectedness of the Nazi onslaught, needs to be
considered defiant to some extent.
Swedish historian Werner Rings notes that rather than the word defiance or resistance,
perhaps the word response is more suitable. 285
Rings believed that defiance during the
Holocaust related far more to the mind and faith, as opposed to armed resistance which
was almost impossible under the circumstances. Subsequently, he outlined different
responses which may be classified as defiance, including symbolic defiance, ―I remain as
I was,‖ polemic, ―telling and recording the truth‖, defensive and offensive which
encompasses any form of active resistance. 286
Poignantly reflecting symbolic defiance,
Abel Herzberg described the observation of Yom Kippur from Bergen Belsen, on
September 28th
, 1944:
All religious observance in an SS camp for Jews is forbidden, the celebration
of Yom Kippur above all. The result of this ban was that religious observance
took place in every (sic) hut, despite the work that still had to be done that day, despite
the three role calls, despite the air raid alerts, despite the pouring rain. We can
meet before work, before six in the morning.287
Likewise, Gonda Redlich embodied symbolic resistance, when he described the Jewish
women who fasted on Yom Kippur despite their diminished situation, on September 21st,
1942:
A transport from Berlin arrived. They traveled all day, Yom Kippur. Nevertheless, some women fasted.
288
Lawrence Langer‘s term, the ―choiceless choice‖ is apt when analyzing the depth and
breadth of Nazi persecution, which permeated every realm of life throughout Europe.289
284
Goldberg, Holocaust Diaries as Life Stories. 285
Werner Rings, Life with the Enemy: Collaboration and Resistance in Hitler’s Europe, 1939-1945
(Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1982). 286
Michael Marrus, "Jewish Resistance to the Holocaust," Journal of Contemporary History 30, no. 1,
January (1995): 83-110. 287
Herzberg, Between Two Streams: A Diary from Bergen Belsen, 115.
Yom Kippur (The Day of Atonement) is considered the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, devoted to
atoning for one‘s sins. It is observed by a 25 hour fast, starting at sunset and ending at sunset the following
day, several prohibitions such as not wearing leather and attending services throughout the day. The
observance of Yom Kippur, or lack thereof, was noted by many diarists, perhaps indicating the inability to
observe this day in any traditional sense had become symbolic of their total demise. Conversely, any
attempts to observe the day, albeit within a drastically altered context, apparently symbolized continued
spiritual resistance. 288
Redlich, The Terezin Diary of Gonda Redlich, 72. 289
Lawrence Langer, "The Dilemma of Choice in the Death Camps." In Echoes from the Holocaust,
(chapter 5), eds. Alan Rosenberg and Gerald Myers (Temple University Press,1988),118- 127. This
91
The meager choices left for the Jewish person in a ghetto, a labor or transit camp, in
hiding or awaiting deportation must be considered, and helps to clarify the questions so
poignantly asked by Emmanuel Ringelblum and indeed future generations. Langer
further contends that the question of why Jews did not actively resist presupposes an
offence, thereby overlooking the total control of Nazi rule and the absence of conditions
which allowed choice.290
Such discussions also presuppose a full understanding of the
impending disaster, rather than the probable belief that this onslaught against the Jews
was most likely interpreted within an already existing context of anti Semitism. Chaim
Kaplan gave heed to this notion when he wrote, on July 26th
, 1942, as he realized his days
in the Warsaw Ghetto were numbered:
We have a Jewish tradition that an evil law is foredoomed to defeat. This historical
experience has caused us much trouble since the day we fell into the mouth of the
Nazi whose dearest wish is to swallow us (sic). It came to us from habit, this minimizing
of all edicts with the common maxim,‖ it won‘t succeed.‖ In this lay our undoing, (sic)
and we made a bitter mistake. An evil decree made by the Nazis does not weaken in
effect, it grows stronger. 291
Josef Zelkowicz from the Lodz Ghetto exressed similar sentiments when recording the
liquidation of the Lodz Ghetto, on September 4th
1942:
Jews have always been willing to wander. Jews‘ lives have always been based
on the ability to adjust to the worst of conditions. Jews have always been willing
to pick up their walking sticks and, by order, abandon their homes and hometowns.
All the more are they willing to do this in the ghetto, since no property, no chattels,
and no amenities tie them to this place…..Jew‘s lives have always been associated
with their ancient God, Who ---they believe---has never abandoned them. Somehow
they believe, it will turn out well. Somehow, He will save their wretched lives.292
As previously stated, within the framework of Paul Ricoeur‘s theory of emplotment,
singular events are plotted into a whole which constitutes a narrative identity. This
identity is reliant on personal narratives transforming the sequence of events into
meaningful stories, based on what one knows to be familiar. In accordance with this
theory, prior perceptions of anti Semitic events dictated the actions and reactions of the
Jews of Europe, and it is this which must be understood if one is to analyze the Jewish
reaction to Nazi atrocities. David Roskies noted in fact that until the Nazi onslaught, the
Jewish response to catastrophe always recognized the unprecedented disaster
as something already experienced. 293
"choiceless choice" was a term coined to denote the often unthinkable choices faced by the Holocaust
victims, who had to choose between one abnormal situation and another. For example, a mother being
forced to choose which child was to be murdered. 290
Deborah Schiffren, "We Knew That‘s It: Retelling the Turning Point of a Narrative, "Discourse Studies,
5, no.4 (2003): 335-562. 291
Kaplan, Scroll of Agony: The Warsaw Diary of Chain A. Kaplan, 384. 292
Zelkowicz, In Those Terrible Days: Notes from the Lodz Ghetto, 262. 293
David G. Roskies, "Yiddish Writing in the Nazis Ghettos and the Art of Incommensurate, "Modern
Language Studies 16, no.1, Winter (1986): 30.
92
At an undefined moment in time, however, the experience under the Nazis changed from
familiar anti Semitism to an unprecedented and unexpected turn of events. For those who
began to realize that the situation was unparalleled in history, however, this
acknowledgement came too late for them to do more than what had already been
attempted. As early as September 1st, 1940, Chaim Kaplan noted that Nazi rule was
slowly stripping Jews of their rights and in doing so, exceeding any historical precedent.
We were mistaken in assessing the murderers‘ strength, and were again mistaken
in assessing our democratic strength. And all the small and great nations who have
become working tributaries to Nazism were mistaken along with us.294
In his Warsaw Ghetto diary, Abraham Lewin also conceded on Yom Kippur, Monday,
September 21st, 1942:
According to what he said, not only Jews from Warsaw and of the Gubernia
are being exterminated in Treblinka, but Jews from all over Europe—from
France, Belgium, Holland, among others. Such a calamity has never before befallen
us in all the bitter experiences of our history.295
Similarly, Emmanuel Ringelblum, realizing the fate of the deported Jews, wrote in
September 1942:
The Jews from Western Europe have no idea what Treblinka is. They believe it
to be a work colony, and on the train ask how far it is to the ―industrial factory‖
of Treblinka. If they knew that they were going to their death they would certainly
put up some resistance. They arrive carrying brand new valises. 296
The diarists above alluded to a devastating new order coupled with the realization that
this situation was historically unparalleled. Sequential diary entries indicate that the
traditional emplotment of a life story within Ricoeur‘s paradigm had been derailed.
Tellingly, the ensuing life narrative became progressively incomprehensible, rendering
life as it had previously been contextualized, effectively obsolete.
David Roskies observes that the shift from the familiar age old anti Semitic paradigm to
the unthinkable situation under Nazism might have hailed a complete demise in writing
and communication.297
Paradoxically, the traditions of the past, such as writing, parody
and the arts actually endured, allowing a level of equilibrium to continue.298
Amos
Goldberg reinforces this idea when he notes that through a diary, a level of normalcy in
294
Kaplan, Scroll of Agony: The Warsaw Diary of Chaim A. Kaplan, 191. 295
Lewin, A Cup of Tears: A Diary of the Warsaw Ghetto, 184.
―Gubernia‖ refers to an area ruled by a governor or informally as the office of the governor.
Abraham Lewin is presumed to have been killed in an ―Aktion‖ in 1943. 296
Ringelblum, Notes from the Warsaw Ghetto, 321. 297
Ibid. 298
Ibid.
93
an abnormal situation was to some extent maintained. 299
Goldberg elaborates on this
argument, noting that diary writing may have salvaged a small semblance of normalcy in
a world the diarist no longer understood, but may in fact have been a response to the
sheer hopelessness to the situation in which they found themselves. 300
Whether it was
hope, strength or hopelessness, writing was believed to be dangerous and may therefore
be deemed, in accordance to Ring‘s rubric, a symbolic or polemic response to the
situation.301
Regardless of the actual belief of the diarist in regard to hope or
hopelessness, the writer was apparently able to register his or her disbelief and to some
extent indicate resistance to his or her personal demise. The diary assisted the writer in
redefining, that is, to de-emplot, through a constructed narrative identity. This identity
recognized the demise of the past, the unprecedented present and the fast declining hope
for any future. One must bear in mind that the diaries of the Holocaust were penned at a
time when identity was stripped from the Jewish population, and for many, writing
became a medium through which they could defy their fate and maintain identity whilst
fulfilling the forbidden mission of recording events for the future. The diary may be
considered, in the words of Ester Captain, an expert on wartime diaries, an almost verbal
duplication of life itself, in which the writer was airing his resistance to all that had been
lost in such a short period of time.302
Significantly, one may therefore argue that contrary to the cries of why did the Jews not
resist, the opposite is just as startling. The fact that any resistance took place is nothing
short of unbelievable. As previously noted, at first the Jews responded as they had
traditionally done in times of crisis and attempted to continue their lives with as much
normalcy as possible. As circumstances changed, attempts to create a shadow state
underground, offering cultural, educational and religious activities in the various Jewish
Communities across Europe, continued. Attempts to halt Nazi activities legally were also
made, of course to no avail. Consequently, when the Jewish population realized what was
happening, given their already weakened physical and emotional state, it was too late.
299
Amos Goldberg, "If This is a Man: The Image of man in Autobiographical and Historical Writing
During the Holocaust," Yad Vashem Studies 33 (2005): 381-429. 300
Ibid.
301
Rings, Life with the Enemy: Collaboration and Resistance in Hitler’s Europe, 1939-1945.
In this context response is used almost interchangeably as defiance. 302
Esther Captain, "Written with an Eye on History: Wartime Diaries of Internees as Testimonies of
Captivity Literature"(This essay was written on the basis of a paper presented to the seminar on "Old
Relationships, New Sources: Contemporary Methodologies and Shifting Perceptions in 400 Years of
Dutch-Japanese Interactions," organized by the Historical Research Program in Japan and the Netherlands
at the Rijksinstituut voor Oorlogsdocumentatie ( RIOD ) in Amsterdam, March 1998).
94
Intentionality as Defiance
As early as 1939, Chaim Kaplan wrote of the perceived danger of keeping a diary, noting,
on September 14th
, 1939:
I have returned to my apartment. The danger is great everywhere. There is
no hiding from fate. It is difficult to write, but I consider it an obligation and
am determined to fulfill it with my last ounce of energy.
I will write a scroll of agony in order to remember the past in the future.303
Within the paradigm of emplotment life is a gradual progression of events shaped by
familiar norms. Cultural, religious social and other values shape life stories and narratives
and consequently, identity. Within this framework, the events themselves are not seen in
isolation, but rather, the whole is considered the human experience.304
Ricoeur‘s theory
of narrative identity outlines how a life story is rewritten to guide one through life. Life
stories need to be rewritten and adapted as circumstances shift and as a result, narratives
are not only rewritten, but also reread by the protagonists themselves. Within this
paradigm the present is constructed from a meaningful past, which makes the present and
future purposeful. The gradual progression of change which constituted what was
considered a normal life cycle was suddenly crushed during the Holocaust. As such, the
narrators of this destruction had to redefine their lives in what may be considered a
drastic separation from the familiar. For example, Rachel Feldhay Brenner notes in her
fascinating article on Anne Frank, that in order to adapt to the new situation the Frank
family had to cease to be members of the society they had been accustomed to and detach
themselves from their previous identity. 305
Anne Frank insightfully wrote of this phenomenon from the secret Annex in Amsterdam
on Sunday, on May 2nd
, 1943:
I sometimes wonder: how can we, whose every possession, from my knickers to
father‘s shaving brush, is so old and worn, ever hope to regain the position we had
before the war?306
Arguably, under Nazi rule the Jews of Europe ceased to be members of the societies they
had once been such a viable part of, instead establishing a new society of persecuted
Jewish victims. Interestingly, the person within this new order did not change
conclusively but rather recontextualized, and this is the essence of de emplotment. This
term is used to describe the very opposite of emplotment in that the singular events which
constitute a life story became unthreaded. This was not, as has been repeatedly stated,
one drastic event or shift, but rather a transformation which encompassed all domains of
life, hence the term de emplotment. It may be therefore asserted that writing became a
form of defiance in that it helped shape the new identity of the oppressed narrator, giving
the narrator a place at a time when nothing made sense. The act of writing in an effort to
303
Kaplan, Scroll of Agony: The Warsaw Diary of Chaim Kaplan, 30. 304
Paul Ricoeur, The Hermeneutics of Action, ed. Richard Kearney (Sage Publications, 1996). 305
Feldhay Brenner, ―Writing Herself against History: Anne Frank‘s Self Portrait as a Young Artist,‖ 105-
134. 306
Frank, The Diary of a Young girl: the Definitive Edition, 100
95
regain one‘s lost identity and maintain some level of individuality, coupled with the
knowledge that being caught had dire consequences, breathes new meaning to the word
resistance or defiance in this period. When reading the diaries one must consider that
human beings innately have a will to survive and preserve life, and this, in a world turned
upside down, was the dilemma faced by the diarists. The belief that being caught writing
meant not only death or severe punishment for the individual but also collective
punishment, enhanced the perceived danger of writing. Although this presumption did
not apparently deter many diarists, it may account for the lack of details about the Nazi
apparatus which is notable in most the Holocaust diaries.
Narrative identity is a linguistic entity and intentionality is pivotal when one considers
the written word. The intention of the narrator and whether the narrative can be
considered honest and therefore authentic is central to the relationship between reader
and writer.307
Paul Ricoeur‘s work on narrative identity describes the act of writing as
one which signifies a higher level of consciousness than speaking, requiring the writer to
actually enter into a dialogue with the self.308
Through writing, Ricoeur advocates, the
writer frames intention and subsequently an obligation to enact the intent. In fact, he goes
further in claiming that not only does the narrator commit to enact the written intention,
but feels a moral obligation to do so, a claim he terms attestation.309
Attestation can never
be complete because intentions are fluid and no words can ever fully represent a state of
being. The belief that the act of writing constituted a high level of danger and was
therefore an act of resistance, was, within the context of Paul Ricoeur‘s framework,
defiant. In other words, if the diarist intended the diary to be a means of personal
defiance, believing he or she was putting him or herself at great risk to write, then this
work classifies diary writing and the discourse represented within these narratives, as
defiant. The claim of writing as a defiant act is noted in several of the diaries, and it this
intention which has led me to the classification of several of the diaries penned during the
Holocaust as narratives of defiance. Victor Klemperer in Dresden reflected this in his
diary entry dated May 27th
, 1941:
For the sake of my curriculum I must make notes even now, I must, no matter
how dangerous it is. That is my professional courage. Certainly I put others at
risk. But there is nothing else I can do. 310
By definition, a narrative actually emplots events in words and subsequently come to
represent the facts as the understood by the narrator. 311
Paul Ricoeur states, in relation to
narrative, the idea central to the argument justifying writing as defiance in context of the
Holocaust:
307
Anderson, Autobiography 308
Ricoeur, The Course of Recognition, , translated by David Pellauer (Harvard University Press, 2005)
Ricoeur, Oneself as Another, 140-168. 309
Ibid. 310
Klemperer, I shall Bear Witness: The Diaries of Victor Klemperer 1933-1941, 471.
The Curriculum is a reference to his academic career. The reference to ―Curriculum‖ refers to his
autobiography, which he began in 1939, but was only published after his death in 1989 under the title
Curriculum Vitae. Erinnerungen 1881-1981, Curriculum Vitae: Memoirs 1881-1981). 311
Laure Ryan, ―Toward a Definition of Narrative,‖ 22.
96
…....attestation belongs to the grammar of ―I believe in.‖ It thus links up
with testimony, as the etymology reminds us, inasmuch as it is in the
speech of the one giving the testimony that one believes. One can call upon
no epistemic instance any greater than that of belief----, or, if one prefers,
the credence—that belongs to the triple dialectic of reflection and analysis,
of selfhood and sameness, and of the self and other. 312
Narrative intention shifts as the events do. An action alone does not constitute a narrative.
A narrative requires goal, a means of recording, motive, expectations, interaction with an
audience (even if that audience is oneself) and intention.313
Within this framework, the
diarists during the Holocaust arguably produced narratives of defiance.
Exemplifying the narratives of defiance, Emmanuel Ringelblum, who coordinated the
Oneg Shabbat archives devoted to recording every detail of life in the Warsaw Ghetto,
pointedly noted in a diary entry, dated late December, 1942:
There were two types of Oneg Shabbat workers: permanent workers who
devoted themselves entirely to the job, and temporary workers who wrote a
single piece on their own experience during the war, or on that of their town
or village…Everyone was fully aware of the importance of his part in completing
the task. 314
312
Ricoeur, Oneself as Another, 21.
Here Ricoeur refers to selfhood as the identity which distinguishes one person from another and sameness
as the genetic code that gives each person a sense of unity. The ―other‖ denotes the society in which the
identity interacts with. This has been discussed in the earlier "studies". According to Ricoeur the interaction
of these elements constitutes the narrative identity, which, once established, attests to the narrative itself. 313
Ibid. 314
Emmanuel Ringelblum, "Chronicles of the Warsaw Ghetto," in Scream the Truth at the World:
Emmanuel Ringelblum and the Hidden Archive of the Warsaw Ghetto, (Zydowski Instytut Historyczny,
The Museum of Jewish Heritage : A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, (Allegro ma non troppo, 2001,
2006), 18.
Although entries from Ringelblum‘s translated diaries have been used throughout this work, it should be
noted that the English version, for unexplained reasons, is not a complete version of the diary. This entry
was obtained personally on a visit to Warsaw, where the milk jars in which Ringelblum hid his archives are
on display. The above quoted book was published exclusively by the Polish Institute.
97
Breaking the Silence
Authentic Defiance through Narration
Writing a diary believing that one faced death, personal or collective punishment if
caught was, within the theoretical framework adhered to within this thesis, defiance, just
as authentic as an armed uprising. Writing gave the writer the feeling that he or she had a
small part in defying the Nazi regime. Writing a diary was forbidden and was undertaken
at great personal risk, both to the diarist and to those around him or her, in addition to
being bound by the limitations of the writer‘s own knowledge and perilous
circumstances. Diarists made assessments under extraordinary pressure and worked
within an unprecedented situation, which somehow made their words even more defiant.
Abraham Tory, in his last Will and Testament, wrote, in a diary entry dated ―end of
September, 1942:‖
overcome the fear of death which is directly connected with the very fact of
writing each page of my diary, and with the very collection and hiding of
documentary material. Had the slightest part of any of this been discovered,
my fate would have been sealed. 315
Despite this risk, which was certainly recognized by the diarist, the writer usually
continued writing for many reasons, including perhaps the therapeutic value and solace it
offered the writer, in addition to the desire of maintaining a sense of individuality in the
face of degradation. As previously noted, the reasons for diary writing were not always
heroic by any means, but the drive to record history became urgent to most of the diarists,
despite the associated risks. Alvin Rosenfeld notes that the ability of the diarist to sustain
the Jewish conceptual world in fact endowed significance to death, and was therefore
heroic.
The journal could be nothing less than a form of heroism, an assertion of dignity
and even nobility in the face of death. 316
Chaim Kaplan, in the Warsaw Ghetto similarly noted, on August 27th
, 1940:
There is no end to our scroll of agony. I am afraid that the impressions of this
terrible era will be lost because they have not been adequately recorded. I risk
my life with my writing , but my abilities are limited: I don‘t know all the facts:
those that I do know may not be sufficiently clear: and many of them I write on
the basis of rumors whose accuracy I cannot guarantee. 317
Historian Michael Marrus also notes that hope, consolation and defiance lie not in actions
per se but in the perception of the resister. In other words, someone who perceives their
actions as defiance will feel that they are actively resisting the perpetrator. 318
315
Tory, The Kovno Ghetto Diary, 168. 316
Goldberg, If This is a Man: The Image of man in Autobiographical and Historical Writing during the
Holocaust. 317
Kaplan, Scroll of Agony: The Warsaw Ghetto Diary of Chaim A. Kaplan, 189. 318
Michael R Marrus, "Jewish Resistance to the Holocaust," Journal of Contemporary History, 30, no.1,
January (1995): 83-110.
98
The diary entries classified as unarmed resistance are classified as such based on the
belief of the diarists themselves who perceived the act of writing as defiant.
Dehumanizing the Nazis through writing may be construed as defiance, possibly serving
to suspend psychological ties with the Nazis. As such, it was not only the act of writing
that was defiant, but the way in which the diarists wrote about the Nazis. It is worthy of
note that there is minimal reference to the Nazi perpetrators by name within the diary
narratives. This has led to the assumption that writing was a psychological defense used
by several diarists to help distance themselves from the humiliation and violence and the
Nazis themselves. When the Nazis were referred to, it was often indirectly. For example,
Emmanuel Ringelblum used the words ―Frankensteins‖ and ―Bloody Dogs‖ when writing
about the perpetrators, in addition to alluding to Lords and Masters when writing about
the Nazis and their Jewish victims. Likewise, Janusz Korczak‘s narrative about Planet Ro
and Professor Zi is also a parody of the relationship between perpetrators and victims. 319
Many diarists used the words ―them,‖ and ―they‖ when referring to the Nazis. This may
have been both a coping mechanism distancing the victim from the perpetrator, or a
small, defiant act, allowing the diarist to continue writing, thereby maintaining
individuality whilst penning testimony for future generations. In accordance with Werner
Ring‘s paradigm, name calling in the context of such brutality is certainly symbolic
resistance, helping to maintain the victim‘s dignity or even polemic resistance, namely
recording the crimes against them. Similarly, jokes and humor used in several of the
diaries may be deemed as not only helping the diarists to cope with the situation but as
defiant per se. Emmanuel Ringelblum wrote, on October 23rd
, 1940:
A Jew alternately laughs and yells in his sleep. His wife wakes him up. He is mad
at her. ―I was dreaming someone had scribbled on a wall: Beat the Jews! Down
with ritual slaughter!‖ ―So what were you so happy about? ― Don‘t you understand?
That means the good old days have come back! The Poles are running things again!‖320
Representations of perceived reality are just as important as the reality itself. During such
extreme situations, the victim, in this case the diarist, named, arranged and depicted
events. During the Holocaust the belief that writing was dangerous and thus undertaken at
great personal risk, endowed the writer with the capacity to maintain a certain level of
control over his or her own destiny. Narratives recorded by the diarists can never convey
the extent of the danger they were in. In fact, this is something that only the post
Holocaust generation has understood after the event. The constructed narrative of the
diarist claimed to tell the truth and represent the danger, event or facts the diarist wanted
to convey. As the situation became perceptibly more dangerous, the narrative‘s context
began to recontextualize, or de-emplot, and the perceived danger of writing increased,
thereby making diary writing a more defiant act than previously deemed. Furthermore, it
enabled the writer to retain a narrative identity which still had an element of individuality
and dignity, which the Nazis had all but stripped them of. On an epistemological level,
one can never be sure of absolute knowledge about facts, and this was true in the case of
the diarists. On a hermeneutic level, it appears from the testimonies recorded in the
319
Korczak, Ghetto Diary, 81-84. 320
Ringelblum, Notes from the Warsaw Ghetto, 79
99
diaries, that whatever knowledge the diarist did have was of little value if the event could
not be communicated regardless of the perceived risk involved. In this sense, the diarist,
through writing, constructed not only an identity, but a sense of survival, even if this
sense was unrealistic. 321
Dr. Emanuel Ringelblum wrote mainly from a historical perspective. Ringelblum was a
historian before the Holocaust, his research focusing on the Jews of Poland. His archives
were penned in journal trope, compiled whilst simultaneously writing his own personal
diary. After the deportations from the Warsaw Ghetto in 1942 began, his diary appears to
become more a testimony of specific events, the perspective more like that of a witness
than a historian. As the deportations continued and the consternation around him
escalated, Ringelblum began writing on different subjects as well as penning short
biographies of those who were killed.322
His accounts illustrate the dread of daily life and
highlight the daily routine and dilemmas being faced by all those in the ghetto, which, in
respect to detail is a remarkably comprehensive testimony. He did, however, attempt to
stay objective, and in this sense his dairy is not typical of the other Holocaust diaries,
although the disbelief at having to redefine his reality is evident. His personal diary
reflected the perspective of someone viewing the inexplicable from close range, even
discussing fashion in the midst of moral deterioration. He shared thoughts, gave inside
perspectives of the Ghetto, and described the underground, for example, in addition to
death, education and cultural activities.
Although he wrote his own private diary, Emmanuel Ringelblum undertook the enormous
task of coordinating the largest collective documentation project to be compiled under
Nazi rule. Ringelblum promoted the theory that Jews had to live in dignity and die in
dignity, maintaining that keeping the spirit to survive alive was crucial to survival. With
this in mind he created the famous ―Oneg Shabbat‖ archives, which served to not only
keep a record of events in the ghetto, but serve as a source of first hand literary testimony
of Nazi atrocities.323
The ―Oneg Shabbat‖ archives highlight a remarkable network of
Nazi resistance and depict the complex picture of Jewish cultural life under the Nazis in
the Ghetto. These archives are surprising because many tend to think of the Jews as
passive during this period, when in fact a thriving Jewish community, albeit depleted and
starved, still existed. Many other archives have been recovered from this period, proving
very valuable insights into the secret lives of the Jews in the ghettos and camps. These
hidden files later attested to how the self help concept and therapeutic value of recording
events actually helped the Jewish people through a very dark hour.
Psychologically, the emergence of self help activities enhanced the feeling within the
ghetto, that the Jews were resisting Nazi brutality. Perhaps this was apt because they were
involved in acts of defiance which were punishable by death, whilst recording the
unthinkable acts they were witnessing for future generations. Effectively, the self help
321
Stewart, Holocaust Diaries: Writing from the Abyss. 322
Ringelblum, Notes from the Warsaw Ghetto. 323
Oneg Shabbat was the codename for the archives of Dr. Emmanuel Ringelblum compiled in the Warsaw
Ghetto. Oneg Shabbat can be translated as ―Joy of Sabbath‖ and refers to Sabbath gatherings after the
prayer services on a Friday night.
100
theory enabled everyone to theoretically rise up against the Nazis, which certainly must
have sustained the spirit to continue under such dire circumstances. Undertaken in utmost
secrecy, these archives highlight a spirit of resistance which was alive in the ghetto. The
compilation of the Oneg Shabbat Archives was a collective act of defiance, undertaken
with the understanding that being caught would lead to execution. Evidently, as the
situation worsened and perhaps the fate of Europe‘s Jews became clearer, the mission
became more desperate and the archives were buried in the hope that they would be
uncovered after the war. The Oneg Shabbat archives stand alone as a collective diary, as
opposed to the private diaries compiled by diarists analyzed in this work. Despite the
collective narrative perhaps being a more easily definable narrative of defiance, this work
concludes that a private diary was no less authentic as a personal act of defiance.
Although many diarists wrote in defiance, many were not heroic but rather, desperate to
pass on the terrible and incomprehensible situation through which they were living to
future generations. When discussing this, Lawrence Langer justifiably states, in regard to
the Diary of Ann Frank:
Those who would convert death in Auschwitz or Bergen Belsen into a
triumph of love over hate feed deep and obscure needs in themselves
having little to do with the truth….the best Holocaust literature gazes
into the depths without flinching. 324
Langer‘s warning needs to be heeded. One must not lapse into the heroic idea of spiritual
resistance in order to make sense of the incomprehensible by simply clinging to the idea
of hope and the human spirit being triumphant in the face of doom and annihilation.
Whilst it is acknowledged that the diarists wrote in the shadow of death, it must also be
acknowledged that they understood their situation and possibly wrote despite it, fearing
that perhaps they had nothing to lose. The diaries may be construed as literature of
defiance since the narrating protagonists believed they were facing certain death, and
writing became a sure way of immortalizing themselves with the hope or guarantee that
they would not die in vain. Moty Strome, for example, left messages in his diary in
Russian and Polish and an address in English, in the hope that whoever found it would
understand one of the languages, or the native Yiddish that it was recorded in.325
He
wrote on June 2nd
, 1944:
I am going to hand this over to be buried, and must leave today, on Friday
evening. May God guard me.326
Those writing often believed their situation to be hopeless and knew they were going to
die, possibly even assuming there would be no survivors to bear witness to this
unprecedented crime. Once again, the reader has to redefine the traditional forms of
resistance and bring amidah to the fore as it is central to understanding the diary
324
Lawrence Langer, ―Art to Ashes,‖ in A Holocaust Anthology (New York: Oxford University Press,
1995), 7. 325
Moty Strome, Memoirs of an Unfortunate Person: The Diary of Moty Stromer (New York: Yad Vashem
and the Holocaust Survivors Memoir Project, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2008). 326
Ibid., 215
101
narratives. The systematic annihilation of Jews made no sense, as repeatedly noted in the
Holocaust diaries. The sheer senselessness of the brutality unfolding is expressed almost
without exception in these diaries. Often the few diaries that express hope in humanity,
are clung to, whereas hopelessness and varying degrees of defiant words were more often
than not, expressed in the majority of diaries. 327
Although perhaps more comforted with
lines of hope in the Holocaust diaries it must never be overlooked that in reality the
diaries, coined ―unfinished fragments‖ by Alexandra Zapruder, whilst defiant in the very
act of writing, also portray impending doom. Witnessing and recording may be seen as a
response to a situation which was, in this case, very extreme. Witnessing was not only
enduring the terror but translating it beyond the moment of enunciation, at great personal
risk. 328
As a genre, the diary has proven resilient in epistemological terms. There has been a
tendency over the years to include within the large rubric of autobiography, any text
which reflects on the self in relation to time, memory or narration.329
Life stories or
narratives are autobiographical in that they are considered true stories. In fact, Raul
Hillberg noted in many instances that the narrative takes over from the historical facts
and the words replace the event. 330
The narrative of persecution, a term coined by
Gershon Shaked, in this case the Holocaust diaries, record how life expectations ceased
to be what they once has been, and how the protagonist became caught up in a web of
persecutor victim dichotomy.331
The victim then needed to de-emplot, or recontextualize
and his or her writing was consequently re adjusted to a new mode of thinking,
transformed within the paradigm of a new reality. Reflecting this sentiment, Etty
Hillesum wrote, on Wednesday, July 1st, 1942:
But though my mind has come to terms with it all, my body hasn‘t. It has
disintegrated into a thousand pieces, and each piece has a different pain. Funny
how my body still has to assimilate things after the event. I have so much to
write, whole books, about the last few days.332
It is in this respect, when the narrator, the diarist, realized that his or her situation was
precarious, that the shift from private diary writer to communal witness ensued. In turn,
the act of recording became arguably defiant, thereby transforming the act of writing into
amidah.
Every story interprets, gives meaning to events, sequences events and thus structures the
story into a framework which is meaningful to the writer and the reader. Ricoeur‘s
concept of selfhood is cardinal when interpreting the diary as a narrative of defiance.
327
Langer , Art to Ashes. 328
Roger I. Simon and Claudia Eppert, "Remembering Obligation: Pedagogy and the Witnessing of
Testimony of Historical Trauma," Canadian Journal of Education 22, no. 2 (1997): 175-191. 329
Marcus Mosley, "Jewish Autobiography: The Elusive Subject, "Jewish Quarterly Review 95, no.1,
Winter (2005): 16-59. 330
Jeremy D. Popkin, "Holocaust Memories, Historians Memoirs: First Person Narrative and the Memory
of the Holocaust," History and Memory 15, no. 1, Spring (2003): 49-84. 331
Ibid. 332
Hillesum, The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum:1941-1943, 456
102
Through sequential entries, the protagonist penning a diary during the Holocaust reflected
his or her changed life narrative and de -emplotment ensued, as evidenced by the diaries
recovered, reflecting a new reality, fusing the historical and literary representation of a
world turned upside down.
103
The Dichotomy of the Private and Public Face of Narratives of Defiance
When discussing literature, one generally presupposes literary texts, and in this case, the
diaries written during the Holocaust should be considered unique literary texts of the
highest historical value. Sidra De Koven Ezrachi writes of a unique relationship between
a reader and literary texts.333
She notes that the reader and the writer collaborate insofar
as the reader brings his or her own perceptions and hindsight into the texts and it is thus
through one‘s familiar paradigm of life that any sense is made of literature.334
In the case
of the Holocaust diaries it may therefore be concluded that the reader, as a result of
historical hindsight, knows the fate of the author and the catastrophic outcome of the
inexplicable events the diarists were describing. Although it cannot be stated conclusively
of course, it may be argued that those writing diaries understood the unprecedented
nature of their situation, particularly as it deteriorated. In this sense, writing became for
many, a defiant act, contingent on the fact that someone in the future would read and
understand what had happened, thus defying Nazi attempts to cover up many of their
crimes. In other words, writing a diary was breaking the silence of shame and disbelief
and defiantly attempting to tell the world what happened. Moty Stomer, in a final act of
defiance, wrote the following in Yiddish, Russian, Polish and English, hoping that
whoever found it would understand at least one of the languages and that the silence of
Nazi horror would be shattered. He wrote, on June 2nd
, 1944:
I am writing these words on the night before I have to leave my place, this attic,
where I have been more than –or exactly-300 days and nights. The days in this place
were no brighter than the night; but what would I like? I would like to be able to spend
a longer time in this place, or to find one like it. May God help me! Please convey this
to my brother Meyer Stromer, or my sister in America Henia Edelstein, to let them
know.
Their brother, Mordche Stromer Kaminke Strumilowa335
Almost without exception, diarists alluded to the disbelief at what they were witnessing.
Several noted that nothing they were writing was a lie, as if they knew that the events
would continue to be inconceivable even to future generations. 336
They wrote of their
intentions for their diaries to outlive themselves and defy any Nazi future cover up.
Herman Kruk illuminated this in his astoundingly detailed diary from the Vilna Ghetto,
when he wrote, on September 4th
1941:
I don‘t know if I will live to see these lines, but if anyone anywhere comes upon
them, I want him to know this is my last wish: let the words someday reach the
333
De Koven Ezrachi, By Words Alone: The Holocaust in Literature. 334
Ibid. 335
Stromer, Memoirs of an Unfortunate Person: The Diary of Moty Stromer, 215.
Moty Stromer was hidden by the Stecker family, righteous gentiles honored by Yad Vashem. A righteous
gentile constitutes a non Jewish person who put him or herself, or his or her family at risk, to save a Jewish
life.
Stromer‘s diary survived with him, kept in a plastic bag in a cupboard for his entire life. His children
edited, translated and finally published the diary. 336
Ibid.
104
living world and let people know about it from eyewitness accounts. 337
Chaim Kaplan in the Warsaw Ghetto also noted for future readers, on February 14th
1941:
How is it possible to attack a stranger to me, a man of flesh and blood like
myself, to wound him and trample upon him, and cover his body with sores,
bruises and welts, without any reason? How is it possible? Yet, I swear I saw all
this with my own eyes.338
Rutka Laskier in the Bedzin Ghetto in Poland expressed the same sentiments. Writing on
February 5th
1943, she wrote that those who haven‘t seen this would never believe it. But it‘s
not a legend; it‘s the truth. 339
Repeatedly, the Holocaust diarists acknowledge a
responsibility to their future readers, clarifying that the events recorded, unprecedented in
history, actually happened.
As previously averred, most Holocaust diary entries illustrate a shift from the private to
the public domain. This may be construed as a form of unarmed resistance in accordance
with Werner Ring‘s theory of a polemic response as the diarists were striving to record
the truth. 340
The move from the private to the public reflects the dichotomy of the diarist,
of the need to record private feelings whilst simultaneously being connected to the
outside world and the catastrophe they understood they were in the midst of.341
Expressly, as the situation declined the diary narratives appear to have taken on a more
public demeanor. This is reflected in several ways. Primarily, the diary entries were often
transformed into addresses aimed at a wider audience. This shift, writes Esther Captain, is
the essence of a diary written in crisis, empowering the diarist with the new agenda of
bearing witness and defying the situation in which they are engulfed.342
This sentiment is
captured through the words of Moty Stromer, who wrote on May 28th
, 1944:
I would already have hidden my book in the ground somewhere, but I am reluctant
to part with it. I can spend several hours writing. I know I am writing with many
errors, but I cannot write in Polish because everybody would be able to read it. If
God only helps me to live through this terrible period, I will together with my
brother in law in America, publish the whole experience as a separate work. If it
was not for the fear, I would be able to tell of things I have seen with even
greater precision and detail---if I had a clear mind. I would tell about the biggest
bandits in the world, who are called Hitlerovtses (followers of Hitler). 343
337
Kruk, The Last Days of the Jerusalem of Lithuania: Chronicles from the Vilna Ghetto and the Camps
1939-1944, 92.
Herman Kruk was burned to death in Klooga Labor Camp in Estonia, on September 18th
, 1944, just hours
before the Red army liberated the area. 338
Kaplan, Scroll of Agony: The Warsaw Diary of Chaim A. Kaplan, 242. 339
Laskier, Rutka’s Notebook: January –April 1943, 35. 340
Patterson, Along the Edge of Annihilation: The Collapse and Recovery of Life in the Holocaust Diary. 341
Captain, ―Written With an Eye on History: Wartime Diaries of Internees as Testimonies of Captivity
Literature‖. 342
Ibid. 343
Stromer, Memoirs of an Unfortunate Person: The Diary of Moty Stromer, 201-202.
105
Arguably, as circumstances became increasingly dire for the diarist, connecting to the
outside world became more urgent. The public face of the diarist began to gain
importance to the writer, again illustrating the redefinition of life within the new reality
of the Nazi Europe.344
The dichotomy between the private and the public seemed to
widen as the situation became more drastic. Many diary entries reflect the public persona
seemingly taking over the private whilst the private persona became increasingly
desperate. The internal and the external voices of the narrative identity as described by
Amos Goldberg accentuates the loss of identity and ensuing crisis experienced by the
diarists, highlighting the impulse of human beings to cry out and record the evil they have
fallen prey to.345
Goldberg asserts that in fact the Holocaust diarist had two voices, that of
the protagonist and the narrator. 346
He theorizes that the private narrator and the public
protagonist were complex personas of the diarists struggling with their inevitable
destruction, a theory which has been referred to in the previous chapters.347
This work
too, adheres to the private and the public persona, the private being the selfhood
advocated by Paul Ricoeur, arguing that both the inner and public voices could constitute
a form of defiance.
A diary is by nature a spontaneous reaction to a situation in which the end is unknown.348
The inner persona writing a diary retells the immediate past from his or her perspective,
which in turn gives the writer the opportunity to recover possession of events either in the
near future or at a much later time. 349
At this point, I will revert back to Ricoeur‘s theory
of narrative identity, noting how the diarist shifted their narrative identities to defy Nazi
orders and used their diaries on a more public and community level. To create a narrative,
the narrator needs to have awareness of the self as another. 350
Ricoeur proposes a theory
vital to the writing of a diary, especially in a tumultuous world the writer could not
understand. The self as another, Ricoeur‘s theory of the dialectic of the self, enabled the
diarist to frame intentions, thereby symbolizing commitment to enact the stated intention.
This is Ricoeur‘s attestation, a process which enables the narrative identity to articulate
intention in words, thereby taking responsibility for not only intent but the intended
action. 351
Rose Wilde‘s work on wartime diaries theorizes that diaries are always written to an
audience, even if the audience is oneself. 352
Wilde maintains that language cannot be
constructed without an audience as it demands context to communicate meaningfully.353
Illustrating this, for example, is Anne Frank‘s ―Dear Kitty‖ and Emmanuel Ringelblum‘s
344
Redefinition in this context is tantamount to de emplotment. 345
Goldberg, Holocaust Diaries as Life Stories 346
Ibid. 347
Ibid. 348
Captain,‖Written with an Eye on History: Wartime Diaries of Internees as Testimony of Captivity
Literature‖. 349
Feldhay Brenner, ―Writing herself against History: Anne Frank‘s Portrait of a Young Artist‖. 350
Ricoeur, Oneself as Another , 27-56. 351
Ibid. 352
Rose Wilde, "Chronicling Life: The Personal Diary and Conceptions of Self and History" (lecture
delivered at Rice University, Houston, Texas. April 19, 1997). 353
Ibid.
106
―My Dear.‖ Esther Captain too, in her article on diaries and wartime detainees, specifies
that in wartime, diarists feel the need to connect to the outside world, thus adding a more
public face to their diary entries.354
This, she claims, is evidenced by the fact that diarists
writing amidst wartime situations do not appear to use codes or lock their diaries,
concluding that this subconsciously or consciously indicates a desire for someone to read
the diary.355
Within Ricoeur‘s paradigm this would assumedly heighten the intention and
responsibility of the narrator outlined in Ricoeur‘s attestation theory, simply due to the
deduction that the Holocaust diarists intended their diaries to be read by future
generations. This heightened intention is evident by some of the more factual style
writing of so many of the Holocaust diarists represented in this work, and by those who
specifically expressed the hope that someone would read their words. For example, Adam
Czerniakow, the head of the Judenrat in the Warsaw Ghetto, wrote an articulate and
invaluable account of all aspects of German policy regarding exploitation and terror in
the ghetto.356
He stressed the daily hardships, both physical and emotional, within the
ghetto as the situation worsened, the attention to detail leading to the assumption that the
diary was certainly meant for a future audience. Highlighting this, he recounted a very
detailed diary entry on November 5th
, 1940:
After a sleepless night at 6.00am: Get up and clean the cell. Then coffee
distributed (every man a big bowl), nota bere, salted, and one quarter of bread.
Next a shower and delousing. Still wet I had to dress since some Gestapo men
have just arrived were waiting for me and my comrades. In the Gestapo, depositions
were taken from us. Waiting for Meisinger‘s interrogation I was kept in an
underground cell fixed like the inside of a streetcar. At 4.30 I was received by
Meisinger. We are accused of making improper remarks about the SS, etc. (sic)
(Saschsenhaus). 357
Abel Herzberg simiarly wrote with a future audience in mind when he lamented from
Bergen Belsen, on December 19th
, 1944:
Will anyone reading this afterwards ever understand it? This is intended as a
note to be expanded on later. Perhaps it will become a testament ….which no one
will ever open. 358
Even if the diary is not addressed formally, such as salutations of ‗dear diary‖ and so on,
for the most part it is written as if in conversation with someone who assumes a common
cultural and social context, thereby understanding what has been communicated. This
354
Captain, ―Written with an Eye on History: Wartime Diaries of Internees as Testimonies of Captivity
Literature‖. 355
Ibid. 356
Adam Czerniakow, The Warsaw Diary of Adam Czerniakow: Prelude to Doom, eds. Raul Hillerg,
Stanislow Staron, Josef Kermisz, translated by Stanislow Staron and the Yad Vashem Staff (Jerusalem:
Yad Vashem, in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Elephant
Paperbacks, 1999 ).
Czerniakow was the head of the Judenrat (Council), in the Warsaw Ghetto. 357
Ibid., 213.
Adam Czerniakow committed suicide after refusing to sign an order regarding the expulsion of children
from the ghetto (deportation to death camps), in 1942. 358
Herzberg, Between two Streams: A Diary from Bergen Belsen, 183.
107
conversational mode also evinces the public nature of private musings, reflected in the
assumption of a future reader. Illuminating this conversational narrative is Moshe
Flinker‘s diary entry on November 24th
, 1942 from Belgium, who noted:
I forgot to mention that during that year (May 1942) we had been forced to
sew ―a badge of shame‖ on the left side of our outer clothing.359
Julius Feldman‘s Krakow Diary also illustrates a dialogue narrative, effectively imbuing
future readers with insight into both the fear of writing during the Holocaust and the
defiance of continuing to do so. He wrote from Krakow on March 28th
, 1942:
I haven‘t written anything for three days because I didn‘t go to work, and
for a serious reason. As I mentioned, we were living in fear of the possibility
of a search for money. 360
Language is the basis of communication between two or more parties and cannot exist in
isolation. To this end, it is through language that the reality of a diarist is created. As
such, the construction of a diary identity is a form of self definition and a declaration of
individuality and intention and thus a form of symbolic defiance and amidah. During the
Holocaust it was a confirmation of one‘s individuality that the diarist was able to
formulate a personality in his or her diary. In fact, the post Holocaust reader ascertains
this quite readily when reading the diaries by virtue of identification with each
personality and identity as perceived through the diary. One feels as if one intimately
knows each protagonist through the diary narratives created and that the intention of the
narrator is clearly defined. In this respect, the Holocaust diarists attested to their intention
to be written into the future.
359
Flinker, quoted in Salvaged Pages, editor, 98. 360
Feldman, The Krackow Diary of Julius Feldman, 73.
108
The Narrative of the Self as an Expression of Defiance
Rachel Feldhay Brenner contends that the narrative of the diarist during the Holocaust
allowed the writer to feel, if only for a moment, that they had control over the life that
they had lost so much of. 361
Life stories or narratives, she claims, endorsed the diarist‘s
claim to recover possession of the self. Under such traumatic circumstances this may be
construed as a form of defiance against both the enemy‘s total control over every aspect
of the writer‘s life and their own personal loss of identity. Feldhay Brenner asserts that
Anne Frank‘s writing, for example, opposed the Nazi‘s attempt to dehumanize the Jews
through anti Jewish laws, deportations, continual violence and so on, thus defying the
depersonalization the Nazis had achieved through a reign of terror. This is clearly
elucidated in Feldhay Brenner's words:
The diary defiantly affirms Frank‘s dignified self perception as an individual
whose story deserves to be recorded. Even further, her understanding of self
writing as a vehicle of ethical self development demonstrates Frank‘s self assertion
against the tyranny of depersonalization. 362
From an epistemological viewpoint, the diary is the truth of the writer, and this fact must
be contemplated in any study of diaries. Nevertheless, truth per se and the perception of
truth as penned by the diarist needs to be differentiated. Essentially, a diary should be
considered a reaction or response to the daily fluctuations in the diarist‘s perception of his
or her life narrative. In this respect, the public and private sides of the diary must also be
acknowledged as being subject to change. Despite the fact that the Holocaust diarists did
not know the end of the story, the diaries analyzed in this thesis reflect an ostensible
perception of the drastic and unprecedented decline in their situation. In turn, this
assumedly offset a shift from private to more public orientated diary entries. It is
therefore apt to conclude that the reasons for writing shifted as the diary was increasingly
perceived more as a document to bear testimony, defy Nazi terror or exemplify personal
identity and defiance in the face of annihilation. This response was part of the de
emplotment process for many as it gave credence to both the new reality and the person‘s
identity of old. Typically, the Holocaust diary allowed the former life to be alluded to by
means of mentioning family members, reminiscences and familiar community events and
so on whilst acknowledging the new identity being forged as a Jewish victim of Nazi
rule. Subsequently, the identity constructed by the diarists was, as Amos Goldberg
asserts, the reconstruction of a new identity, reshaping the reality of the narrator.363
This
new persona had a mission, namely, for the diary to survive, even if the body did not, and
in this respect was defiant.
Barbara Foley similarly writes of the transformation of the consciousness of the narrator
during the Holocaust, noting that the personality of each narrative had to shift, entailing
the inner voice of the narrative identity becoming stronger in the drive to testify. In turn,
361
Feldhay Brenner, ―Writing Herself against Anne Frank: Self Portrait as a Young Artist‖. 362
Ibid.,125 363
Goldberg, Holocaust Diaries as Life Stories.
109
the determination to record was enhanced, even at great personal and collective risk.
Emmanuel Ringelblum, for example, made it a sacred mission to record every detail of
the Warsaw Ghetto, organizing a group of dedicated colleagues to help him. In contrast,
Janusz Korczak and Etty Hillesum both receded into their own worlds, which gave them
a sense of identity when all sense of reality was fast disintegrating. On July 3rd
, 1942,
Etty Hillesum described her need to persevere despite her seeming understanding of her
own impending death.
Living and dying, sorrow and joy, the blisters on my feet and the jasmine behind
the house, the persecution, the unspeakable horrors—it is all as one in me, and I
accept it all as one mighty whole and begin to grasp it better if only for myself;
without being able to explain to anyone how it all hangs together. I wish I could live
for a long time so that one day I may know how to explain it, and if I am not granted
that wish, well, then somebody else will perhaps do it, carry on from where my life
has been cut short. And that is why I must try and live a good and faithful life to
my last breath: so that those who come after me do not have to start again: need
not face the same difficulties. Isn‘t that doing something for future generations?364
Once again reverting to Paul Ricoeur‘s theory, narrative identity is central to the
understanding of writing as defiance. Ricoeur relegates the narrative itself as decisive in
regard to one‘s narrative identity, which formulates life stories and plots events according
to the social, cultural or religious context of the writer.365
In the realm of normalcy an
event is assimilated into the known context and narratives are plotted accordingly.
However, as Ricoeur notes, when the old framework becomes unrecognizable, a crisis
can occur. In this respect the theory of de emplotment is crucial as the old life story
became obsolete during Nazi rule and the response was to redefine one‘s identity, often
through writing. The Holocaust diarist was suddenly devoid of freedom, half starved,
subjected to squalor, death and violence on a daily basis and a victim whose end was
undefined but perceived to be death. Under such circumstances the diary became a
vehicle of testimony and defiance in terms of the public persona it transformed into,
largely as a result of the diarist‘s perception of this change. Reflecting Ricoeur‘s narrative
identity based on socially and culturally perceived self definitions, the Holocaust diarists
primarily shifted from private observances to more community minded and public diary
entries as their situation worsened.
The core of understanding an authentic life narration entails the fusion of interpretative
skills and the ability to enter into the experience itself, even through words alone. 366
The
enormity of the Holocaust lies not only in the physical annihilation of the Jewish
communities of Europe Jews but perhaps in the final objective, namely, the planned
extermination of an entire people. The narratives written during the Holocaust exemplify
the epistemological predicament of Holocaust narratives in that the extremity of human
existence is being represented in the words recorded. The diarists writing under such
364
Hillesum, The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum: 1941-1943, 461-462. 365
Ruard Ganzevoort, "Investigating Life Stories: Personal Narrative in Pastoral Psychology," Journal of
Psychology and Theology, 21, no. 4 (1993): 277-287. 366
D. G Myers, "Responsible for Every Single Pain: Holocaust Literature and the Ethics of Interpretation,‖
Comparative Literature 51, no. 4, Fall (1999): 266-288.
110
circumstances were, in many instances, human only in name, stripped not only of human
rights, but dignity, individuality, self sufficiency and all familiar domains of life as it had
once been. One so often thinks in terms of one‘s own context when examining historical
events. Jewish victims were not well fed, well clothed citizens sitting in a study or lounge
room penning a diary. Primarily, one must think in the context of the growing catastrophe
and contextualize diary writing within the paradigm of starvation, sickness, death, horror
and violence on a daily level, which destroyed the victims both physically and
emotionally. Many were waiting for the death they knew was imminent. It is only then
that one can begin to comprehend why writing may be interpreted as defiant. So many
could not speak, could not react and consequently chose to write, and to this end, "an act
is more fully an act of resistance the more fully the agent understands it as such. " 367
Chaim Kaplan addressed this very sentiment on January 16th
, 1940:
I don‘t know whether anyone else is recording daily events. The conditions of
life which surround us are not conductive to such literary labors. I am one of the
fortunate ones whose pen does not run dry, even in this hour of madness. Anyone
who keeps such a record endangers his life, but this does not frighten me. 368
David Roskies asserts that during the Holocaust, writing began as a familiar literary
response to forms of persecution already familiar to the Jew of Europe.369
Traditionally,
non confrontation had been the best form of appeasement in reaction to anti Semitic
onslaughts in Europe. Evidencing this was Avraham Tory‘s diary entry written on
February 19th
, 1943:
How many times have we heard such speeches? How many times has our
total extermination been foretold? We have almost become used to speeches
of this kind. 370
At some point in time, however, it became evident that the Nazi persecution was
unprecedented, surpassing anything ever experienced throughout Jewish history. Only
two months later the tone of Tory‘s narrative shifts, as indicated by the following entry
dated April 8th
, 1943:
The news about the extermination of 5,000 Jews at Ponar has been received
in the Ghetto with fear and anguish. No words can express the feelings of each
one of us. Suddenly we see ourselves teetering on the brink of an abyss. Any
slight breeze, any wrong move on our part, may cause us to lose our balance and
The realization that this situation was exceptional is notable in most the Holocaust
diaries. Depending on personal context, this turning point signified a transformation of
intention, writing becoming a sacred personal and collective mission being undertaken
367
Michael R Marrus, "Jewish Resistance to the Holocaust," Journal of Contemporary History 30, no.1,
January (1995): 83-110, 91. 368
Kaplan, Scroll of Agony: The Warsaw Ghetto of Chaim A. Kaplan, 104. 369
Roskies, ―Yiddish Writing in the Nazis Ghettos and the Art of Incommensurate,‖ 29-36. 370
Tory, The Kovno Ghetto Diary, 230.
111
within unique historical conditions which would certainly outlive the writer.371
Ringelblum and Kaplan highlight this belief noting that only by rethinking history and
recognizing a new era of evil propounding the annihilation of Europe‘s Jews, and
recording it at all costs, could there ever be any meaning for future generations. This
work views these poignant narratives of the self as amidah.
Chaim Kaplan wrote, July 26th
, 1942:
I feel that continuing this diary to the very end of my physical and spiritual
strength is a historical mission which must not be abandoned. My mind is still
clear, my need to record unstilled,(sic) though it is now five days since any real
food has passed my lips. Therefore I will not silence my diary. 372
For many other diarists across Europe writing became not only a form of personal
defiance against the Nazi perpetrators, but a sacred mission to be undertaken even in the
face of certain death if caught. Those who took the risk of penning a diary, or hiding it,
understood that risk and wrote despite of it and sometimes even because of it. Once again
it must be stressed that those who wrote to record and those who recorded defiantly must
be differentiated on the basis of motive and intent. If the diarist wrote to defy then that is
the narrative identity of that narrator. Emmanuel Ringelblum and his colleagues
exemplify this, working under terrible conditions and risking torture and death to compile
the Oneg Shabbat Archives. Ringelblum acknowledged the drive to write, even at the risk
of death, on February 27th
, 1941:
The drive to write down one‘s memoirs is powerful: Even young people in
labor camps do it. The manuscripts are discovered, torn up, and their authors
beaten. 373
Ringelblum was convinced that the Nazis were aiming to annihilate Poland‘s Jews and
combined his idea of self help with documentation, defending Jewish honor to the end.
He almost seemed to understand that with the liquidation of entire Jewish communities,
the inevitable question of why they let themselves be murdered would be asked by future
generations. On October 15th
, 1942, he pondered:
Why didn‘t we resist when they began to resettle 300,000 Jews from Warsaw?
Why did we allow ourselves to be led like sheep to the slaughter? 374
Encased within these words a direction as to how the post Holocaust generation needs to
disconnect from the romantic notions of resistance, focusing rather on the many reasons
the Jewish victims acted as they did. Historically, anti Semitic incidents, from blood
libels to pogroms, somehow stained the Jewish communities of Europe but subsided,
allowing the communities to continue and flourish. The reluctance to rise up against the
Nazis thus stemmed from the familiar historical context of restraint which had lead to
survival in the past. 375
Raul Hillberg subsequently advocated what so many recognize in
371
Ibid. 372
Kaplan, Scroll of Agony: The Warsaw Ghetto Diary of Chaim A. Kaplan, 303. 373
Ringelblum, Notes from the Warsaw Ghetto, 133. 374
Ibid., 310 375
Marrus, Jewish Resistance to the Holocaust.
112
hindsight, namely, that it was simply too late when the Jewish leaders and communities
realized what was happening, a thought which must always be considered in regard to the
Holocaust. On a hermeneutic level our knowledge of facts are meaningless historically if
we fail to put them into context, and it must chiefly be acknowledged that in regard to the
Holocaust, we know more now than the victims did then. What was happening during the
Holocaust was a blurred distinction between the epistemological and the hermeneutic and
it was too late when finally fully comprehension. Redefining responses is therefore
essential, leading to the assertion that recording for posterity should be viewed as
defiance, given the enormity of the situation.
Feliks Tych claims that the archives of Ringelblum are so comprehensive that they
should be considered as testimony of the spiritual resistance that existed in the Ghetto,
observing that:
this was a powerful antidote to the widely disseminated notion of Jewish
passivity, to the stereotype of Jews ―going like sheep to the slaughter .376
Ringelblum wanted to ensure that sometime in the future people would learn of the fate
of Europe‘s Jews and understand that many of them had fought a brave battle, both
physically and spiritually, against the Nazi perpetrators. He made his quest a holy one, as
indicated by his final decree to bury the archives in milk bottles in deep holes when he
knew his death was imminent. Ringelblum prayed his chronicles would be uncovered and
with them, the fate of Warsaw‘s Jewish community. This final act of defiance stands as
testament to the bravery of so many Jews in the face of a hopeless situation. On June 25th
,
1942, Ringelblum wrote the telling words of a narrative of defiance:
It is not important whether or not the revelation of the incredible slaughter of
Jews will have the desired effect—whether or not the methodical liquidation of
entire Jewish communities will stop. One thing we know---we have fulfilled our duty.
We have overcome every obstacle to achieve our end. Nor will our deaths be
meaningless, like the deaths of tens of thousands of Jews. 377
376
Feliks Tych, "The Legacy of Emanuel Ringelblum and the Historical Awareness of the Holocaust," in,
Emanuel Ringelblum: The Man and the Historian, ed. Israel Gutman (Jerusalem: Yad Vashem
Publications), 12.
Feliks Tych is the director of the Jewish Museum in Warsaw, which houses the milk jars that Ringelblum's
diaries were found in, along with the original diaries. 377
Ringelblum, Notes from the Warsaw Ghetto, 296.
113
Defiant Narratives
The Diary as Defiance
Within Ricoeur‘s framework, emplotment of events into a whole gives life meaning, and
is therefore pertinent to the classification of dairies as defiance.378
An action within this
framework is not just a singular occurrence. Rather, an action is correlated to goals,
circumstance, motive, responsibility, and intention.379
In fact, an action alone is not a
narrative, but is transformed into one only when the narrator has a story to tell, thereby
transforming events into a whole that constitutes emplotment. In contrast de emplotment
during the Holocaust correlated to the goal of undoing what had been considered past
goals, circumstance, motive, responsibility and intention. Emplotment is assumedly
progressive and developmental, plotting the life story of the individual within the normal
time frame of a life. Conversely, de -emplotment assumes a more drastic shift within the
paradigm of a different time framework which is inconsistent with one‘s normal life span.
It requires a leap from the norm, coupled with the assimilation of new events,
responsibilities and intentions without a familiar past or an expected future. Both
emplotment and de emplotment alone do not necessitate a narrative, but rather, need to
merge events to imbue the story with meaning within a particular societal context.380
Put
simply, a narrative can only have value if meaning can be expropriated by the reader.381
For example, when one observes sequential dating within a literary text it is understood
that it is a diary, and the reader and writer are in unison as to the intent and meaning of
the text. The essence of narrative necessitates context and linguistic familiarity, thereby
allowing the audience to comprehend what is being read.
This chapter is grounded in the premise that many of the Holocaust diarists wrote their
diaries with the intent of defying the Nazi decree forbidding them to write, coupled with
the intent of maintaining the personal identity they had been all but stripped of. They
wrote with the motive of telling their story despite the grave personal and collective risk,
aiming to make their stories believable to future readers. Writing as unarmed resistance in
this respect further enabled contact with future generations despite the efforts of the
Nazis to eliminate Jews and the Jewish world. It is the fusion of these factors that justifies
the category diaries of defiance.
Once established as a narrative, Paul Ricoeur delineates two entities, the chronological,
which consists of episodes, and the non chronological, which consists of ―wholes,‘
namely, making sense of a string of events.382
Ostensibly, for an event to be significant it
needs to fit into the developmental plot of a person‘s reality, emplotment and narrative
identity centering round the premise of a comprehensible context within which a
narrative is created. 383
However, one may conclude that the singular events which
construe a whole did not make sense to those living in the ghettos, in hiding, fleeing their
378
Paul Ricoeur, "On Narrative," Critical Inquiry 7, no. 1, Autumn (1980):169-190. 379
Ibid. 380
Ibid. 381
Weintraub, Autobiography and Historical Consciousness, 821-835.. 382
Hayden White: "The Question of Narrative in Contemporary Historical Theory," History and Theory 23,
no.1 (1984): 1-33. 383
Ibid.
114
homelands or being deported. The diarists began to record singular events which did not
fit into the normal configuration of their lives and could not, as a result, be emplotted as a
whole, simply because the ―whole,‖ namely, Nazism, was totally unprecedented
historically. The Holocaust protagonists therefore had the unenviable task of recording
singular events which did not fit into their known context, in turn necessitating a de
emplotment process deemed essential if the narratives were to be meaningful on any
level.
In linear time, the concepts of before and after are incorporated to make the narrative
meaningful.384
In the ensuing de emplotment, the normal life paradigm was rendered
meaningless and concepts such as “after” describing the event expected to follow, took
on new meaning as an unexpected and unknown event. The reader is able to discern how,
during the Holocaust, even simple concepts such as before and after could not be used to
plot a story as the events being witnesses were so unexpected. Life prior to the Nazi
onslaught was no longer able to provide the Jewish diarists with context, and ―after‖ was
a word which now meant deportation and probably death. This recontextualization was
de emplotment as the narration shifted to incorporate singular abnormal events into a
narrative in which the whole could never be ascertained or emplotted. Nothing could be
inserted into the linear progression of life events and no sense could be made of life. As
early as 1939 Chaim Kaplan recognized the unrecognizable paradigm as becoming the
new reality. He wrote, on December 31st, 1939:
The usual persecution is not enough for us. An extraordinary persecution has
been added, which leaves us in danger of death, and we have become daily candidates
for stoning, burning, murder, strangulation , and all manner of unnatural deaths. 385
It appears that the situation was so inconceivable that the narrators themselves were
fearful that what they were recording would not be believed. This is clearly defined in
the prolific words of Josef Zelkowicz, on Friday, September 4th
, 1942, when he wrote:
What only yesterday had been considered impossible and inconceivable became
tragically, a fact. Children up to the age of ten are being torn form their parents
and siblings and are doomed to deportation. 386
Within a traditional life paradigm an unexpected event can be emplotted by the
protagonist by slotting the unforeseeable event into the life narrative as a whole. As such,
an event such as a death in the family is assimilated within the context of the past, present
and future, allowing the individual to internalize the event into a narrative in which the
remaining life domains remain constant. During the Holocaust the diarists repeatedly
alluded to the fact that they were not witnessing one unexpected event which had to be
emplotted into their lives, but rather an entire new reality which had no precedent. In fact,
any remnant of the life of old was considered unexpected within this new reality, as
384
Ibid. 385
Kaplan, Scroll of Agony: The Warsaw Diary of Chaim A. Kaplan, 94. 386
Zelkowicz, In Those Terrible Days: Notes from the Lodz Ghetto, 261.
An open ghetto meant that although Jews had to live in the restricted area and wear yellow stars, the walls
around the ghetto had not been built yet.
115
reflected by the young Rutka Laskier writing in her diary about the breakfast she once
would not have considered noteworthy enough to include in a personal diary. She wrote
from the open ghetto of Bedzin, on February 6th
, 1943:
We got up at four o‘clock in the morning. We had a great breakfast (considering it
was wartime): eggs, salad, real butter, coffee with milk. 387
In short, the diarist no longer had any events which were actually considered familiar,
heralding the response of writing in defiance of Nazi orders. The diarists appeared to
comprehend that their lives were changed forever, their familiar social, cultural and
religious contexts obliterated on all levels. Understanding the danger and nevertheless
proceeding to record, despite Nazi orders, was therefore a brave response by those who
chose to do so.
As previously noted, the autobiography or memoir is developmental and making it
readable is dependent not only on familiar speech patterns and language but familiar
context. However, during the Holocaust such context was crumbling and in effect
familiarity no longer existed. As such, it may be deduced that a diary, which did not
require plot development, revision of events or contextualization, was therefore the
chosen narrative of so many victims writing during the Holocaust. They were able to
record with scanty understanding of facts, free of constraints regarding writing style and
literary constraints, focusing on a register of the shocking daily events. Diary writing
reflected individuals undergoing a metamorphosis and in doing so, exemplified a literary
genre and narrative identity able to extend narratives portraying history and events as the
subject. Rather, the diaries portray the individual experience intertwined with the
historical narrative. Perhaps unwittingly, the Holocaust diaries highlight the spiritual,
psychological and individual level of historical events and reflect a broader concept of
human defiance, in addition to offering a deep insight into the human response to an
unprecedented situation. The normal scaffolding of knowledge which makes the past
meaningful to present day situations no longer existed under Nazi rule. Subsequently, the
scaffolding of knowledge and experience used to emplot one‘s life story was rendered
meaningless, thus heeding a de emplotment process which called for a sudden diversion
from the linear plot of a normal life story. 388
There was no meaningful knowledge under
Nazi rule. There was no time, no choice and there was no meaningful past. The end was
death.
Given that Ricoeur‘s theory of narrative identity fuses the writer and reader, making the
author both the interpreter and the reader of the events, the diary personifies the
relationship between living and telling the story. 389
Ricoeur describes a narrative identity
as one made up of what he calls sameness and selfhood.390
He claims that the narrator has
387
Laskier, Rutka’s Notebook: January-April 1943, 36. 388
Deborah Schiffren, "We Knew that‘s It: Retelling the Turning Point of a Narrative, "Discourse Studies,
5 ( 2003) :335- 562.
The concept of scaffolding propounded by Mischler is discussed in this article. For further reading,
Elliot George Mishler, Storyline: Craftartists‘ Narratives of Identity, Harvard University Press, 1999. 389
Ricoeur, Narrative and Interpretation. 390
Ibid.
116
elements of unity with others living through the experience but at the same time always
retains a sense of individuality which makes each narrative unique. Ricoeur further
argues that the narrative identity is comprised of a genetic element, that which makes a
person recognizable as an individual, (sameness), and "selfhood," denoting the response
to and interaction with, the social context in which he or she lives.391
It is the latter
Ricoeur terms "the other," describing the interaction between the narrator and the familiar
paradigms which make up the individual‘s reality. The sameness of each diarist is evident
when reading the Holocaust diaries as each has its own recognizable and distinct
narrative identity which remains constant regardless of events being recorded. The
interactive component of the diarists' identities is also recognizable in the diary
narratives, as the narrators grappled with the unprecedented situation in their own
individual way.
Reiterating this chapter‘s contention, the narrative identity during the Holocaust shifted
and de-emplotted enabling interaction with what Ricoeur terms the ―other‖, that is, the
elements of society that one reacts to, to the extent that was possible. Even though the
diarists had no social context in which to assess their new reality, and certainly no
freedom to assert their selfhood, they attempted to make sense of a world gone mad.
Clearly, the other no longer existed in any meaningful way, shattering all familiar
domains of life. There was no familiar social, cultural or religious context to interact
with, and the diarist therefore constructed a new identity based on being a victim defying
orders. Selfhood, defined as the freedom to be responsible for one‘s actions and the
ability to initiate something new, was also redefined. Within Ricoeur‘s framework
Selfhood needs to interact with the other to create identity. Assumedly, while each diarist
maintained his or her unique character under Nazi rule, selfhood became redefined and
was maintained through writing rather than meaningful interaction with one‘s surrounds.
Personal identity therefore emerged as a new narrative, the diarist writing to retrieve
some form of identity, survive and record the atrocities being lived through. This act of
non conformism, aimed at maintaining personal identity and not allowing the Nazis to
fully thwart the individual, was arguably amidah in compliance with Werner Ring‘s
prototype of symbolic resistance, ―I maintain my identity‖ and polemic resistance, ―I
record in the face of adversity.‖392
As the situation became more incomprehensible, the
diarists appear to de- emplot accordingly in an effort to give context to the new order. In
this sense, a sense of urgency to survive and record was enhanced as the danger of doing
so became greater. Notably, very few diaries written in the death camps themselves have
been unearthed, thus leading to the conclusion that the diarists wrote until the ability to
record, both physically and emotionally no longer existed.
Amos Goldberg argues that the inner persona of the diarist during the Holocaust had
virtually stopped functioning and had essentially collapsed, leaving the protagonist, that
is, the outer persona of the same identity to continue writing.393
In contrast, this thesis
391
Ibid. 392
Rings, Life with the Enemy: Collaboration and Resistance in Hitler’s Europe: 1939-1945.
393
Goldberg, If This is a Man: The Image of man in Autobiographical and Historical Writing during the
Holocaust.
117
argues that the narrative identity of the protagonist, through de emplotment, had shifted,
and numerous Jewish victims, rather than entirely collapsing, became inwardly defiant
and gained strength to create a defiant narrative identity through diary writing. Towards
the end of his diary Chaim Kaplan clearly understood the fate which awaited him.
Undeniably, he battled his own feelings of sheer hopelessness at his precarious situation.
Despite his inner struggle to comprehend the horrific fate which had befallen the Jews of
Europe and his own personal calamity depicted with clarity in his diary, he continued
writing to the end. In fact, his diary portrayed the shift from hope to hopelessness and
back. Given that he continued his diary amplifies the argument that the strength to keep
writing predominated. Kaplan paid homage to these feelings on August 1st, 1942:
The enormity of the danger increases our strength and our will to save our
lives, like a fever which gives strength and power to one who is dangerously ill.
But all this is momentary relief: afterwards the weakness returns sevenfold. 394
This thesis focuses on the individual diarists who represent themselves only, and
certainly does not conclude that the protagonists were defiantly fighting the Nazis until
the bitter end, ignoring feelings of hopelessness, despair and numbness. On the contrary,
it is impossible to discount depression and feelings of hopelessness evident in most the
diary narratives. However, many diarists refused to collapse, and even under the most
dire circumstances continued writing as long as they were able, and it is this per se which
was defiant.
Ricoeur‘s paradigm further theorizes that a narrator has the ability, through a narrative
identity, to attest to the self, and truth. 395
Within this theory, the narrator has the ability
to formulate intentions with the belief that they will adhere to the moral obligation of
carrying out. 396
Concerning the Holocaust diary it is therefore arguable that the diarists
intended to record not only for posterity but to maintain the identity they had been
stripped of, saying in essence,‖ this is me,‖ in accordance with amidah and Ring‘s
polemic defiance. Oskar Rosenfeld recorded this conviction, in November 1943:
As soon as freedom of movement, the freedom to act was gone, words, adages,
sentences too, could no longer be used in the conventional sense. The transformation
of forms of living forced the transformation of form of concepts.397
He continued in the same entry:
New words had to be created; old ones had to be endowed with new meaning. 398
Familiar "selfhood" had disintegrated, but the narrator redefined his selfhood and wrote
to maintain a changed identity and defy the Nazis to the extent that was possible. In a
world gone mad the human impulse to survive and preserve was evident. Despite the
394
Kaplan, Scroll of Agony: The Warsaw Diary of Chaim Kaplan, 395. 395
Ricoeur, Oneself as Another 396
Ibid. 397
Rosenfeld, In the Beginning was the Ghetto: Notebooks from Lodz, 229. 398
Ibid.
118
eradication of societal norms being replaced by depression, numbness, shock and the
assimilation of new and redefined norms, an element of defiance cannot be ignored
throughout the diary narratives. For example, Etty Hillesum strove to overcome
depression and physical debilitation through her writing. She gave meaning to her life as
she realized that she was getting closer to her own physical demise, and pushed her
narrative identity to be defiant and continue writing. Etty Hillesum drew strength from
her writing, as reflected in her diary entry on…..
We must inwardly reject this barbarianism. We must not cultivate hatred in
ourselves, because it will not help to do anything to help our world get out of the
mud. 399
Oskar Rosenfeld also illustrated a defiant narrative identity throughout his diary,
reflecting this sentiment. He wrote on June 9th,
1942:
I am sure the Jewish people will be eternal, but not like the wandering Jew, nor
a singular appearance in the history of humanity. The atrocities according to the
necessaries of the ghetto are not able to break the resistance of the Jewish forces
and souls. 400
Andy Alaszewski‘s article on diary writing in times of crisis adds weight to the
proposition that diary writing with intent to defy is amidah, noting that diary writing in
times of trauma helps the victim become an active agent who bears responsibility for the
action, as opposed to passive victims of events. 401
The diary is perhaps one of the few
literary genres which enable the narrator to transform the self so often, daily if necessary,
once again helping the protagonist take some control of the situation. The self in the
Holocaust diary shifted from entry to entry, assisting the diarist to maintain a narrative
identity throughout the rapidly deteriorating situation.
Within the traditional narrative life changing events are intermittent, as opposed to the
new and unexpected horrors experienced daily under Nazi rule, to which the diarists
responded via a linguistically constructed narrative identity. Alaszewski‘s research
concluded that writing certainly helps a victim stay actively involved in communicating
their trauma through self observation, becoming stronger in the making.402
This
compounds the argument that the intent of defying gave strength to the Holocaust
diarists. Writing was a means of observing "the self" and, in doing so, gave the narrator
control, albeit a limited degree of control, over a situation in which he or she was
otherwise rendered helpless.
399
Hillesum, 400
Rosenfeld, In the Beginning was the Ghetto: Notebooks from Lodz, Notebook D, Remembrances, 68. 401
Alaszewski, ―Diaries as a Source of Suffering Narratives: A Critical Commentary.‖
This article was written about the value of stroke victims keeping journals to help them come to terms with
their sudden life changing disabilities. 402
Ibid.
119
A Worm Who lives in Horseradish
No matter how extreme a situation is, it has meaning for those living through it.403
This
proposition crosses the boundaries of all categories of diary writing referenced in this
work, encompassing the very heart of the de -emplotment under Nazi rule, namely, that
any situation, no matter how extreme, is eventually assimilated by those experiencing it,
eventually becoming the norm. This claim is reiterated by Chaim Kaplan‘s lament about
the Warsaw ghetto, on July 15th
, 1942, that a worm who lives in horseradish thinks it is
sweet.404
This same sentiment was voiced by Etty Hillesum, echoing Kaplan‘s insight the
very same week, on July 25th
, 1942:
I found this definition of ―normal‖ in Jung. ―For that person is normal who can
exist in whatever circumstances offer him the necessary minimum conditions of
life. 405
Anne Frank too, expressed this notion, in Amsterdam, on Sunday, May 2nd
, 1943:
When I think of our lives here, I usually come to the conclusion that we live
in a paradise compared with the Jews who aren‘t in hiding. All the same, later
on, when everything has returned to normal, I‘ll probably wonder how we, who
always lived in such comfortable circumstances, could have sunk so low. 406
Likewise, Rutka Laskier wrote from Bedzin, in Poland, on February 5th
, 1943:
I‘m already so flooded with the atrocities of war that even the worst reports
have no effect on me. 407
Despite assimilating into the new Nazi order, writing may be deemed a form of defiance
defying not only Nazi decrees against recording experiences, but laying claim to the
maintenance of a personal identity at great risk. Chaim Kaplan‘s insight that a worm
living in horseradish does indeed think it sweet, proved the case to some extent for the
diarists from this period. Redefining life and fighting to survive became the order of the
day, as expressed by Chaim Kaplan February 22nd
, 1942:
Our lives have evolved into a set form-needless to say, it is an ugly and tragic one-
and for the time being no major changes are occurring within it. The horrors persist
and worsen daily. They are accepted as matter of fact, everyday occurrences and
make very little impression on anyone. 408
The diary entries quoted embrace Werner Ring‘s definition of Symbolic and Polemic
responses, previously outlined, to the unprecedented circumstances that the Jews found
403
Myers, ―Responsible for Every Single Pain: Holocaust Literature and the Ethics of Interpretation.‖ 404
Kaplan, Scroll of Agony: The Warsaw Ghetto Diary of Chaim A. Kaplan, 374. 405
Hillesum, The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum: 1941-1943, 504. 406
Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition, 99. 407
Laskier, Rutka’s Notebook: January-April, 1943, 34. 408
Kaplan, Scroll of Agony: The Warsaw Ghetto Diary of Chaim A. Kaplan, 297.
120
themselves in. Ensuring that life continued despite the new and unparalleled situation was
tantamount to defiance. The narratives of defiance highlight self reflection about the
personal predicament, in addition to emotional and personal responses to the diarist‘s
particular situation, in essence claiming that the intent to survive was being attested to.
Diarists all over Europe, ranging from the young writers Anne Frank hiding in an attic in
Amsterdam to Rutka Laskier in a Polish ghetto, older writers, both male and female
religious and secular, described the drastic change in their life narratives triggering an
unexpected and shocking upsurge in their expected life trajectories, which they intended
to overcome. The narratives of defiance displayed how the diarists internalized and
readjusted their lives through a complex rearrangement of cultural and social context,
each creating a narrative personality, which in its individuality is passively defiant. 409
Much has been written about the narrative identity, and as repeatedly noted throughout
this work, the Holocaust diary is a special narrative. Here the theories of Paul Ricoeur
and Watson and Smith are useful in foregrounding several significant factors.410
Firstly,
Ricoeur‘s narrative ―I ―which appears in a diary is, of course, not the person per se but a
constructed identity. This is a reflexive form marking the "self," and a profound point to
consider in regard to expounding the Holocaust diaries as defiant.411
Watson and Smith
denote this as the narrating ―I‖, who tells the story, and the narrated ―I‖ who is the object
or the protagonist of the narrative, usually the self in the reflexive form. 412
Ricoeur,
Watson and Smith adhere to the narrator‘s ability, through a narrative identity, to tell the
story. In the case of the narratives of defiance, it is this protagonist who wrote to defy
Nazi orders and maintain the self. Unlike the autobiography or memoir, a diary does not
record a life story, but rather, daily observations and feelings in sequential order. In this
respect, the defiance within the Holocaust diaries is marked and authentic. For example,
Moty Stromer wrote of his intention to defiantly hide his diary on May 8th
, 1944, from
the Lemberg Ghetto, where the Jews suffered at the hands of the Ukrainians, noting:
I reckon that tomorrow, on Thursday, May 9
th (1944) I will have to leave the nest.
There is a possibility that I will try to slip into our house (in Kaminke) and perhaps
hide (sic)hidden property. 413
Describing his fear, Stromer continued writing, reinforcing the defiant nature of his diary
writing. On May 28th
, 1944, he wrote:
If it were not for the fear, I would be able to tell of all the things that I have seen
with greater precision and detail-if I had a clear mind. I would tell of the biggest
bandits in the world, who are Hitlerovtses (followers of Hitler).
The book would be a memoir, the diary of an unfortunate person. Is it possible
409
Narrative personality here as defined by Ricoeur‘s narrative identity. 410
Ricoeur, The Course of Recognition, 69-149.
Smith and Julia Watson, Reading Autobiography: A guide for Interpreting Life Narratives. 411
Ricoeur, The Course of Recognition, 69-149. 412
Sidonie Smith and Julia Watson, Reading Autobiography: A Guide for Interpreting Life
Narratives, 15-49. 413
Stromer, Memoirs of an Unfortunate Person: The Diary of Moty Stromer, 181.
Moty Stromer was given a pen and paper by his Gentile neighbor, Jozef Strecker, who hid Stromer in his
barn.
121
to describe everything I have lived through up to this very day? 414
The philosophical discussions surrounding emplotment, originally propounded by
Aristotle and later extended by philosophers such as Ricoeur and Hayden White, refer to
the narrative as mimesis, that is, an imitation of life actions.415
The historical narrative is
not constructed from imagination, but rather, is molded by external factors, and this,
combined with the interpretation of events is fused together to produce a historical
narrative. Bearing this in mind, the narrative mimesis is in essence, the narrator‘s talking
about the self and is therefore synonymous with the personal identity of the narrator. This
is pointedly significant in the case of the narratives of defiance.
Concurring with Alexandra Garbarini, who pointedly concludes that one must
differentiate between the function of the diary and what the diary meant to the diarist, this
work argues that if the diarist believed it to be so, then their writing should be considered
a symbolic act of defiance.416
The desire to bear witness or to assert one‘s individuality
did not constitute defiance for every diarist, and this factor must be acknowledged. 417
In
fact, as the following chapters on the narratives of solace and struggle illustrate, it may
well be the opposite. Diary writing may have been a reaction to the extreme feelings of
hopelessness experienced within the incomprehensible situation in which the victims
found themselves.418
However, given the Nazi attempt to strip Jews of all human
vestiges, diary writing dignified and redeemed individual identity and needs to be
accepted as such and considered defiant for those who perceived this action as resistance.
According to David Patterson, the diary was even more than resistance for some writers,
and was perhaps a means of transcendence, that is, a means of going beyond the horror of
the moment and allowing a means of personal resistance.419
In itself, the act of writing,
which carried grave personal risk under Nazi rule, may be seen as an act of defiance
simply because of the risk of death it carried, as many of the diarists make reference to in
their narratives. Abraham Tory communicated this from the Kovno Ghetto in Lithuania,
in December 1942:
I overcame the fear of death which is directly connected with the very fact of
writing each page of my diary, and with the very collection and hiding of the
documentary material. Had the slightest part of any of this been discovered, my fate
would have been sealed. 420
414
Ibid., 202 415
Ibid. Mimesis refers to the representation of aspects of the world in literature and art, and is an intricate
part of Ricoeur‘s theory of emplotment. He denotes Mimesis one, a plot based on understanding the world
structures, mimesis two, which transforms the events into a story and mimesis three, the story being
understood by the reader. 416
Garbarini, Numbered Days 417
Ibid. 418
Goldberg, Holocaust Diaries as Life Stories 419
Patterson, Along the Edge of Annihilation: The Collapse and Recovery of Life in the Holocaust Diary,
29-40. 420
Tory, Surviving the Holocaust: The Kovno Ghetto Diary, 168.
This was placed in Avraham Tory‘s last will and testament. It was placed in the first crate to be buried, and
the same will, with a different date, was placed in each of the four crates he buried.
122
Many diaries represented in this work express the perception of diary writing as being a
precarious act subject to grave punishment. Elisheva Binder articulated this very fear
from the Stanislawow Ghetto in Poland, on December 27th
, 1941:
I also think I shouldn‘t be writing all this. I cannot imagine what would
happen if they found it, God forbid.421
Chaim Kaplan immortalized this sentiment as the final liquidation of the ghetto was
underway, on July 26th
, 1942:
I feel that continuing this diary to the very end of my physical and spiritual
strength is a historical mission which must not be abandoned. My mind is still
clear my need to record unstilled, (sic) though it is now five days since any real
food passed my lips. Therefore I will not silence my diary. 422
A narrative constitutes a process through which the narrative identity controls the story.
Thus, the narrator not only attempts to make sense of the events being narrated, but also
interprets the reality being constructed. During the Holocaust many diarists reiterated the
self through a linguistic construction even as the self was being eradicated. In doing so,
intention and subsequently attestation, the responsibility of enacting the words being
recorded, forged the consciousness of the narrator. Since narration is an action per se in
the case of a diary, in which there are no characters, but rather the diarist alone who is
both the protagonist and narrator, the belief that he or she was performing an act of
defiance through diary writing is therefore justification for the classification of narratives
of defiance.
The unprecedented nature of the Holocaust perhaps allows redefinition of words such as
defiance within new paradigms, just as the Holocaust itself meant a new definition of
what was humanely possible. One has to redefine known and familiar paradigms if one is
to try and represent in any way, the experience of the Holocaust, and the diaries may thus
be viewed as narratives of defiance for those who regarded them as such.
421
Elisheva Binder, in Zapruda, Salvaged Pages: Young Writers’ Diaries of the Holocaust, 309. 422
Kaplan, The Scroll of Agony: The Warsaw Ghetto Diary of Chaim A. Kaplan, 383-384.
123
Chapter Four
The Narratives of Solace
Renowned Holocaust historian Yehuda Bauer stated in a 1998 interview, that the
desire to document and to write a diary is aroused often by the extraordinary nature
of the reality in which the prisoners live: A traumatic encounter can urge one to write.423
The juxtaposition of narratives of hope and narratives of hopelessness becomes more
evident when analyzing the diary narratives of consolation. Indeed, most of the diaries
represented in this chapter appear to be a combination of both. After reading so many
diaries, written by individuals from so many different countries and in so many different
languages, the word hope, defined as the ―expectation and desire‖ for something to
happen or come true, was not a word I felt was applicable to the Holocaust diaries.424
Hopelessness too, defined as having no possibility or ―feeling of hope‖ seemed the wrong
word as it did not reflect the feeling of the words I have read.425
True, it was certainly a
hopeless situation as understood by the post Holocaust generation, and even the diarists
themselves to some extent, understood the situation at the time. Nevertheless, the desire
to record history, to defy the Nazis by writing, to voice inner despair and to acknowledge
one‘s uniqueness in the face of extremity, deemed the word ―hopelessness‖ somewhat
inapt. As such, the word solace encapsulates the analysis and discussion within this
chapter.
Solace may be defined as ―finding comfort in‖ or consolation in sorrow, misfortune or
distress.426
Finding solace in the face of such extreme conditions meant different things to
different writers, but was essential to those who wrote diaries. When employing the word
―solace,‖ it may not be solace or comfort as the reader interprets it, but a different form of
solace, constructed in the context of the unimaginable setting of resettlement,
deportations, loss of human rights and ultimately annihilation. The diaries perhaps gave
the writer comfort in terms of being an emotional release. Writing offered modicum
consolation that a story would be told, some time in future history. Such hope helped
fight depression and enabled the writer to organize thoughts so as to make some sense of
the inconceivable. Furthermore, diary writing perhaps endowed the diarist with the belief
that something would remain if he or she did not. However, as Alexandra Zapruder points
out in the introduction to her book Salvaged Pages, despite the noble words expressed by
some of the diarists, what these diaries represent cannot be altered.427
She poignantly
notes that the diaries, even if they offered a level of solace to their writers, were
not created in celebration of beauty and in praise of progress, but were
produced in response to an overwhelming evil that threatened to engulf their
423
Amos Goldberg, "Interview with Yehuda Bauer, January 18, 1998" (Jerusalem: Shoah Resource Center,
Yad Vashem, 1998). 424
The Australian Pocket Oxford Companion, edition 5, (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, revised
2004), 528. 425
Ibid., 529. 426
Ibid., 1048. 427
Zapruder, Salvaged Pages: Young Writers’ Diaries of the Holocaust, 9.
124
writers. No praise for the writer of a diary can undo the fact that the task
was undertaken in the context of annihilation, and that the diary is a cry to
hold on to a place in the world in the face of erasure. No celebration of the
courage or grace of the writer‘s gesture can cover up the human fallibility and
frailty that is captured within the diary‘s pages. 428
The diary written during the Holocaust constitutes its own exclusive genre as it was not
only a tool for personal recordings but a response to an inexplicable situation. Narratives
are generally cultural and social responses to situations which are understood by both the
narrator and the reader. In other words, the narrator relays a story based on culturally
understood templates which ensures the audience will read the narrative and understand it
in context. Narrative schema, that is, assumed knowledge of both the writer and the
reader is considered imperative if the narration is to be transformed into meaningful
language to tell the story.429
However, in the case of the Holocaust, the chain of
unprecedented events experienced unleashed a dichotomy of tension between experience
and language. As such, the Holocaust diarist was faced with the complexity of creating a
narrative identity which had the responsibility of describing the indescribable. Language
was often the only tool of expression available to the Holocaust diarists, and even so was
limited, since descriptions escaped the conventions upon which the language of reality was
based.
Paul Ricoeur‘s theory of narrative identity is predicated on the assumption that a
narration is a form of transition between representation and judgment.430
He declares that
a narrative identity fuses the unique self, namely characteristics distinctive to a particular
person, and another, the self which interacts within a social and cultural construct.431
The
diary as a narrative is a blend of the narrating self and the experiencing self, shifting as
perception of experiences alter. In the case of the Holocaust it is clear that many of the
diarists began to comprehend their impending destruction, subsequently beginning to
primarily record their own demise. In the diarists‘ capacity as narrators the unique self,
that is, the inner self, became the dominant narrative identity as a result of existing social
and cultural contexts becoming all but non -existent. Consequently, most the protagonists
represented in this work eventually shifted from recording narratives of consolation to
narratives of struggle, which will be analyzed in the following chapter. Prior to the
struggle, however, the purpose of writing for a future audience enabled the diarists to
regain some control over their lost lives and recover an element of dignity and freedom as
well as imbuing the diarist with the notion that they would not die in vain.
Typically, the diary as a narrative is less concerned with the desire to link words to
experiences than other narratives. Diarists intend to record events as they unfold, which
often excludes editing and structuring to the extent that other forms of narratives
undertake. 432
Karl Weintraub, in an early work on autobiography, differentiated the diary
from other autobiographical genres. He noted that the prime significance of the diarist is
428
Ibid., 9 429
Schiffrin, ―We Knew That‘s it: Retelling the Turning Point of a Narrative.‖ 430
Ricoeur, Oneself as Another, 88-112. 431
Ibid. 432
Young, Writing and Rewriting the Holocaust: Narrative and Consequence of Interpretation.
125
to record segments of life which are momentary interpretations of the events the diarist is
living through, often having a conciliatory affect on the writer.433
As such, diary entries
do not offer long range significance to life, but rather, interim observations of life. The
diary does not follow the trajectory of beginning, middle and end that most other
narratives follow. As stated previously, diaries are individual responses to a situation
characterized by lapses, repetitive language and often a lack of literary structure. Unlike
other narratives the narrator does not work towards an intended end, but rather repeats
and returns from day to day. The diary fuses different narrating ―I‘s‖ together and does
not grant special status to any singular event, but rather focuses on momentary reactions
or opinions which give way to different reactions in the very next entry. 434
During the
Holocaust, long range life plans became obsolete. Not surprisingly this made the diary
the choice of many to record not only their changed reality but providing an extension of
the self and consequently an outlet for the diarist under such extreme circumstances.
433
Weintraub, ―Autobiography and Historical Consciousness.‖ 434
Steven Rendall, "On Diaries," Diacritics, 16, no. 3, Autumn, (1986): 57-65.
126
Finding Solace in the Act of Writing
In his study of diary writing, Andy Alaszewska concluded that a diary helps the diarist
make sense of and manage adverse events. 435
This is done, he continues, through the
construction of entries in which the narrator is the active and rational agent, noting
events, as opposed to a passive bystander. 436
Diarists are actively involved in the creation
of their narratives. On a daily basis they write to make sense of the events they are
recording. Alaszewska claims that a diarist essentially wants to present him or herself as
a rational person. As such, it may be determined that the limitation of language coupled
with the need for adequate linguistic expression was the dilemma faced by Holocaust
diarists. In her article on Holocaust narratives Barbara Foley substantiates a diarist‘s
necessity of rationality, claiming the Holocaust diary cried out to be the register not only
of the individual diarist, but to be acknowledged as the fate of an entire people.437
The
Holocaust diarist therefore aimed to represent events as accurately and clearly as possible
to the perceived audience he or she was writing to, even if that audience was one‘s self.
These diaries were a fusion of individual responses to the perceived situation, an attempt
to cope with incomprehensible personal circumstances, and a record of events the diarist
hoped would be believed and understood by future readers.
Within a psychoanalytical paradigm, a diary is a means of observing the self, controlled
by the diarist reflecting upon the events being recorded at that particular moment.438
During the Holocaust the relationship between the diarist and diary shifted as events were
perceived as growing more unprecedented. Unlike other literary genres, the diarist is
granted flexibility simply because diary entries are not framed within literary structures.
Contrary to other narrative identities, which tend to be developmental and concerned with
the progression of the personality, the diarist has a different agenda which revolves
around recording daily ritual, events and personal responses which are not retrospective
but rather spontaneous. In essence, a narrative or story is a basic strategy for coming to
terms with a sequence of events, and at its core is a dialectic and interactive discourse, as
opposed to a mere list of events.439
The narrative discourse is essentially a non linguistic
representation of a sequence of events which results in a text written by the narrator and
understood by the reader. However, contrary to diary writing, most narrative genres do
not furnish the audience with access to the act of writing per se nor with the time frame of
a completed text, but rather, the end product.440
In this respect the diary is unique because
the act of writing is central to the narrative. In fact, it was the physical act of writing
which gave the Holocaust diarist a sense of control, constituting an action they had the
ability to carry out, albeit with fear that their diaries would be discovered by the Nazis.
Accordingly, the diarists represented in this work repeatedly allude to the next diary
entry, of being too tired to write, of pushing themselves to record and apologize for not
435
Alaszewska, ―Diaries as a Source of Suffering Narratives: A Critical Commentary.‖ 436
Ibid. 437
Barbara Foley, "Fact, Fiction, Fascism: Mimesis in Holocaust Narratives," Comparative Literature 34,
no. 4, Autumn (1982): 330-360. 438
Ibid.
Alaszewska, ―Diaries as a Source of Suffering Narratives: A Critical Commentary.‖ 439
Herman, The Cambridge Companion to Narrative. 440
Bridgeman, ―Time and Space,‖ 52-66.
127
writing. The Holocaust diarists created narrative identities which not only represented
personal experience but allowed the audience access to the very act of identity
construction, which perhaps lay at the very foundation of the consolation of writing.
Philippe Lejeune‘s extensive work on diaries concludes that reflection may be at the heart
of a diary written in crisis.441
Lejeune claims that the diarist reflecting upon the crisis
being recorded is inadvertently trying to emerge from the crisis through writing, hoping
the end of the diary will signify the end of the crisis. Each day the diarist, he noted, has a
chance to end the diary which would signify its usefulness being outdated and a happy
ending.442
However, if this does not happen the next entry or the next day offers the same
hope anew. This is the essence of consolation through diary writing, as noted by Etty
Hillesum on Saturday, March 22, 1941:
I must make sure to keep up with my writing, that is, with myself, or else things
will start to go wrong for me: I shall run the risk of losing my way. 443
The act of diary writing is a fusion of identity construction inextricably bound to
sequential recording of daily events and the diarists own position in the events being
recorded. This appears to have offered comfort to the Holocaust diarists discussed in this
thesis as it made the diary virtually impossible to finish, necessitating the task of writing
again the following day. In fact, several of the diarists note that the task of writing
became the purpose for surviving another day, reflecting the solace that was elicited
through writing. As the process of introspective diary writing was one not only of self
definition but intention, it may further be asserted that diary writing depicted the notion
of agency, in this case, one‘s belief in the ability to act. Defining the aforementioned
ability to attest to one‘s words may therefore be classified as a narrative of solace,
offering consolation to the writer who believed in the act of writing and in the words
urging themselves to survive. For example, Helene Berr in Paris wrote frequently of the
act of writing intertwined with her wish to survive, as she witnessed the deportation of
French Jews to labor camps. These reflections, I believe, offered solace, as she noted, on
Wednesday, October 27th
, 1943:
When I write ―vanish‖ I am not thinking of my own death, for I wish to live; as
much as I am able. Even if I am deported, I shall think ceaselessly of coming back.444
Janusz Korczak referred to the physicality of writing throughout his diary, which
arguably provided him with some degree of solace, as reflected in the quote below,
noting that he had completed a notebook and thus felt rested. This exemplifies the claim
that intention and attestation functioned as devices of consolation, depicted through
Korczak the narrator, recognizing his ability to act responsibly and keep his word to
complete a day‘s writing. The implication that more will be written but he was able to
rest knowing that the self had performed the required diary entry is telling. Both Korczak
441
Philippe Lejeune and Victoria A. Lodewick, "How do Diaries End?" Biography: An Interdisciplinary
Quarterly 24, no. 1, Winter (2001): 99-112. 442
Ibid. 443
Hillesum, Etty: The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum, 1941-1943, 41. 444
Berr, Journal, 177.
128
and Moty Stromer, albeit in vastly different circumstances, make note of the act of
writing per se in the examples cited below. In his diary entry dated May 29th
, 1942, six in
the morning in bed, Korczak noted:
And now I am finishing my pad. Another excuse to write no more tonight,
though I feel perfectly rested. 445
Moty Stromer‘s diary from Kamionka Strumilowa in the Ukraine made frequent
reference to the act of writing, and the consolation he found therein. He also alluded to
the time frame of diary entries in his entry dated May 21st, 1944:
Thank god, I am in the same place and in the same attic. So far, I am writing
in the same place I have been writing in until now. May God help me survive
all this without any hindrance: 446
All the above diary entries highlight the unique characteristics of a diary. Unlike other
narrative forms, the diarist offers the reader not only access to the act of writing but also
the time frame, distinguished by the chronological dating which signifies the diary genre.
The Holocaust diarist communicated to the perceived audience in a unique way, almost
replacing conversations associated with easing anguish.447
At the same time, the diarist is
protected from the idea of a narrative trajectory focusing on what comes next, which, in
the case of the Holocaust, was possibly too traumatic to record. Most narratives construct
texts which have their own temporal and special structures which allow the audience to
experience varied locations and a complex world in their own imaginations.448
In
contrast, the diary is a very special narrative form which offers consolation by virtue of
being unable to change past entries. Unlike the narrator of traditional narratives, the
diarist does not conventionally change a chapter or rewrite a paragraph. What has been
recorded remains unchanged in a diary. Arguably, the Holocaust diarist found comfort in
the fact that at a certain moment which was dated, the events they recorded had been
written for future generations and would remain unchanged forever.
The Holocaust diarist moved from the private to the public and created a register of their
lives through writing, and perhaps more importantly, a place to return to each day to
contemplate one‘s self in an incomprehensible situation.449
Conceivably, even if the
diarist did not actually reread diary entries, the very existence of the diary and the
knowledge that past entries were accessible, constituted a degree of comfort. To that end,
the physical presence of a diary enabled the Holocaust diarists as narrators, the possibility
of expressing their feelings and responses in controlled tropes, inasmuch to present an
element of rationality for the self as it was for any perceived future audience.450
The
narrative identity is a representation of the experience and constructs the self through
stories in which the diarist was strategically placed. The ability to console through diary
445
Korczak, Ghetto Diary, 66.
446
Stromer, Memoirs of an Unfortunate Person: The Diary of Moty Stromer, 188. 447
Lejeune, ―How do Diaries End?‖ 448
Bridgeman, ―Time and Space,‖ 52-66. 449
Anderson, Autobiography 450
Ibid.
129
writing was perhaps the result of the ability of the narrator to project the narrative identity
as a reflexive form, thereby allowing the narrator to act out an action and be characterized
from a distance. Diary expert Philipe Lejeune enhances this claim when he notes that
writing something down automatically separates the writer from the event, which has a
liberating affect for those in crisis. 451
In this regard, the Holocaust diarist was able to
fuse the self with the conditions through which he was living, thereby gaining a measure
of consolation. The diarist constructed a reader, many different selves, words to describe
a situation and intent to continue writing. Subsequently, the process of emplotment which
fuses together action and character to give a life meaning became de emplotment,
namely, the coming apart of the familiar and the redefinition of the narrative identity
synonymous with the new unprecedented reality.
Diary writing is a means of observing the self, the narrated ―I‖ which offers a level of
comfort as it helps the diarist position himself or herself as an observer, thus distancing
him or herself from events to some extent. Accordingly, the ability of the diarist to see his
or her place in those events and the subsequent de emplotment thereof, that is, the
redefinition of one‘s situation within a new paradigm, may in turn have offered some
comfort to the Holocaust diarists. Rachel Feldhay Brenner extends this notion,
advocating that not only was the diarist during the Holocaust able to distance him or
herself from events through writing, but their preoccupation with diary writing became a
signifier of a normal life by allowing a past, continuity and control, which directly
opposed the reality of impending destruction. 452
This is exemplified time and again in
the diary of Janusz Korczak. He devoted much of his writing to the daily running of his
orphanage amidst the violence and deportations he was personally witnessing in the
Warsaw ghetto. This is illustrated by his diary entry dated July 27th
, 1942 in which he
wrote an entire entry entitled ―why do I clear the table.‖ 453
In that entry he outlined the
importance of all the children partaking in the menial running of the orphanage, amidst
the deportations and daily violence he was privy to.454
In a diary, the self becomes both the subject and the object, Previous entries cannot be
silenced, thus imbuing the diarist with a life that in the case of the Holocaust, no longer
existed. Put simply, diary entries built on each other, day after day, which enhanced the
belief that one would live on, expressed in so many of the diaries. Each diary entry
constituted another day attesting to the survival of the author. To this end, it enhanced the
feeling that a life was reflected in the notebook in the form of the previous entries, even if
they were disjointed narratives often unconnected to the entries following. A life existed
within the diary pages. In fact, for those writing diaries their writing became intrinsic to
their physical survival. This is reflected by several diarists who wrote of guilt when
forgetting to write for a day, even apologizing to their diaries if they lapsed for a few
days Julius Feldman from Krakow wrote, as if trying to justify or perhaps simply explain,
his three day lapse in writing, on March 28th
1943:
451
Lejeune, ―How do Diaries End?‖ 452
Feldhay Brenner, ―Writing Herself against History: Anne Frank‘s Self Portrait as a Young Artist.‖ 453
Korczak, Ghetto Diary, 105-108. 454
Ibid.
130
I haven‘t written anything for three days because I didn‘t go to work, and
for a serious reason. 455
Even more extreme was the connection between the destruction of the diary and their
physical demise, which was noted by several diarists. 456
Chaim Kaplan wrote, in the
final entry of his diary, when his understanding of the annihilation of Poland‘s Jews was
clearer, on August 4th
, 1942:
If my life ends, what will become of my diary?
457
In many instances, when words were all the diarists during the Holocaust had, writing
and the creation of a narrative identity offered an outlet in regard to emotional and
phenomenological notions of the experience through which he or she was living. It is
essential once again, to point out that the diaries penned in this period were as different in
style and nature as the diarists themselves. Typically, the diary narratives from this period
do not reflect the motives of the Nazis, nor do these narratives evaluate the purpose or
long term plans of the Final Solution.458
The diaries were written in different places, at
different stages of Nazi rule, by people of different ages and gender, at varying stages in
life, and only represent the writers themselves and not the millions who perished.
Diary writing confers a sense of control, which is perhaps the basis for the consolation it
offers, argues Andy Alaszewska.459
Within the scope of Ricoeur‘s theoretical framework,
the act of narrating and the creation of a narrative identity was an action par excellence.
Etty Hillesum for example, saw her diary as a means of recognizing the self as an entity
that was able to both respond to a situation whilst serving to console. She illustrated this
recognition of self, the importance of control, independence and the feeling of inner
strength that writing imbued her with. This was assumedly due to the belief that she was
able to attest to her diary entries despite the contradictory reality of her life, as reflected
in her entry written on Friday, June 26th
, 1942:
I had the profound thought that I carry my own climates and weather conditions
within me and am independent of those outside. The fact that one carries one‘s own
seasons and landscapes within suddenly gave me a tremendous feeling of strength
and independence. 460
Anne Frank also voiced this sentiment in 1944, when the situation in hiding had become
more desperate. Once again the close association between self recognition and the
responsibility of transforming a narrative into words was critical to the belief that the
words would be adhered to. In fact, it may be presumed that the ability of the narrative
455
Feldman, The Krakow Diary of Julius Feldman, 73. 456
Feldhay Brenner, ―Writing Herself against History: Anne Frank‘s Self Portrait as a Young Artist.‖ 457
Kaplan, Scroll of Agony: The Warsaw Diary of Chaim A. Kaplan, 400. 458
Robert Rozett, Approaching the Holocaust: Texts and Contexts (Valentine, Mitchell London, Great
Britain, 2005).
The Final Solution refers to the Nazi plan of total extermination of Jews. 459
Alaszewska, ―Diaries as a Source of Suffering Narratives: A Critical Commentary.‖ 460
Hillesum, Etty: The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum, 1941-1943, 446.
131
identity to blend the concept of the self, identification with the self, and attestation, as
tantamount to the belief that the words expressed were the truth.461
In her diary entry
dated Tuesday, April 11, 1944, after noting that she thought she was going to die as
police stormed the building in which she was hiding, Anne Frank wrote:
I know what I want, I have a goal, I have opinions, a religion and love. If only I can
be myself, I‘ll be satisfied. I know that I‘m a woman, a woman with inner strength
and a lot of courage. 462
The narratives of consolation analyzed do not speculate as to the intentions of the Nazis
inasmuch as they attempt to cope with their new conditions under Nazism. Primarily,
keeping a diary helps maintain a sense of oneself, asserts Steven Rendell in his article
―On diaries.‖ 463
He further states that the diary‘s form and continuity is a source of
consolation in that sequential progression does not imply the traditional narrative
implication of moving forward. 464
To this end, progression in the case of the Holocaust
diarist, for example, was the dialogic and constraint free form of narrative which
constituted a new diary entry, as opposed to the traditional trajectory of moving towards a
happy ending. Old diary entries were never silenced but endorsed by following entries.465
In this capacity, the diarist was able to anticipate a future writing self, which in turn
reaffirmed the self and the hope that there would be a new diary entry the following day.
Paul Ricoeur‘s model of attestation, which propounds the idea that narrative is acted
upon, fits nicely into this theory.466
In other words, the intent is principally put into
action, an idea elaborated upon throughout this thesis.
In the case of the Holocaust, the intent to write another diary entry the following day
seemed to be a resolution which was achievable, offering the daily comfort that yet
another entry could be completed. Seventeen year old Moshe Flinker noted this on
November 26th
, 1942, when he wrote from Brussels amidst the declining situation for
Jews under Nazism.
As I thought I was unable to follow through my plan for tomorrow, nor for the
next day after tomorrow nor the day after that. I thought that even today (after
four days) I would not be able to continue writing, because I had to let so much
time go by, but I gathered courage and told myself not to be weak, and so now I
continue what I have begun. I hope I shall not keep continually interrupting myself,
and Lord willing, I shall write in my diary every single day. 467
He extended this thought further in a diary entry dated May 19th
, 1943, focusing on his
future dreams of being a Jewish statesman:
461
Ricoeur, The Course of Recognition, 21-23. 462
Frank, Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition, 262. 463
Rendall, ―On Diaries.‖ 464
Ibid. 465
Ibid. 466
This has been outlined at length in the previous chapters. Ricoeur places great importance on the intent
of the narrator, believing that words are acted upon. The following sub chapter, ―Intent to Console‖
reiterates the attestation claim. 467
Ibid., page 101
132
I now understand that ideas and thoughts worthless if one cannot convert them
into action. 468
Whilst recognizing the comfort that diary writing provided for some, it is also imperative
to distinguish between the diary narratives written in the earlier and the later narratives.
Alexandra Garbarini notes that in the later years, when mass deportations, starvation and
the threat of death were heightened, the consolation of diary writing may have dwindled.
In fact, she argues, it may have had the the opposite effect, serving to merely reinforce
the increasingly hopeless situation. 469
In accordance with the theory of de emplotment,
writing often had the duel affect of consoling but reinforcing the destroyed past and the
lack of ability to emplot life events as had previously been assumed. Thus, writing may
have heralded anxiety about being caught, heightened loneliness and fuelled an internal
struggle which impeded the diarists negatively.470
Whilst this is acknowledged, especially
in the later diary narratives written in Eastern Europe, several diarists still noted the intent
to console themselves through writing, essentially justifying this diary classification.
468
Flinker, Young Moshe’s Diary, quoted in Zapruder, Salvaged Pages, 117.
Although I have used Young Moshe‘s Diary published by Yad Vashem in 1971 for some of my quotes, I
have used quotes from Zapruder‘s collection when I felt the translation was better. 469
Garbarini, ―To Bear Witness where Witness needs to be Borne: Diary Writing and the Holocaust, 1939-
1945.‖ 470
Ibid.
133
Intent to Console
Intentionality appears to be the cornerstone of narrative identity. As such, the intentions
of the narrator are all important when analyzing narrative identity. Unlike oral discourse,
which is often spontaneous and fleeting, when creating a written narrative identity the
narrator controls the meaning and final product. Subsequently the narrative becomes a
document of self representation. This chapter contends that many of those who wrote
Holocaust diaries wrote not only as a means of providing solace to their increasingly
incomprehensible situation, but to create a discourse which would enhance a narrative
identity. In doing so they could perhaps lay claim to their fast disappearing individuality.
The diary clearly combines narrative identity with framed intentions. The intention of the
narrators is featured in many of the diaries and therefore, in accordance with Paul
Ricoeur‘s theoretical framework, symbolizes the commitment of transforming intent to
reality.471
Consequently, if the writer states that the intention is to write a diary as a
means of solace, then the diary will serve this function although the extent to which it is
effective is impossible to measure. Chaim Kaplan expressed this sentiment on November
13th, 1941:
This journal is my life, my friend, my ally. I would be lost without it. I pour my
innermost thoughts and feelings into it, and this brings relief. When my nerves are
taut and my blood is boiling, when I and full of bitterness at my helplessness, I drag
myself to my diary and at once I am enveloped by a wave of creative inspiration,
although I doubt whether the recording that occupies me deserves to be called
creative. Let it be edited at some future time—as it may be. The important thing is
that in keeping this diary I find spiritual rest. That is enough for me.472
Intrinsic to Andy Alaszewska‘s study of diary writing is the notion that narrative identity
reflects representation of not only a particular experience, but is a means of expressing
the self. 473
He maintains that the diary is both a means of observing and understanding
the self in addition to representing an external reality.474
Such self surveillance, he argues,
has therapeutic effects. Scholar Alain Girard further asserts that a diary is not only an
expression of the self, but is analogous to internal consciousness and a means of
communication with the self.475
As a life narration, the diary, as opposed to a memoir or
autobiography, is guided by the present situation of the narrator and is therefore a
momentary response to a situation which does not assign long range meanings to the
event being recorded. 476
In the case of the Holocaust diary, the momentary response
called for much needed solace. In fact, the creation of a narrative identity armed the
narrator with a means of processing their new inexplicable circumstances.
471
Ricoeur, Oneself as Another, 88-112. 472
Kaplan, Scroll of Agony: The Warsaw Diary of Chaim A. Kaplan, 278. 473
Alaszewski, ―Diaries as a Source of Suffering Narratives: A Critical Commentary.‖ 474
Ibid. 475
Alain Girard, in David Patterson, "Through the Eyes of Those Who Were There," Holocaust and
Genocide Studies 18, no. 2, Fall (2004): 274-290. 476
Weintraub, ―Autobiography and Historical Consciousness.‖
134
In this capacity, the diary became a vehicle of attestation, the narrator taking
responsibility to act on the intentions expressed in writing.477
In other words, attestation
was an active process through which the narration was acted upon, uniquely so during the
Holocaust. 478
In the case of the Holocaust diaries the intent was presumably narrowed
down to an action which was considered plausible, explicitly the act of penning another
diary entry the following day. Writing and the creation of narrative discourse is naturally
associated with intent which, in accordance with Ricoeur‘s theory, was vital to the diarist
during the Holocaust. 479
The intention to write another diary entry gave the diarist
purpose, an identity and offered consolation that he or she would survive another day. In
the process of attestation, the reflexive self and the sense of oneself are intertwined
which, he argued, gave the narrator active identification with his words.480
This identification with the words written was further enhanced through access to the act
of writing, as discussed in the previous chapter. The sole act of writing is discussed in
most the Holocaust diaries examined in this thesis. The narrators state their intent to write
again, despite the perceived dangers of doing so, promising his or her diary to return and
write the next day. The simple act of writing about the physical effort of keeping a diary,
coupled with the assumption that the next diary entry would be penned, helped assure the
diarist believe that the diary would indeed be continued. In this sense the fundamental
action of writing, as opposed to what exactly was being written, offered consolation.
Illustrating this are the words of Elisheva Binder from Stanislawow Poland, who wrote
on December 27th, 1941:
I also think I should not be writing all this. I cannot imagine what would happen
if they found it, God forbid. On the other hand, I‘m so lonely. So many important
things are happening in the world arena and talking to Zyhava once a week is not
enough for me. I have to express myself more often and….more sincerely. 481
Moshe Flinkier in Brussels also explained that the action of writing provided him with
solace as the rights of Jewish Belgium citizens had been obliterated and rumors of
deportations were being confirmed: He wrote on April 7th
, 1943:
The last time I write in my diary I wrote things that, when I finished them, I
myself did not know from where they had come. I had wanted to write
something quite different, but it was as if the words came out without my knowledge. 482
To that end, if the diarist noted that he or she wrote to achieve a level of comfort the
action often allowed this to become reality or a perceived possibility. It may be further
477
Ricoeur, Oneself as Another, 27-88. 478
Ibid. 479
Ibid. 480
Ibid.
481
Binder, Elisheva Binder’s Diary: “Accord of Pain and Hope,‖ (Hebrew), in Zapruder, Salvaged Pages,
309.
The original diary is in Polish (which I saw) and the translations into English are varied. I chose this one as
I felt the wording captures the feelings she was trying to express. 482
Flinker, Young Moshe’s Diary: The Spiritual Torment of a Jewish Boy in Nazi Germany, in Zapruder,
Salvaged Pages, 116.
135
ascertained that intent to console justifies the classification of narratives of consolation.
In the words of Etty Hillesum, written in Amsterdam, on Sunday. March 22nd
, 1941:
I must make sure to keep up with my writing, that is, with myself, or else things
will start to go wrong for me: I shall run the risk of losing my way. 483
Chaim Kaplan too, lamented his worsening situation in the Warsaw ghetto, on July 26th
1942:
My mind is still clear, my need to record unstilled, though it is now five days
since any real food has passed my lips. Therefore I will not silence my diary.484
Whilst recognizing the contextual variations of these diary entries, expressly the vastly
different experience of a diarist facing deportation in the Warsaw Ghetto and a diarist in
Amsterdam with her fate still uncertain, the narrative of solace still holds true as a sound
classification. No attempt to compare these particular narratives in regard to content has
been made, but rather, the purpose is to accentuate the solace of diary writing. In simple
terms, the idea is that one could convince oneself, through the creation of a narrative
identity which enhanced the formation of desires, expectations and intentions, that life
still had some meaning.
The diarists during the Holocaust created narrative identities that seemingly began
recording events on an unconscious, private level but were soon transformed to a more
conscious, public level as the writer attempted to emplot his or her new reality. In doing
so, the newly constructed narrative identity helped the diarist de-emplot. As a result, a
varying degree of solace resulted. Once again, it is important to reiterate that under Nazi
rule the transformation of Jewish life throughout Europe was of such an enormous
magnitude that the individual was dramatically separated from what was valued and
familiar. Intrinsically, the intention of the diarist‘s narrative identity was often to simply
assimilate into their new reality. This seemingly ensured that both the self and the
perceived audience could perhaps come to terms with the demise of the familiar life
paradigm which had redefined reality. This may be substantiated by the words of the
diarists themselves, which describe a level of consolation being achieved through writing
and the creation of self dialogue therein. For example, Herman Kruk, writing from the
Vilna Ghetto in Lithuania, on June 9th
, 1942, stated:
I carried a dream with me: my chronicle-the hashish of my life in the ghetto.
I carry it as a mother carries a child, and I think: The harder the experiences,
the more precious this chronicle, of more than a thousand pages of woe, pain
and dread. 485
Anne Frank too, noted from the attic on June 12th
, 1942:
483
Hillesum, The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum, 1941-1943, 41. 484
Kaplan, Scroll of Agony: The Warsaw Diary of Chaim A. Kaplan, 384. 485
Kruk, The Last Days of the Jerusalem of Lithuania: Chronicles from the Vilna Ghetto and the Camps,
1939-1944, 324.
136
I hope I will be able to confide everything to you, as I have never been
able to confide in anyone, and I hope you will be a great source of comfort
and support.486
Narrative identity is, as maintained throughout this thesis, linked to language through
which a narrator constructs a narration by means of identification with others and one‘s
place in a familiar society.487
Paul Ricoeur‘s intricate theory on narrative identity stated
that not only is intention the cornerstone of narrative identity, but the difference between
the narrator‘s perception of self and relationship to others is also intrinsic to the narrative
identity. 488
Ricoeur coined this gap appropriation, a process through which the narrator
derives meaning by combing personal experiences with others and a sense of self. 489
Appropriation is closely linked with attestation, as the intention of a narrator is always
subjective and involves the narrator formulating intentions on the basis of positioning the
self in relation to others. However, in the case of the Holocaust, extracting meaning from
life under Nazi rule had become almost impossible. Interaction between the self and
others which had been the basis of life for the Jewish diarists, was rapidly transforming as
the past became more and more irrelevant to the present and certainly the future.
Positioning the self in this new paradigm became arduous for the Holocaust diarists. In
turn, this instigated the de emplotment process, often analogous with survival. The
diarists no longer understood what the self constituted or how the self was to react in
relation to others, causing intentions to shift and modify from the norm, focusing on the
inner self, immediate challenges being faced on a daily basis and recording their new
reality.
Although the consolation of writing may have only been fleeting, Philippe Lejeune‘s
work on diaries articulates an interesting conclusion which is inextricably linked to
intent.490
The Holocaust diarists may certainly have only gained momentary release from
writing, but the intent to return and continue writing later is of prime importance
according to Lejeune. The solace offered to the diarists lay not only in the writing, but in
the intent to continue writing. Lejeune notes that the beginning of a diary usually starts
with words of commitment, the diarist stating intent to keep the diary and the purpose of
doing so. This in itself is consolation, and more so in a crisis situation. 491
The Holocaust
diarists reference their commitment to starting and continuing their diaries, reflected, for
example, in the words of Moshe Flinker, who wrote in Brussels, on November 24th
, 1942:
I have started this diary so I can write in it every day what I do and think:
in this manner I shall be able to account for all I have done each day. Now
the introduction is over I shall begin my diary tomorrow. 492
Similarly, Chaim Kaplan noted in an early diary entry, on September 5th, 1939:
486
Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl” The Definitive Edition, 1. 487
Ricoeur, Oneself as Another 488
Ibid. 489
Ibid. 490
Lejeune, ―How Do Diaries End?‖ 491
Ibid. 492
Flinker, Young Moshe’s Diary: The Spiritual Torment of a Jewish Boy in Nazi Europe, 23.
137
I have made myself a rule in these historic times not to let a single day go by
without making an entry in my diary. 493
The intention to write once more, Lejeune asserts, presupposes the possibility
succeeding.494
This perhaps consoled the diarist who almost converted the intent to write
the next day into survival of another day. 495
Moty Stromer wrote from the Ukraine whist
in hiding as the Red Army approached, stating that a new hiding place would allow him
to continue writing almost as if that was keeping him alive. 496
On Wednesday, May 10th
,
1944 he wrote:
I am ready to write about the whole family, about all our friends and
acquaintances. However, I must break off for the time being. It is possible that
once I am in a new place, I will continue to write about them. 497
The repeated promise to write voiced by so many diarists is testimony to the intent to
continue writing and consequently the assumption of solace offered therein. The intent to
continue the following day was the logical choice for the diarist who could not ascertain
whether life or death would be his or her fate the following day. Steven Rendell notes
that a diarist is both the subject and the object, thereby allowing the subject to be
displaced on a daily basis. 498
The diary genre is distinguished by the daily possibility of
renewal for the diarist, thus allowing the narrator flexibility, based on the aforementioned
premise that the diarist will continue writing the following day and build on previous
entries.499
Arguably, during the Holocaust, solace was offered merely by the intent to
write the next entry, which could possibly be tantamount to a shift in circumstances. Etty
Hillesum expressed this in her diary entry on Saturday, July 4th
, 1942:
I shall go to bed now, and perhaps everything will be different tomorrow.
500
Chaim Kaplan also wrote, on January 5th
, 1942, of the hope that tomorrow brought:
Even in such a state of despair the human spirit is variable. The call for a free
tomorrow rings in your ears and penetrates the bleakness in your heart. At such
a moment one‘s love of life reawakens. Having come this far I must make the
effort to go to the end of this spectacle. 501
493
Kaplan. Scroll of Agony: The Warsaw Diary of Chaim A. Kaplan, 25 494
Lejeune, ―How Do Diaries End?‖ 495
Ibid. 496
Stromer, Memoirs of an Unfortunate Person: The Diary of Moty Stromer, 188. 497
Ibid. 498
Rendall, ―On Diaries.‖ 499
Ibid.
The term dialogic refers to the previously mentioned theory of Russian philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin, who
maintained that all writing necessitates a form of dialogue. 500
Hillesum, The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum: 1941-1943, 470.
She writes this from Westerbork, the Dutch transit camp from where Jews were deported to Auschwitz. 501
Kaplan, Scroll of Agony: The Warsaw Diary of Chaim A. Kaplan, 291-292.
138
This work sustains the argument that intent to continue writing further enhanced the de
emplotment process because each entry helped endorse what had already been written. In
turn, this assisted the Holocaust diarist to assimilate the rapidly changing reality as they
were able to build on past entries and focus on the shift to the present. A diary does not
suppress previous entries, but each new entry is considered in many respects a new start
for the diarist.502
Wittingly, this implied that the diarist was able to connect to the past
through previous entries, coupled with recognizing a new self with each new entry.
During the Holocaust, diary writing enabled the diarist both to create the self on a regular
basis and to disengage from the self when necessary. This juxtaposition served as
consolation for many as it served to validate the de emplotment process whilst allowing a
small glimmer of hope that the self of old still existed. Thus noted, it needs to be
acknowledged that this process may have shifted rapidly from hope to affirmation that
their situation was dire and would end in catastrophe. For many, by virtue of the fact that
another entry signified the intent to live another day, solace was granted, albeit
temporarily, which will be discussed in the final chapter denoting narratives of struggle.
502
Rendall, ―On Diaries.‖
139
Mimesis and Solace
Paul Ricoeur‘s argues that words, ideas and texts are the representation of reality. This
serves as the basis of the theory of mimetic representation in literature. The basis of this
theory is Aristotle‘s notion of emplotment, formulated in regard to Greek tragedy and the
epic which he asserted was originally devised to represent mimesis of life, mimicking
life‘s intentions, causes, actions and unforeseen eventualities.503
Within this framework,
emplotment was the foundation of a unified narrative. 504
In effect, this hypothesis
surmises that a narrative transforms mimesis into comprehensible stories that articulate a
life story. Ricoeur‘s theory distinguishes three categories of mimesis linked to literary
texts. Firstly, mimesis one depicts world structures in literary text. Mimesis two denotes
the ability to integrate agency, goals and relationships into a meaningful whole and
mimesis three signifies the ability of readers to comprehend the completed narratives
contextually.505
In other words, a narrative is the end result of not only the situation in
which it was written, but is reliant on context and interpretation for the text to be
meaningful to both the narrator and the reader.
In accordance with the Aristotelian theory of mimesis, the narrative and consequently the
narrative identity, represents life through literature, or, put differently, literature reflects
life. Under Nazi rule, however, mimesis one, two and three would have been called into
question by those recording events. It may assumed that during the Holocaust the ability
of literature to imitate life was called into quandary, requiring the intentions of the
narrator to be reassessed simply due to the increasing difficulty of finding words to
represent life. Any appropriate mimetic narrative, such as a novel, for example, would
have been too overwhelming for the majority of Holocaust narrators because of the
inability of both fully comprehending what was happening under Nazi rule and the
seeming lack of information about events unfolding. This is not to say that novels or
plays were not penned during this period. However, this work argues that the diary
became the chosen medium for many whose intention was to communicate not only what
was being experienced personally, but to produce a record of testimony. Assumedly, the
diary, and perhaps the letter, would therefore appear to be the natural genre of choice
because other mimetic narratives would have been impossible during the Holocaust given
that so little was fully understood by those living through it.
The diarist intended to reflect a world they no longer understood. It may be posited that
the diary was best suited to realize this objective. This was so as it was perceived as a
genre that placed no constraints on future readers in regard to structural narrative patterns
or accepted patterns of literary communication other than sequential dating. As such, one
503
Ricoeur, The Course of Recognition, 69-150.
This chapter discusses recognizing the self. Originally Aristotle coined the term emplotment (muthos), as a
term which could unify a complex blend of intentions, causes and contingencies. 504
Ibid. 505
J.P Connerty, "History‘s Many Cunning Passages: Paul Ricoeur‘s Time and Narrative," Poetics Today
11, no. 2, Summer, (1990): 383-403.
Ricoeur, Time and Narrative, 33-55.
Ricoeur, The Course of Recognition, 99-102.
140
was able to narrate one‘s story without attention to the acceptable modes of literary trope,
allowing the narration of events that could not be integrated into any familiar mode. 506
Notably, the fact that the mimetic assumption of literature was called into question is
perhaps reflective of the incomprehensible situation the Holocaust narrators were
attempting to depict. The diary as a narrative reflected the experience of the Holocaust
linguistically, allowing the altered understanding of writing in a familiar cultural and
social context, mimesis, to be reflected to the extent that a narrator was able to represent
the events in words.
Within the paradigm of mimesis and text, a narrative identity can acknowledge the
dimension of agency as reality, imbuing the narrator with the belief that he or she has the
capacity to act within his or her context. In doing so, the narrator is empowered to frame
intentions and believe that their words will be attested to. This salient factor offered
solace to the Holocaust diarist, who was able to reflect his or her personal de emplotment
and consciousness of a changed reality. The diary narratives of solace may be discerned
as those narratives which enhanced the belief that not only would their words be attested
to, but intent would be executed and facts and feelings recorded without having to ponder
the inexplicable question of why.
506
Foley, ―Fact, Fiction, Fascism: Mimesis in Holocaust Narratives.‖
141
Dear Diary
The Dialogue of Life
The dialogue of life embodied in a diary is a body of literature in itself, containing
several disciplines ranging from psychoanalysis to linguistics. In accordance with
Freudian theory that language is never neutral, but rather, always has an agenda, the
Holocaust diary reflected a blend of the unconscious and the conscious, encoding the
words of the narrator and the desire of how the narrator wished to be represented
linguistically. 507
In this respect the diarist is arguably never ―one‖ self, but rather, a
shifting and fluid self which is always in a process of change. Subsequently, a narrative
identity is always faced with the uncertainty of how to represent the self, and even more
so in the case of autobiographic genre in which the self is represented as an evolving
entity. The diary narrative perhaps reflects this even more than any other
autobiographical genre because daily entries reflect changing ―selves‖ which interact
with a reader in mind. Josef Zelkowicz, for example, shifted interchangeably between the
pronouns ―I,‖ ―we,‖ ―they‖ and ―you,‖ throughout his very detailed diary written in the
Lodz Ghetto. He lamented, using the pronoun ―you,‖ indicating a shift from the narrating
―I‖, perhaps allowing him a psychological distance between the self and the narrating
self, even though he was expressing his own anguish and feelings. On Saturday,
September 5th
, 1942, as the liquidation of the Lodz Ghetto was underway, Zelkowicz
wrote:
But when you returned to your apartment, when your senses slowly disengaged
from their death spasms, when you opened your eyes and suddenly comprehended
that you returned without your son, whose hand you had just been holding, when
you suddenly returned without your wife or your best friend, when you
discovered that they amputated the dearest and finest part of yourself, when
you saw the empty bed that your loved one who had taken ill left behind—what
could you do but cry? But did you cry? Did you cry like a human being, with
human tears? 508
The extreme circumstances experienced by the Holocaust diarists highlight the de
emplotment heeded on all levels, including the traditional patterns of literary
communication. 509
Barbara Foley asserts that literary communication usually serves to
mediate between the self that performs and the self that records the performance,
allowing distance from a trauma if necessary.510
Similarly, Paul Ricoeur advocates the
active process of narration fuses together the reflexive self with a sense of the self,
constituting a discourse essential to any narration.511
This is illuminated in the case of the
diary when the ―addressee‖ addresses another part of the self, manifested in the common
‗dear diary‖ salutation, which reflects the self, addressing one‘s own self. Scholarly
works on narration differentiate between the addressee, explicitly the audience, including
the self, and the ―narrate,‖ described by Shlomith Rimmon Kenan as the agent addressed
507
Smith and Watson, Reading Autobiography: A Guide for Interpreting Life Narratives, 11-136. 508
Zelkowicz, In Those Terrible Days: Notes from the Lodz Ghetto, 320. 509
Foley, ―Fact, Fiction, Fascism: Mimesis in Holocaust Narratives.‖ 510
Ibid. 511
Ricoeur, Oneself as Another, 40-56.
142
by the narrator.512
This is so even if that agent is another part of the narrating self. 513
Exemplifying this is the dialogic nature of Janusz Korczak‘s diary. Here is the internal
dialogue recorded on July 18th
, 1942 as the situation in the Warsaw Ghetto and his
orphanage worsened:
Probably for the first time in my life I told myself positively:
―I have an analytical mind, not an inventive mind.‖
To analyze in order to know?
No.
To analyze in order to find, to get to the bottom of things?
Not that either.
Rather to analyze in order to ask further and further questions.514
What becomes apparent is that the narrator, in this case the Korczak, and the addressees,
are engaged in a communicative dialogue regardless of whether they actually give the
diary a name, such as Anne Frank‘s ―Kitty‖, or not. Reinforcing the premise that a
narrative is dialogic, David Herman asserts that for a text to be classified as a narrative a
disruption to the equilibrium in the chain of events being described is essential,
transforming the description into a dialectic and interactive sequence, subsequently
denoting a narrative.515
Put differently, a narrative implies the depiction of the human
experience which by definition is the interaction of agents with their environment. 516
Devoid of such interaction which reflects the mimesis of life a text is merely a list of
events as opposed to a narrative. The diary exemplifies the dialectic relationship through
an implied audience which is evident in all the diaries examined in this work. In turn, it
may be determined that no ―I‖ can speak unless speaking to an audience, implied or
otherwise.517
The diarist positions the self into the diary and by varying the insertions of
the self is able to create a fluid and varied self reflecting upon the process of a rapidly
changing reality.
Through the creation of an audience the diarist creates a narrative identity which not only
tells the story but creates an identity to the reader.518
This blend of the narrating self, the
experiencing self and the self portrayed to the reader, invariably gave the Holocaust
diarist the assurance that the incomprehensible events that could otherwise be forgotten
would be passed on, whilst affording the narrator the luxury of imparting inner most
feelings and perceptions. Quintessentially, the diary discourse allowed the narrator to be
listened to, in effect justifying the classification of narratives of consolation. The
examples below demonstrate the ever present audience created in all diaries in varying
ways. Emmanuel Ringelblum, for example, addressed his diary as ―My Dear‖, on March
512
Shlomith Rimmon Kenan, Narrative Fiction: Contemporary Poetics ( London: Routledge, 1983).
Narrate is a term she used in her work. 513
Ibid. 514
Korczak, Ghetto Diary, 96. 515
Herman, The Cambridge Companion to Narrative, 3-22. 516
Ibid. 517
Smith and Watson, Reading Autobiography: A Guide for interpreting Life Narratives, 15-49. 518
Robert Crawshaw and Beth Callen, "Attesting the Self: Narration and Identity Change during Periods of
Residence Abroad," Language and Intercultural Communication 1, no. 2 (2001) 101-119.
143
18th
, 1941, enhancing the claim that diary writing necessitates an audience, inherently a
listener, when penning a diary, in turn providing some solace to the diarist.
My Dear:
The number dead in Warsaw is growing from day to day. Two weeks ago some
two hundred Jews died. Last week there were more than four hundred deaths. 519
Similary, Avraham Golub, who later changed his name to Avraham Tory, wrote to an
implied audience throughout his diary. In an entry dated the ―end of December‖ 1942, he
wrote:
Document: Avraham Golub, Last will and Testament.
Driven by a force within me, and out of fear that no remnant of the Jewish
community of Kovno will survive to tell of its final death agony under Nazi
rule, I have continued, while in the Ghetto, to record my diary, which I began on
the first day of the outbreak of the war. Every day I put into writing what my eyes
had seen and my ears had heard, and what I experienced personally. 520
This conversational mode of writing is reflected repeatedly throughout the diary
narratives, in varying forms. To this end, the diarist was mimicking the familiar tropes of
old despite the unfamiliar context, thus reflecting the Bakhtunian theory that narrative
always enters into a dialogic exchange even if the dialogue is an internal one, based on
the presumption that human communication always presupposes another party. 521
It is
this assumption which constitutes the dialogue of life, that is, the construction of an
audience, seemingly the basis of all human communication. In doing so, the protagonist,
in this case the Holocaust diarist, creates some distance between him or herself and the
writing self, perhaps alleviating an element of the disbelief at the events being recorded.
Moreover, the usage of familiar language served to normalize an abnormal situation,
simply because normal words were all the diarists were able to write. In effect, this
process was part of what I have termed de emplotment, the process of redefinition and
assimilation of a drastically altered situation. For example, Gonda Redlich from the
Theresienstadt Ghetto notably implied a perceived audience when he wrote about his
dilemma as the head of the Jewish Council of that Ghetto, pertaining to exemptions that
some received because they were ill, but others did not. In hindsight one understands the
enormity of this exemption, which resulted in some living and the others being
transported to their deaths. As if to diffuse his own anxiety Redlich created a dialogue
between the self, allowing himself some distance and therefore solace. He noted in his
diary on March 15th, 1942:
Hatred towards us because of the beds has become deeper. Do we have the
right to appeal for members of the movement? They are young and in their
519
Ringelblum, Notes from the Warsaw Ghetto, 138. 520
Tory, The Kovno Ghetto Diary, 168. 521
Alon Confino, "Narrative Form and Historical Sensation: On Saul Friedlander's Years of
Extermination," History and Theory 48, Issue 3 (2009): 199-219.
144
place come the old, the sick, children. Four transports are coming from Brno. 522
In later diary entries Redlich more overtly wrote in his diary, which he actually named
The Diary of Dan,(Yoman l‘ Dan in the original Hebrew). From then on he addressed the
diary entries to his newborn son, as mirrored in the below entry, dated March 16th
, 1944:
I hope you will never have to encounter these degradations and insults the
weakness of a people on foreign soil, a people without a homeland. 523
Anne Frank‘s famous ―Kitty‖ was also partner to her ongoing dialogue, allowing Ann to
talk and essentially, to be heard, as evidenced by her diary entry dated Wednesday,
August 4th
, 1943:
Dear Kitty,
Now that we have been in hiding for a little over a year, you know a great deal
about our lives. Still, I can‘t possible tell you everything, since it is all so different
compared with ordinary lives and ordinary people. Nevertheless, to give you a
closer look into our lives, from time to time I will describe an ordinary day.524
Scholar Mikhail Bakhtin further maintains that two voices are essential for a dialogue of
life.525
Accordingly, a diarist creates such a dialogue by establishing a narrator and
someone who listens, namely, the diary.526
Finding a listener, especially as the Jewish
diarist became more and more isolated from familiar society, culture and social structure
that had been their reality, offered some degree of consolation. Regardless of age,
language or circumstance, the Holocaust diaries analyzed herein illustrate a dialogue of
life through which the diarist created a discourse allowing a means of expressing the self.
This was done largely through the insertion of different forms of the self into the
narrative discourse. In doing so the diarist was able to ask questions, insert the self into
stories and separate the suffering self to the person writing, which offered a level of
solace. For example, diarist Lejb Goldin, an Oneg Shabbat archivist, who wrote from the
Warsaw Ghetto in August 1941, asked his diary whether ―it ―understood his hunger:
Hunger is a wild, raw, primitive, animal thing….. from yesterday‘s soup until
today is an eternity. I can‘t imagine that I will be able to sustain such a murderous
hunger…someplace in the world they eat as much as they want…another hour until
522
Redlich, The Terezin Diary of Gonda Redlich, 27.
The Diary of Dan, ―Yoman l‘Dan‘ was a diary dedicated to his newborn son, Dan, whom he believed
would perhaps survive.
It is of note that this was the day of a terrible transport which left for the camps of Maidanek, Sobibor and
Belzec, in the Lublin area. 523
Ibid., 152 524
Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl, The Definitive Edition, 118. 525
Smith and Watson, Reading Autobiography: A Guide for Interpreting Life Narratives, 15-30.
This is also referred to by David Patterson, in Along the Edge of Annihilation and Alon Confino in
Narrative Form and Historical Sensation, along with several other scholars who have noted the dialogic
nature of diary writing. 526
Ibid.
145
I get my soup, another hour, do you understand? 527
The young Mary Berg, within the confines of the Warsaw Ghetto, penned an anguished
conversation in her diary, reflecting the universal question as to where the world was
when all this was happening. She ―asked‖ her diary, on July 31st, 1941:
Where are you, foreign correspondents? Why don‘t you come here and describe
the sensational scenes of the ghetto? No doubt you don‘t want to spoil your appetite.
Or are you satisfied with what the Nazis tell you…..that they locked up the Jews in
the ghetto in order to protect the Aryan population from epidemics and dirt?528
Helene Berr in Paris, a year before her own death in Auschwitz, also wrote to an
audience, namely another self, asking the most pressing question of the day, namely,
would she survive. She wrote, notably shifting between the pronouns ―I‖ and ―we,‖ on
Sunday, January 19th
, 1944:
Will I make it through? It‘s an ever more harrowing question. Will we come
out of this alive?529
The Holocaust diarists constructed an audience as they moved between private and more
public entries. This form of discourse, as the previous entries illustrate, was often written
as a series of questions which were answered by the same author, or in conversational
form. Seemingly,a level of solace was provided by enabling thoughts to not only be
expressed, but to be put into order. This is shown by the young Moshe Flinker in
Belgium, who lamented his changed reality throughout his diary. The de emplotment
process is markedly manifested in his diary entry written on April 7th
, 1943. 530
After
being asked his name by a group of gentiles the young Flinker seemingly assimilated the
implications of the answer thereof, reflecting foresight into his new reality.
The difficulty is that, though I am named after a man compared with whom
all these people are nothing, yet this name identifies me as a member of a certain
group of people who are hated everywhere. Therefore I never give people my
527
Lejb Goldin, "A Twenty Four Hour Chronicle of Hunger," in Scream the Truth at the World: Emmanuel
Ringleblum and the Hidden Archive of the Warsaw Ghetto, Zydowski Instytut Historyczny, translated from
Yiddish by Philipp Bulgarini, Willaim Donat, Pearl Gravieer, Igor Kotler and Miriam Kreiter (Warsaw:
Museum of Jewish Heritage to the Holocaust, Warsaw, 2006), 25.
This book is one published by the museum and is available only there. I viewed the archives myself in
Warsaw, which houses the milk jars in which Ringelblum hid his diaries and notes, together with pages
from other diaries and notes found after the Warsaw Ghetto was liquidated. 528
Berg: Growing up in the Warsaw Ghetto, 80.
In reality, the Nazis severely curtailed outside correspondents, but this example highlights the
conversations the diarists had with their diaries. 529
Berr, Journal, 237. 530
Flinker, Young Moshe’s Diary: The Spiritual Torment of a Jewish Boy in Nazi Germany, (Jerusalem:
Jerusalem Post Press,Yad Vashem, 1965), 86.
Translated from the Hebrew original ―Hana‘ar Moshe: Yomano shel Moshe Flinker‖, edited by Shaul Esh,
Moshe is the Hebrew name of Moses, the biblical leader of the Israelites who led them through the
wilderness for 40 years to the land of Israel (although he died before the Israelites entered the Holy land).
146
right name. In this case, then, I answered their question by repeating it. ―Yes, my
name,‖ and still sunk in thought said ―my name is Harry. Yes, Harry.‖ And I said
it…. it seemed to me that I lost merit. Before these terrible times I would never have
dreamed of hiding the smallest detail of my origin and give the impression that I am
ashamed of it. However, times change. 531
Janusz Korczak exemplifies a diarist who turned to words to articulate the internal
turmoil he was experiencing. Korczak‘s diary clearly reflects Paul Ricoeur‘s paradigm of
attestation, that is, the narrator writing with the intent to carry out his intention. For
example, Korzcak wrote in May, 1942:
I intend to write:
1. A thick volume about the night in an orphanage and about sleeping
children in general.
2. A two-volume novel. It takes place in Palestine.532
Moty Stromer‘s diary entry is also dialogic in nature alluding to the intent to survive, on
May 21st, 1944:
I could tell about various stories about each person; but this is not the right place,
the state of mind or the time. I hope that I will live through these terrible days. 533
In essence, the dialogues created within the quoted diary entries reflect the idea that in
crisis, the narrated I, that is, the protagonist who narrates the story, and the narrating I,
the person who creates the narrative, in this case the diarist, are interlocked. In a crisis
situation the narrative identity becomes all important to the narrator, and the dialogues
often created focus on the self and the pursuit of knowing oneself. 534
A crisis often
facilitates dialogic writing whereby a narrator speaks to a listener, in this case the diary.
The diary is therefore instrumental in assisting the writer to assimilate the crisis being
experienced. Dialogues, even those with the self, constitute discourse, which is
essentially an exchange of communication. Narrative discourse represented in a diary
inserted and positioned the self into the narrative, allowing the writer to organize
thoughts and represent them in a meaningful way. In this respect, the Holocaust diarists
intended to not only assert the self, but to make their narrative identities culturally and
socially understood. This provided an element of consolation as the self was revealed to
future readers and the narrator was able to slip between the varying narrating ―I‖s
positioned throughout the narrative.
The use of familiar linguistic trope to record an incomprehensible situation may have
fuelled a twofold dichotomy. Whilst seemingly providing a level of comfort to the diarist,
who was able to diffuse disbelief with a level of normalcy through the use of familiar
trope, the diarists faced the dilemma of normalizing a situation which had no semblance
of any familiar paradigm. This dilemma was understood in varying degrees during the
531
Ibid. 532
Korczak, Ghetto Diary, 12. 533
Stromer, Memoirs of an Unfortunate Person: The Diary of Moty Stromer, 194. 534
Smith and Watson, Reading Autobiography.
147
Holocaust. The narrator moved from the unconscious to the conscious and decisions
about what to write, how to express oneself, the form of narrative and the narrative
identity about to be created, helped the writer to de-emplot and internalize the new
situation. This would have had the initial affect of consoling the writer as it provided a
means of expressing the self. From contemplation as to where the world was in the midst
of the Nazi onslaught, to questions as to the true suffering of hunger and ponderings
about the meaning of life, the Holocaust diaries focus on the self and coming to terms
with the new reality, the core of the de emplotment process.
Diary writing creates a discourse. During the Holocaust this allowed the diarist to impose
order and control to the life narrative being written, which was arguably a source of some
consolation. Under Nazi rule, words helped the diarists assert themselves in a world
which no longer allowed them to do so. The discourse of the diary narratives during the
Holocaust was created by narrative identities that not only appeared in the narrative but
instigated a narrator and reader relationship through dialogue style entries.535
This active
form of narration through which intentions were framed became assumedly more modest
as the situation worsened. Consciously or subconsciously the diarist needed to frame
intentions which could be attested to as personal freedom was rapidly being eradicated
and the threat of deportation and death was simultaneously being enhanced. In the case of
Korczak, for example, the act of writing was available at all times and the action thereof
was an intention he believed he could carry out. As previous quotes reflect, his diary
narration highlights the dialogue he had between his inner and outer personas,
subsequently giving the self an identity and achieving some level of personal solace. This
internal dialogue was expressed through questions and answers that the narrator, namely
Korczak, constructed in words. In turn, a linguistic discourse was produced, which
apparently served as a comfort in a period of extreme crisis. Janusz Korczak asked
himself, on July 15th
, 1942:
What will be the upshot?
―It‘s harder to live a day right than to write a book.‖ Every day, not
just yesterday, is a book—a thick volume, a chapter, enough for many
years. How improbably long a man is alive. There is nothing absurd
about the calculations of the holy scriptures: Methuselah really did live
about a thousand years. 536
It must be kept in mind that dialogues such as Korczak‘s are linguistically constructed
narratives. Such discourse, nevertheless, provided a means of coding thoughts which
carried the belief that they could be acted upon. In other words, the diarist believed
another diary entry would be written. Furthermore, it was purportedly a comfort to be
able to return daily to a diary in which familiar contexts could still be drawn upon. For
example, the diarist was still able to express his or her Jewish identity, refer to cultural or
social frameworks and so on. Within the pages of the diary the context of old could be
still referred to, even if they had been eradicated in reality. As such, the claim that
narrative discourse enabled the writers to embark on a renewed life story with each new
535
Wood, On Paul Ricoeur, 1-20. 536
Korczak, Ghetto Diary, 93.
148
entry, within a known context, seemingly imbuing them with a sense of consolation, is
apt.
The diarists during the Holocaust appear to have created a narrative identity which
reflected Ricoeur‘s selfhood, signifying the identity which is both individual and part of a
cultural and social paradigm.537
In doing so, the narrator became responsible for not only
interpreting the story being recorded and making the story understandable to future
readers but became the self responsible for carrying out the intent being recorded.538
Gonda Redlich, for example, constructed dialogues throughout his diary, producing a
comforting discourse which apparently allowed him to internalize his drastically changed
reality and attest to the intent to tell his story. Expressly, the discourse he constructed
allowed him, to the extent that was possible, to de-emplot and assimilate his new
situation, whilst enabling him to take control of a small part of what would be the history
of the Jews of Europe. Writing to his newborn son, again creating the proverbial dialogue
in the final pages of his diary, exemplifies this. Redlich actually confronted his mortality
and suffering as he wrote himself into the future, which offered him some consolation of
the soul, albeit temporarily. Reflecting this premise, he wrote, on March 20th
, 1944, from
Terezin (Thereseinstadt):
Your mother had no peace and quiet during her pregnancy. In the outer world,
a war raged fiercely, the fourth and fifth year. Men killed each other, without pity
or compassion. Our enemies declared that Jews are responsible for the war. A
heavy burden oppresses us like a dark and heavy cloud. (One) sic. lightening bolt,
and we, a small Jewish community among tens of thousands of Germans, would
burn to ashes.
The necessity to create an audience indicates that fundamentally, the Holocaust diarist
needed to breathe meaning into the words being written and did so not through a single
consciousness but through conversations. This argument is tantamount to Ricoeur‘s
―otherness,‖ which refers to the fusion of identities that constitute narrative identity,
which only tell the story, but convey it to an audience.539
Paul Ricoeur‘s theoretical
argument claims that the self is always linked to the other, never acting alone but rather
responding to one‘s social and cultural environment. 540
As such, Ricoeur assumes that
one can only make sense of the self in relation to another, as depicted clearly in diary
writing which presupposes an audience. To this end, responsibility for an action and
intent presupposes interaction and communication with another. 541
In the case of the Holocaust diarist, interaction with the new social and cultural context
of Nazism was unprecedented, heralding de emplotment and the subsequent creation of a
narrative identity through which the diarist was able to communicate within a changed
context. It is this simple conclusion that is inextricably linked to the very complex nature
of the narratives of solace and consolation
537
Wood, On Paul Ricoeur: 1-20. 538
Ibid. 539
Ricoeur, One’s Self as Another, 140-168. 540
Ibid. 541
Ibid.
149
Consoling the Self through Narrative
In times of extreme upheaval a narrative often focuses on the self and reinterpretation of
the self, which I have termed de emplotment. The Holocaust diarist was able to focus on
the process of change through writing daily entries, reflecting a narrative identity in
which the self was represented as the central character within the text. Recently published
literature pertaining to autobiographic writing adheres to the Freudian redefinition of
language being a function of knowing oneself. 542
It is helpful to delineate the process
involved in writing daily accounts as not only allowed the diarists to actively engage in
writing their life stories, but was a process which relied on knowing the self at that
particular moment in time. To this end, it is significant to return to the original assertion
that the essence of this work is based on individual diarists representing themselves and
not necessarily the collective Jewish experience during the Holocaust.
The seeming disorganization and repetitive nature of a diary is somewhat deceptive as
most are in fact chronological and selective to a great degree. In the case of the narratives
of solace the intent of the Holocaust diarist was seemingly to attest to the unprecedented
events he or she were witnessing, maintain the self to the extent that was possible and
attempt to assimilate their new reality. In doing so, the Holocaust diarists represented
reflect recognizable narrative identities writing ―the self‖ as they grappled to make sense
of an inexplicable situation. Despite acknowledging the growing disparity between events
being experienced and the words describing them, the diarists continued to write,
apparently to imbue some meaning and comfort to the self, a sentiment repeatedly
expressed. Conceivably, during the Holocaust, the diarists‘ lack of artistic consciousness
was counteracted by a growing agenda to testify and reflect their response to an ever
increasing crisis. As episodic events became increasingly disconnected this work argues
that diary writing enhanced the de emplotment process, assisting the narrator to readjust
his or her new reality. Notably, the diarists appear to recognize that any future based on
previous conceptions of a traditional life story no longer existed in any form. Thus
recognized, consoling the self through a constructed narrative identity which enabled the
diarist to maintain a small part of the familiar life paradigms was enacted to the extent
that penning a narrative of solace, in the words of several diarists, became a life
sustaining activity. As such, it may be claimed that diary writing offered many diarists a
level of consolation by fuelling the de emplotment process and allowing them to
internalize the inexplicable situation they found themselves in. In fact, the extent of their
displacement was so pronounced that several diarists alluded to the notion that denying
future generations the knowledge of the fate that had befallen them was tantamount to a
second death. Chaim Kaplan for example, equated his physical destruction with the
physical destruction of his diary, asking at the end of his diary, on August 4th
, 1942:
If my life ends, what will become of my diary?
543
542
Ibid.
Smith and Watson, Reading Autobiography: A Guide for Interpreting Life Narratives, 122-124. 543
Kaplan, Scroll of Agony: The Warsaw Diary of Chaim A. Kaplan, 400.
150
According to Paul Ricoeur, the narrative identity attempts to assimilate new facts into the
old story. 544
However, when this is no longer viable a crisis may occur, rendering the
narrator hopeless. Justifiably, the diary helped the Holocaust narrator create narratives of
solace which allowed the authors to record events in a way which was analogous to inner
consciousness rather than a traditional mimetic narrative. To that end, the diarist did not
have to create a character central to a structured narration, but rather, was able to create a
document of life in which the narrators were able to construct spontaneous accounts
rendering them active agents in controlling the experiences they wanted to communicate.
Illustrating this assertion, fourteen year old Rutka Laskier, wrote, as an introduction to
her private diary in the ghetto of Bedzin, Poland, in 1943:
I would like to pour out on paper all the turmoil I am feeling inside.
545
She noted, for example, the following harrowing entry on February 20th
, 1943:
This is torment; this is hell. I try to escape from these thought, of the next day,
but they keep haunting me like nagging flies. If only I could say, it‘s over, you
die only once…But I can‘t, because despite all these atrocities I want to live,
and wait for the following day. That means, waiting for Auschwitz or labor
camp. I must not think about this so now I‘ll start writing about private matters.
I was hopelessly foolish about Janek. Now my eyes have opened. 546
The Holocaust essentially gave rise to such an unprecedented cultural and social context
that it solicited the need for many to write as a means of de emplotment. As previously
outlined, the narrating ―I‖ generally constructs and implied reader, even if that reader was
another version of him or herself. 547
The diary allows the diarist flexibility as it is an
uncontained narrative registering daily life and allowing the diarist a place to return to
and contemplate one‘s self. 548
The Holocaust diarists controlled the intent and meaning
of their narratives, and in many cases their diary narratives framed the intention to
console themselves through their writing. Illustrating this further is the frustration Etty
Hillesum voiced to her diary, on Sunday, October 5th
, 1941:
Enough‘s enough, damn it. I‘m fed up with all your deeply significant thoughts
and feelings. It‘s time you pulled yourself together again. I shall be after you with
a big whip. There is going to be some word for word translation from Dutch to
Russian today, very businesslike, with a grammar and a dictionary. And the solving
of life‘s many problems will just have to wait.549
The diary, argues Alexandra Garbarini, had many roles in the lives of the diarists. It was,
she writes, a vehicle for expressing faith in the future, enabled the writer to help cope
544
Paul Ricoeur‘s work on narrative identity as delineated in all his major works. This was the basis of his
theory, namely, that the narrative identity assimilates the new reality and shifts accordingly.
545
Laskier, Rutka’s Notebook: January –April, 1943, 19. 546
Ibid., 42. 547
Smith and Watson, Reading Autobiography 548
Thompson, Autobiography. 549
Hillesum, The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum, 1941-1945, 119.
151
emotionally and to connect with absent family members. 550
It was uplifting for the
writers to believe they were writing a diary to an absent family member, which helped
curb the feelings of isolation that the victims felt both emotionally and physically. In
other words, a narrative of consolation helped fill a growing void in the lives of the
Holocaust diarists who were rapidly losing their lives of old. Diary writing helped the
diarists to maintain some meaning in their lives and in many respects afforded them the
luxury of preserving some level of normalcy, in itself a defense mechanism of some
conciliatory merit. For example, Gonda Redlich wrote on March 6th, 1942:
My beloved wrote: ―I want to be with you.‖ I would also like to be with
you, my lovely, would that I could. I long for you. But it would be better
if you come in the spring when they will open the gates of the barracks. 551
Anne Frank wrote directly of how writing saved her from even further depression:
She noted, on Wednesday, April 5th
, 1944:
When I write I can shake off all my cares. My sorrow disappears.
My spirits are revived! 552
Further, she wrote to her diary, Kitty, on Saturday, October 30th
, 1943, stating:
Who else but me is ever going to read these letters? Who else but me
can I turn to for comfort? I‘m frequently in need of consolation. I often
feel weak, and more often than not, I fail to meet expectations. I know
this and every day I resolve to do better. 553
The same entry continues:
Oh well! So much comes into my head at night when I‘m alone,
or during the day when I‘m obliged to put up with people I can‘t
abide or who invariably misinterpret my intentions. That‘s why I
always come back to my diary—I start there and end there because
Kitty‘s always patient. 554
In a further illustration of a narrative of solace, Etty Hillesum poignantly wrote on
Monday, July 6th
, 1942:
A few days ago, I still thought to myself: the worst thing for me will be when
I am no longer allowed pencil and paper to clarify my thoughts---they are
absolutely indispensable to me, for without them I shall fall apart and be
utterly destroyed. 555
550
Garbarini, ―To Bear Witness where Witness needs to be Borne: Diary Writing and the Holocaust, 1939-
1945.‖ 551
Redlich, The Terezin Diary of Gonda Redlich, 24. 552
Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition, 250.
Anne Frank was murdered at Bergen Belsen. She was 17. 553
Ibid., 141 554
Ibid., 142
152
The above examples are a few among so many which exemplify the intent to console and
the resulting solace experienced by the narrator, even if only momentary. As the
following chapter will establish, solace often turned quickly to struggle and hopelessness.
However, for an undetermined period of time the diarist, through the creation of the
narrative identity, created for him or herself and for their perceived audience, an illusion
of normalcy. 556
In doing so, argues Feldhay Brenner, the consciousness of life as a
narrative allowed the narrator a small respite from reality, thereby having a consolatory
affect, if only temporarily. 557
Paul Ricoeur‘s paradigm asserting that singular episodic narratives need to be integrated
if a life narrative is to be emplotted meaningfully was enacted to some extent through
diary writing simply because the diarist controlled the diary entries, allowing a semblance
of life‘s expected trajectory to be depicted.558
However, whilst experienced in varying
degrees by the Holocaust diarists, consolation was perhaps short lived. It slowly gave
way, for the most part, to de emplotment as the narrator‘s configuration of life events and
the ability to be understood as a meaningful whole, became virtually obsolete. During the
Holocaust, de emplotment became the process through which the diarists created an
illusion of normalcy, recording disconnected episodes in sequential diary entries, in effect
representing a succession of singular events rather than an emplotted life narrative. This
was tantamount to consoling the self through narrative, simply because it allowed the
diarist to absorb their new reality.
In his article ―On Diaries,‖ Steven Rendell discusses Robert Fothergill‘s claim that the
majority of theoretical considerations about diary writing are based on the assumption
that the defining characteristics of a diary are sincerity and immediacy.559
The diary is
free of constraints, other than sequential dating, allowing the writer freedom to take
liberties unacceptable in other modes of writing. For example, the diarist is able to insert
the self into the diary entries daily, and since no one day is the same as the day or week
before, this enhances the possibility of different narrating ―I‘s‖ to exist. The diarist is able
to construct the narrator he or she wants to be on that particular day, a source of
consolation particularly in a traumatic situation. Anne Frank alluded to different ―Annes‖
in her final diary entry, dated Tuesday, August 1st, 1944:
I‘m used to not being taken seriously, but only the lighthearted Anne is used to it
and can put up with it; the deeper Anne is too weak. If I force the good Anne into
the spotlight for even fifteen minutes, she shuts up like a clam the moment she‘s
called upon to speak, and lets Anne number one do the talking. Before I realize it
she‘s disappeared. 560
555
Hillesum, Etty: The letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum 1941-1943, 476. 556
Feldhay Brenner, ―Writing Herself against History: Anne Frank‘s Self Portrait as a Young Artist.‖ 557
Ibid. 558
Ricoeur, The Course of Recognition, 99-104. This is a discussion of his theory, although the conclusions
drawn about the Holocaust diarists, based on this theory, are my own. 559
Rendall, ―On Diaries.‖ 560
Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition, 335.
153
We also see this differentiation of self within the diary entries largely as a result of the
variations in mood and reflections. The diaries are fluid discourses which repeat and
return but are never quite the same day to day. 561
In the rewriting of the narrative the
diarist reinforces identity and attests to the intention of maintaining personal identity
which they had been stripped of, and survival, if only in words. Chaim Kaplan voiced this
when he wrote about his future hopes for his diary, on November 13th
, 1941:
Let it be edited at some future time-as it may be. The important thing is that in
keeping this diary I find spiritual rest. 562
Arguably, a diary can be a narrative of solace as it is, by definition, incomplete,
according the diarist the comfort of the following day. In a time of both perplexity and
catastrophe such as the Holocaust, the next day was all important. Words, argue Paul
Tillich, give the narrator the power to return, ostensibly the core of a narrative of
consolation.563
Unlike other genres in which the author writes and rewrites the chapter or
verse until perfected, the diarist rarely eradicates previous entries, but rather, builds on
them. In the case of the Holocaust, it is thus valid to claim that through past diary entries
the diarist was able to retrieve some of the past that the Nazis had taken away. 564
By the
same token, the diary narratives allowed the Holocaust diarist a present day reality and
some hope for a future, at least in words. Voicing this sentiment Moshe Flinker wrote
from Brussels, Belgium, on July 4th
, 1943, witnessing the situation for the Jews of Europe
become increasingly hopeless:
It has been two weeks since I last wrote in my diary, despite all the promises I made
to myself last time. What can I do? Several times during the past two weeks I took
my diary in my hand but I did not open it because I had nothing to write. I still am
hopeful from day to day and from week to week; despite the repeated disappointments
I have suffered I shall never stop hoping, because the moment I stop hoping I shall
cease to exist. 565
The de emplotment of the Holocaust diarists was enabled in many instances, through
writing, which served as a connection between the old and the new self. So critical to
survival was writing to some of the diarists that the possibility of the destruction of their
diaries was equated to their own physical demise. This is juxtaposed by other diarists
who saw their diaries as extensions of themselves, which would survive after their own
physical destruction. Both scenarios justify the classification of narratives of solace. Etty
Hillesum articulated this on Saturday, Match 22nd
, 1941(8.00pm sic):
I must make sure I keep up with my writing, that is, with myself, or else things
will start to go wrong for me: I shall run the risk of losing my way. 566
561
Hillesum: Etty: The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum, 1941-1943, 41. 562
Kaplan, Scroll of Agony: The Warsaw Diary of Chaim A. Kaplan, 278. 563
Feldhay Brenner, “Writing Herself against History: Anne Frank‘s Self Portrait as a Young Artist.‖ 564
ibid. 565
Flinker, Young Moshe’s Diary: The Spiritual Torment of a Jewish Boy in Nazi Germany, "in Zapruder,
Salvaged Pages, 120.
As previously noted, although I read the diary from the Yad Vashem edition titled‖ Young Moshe‘s Diary:
The Spiritual Torment of a Young Jewish Boy in Nazi Germany‖, this was a clearer translation.
154
Alexander Garbarini, James Young and Rachel Feldhay Brenner all give considerable
attention to the therapeutic value of writing during the Holocaust. Feldhay Brenner notes
that:
writing becomes a lifeline, because it validates thought and feelings
and thereby highlights the relevance of the individual in a reality in
which the individuality of the Jewish victim had been obliterated..
At the same time, the deintensification (sic) of feelings in the process of
writing deflects, to an extent, the immobilizing premonition of the
imminent end. 567
The therapeutic effect of writing was compelling in varying degrees according to most
the diaries examined in this thesis.Writing imbued the diarist with encouragement that
another day would be survived, as illustrated by Victor Klemperer, in July 1941:
I shall be able to begin the real work on it only when I study the books
of the main authors of the movement and I shall be able to bring myself
to do it without feeling sick, only when I have survived the whole thing,
when I am no longer looking at torturers at work, but dissecting their brains. 568
Chaim Kaplan‘s masterpiece diary, the ―Scroll of Agony‖ seemingly emanated out of his
need to record the enormity of events unfolding before him. It offered some solace, later
shifting to despair. Despite the grievance that his pen could not describe what had
befallen the Jewish population within the Warsaw Ghetto, he somewhat heroically wrote
until the very end. Kaplan‘s Scroll of Agony reflected his perception that the intention of
the Nazis was indeed to exterminate Poland‘s Jewish community, and it is this acumen
that seemingly not only instigated his writing but propelled him to continue doing so. He
wrote, on November 26th
, 1940:
My pen did not stop flowing even in the most horrible hours of violence.
Even the rain of bombs in the siege of Warsaw did not stop me, and more
than a few of my diary entries were written in the cellar. Because a daily
entry was my obligation, my will…..conquered my nerves. 569
Under increasingly dire circumstances, two years later, he lamented, on July 26th
, 1942:
I feel that continuing this diary to the very end of my physical and spiritual
strength is a historical mission which must not be abandoned. 570
James E. Young‘s significant claim that once entering a narrative the narrator inserts
events which re -enter a continuum, is significant when analyzing the Holocaust
566
Ibid. 567
Feldhay Brenner, Writing as Resistance: Four Women Confronting the Holocaust (University Park, P.A:
Pennsylvania State University Press, 1997), 135. 568
Klemperer, I Shall Bear witness: The Diaries of Victor Klemperer 1933-1941, 491. 569
Kaplan, The Scroll of Agony: The Warsaw Ghetto Diary of Chaim A. Kaplan, 206. 570
Ibid., 303
155
diaries.571
This argument advances the notion that once put into words, a violent act is
somewhat diminished resulting from the impossibility of linguistically representing these
acts.572
This is predicated on the idea that once inserted into a narrative, an event or
experience, regardless of its‘ inexplicable nature, assumes an element of coherence,
consequently offering the narrator an element of control and consolation. Fundamentally,
as Rose Wilde claims in her work on wartime diaries, it is therefore opposite to claim that
language is able to construct a reality.573
Writing apparently enabled the Holocaust diarist
to construct a reality through the narrative identity, which allowed the diarist to simply
avoid the enormity of the trauma being experienced, thereby enabling life to continue,
albeit within an unfamiliar paradigm. 574
Alexandra Zapruda‘s chilling reminder at the
end of her forward in Salvaged Pages is one which echoes the above sentiments. Reading
diaries, reconstructing history and gaining insight to their unprecedented situation, can
never be confused with the rescue of individual lives.575
The diary is a fragment of a life
and cannot speak for all the lives lost. It cannot speak for all that the diarist lived through
and cannot speak for the innate goodness of man, nor redeem humanity from the evil of
the Holocaust.
While all their words…..positive and negative, hopeful and despairing,
encouraged and resigned---give rise to the meditation about what they
endured, it is unfortunately up to us to assess this past in the full context
of history, judging humanity‘s crimes by a critical review of the past , not
by the would be absolution or the condemnation of its victims. 576
571
Young, ―Interpreting Literary Testimony: A preface to Rereading Holocaust Diaries and Memoirs.‖ 572
Ibid. 573
Wilde, ―Chronicling Life: The Personal Diary and Conceptions of Self and History.‖
This is an argument asserted by many Holocaust scholars, such as Friedlander, Langer, La Capra, which
reverts back to the dilemma discussed throughout this thesis, namely how to represent the Holocaust in
words.
574 Goldberg, Holocaust Diaries as Life Stories.
575 Zapruder, Salvaged Pages, 8-10.
576 Ibid., 9
156
Reconciling Consolation and Recording One’s Own Destruction
As their situation became acutely calamitous, the Holocaust diarists began to reposition
themselves within the paradigm of Nazism. Diary writing allowed the diarists to de-
emplot and readjust to their new reality, shifting from a private to a more public forum,
simultaneously recording their own destruction whilst distancing themselves from it.
Victor Klemperer succinctly noted this on May 29th
, 1941:
To the very last moment I want to live and to work, as if I were certain
of surviving. 577
A narrative is both a strategy to deal with redefining reality and a means of
communication which encodes what the narrator needs to preserve. In this sense a
narrative is not a mere a description of temporal sequences but follows a trajectory, often
a dialectic, starting from an initial state of equilibrium, which is then interrupted by an
event, concluding with the equilibrium being restored. 578
As events unfolded during the
Holocaust it became increasingly evident to the diarists that no equilibrium would be
restored and that the narrative was moving forward in one direction, towards destruction.
Paul Ricoeur‘s paradigm of attestation that through words the narrator constructs
intention, would innately have been catastrophic for the Holocaust diarist who, although
writing of impending destruction, would not have intended to be deported or killed, but
yet had the painful task of recording this reality. Consequently, the intention of the
diarists recording their own destruction shifted, focusing on the intent to record another
entry and the belief that someone in the future would read their narratives. In terms of
both attestation and the varying narrating voices of a diary narrative, the Holocaust diarist
was able to find solace through the distance to the actual events that the writing offered,
in addition to the intention of writing for future generations.
To this end, the Holocaust diaries represented in this thesis appear to show a gradual
change from the private to the public persona, most shifting to ponderings of a collective
fate for an entire people, coupled with their own private suffering. Alexander Garbarini‘s
extensive study of Holocaust diaries observes that diary writing changed as the war
progressed. Garbarini notes a marked difference between diaries written later in the
war.579
She writes that the knowledge of genocide and the mass deportations transformed
the diary entries, as the world closed in around them. Acknowledging this chasm between
earlier and later diaries and the delicate distinction between hope and hopelessness, it
appears that at least for a limited period that recording events such as deportations and
impending destruction offered some consolation to the Holocaust diarist. Whilst
recognizing the different historical context of the quotes below, the focus is on the
collective effect of solace experienced by the writers rather than delineating different
experiences.
577
Klemperer, To the Bitter End: The Diaries of Victor Klemperer 1942-45, 77. 578
Herman, Cambridge Companion to Narrative, 4-12. . 579
Garbarini, Numbered Days: Diaries and the Holocaust. This is a point that Garbarini makes throughout
her book, namely, the progression of the war years saw a change in the tone and content of diary writing,
and was marked by a more public, collective voice.
157
Helene Berr wrote in Paris, on Wednesday, October 27th
, as the deportations to the labor
camp in Drancy were increasing:
The reader of these lines will be shocked at this moment, just as I have been
when reading as allusion to the author‘s death in the work of someone long dead.
I remember reading the passage in which Montaigne speaks about his own death
and thinking: ―And he did die, it did happen; he forethought what it would be like
afterwards‖, and it seemed to me as if he had outwitted Time itself. 580
Avraham Tory in the Kovno Ghetto in Lithuania also wrote of the consolation he found
in the belief that his diaries would survive even if he did not. He wrote in an entry dated
end of December 1942:
With awe and reverence, I am hiding in this crate what I have written, noted,
and collected, with thrill and anxiety, so that it may serve as material evidence—
―corpus delicti‖ –accusing testimony—when the Day of Judgment comes, and
with it the day of revenge and the day of reckoning, the calling to account. 581
For the most part, the diarist intended to return the following day to write a new diary
entry. As the diarists began to comprehend their declining situation the narrative identity
became a link to a life lost. In fact, the solace of recording one‘s own destruction appears
to be linked to the increasing belief that although writing would obviously not prevent
death, physical destruction would not undo the diary.582
To this end, writing often became
synonymous with survival, facilitating an almost desperate need to continue writing even
as the body was slowly being destroyed. Moreover, asserts Philipe Lejeune, once an
event is recorded the narrator is able to separate from it, which may arguably have an
almost cleansing effect.583
One may therefore conclude that the narrative of consolation
became the focus of many diarists for whom the loss of a page, notes or the diary itself
would have been equivalent to the negation of the event for all time. This is clearly
voiced by Herman Kruk, on July 9th
, 1942, when he wrote of the anguish of losing some
of his precious diary pages:
I come out trembling. My head is delirious, my feet don‘t carry me, and I see
myself walk trembling….on the sidewalk. I quickly go into the middle of the
street and am carried along with my pain, which is still not past----I have been
orphaned. The manuscript is missing from June 23 to…..A piece of the chronicle
that can‘t be reconstructed: the period of the ―snatchers‖ and the first period of
fascism. In my heart there remains a rip, a rip as after a lost closeness, a piece of a
dreadful time….snatchers. 584
580
Berr, Journal, 177. 581
Tory, The Kovno Ghetto Diary, 168.
―Corpus deicti‖ refers to finding out the objective truth as to whether a crime has actually been committed. 582
Lejeune, ―Do Diaries End?‖ 583
Ibid. 584
Kruk, The Last Days of the Jerusalem Lithuania, 324.
As a point of interest, the diary pages were later recovered by Herman Kruk himself, although details as to
how the recovery was made is not recorded or known through any other source.
158
Amos Goldberg theorizes that writing in a documentary fashion was an attempt to
salvage the author‘s experiences, and for this reason, he claims, many diaries are
associated with the maintenance of humanity, vitality and the human spirit to survive,
even if this was not always the case.585
This thesis claims that the very nature of a diary,
which is fluid and in a constant state of change, offered a level of solace to those were
basically recording their own destruction, although not always synonymous with the
spirit to physically survive. Diary writing certainly appears to have been a coping
mechanism in managing an extreme situation, enabling the narrator to disassociate the
writing self from not only the act of verbalizing their torment but also enabling a more
reflective position in regard to the events being recorded. Impending deportations
throughout Europe and witnessing physical violence in the Eastern European Ghettos
constituted a crisis in selfhood which apparently heralded a visible shift in the narrative
identities represented in this work. Philosopher Mickhail Bakhitin proposed that a
narrative identity assumed many narrating voices, thereby enabling the narrator to
position him or herself within the narrative and in relation to an audience.586
Bakhitin‘s
theory further reinforces the notion that the fluid and dialogic nature of diary writing
assisted the de emplotment of the diarist, for the assumed conclusion that in order to write
one must avertedly or inadvertently assimilate the culture in which one is writing.
David Patterson and James Young describe diaries written during the Holocaust as
listeners when there was no one listening, consequently allowing meaningful inner
dialogue as words became an extension of the diarist. Young maintains that diary writing
became self sustaining, an action which connected the terrible events they were living
through to their being, essentially affirming their existence and their place in future
history.587
Patterson, in contrast, asserts that writing a diary allowed the diarist distance
from the atrocities they were living through, empowering the diarist with the ability,
albeit often very briefly, to transcend the threat of Nazi terror. 588
Put succinctly, writing a
diary allowed the writer to rise above the nightmare of the everyday experiences they
were enduring and although the basic premise may differ, the conclusions drawn are
analogous.589
The diary allowed the writer a time of escape from a world that was
becoming increasingly hard to comprehend. Moshe Flinker wrote in Belgium, April 7th
,
1943:
The last time I wrote in my diary I wrote things that, when I finished them,
I myself did not know from where they had come. I wanted to write something
585
Goldberg, ―If This is a Man: The Image of man in Autobiographical and Historical Writing During the
Holocaust.‖ 586
Smith and Watson, Reading Autobiography: A Guide for Interpreting Life Narration. This is one of the
main arguments of Smith and Watson, and one which permeates each chapter of their book. 587
James E Young, Writing and Rewriting the Holocaust: Narrative and the Consequences of
Interpretation.
Patterson, Along the Edge of Annihilation: The Collapse and Recovery of Life in the Holocaust Diary, 39-
42. 588
Ibid. 589
Ibid.
159
quite different, but it was as if the word came without my knowledge.590
Etty Hillesum, who was later murdered in Auschwitz, penned a unique document
highlighting the human spirit in the face of extreme conditions. Her diary uniquely
interpreted the Dutch Jewish tragedy as she inadvertently attempted to overcome her own
destruction through writing. Assumedly, Hillesum‘s diary allowed her to record feelings
that elsewhere were inexpressible. In fact, her diary appears to focus less on testimonials
than other diary narratives included in this thesis, serving to provide an introspective
mediation for Etty herself. This thesis certainly aims to demonstrate that writing gave
Hillesum inner strength to survive a situation which post Holocaust scholars cannot even
imagine. She tried to accept her fate rather than evade it, and writing helped her do so.
This is exemplified by her words written from the transport on route to the transit camp
of Westerbork, Monday, November 24th
, 1941:
Look God, I‘ll do my best. I shall not withdraw from life. I shall
Stay down here and try to develop any talents I any have. I shall
not be a saboteur. But give me a sign now and then and let some
music flow from me, let what it is within me be given expression,
it longs so desperately for that. 591
This too may be a function of the fact that the Dutch experience within Amsterdam was
not as visual as the Polish experience. For example, Eastern European Jews witnessed
murder on a daily basis, which the Dutch Jews did not. However, as previously stated,
this work focuses on the individual response to the Holocaust and does not attempt to
compare suffering, but rather, responses to Nazism of the particular diarists. Whilst the
Dutch Jews may not have experienced what the Eastern European Jews in Ghettos did,
being interned at Westerbork, the terrible conditions they endured there, the loss of
human rights and the transports to death camps certainly heralded a drastic shift and the
need for reconstructing a new reality. Even as her situation grew progressively
precarious, sickness and transports becoming daily routine, Etty Hillesum continued to
write in a very esoteric manner, pushing herself onward, despite her increasing references
to the declining situation. Reflecting perhaps a more depressed tone, in a letter found
after her diary was recovered, presumably when her fate on the transport to Poland was
sealed, Hillesum touchingly wrote:
As I finish this spontaneous little scribble, I‘m stopping at a moment
That I should actually just be getting started, but for today I‘ll leave it
at this.592
Susan Guber writes, concerning the hope and solace that writing gave Etty Hillesum:
590
Zapruder, Salvaged Pages, 116. Once again I have used Zapruder's translation as it is a better translation
than the original English translation.
The Flinkers were first taken to a Belgian Transit camp called Malines, and from there to Auschwitz-
Birkenau, where Moshe and his parents were murdered on arrival. Moshe was 17 when he was gassed to
death. 591
Hillesum, Etty: The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum 1941-1943, 153. 592
Ibid., 672. This entry is undated.
160
the reader is plunged into imaginative surrenders which did not enable
Etty to survive Auschwitz but did solace her—and therefore the reader
is provided with a critical model for responding to witnesses of grievous events. 593
Similary, the diary of Janusz Korczak reflected the role that writing must have had for so
many under these circumstances. Evidently he only wrote in the dead of night and writing
had a cathartic effect, offering him a form of escape, if only for a few hours. The diary
seemed to have been written for an audience, as he left instructions in his will about its
later publication, as did Etty Hillesum, perhaps giving these writers hope and meaning to
their lives.
The diary of Janusz Korczak was penned largely between May and August 1942, in the
Warsaw Ghetto prior to his death in Treblinka, to which he famously went to with his
orphans. Interestingly, his diary only refers to activities in the ghetto in a very minor way,
focusing more on the day to day running of the orphanage. Writing seemed to have filled
in time in a meaningful way. Korczak‘s literary ability and imagination are highlighted in
the second part of his diary, in which he crafted a fictional story describing Planet Ro,
apparently symbolizing the Warsaw Ghetto. These diary entries also included the
fictional character of Professor Zi, who could see things that humans on earth could not.
― and so, Professor Zi sits troubled in his workroom and thinks:
That restless spark which is earth is again in ferment. Disorder, disquiet,
negative emotions predominate, reign. Miserable, painful, impure is their
life over there. Its disorders upset the current of time and of impressions.
The pointer has wavered again. The line of suffering has gone up violently.
One, two, three, four, five.
Astronomer Zi frowns.
Should one put an end to his senseless game? This bloody game? The
beings inhabiting the earth have blood. And tears. And they moan when
hurt. Don‘t they want to be happy? Are they wandering, unable to find
the way? It is dark down there, a gale and a dust storm blinds them. 594
Korczak receded into his own inner world through his diary fantasy, finding solace away
from the declining situation he was locked into, referring only at the end of his diary to
the impending deportation.
The diarists quoted above reflect what I believe to be characteristic of the narratives of
solace, namely, the juxtaposition of the dislocation of the self and the need to create an
ongoing discourse which articulated the extremity of a new reality. The day‘s conclusion
signified not only the survival of that particular experience, event or emotion but imbued
the narrator‘s tenuous existence with a sense of resoluteness and purpose.
593
Susan Gubar, "Falling For Etty Hillesum," Common Knowledge 12, Issue 2, Spring (2006): 282. 594
Korczak ,Ghetto Diary, 83. This entry is undated.
In 1971 a new asteroid was discovered by the Russians, and was named 2163 Korczak, in memory of his
Planet Ro.
161
The Diary as a Place of Refuge
Echoing earlier claims, it should once again be restated that each diary represented in this
work was a unique response of that particular narrator. Diaries are typically written with
an awareness of the contingent circumstances surrounding the author, coupled with a
sense of the writer‘s own contingency. The diaries delineated in this work, regardless of
where they were penned, all appear to endorse unprecedented circumstances which
resulted in both a sense of urgency to record, and consolation in doing so. Clearly, the
diarists perceived their own mortality and recognized the reality that although their
diaries might survive, they probably would not.
The diary was a place of refuge for the writer, for no other reason than many wrote as
much. Defining an act as intentional rationalizes the act and primarily answers the
question ‗why.‘595
When analyzing narrative it may be understood in terms of the
intentions both leading up to the narrative being recorded and the intent of the outcome of
the narrative.596
Narration during the Holocaust was an explicit action carried out at the
risk of severe punishment. Repeatedly, the diary is referred to as a place the narrator was
able to escape to, even when recording the unimaginable narration of destruction. In
many respects diary writing allowed the diarist to remain introspective, as opposed to
entering into fruitless conversations which could enhance depression. In that sense,
writing a diary was a human defense against loneliness, disbelief and isolation. This
contention is validated by the significant absence in many diaries, of entries which refer
to Nazism in any great detail, underscoring the diary as a haven of refuge and hiding.
Whilst it may be speculated that the lack of discussion about the workings of Nazism and
the logistics of deportations may have been simply due to lack of knowledge, arguably it
was more of a psychological war waged by the diarists, as reference is made to selections
and the consequences thereof. By ignoring such musings the diarists managed to
maintain a distance from inexplicable events. As proposed in the previous chapter, the
notable absence of naming Nazis and other critical details which were certainly known to
the diarists was a form of defiance, in addition to having conciliatory value. Even the use
of ―them‖ or code words for Nazis, as evidenced in the diaries, for example, of
Emmanuel Ringelblum, Janusz Korczak and Etty Hillesum, coupled with a somewhat
surprising absence of detail involving Nazi actions in so many of the diaries, apparently
offered the diarist a small amount of consolation. This conclusion is predicated, once
again, on the belief that diary writing allowed the diarist not only a place to vent feelings
and a means of maintaining a vestige of dignity, but ensured the diarist had a safe place to
return to the following day.
Intrinsically, argues Rachel Feldhay Brenner in her study of women diarists, writing
helped to validate feelings by offering refuge from the personal crisis the diarist was
living through.597
Similarly, scholar Alvin Rosenfeld also noted that the diary was a place
of refuge for the Holocaust diarist, stating that the diary listened to the writer, when the
595
Ricoeur, Oneself as Another, 67-73. 596
Jon. K. Adams, "Intentional Narrative," Journal of Literary Semantics 20, Issue 2 (1991):63-77. 597
Feldhay Brenner, Writing as Resistance: Four Women Confronting the Holocaust.
162
rest of the world seemed not to be. He noted the journal to be a" presence in the emptiness
and silence of an imposed absence." 598
A story, claims author Tristine Rainer, is a pattern of events, which, within Ricoeur‘s
framework, becomes more meaningful when the protagonist is able to gauge meaning
from the pattern as a whole.599
Rainer maintains that the protagonist in the autobiographic
genre is a blend of the past and present ―self.‖ She concludes that the process of diary
writing helps the protagonist develop the uniqueness of the self, which is a fluid and
progressive process of change.600
In the case of the Holocaust diarist, however, the self
assumed in this paradigm no longer existed under Nazism, and was only able to be
salvaged through the narrative identity which allowed dialogue, opinions, reminiscence
and feelings to be communicated. The narrative identity allowed the diarist a means of
assimilating the new reality into the context of their lives whilst seeking refuge through
figurative language, such as referring to ―us‖ and ―them,‖ ―perpetrators,‖ thereby
enhancing the therapeutic effect of writing. 601
Writing further enabled the diarist to select events he or she was able to assimilate and
censor those to difficult to internalize. Even the extraordinary was recorded as ordinary in
many diaries, perhaps as a means of protecting the self. This shift substantiates the fluid
and ongoing de emplotment process as victims actively assimilated their new reality,
which in turn was transposed to become the norm. This is reflected in the diary of Gonda
Redlich in Theresienstadt, Czechoslovakia. Redlich headed the Youth and Welfare
Department, effectively responsible for selection to Death Camps. As his diary
progressed the entries became shorter and far more episodic in nature, perhaps as the fate
of those on transports became more evident. This noticeable shift from the traditional
nature of writing was most certainly a response to the growing doom being experienced
by Redlich. The ability to write of events in isolation allowed Redlich to continue his
diary when the ―whole‖ no longer existed. Redlich‘s diary highlights the fine balance
between the refuge of writing and the hopelessness it may have ultimately invoked. On
January 1st, 1944, Redlich noted:
Terrible…..on the train, a woman and child are traveling to an unknown future,
and on the last train a husband and father is brought to the concentration camp.
Life goes on. It passes like a stream of water, without pause, without end….Last
week, there were many weddings. Life goes on. 602
598
Alvin Rosenfeld, in Garbarini, ―To Bear Witness Where Witness Needs to be Born,‖ 239. 599
Tristine Rainer, Your Life as a Story: Discovering the New Autobiography and Writing Memoir as
Literature ( New York: Putnam, 1997). 600
Ibid. 601
This appears to be true regardless of the language the diarists used. Most the diarists in this work
distance themselves from the Nazis by using metaphoric language such as ‗us‘ and ‗them‘ and so on. Even
the diaries which are deemed as less personal such as the Oneg Shabbat Chronicles and Herman Kruk‘s
diary, do not appear to question the running of Nazism, details of deportations and the like. Rather, they
focus on the roles of the Jewish communities in making lists etc. I have discussed this in more detail in the
previous chapter, ―narratives of defiance.‖ 602
Redlich, The Terezin Diary of Gonda Redlich, 140.
Note that the name Terezin is used interchangeably with Theresienstadt. In this entry Redlich is describing
the transports of European Jews passing through Terezin, to Auschwitz.
163
The episodic nature of diary writing allowed the writer to begin each entry anew,
focusing each day on another issue or event. Simultaneously, the episodic style of the
diary allowed a sense of an emplotted whole, because physically the diary was one
notebook and therefore had a level of configuration which contravened the absence of a
traditionally plotted narrative. In this sense, an illusion of normalcy was obtained and
retained as each diary entry allowed the narrator the chance to record an ordinary event,
draw on the past long gone or future dreams. It also allowed the narrator to recover, albeit
a tiny portion, of what had been stolen by the Nazis. 603
The consolation of narrative during the Holocaust was substantially reliant on the narrator
focusing on the internal self. This conclusion is evidenced by several factors inherent in
the diaries analyzed. Notably, descriptions relating to selections, deportations and
impending death, in addition to extreme physical hardships such as the stench related to
the lack of sanitary conditions, are absent in most diary entries represented in this work.
Moreover, very few details about cattle trains, suitcases, confiscation of property, waiting
for deportations, physical discomfort and lack of basic facilities such as toilets, are
described, and if so, details remain scant. Berel Lang notes that what was omitted in the
Holocaust diaries was just as significant as what was written.604
Such omissions, even in
the diaries which attempt to record daily details of life under Nazism, repress so much of
what was actually happening, that one is perhaps led to the deduction that these factors
were too much to contemplate. As such, the diary enhanced the individuality of the
narrator, allowing the author the freedom of self censorship and in doing so granted the
narrator a level of comfort.
The Holocaust diary as a genre stands alone in many respects, the foremost reason being
the eradication of so much of what Rainer describes as the "past protagonist," which
rendered the natural life emplotment as meaningless.605
The ―self‖ remains
indistinguishable throughout the Holocaust diary, whilst the self in relation to the other,
that is, the self which interacts socially, culturally and as a part of community, predicated
on the past and a predictable future, shifted and almost disappeared as the situation for
the Jews of Europe worsened. The inner self also deteriorated during the Holocaust, as
starvation and illness ravaged the body. Traditional emplotment slowly transformed into
de emplotment simply because life experiences could no longer be mediated through a
familiar paradigm. This proposition delineates the blurred boundaries between the
narratives of consolation and struggle in addition to the shift from hope to struggle, which
will shortly be addressed.
A diary conjures up the perception of privacy and intimacy, although as a genre it
presupposes an audience, and is therefore a paradox. The relationship between the self
and the other, coupled with the paradox of the private and public voice of the diary is a
complicated one. A diary grants a voice to the narrating ―I,‖ allowing the protagonist to
603
Feldhay Brenner, Writing as Resistance: Four Women Confronting the Holocaust. 604
Lang, ―Oskar Rosenfeld and the Realism of Holocaust History: On Sex, Shit and Status.‖ Essentially
this is the main argument of this article. 605
Rainer, Your Life as a Story: Discovering the New Autobiography and Writing Memoir as Literature.
164
be heard when no one else is listening. Differentiation between the self and the
protagonist was critical to the Holocaust diarist, assisting the narrator to lay claim to a
new identity assimilated into the newly transformed persona. Amos Goldberg‘s division
between the inner and outer self was both the basis for consolation and the ensuing
struggle.606
The protagonist, claims Goldberg, is a separate entity to the narrator, who
tells the story.607
To that end, diarists during the Holocaust were able to reconstruct the
self through a narrative identity, thereby regaining some of the lost self through the diary
narration. The diarists were able to formulate protagonists who had become victims under
Nazi rule, whilst allowing the past to be alluded to via references to cultural events,
synagogues no longer in use and names of friends and places, with each sanctioning a
small part of the self that no longer existed in reality. At the same time, the diarist
narrating events was able to maintain a level of distance from the protagonist in the midst
of impending catastrophe. This is the reason that many diarists undoubtedly equated their
diaries with life itself, describing their diaries as an extension of the self, the end of which
would signify their own demise.
Narrative identity lies at the heart of the self, according to Paul Ricoeur.608
Narratives and
the creation of a narrative identity were a means of organizing and processing thoughts
for the Holocaust diarists. Previously ascertained, the sequential nature of diary writing,
coupled with the dialogic nature of a diary, resulted in this genre emerging as the natural
choice of many who wished to record a narrative during the Holocaust. It was a means of
communication allowing the diarist a place of refuge and place to return to day after day.
In doing so, the diarist was always confronted with a familiar text which merely needed
to be added to. Steven Rendell notes that by embracing past entries the diarist was able to
respect otherness within the text and within the self. 609
Specifically, the diarist found
solace by returning to the diary on a regular basis. In doing so, previous entries were
physically in front of the diarist, yet, the diarist was not the same person he or she had
been the previous day or week. During the Holocaust the situation declined rapidly, the
consequences of which were extreme for those living through it. The diarist recognized
the self in relation to their otherness, that is, the self in relation to socially and culturally
mediated self definitions which dictated perceptions of their new reality. Inasmuch as
their changed situation was recognized and de emplotment was underway, the Holocaust
diarist was comforted both by the familiarity of the diary and the action of writing.
Diary writing offered a means of escape for the individuals who undertook it, helping the
narrator maintain a level of normalcy if only for the amount of time it took to pen a diary
entry. Each diary was situated in the individual circumstances of the particular diarist,
which affected the perception each diarist had of the particular events surrounding the
diary entry. However, the common thread between the diaries was certainly the search for
meaning to their suffering and the need to record. Regardless of where the diarist was
situated, the production of a diary narrative, the creation of a narrative identity and the
intention of the diarist, were all part of the psychoanalytical tradition of understanding the
606
Goldberg, Holocaust Diaries as Life Stories. 607
Ibid., 608
This is the basis of Ricoeur's theory and is central to all his writings. 609
Rendall, ―On Diaries.‖
165
self, and a means of coping with a traumatic experience.610
This was perceptively
articulated by Etty Hillesum on Friday, July 3rd
, 1942:
By coming to terms with life, I mean the reality of death has also become a
definite part of my life: my life has, so to speak, been extended by death, by my
looking at death in the eye and accepting it, by accepting destruction as part of
life and no longer wasting my energies on the fear of death or the refusal to
acknowledge its inevitability. 611
The consolation of narrative was inextricably bound to the intent of the diarist to record
their own destruction for future generations and the refuge the diarist found in the
physical action of recording on a regular basis. Despite the premise of solace through
writing, the drastic redefinition of all familiar life paradigms, the ensuing crisis of
selfhood and the dilemma of constructing believable narratives must never be
underestimated. Nevertheless, writing enabled the diarist to redefine him or herself to
some extent, and helped the diarist to preserve some vestige of the past self, which the
Nazis intended eradicating. In this sense, the diarist de-emplotted his new life story and
was able to redefine it into a quasi meaningful pattern by creating a place of refuge that
could be visited daily.
In the words of Chaim Kaplan, who wrote on November 13th
1941:
This journal is my life, my friend and ally. I would be lost without it. I pour my
innermost thoughts and feelings into it, and this brings relief. When my nerves
are taut and blood is boiling, when I am full of bitterness at my helplessness, I drag
myself to my diary and at once am enveloped by a wave of creative inspiration,
although I doubt whether the recording occupying me deserves to be called creative.
Let it be edited at some future time—as it may be. The important thing is that in
keeping this diary I find spiritual rest. That is enough for me.
610
Alaszewski, ―Diaries as a Source of Suffering Narratives: A Critical Commentary.‖ 611
Hillesum, Etty: The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum 1941-1943, 464.
166
Chapter Six
The Narratives of Struggle
Whilst categorizing the diaries into narratives of testimony, defiance and consolation in
accordance with the seeming intent of the diarists, the narratives of struggle epitomize the
underlying consciousness of so many of the diary narratives represented thus far. The
blurred classifications of the diary narratives as outlined throughout this work, once again
needs to be reiterated, and it is this chapter which exemplifies the somewhat tentative
boundaries of classification most succinctly.
Saul Friedlander, scholar and Holocaust survivor, noted that knowledge and
understanding are not synonymous.612
As discussed in the earlier chapters, a narrative
essentially follows the traditional trajectory of a linear progression of events which are
fused together as a whole, progressing towards an assumed closure. During the Holocaust
the disintegration of the expected life trajectory of emplotted events, coupled with total
bewilderment as to why such a fate had befallen an entire people indiscriminately, was
essentially the impetus for the narratives of struggle. The diary narratives of struggle
highlight the perennially changing perceptions of the writers, their realization of the
predicament they were in and the shift from hope to despair. Struggle, defined as making
a supreme effort to overcome something, is evident in so many of the diaries on a
personal, religious, national and human level. Notably, struggle in this context must be
delineated as not merely the private struggle of the diarist, but a linguistically constructed
struggle reflecting an inconceivable real life catastrophe. Accordingly, the struggle was
enhanced, encompassing the intense and inexplicable individual struggle, the collective
Jewish struggle and the linguistic struggle of how to represent such an upheaval in words.
Put simply, the diary narratives of struggle signify the metamorphosis of character,
situation, both physical and mental, of the individual diarists. The diary narratives of
struggle reflect the dichotomy between hope and losing hope and the ensuing inner
conflict and physical struggle the diarists recorded. The struggles which intensified in the
later years of the war as the situation became increasingly desperate, will be the focus of
this final chapter.
Certainly, context is pivotal to any literary text. Traditionally text and understanding are
presumably mutually exclusive for a text to be meaningful. This was certainly not the
case during the Holocaust since context was so inexplicable and unprecedented that it
was repeatedly noted by the diarists that any future reader would be confounded. The
drive to preserve as Amos Goldberg coined it, a ―narrative of disbelief,‖ involved a
complex blend of narrating the unprecedented events linguistically and assimilating a
new and shocking reality, which in turn had the unexpected result of normalizing the
612
Saul Friedlander, ed. Probing the Limits of Representation: Nazism and the Final Solution, (Harvard
University Press, 1992).
Young, Writing and Rewriting the Holocaust: Narrative and the Consequences of Interpretation.
Articles in History and Memory, Volume 9, Issue1/2, 1997, pertain to this quintessential observation. Refer
to page 13 of this work for details of the conference ―probing the limits of representation.‖
My thesis focuses on this ongoing dilemma and the narrative identities created to try and address this
quandary to future generations.
167
abnormal. 613
The absolute dislocation of all that was familiar and the ensuing dilemma of
depicting the situation linguistically is ever present in the narratives of struggle.
Pointedly, the narratives of struggle highlight the ongoing tension between experience
and language, reflecting the profound transformation of accustomed patterns of writing
whereby the narrator generally organizes a narrative as a cultural, social or religious
response slotted into a familiar life paradigm. The eradication of all traditional domains
of life constituted a profound struggle between the Jewish victim existing under Nazi
rule, namely, the performing self, and the protagonist recording events, that is, the
recording self.
A considerable number of the diary narratives depict the struggle and conflict which
shaped not only the diarists‘ understanding and response to events, but also the responses
and understanding of the Holocaust of those reading the narratives in the post Holocaust
era.
613
Goldberg, The Victim’s Voice and Melodramatic Aesthetics in History, 220-237.
168
Seeing is Not Believing
Narratives are linguistic constructions and the narrative identity defined within Ricoeur‘s
framework essentially allows the writer to ponder his or her personal identity. In this case
the Holocaust diarist created a narrative identity which had the almost impossible task of
reporting events as they unfolded, in believable language. This constituted a struggle of a
grand magnitude for the protagonist who was not only experiencing the inexplicable but
craved to make the words believable for future generations who would hopefully find and
read the diary. Theodor Adorno, who famously stated there could be no poetry after
Auschwitz, referred to this struggle as the struggle between silence and speech.614
Reconciling the experience and the narrative was the basis of the conflict facing the
narrative identity during the Holocaust. To that end, writes James E Young, the
Holocaust narrative commanded coherence and understanding that the actual life event
did not have. This is an observation that many of the diarists actually voiced. 615
It was
this discord that transformed narratives of testimony, defiance and consolation into
narratives of struggle for many Holocaust diarists, who were invariably forced to redefine
their life narratives with every word inscribed, once again accentuating the theory of de
emplotment, the coming apart of the familiar emplotted life and redefining it. In the
words of Chaim Kaplan, on July 26th
, 1942:
The terrible events have engulfed me; the horrible deeds committed in the ghetto
have so frightened and stunned me that I have not the power, either physical or
spiritual, to review these events and perpetuate them with the pen of a scribe. I have
no words to express what has happened to us since the day the expulsion was ordered.
Those people who have gotten some notion of historical expulsions from books know
nothing. We the inhabitants of the Warsaw ghetto are now experiencing the reality. 616
Helene Berr in Paris also articulated the conflict between Adorno‘s dichotomy of silence
and speech, when writing about the deportation of children to the transit camp, Drancy.
She wrote on November 12th
, 1943:
Not knowing, not understanding even when you do know, because you have a
closed door inside you, and you can only realize what you merely know if you
open it. That is the enormous drama of our age. 617
As previously distinguished, many diarists felt compelled to bear witness to the events
unfolding. Seemingly, the overwhelming commonality between the diaries analyzed was
the ongoing struggle to record the unimaginable, encompassing not only the facts as the
writer perceived them, but the emplotment of these events into a meaningful narrative in
614
Theodor Adorno, "Cultural Criticism in Society," Prisms (1949) 17-34.
This essay was originally written in German . This quote is usually taken to mean that after the Holocaust
art has no valid aesthetic response to history or even humanity, and at the very least has to be addressed
outside traditional paradigms. How to represent the Holocaust was really the issue being questioned. This
discussion is taken from Foley, Fact, Fiction, Fascism: Testimony and Mimesis in Holocaust Narratives,
330. 615
Young, ―Interpreting Literary Testimony: A Preface to Rereading the Holocaust Diaries,‖ 13. 616
Kaplan, Scroll of Agony: The Warsaw Ghetto Diary of Chaim A Kaplan, 383. 617
Berr, Journal, 204.
169
the absence of any familiar life context. Chaim Kaplan alluded to this dilemma repeatedly
throughout his diary. As early as October 17th
, 1940, he wrote:
All day long I thought it over. Should I write? Not because of a lack of impressions,
but because of too many of them. Only a divinely inspired pen could describe them
accurately on paper. A mere writer of impressions could not adequately record all
that happened in the boiling chaos of Jewish Warsaw in the first days of the Succot
holiday, 5701. 618
Without any familiar cultural or historical basis the protagonists writing the diary
narratives were seemingly at a loss both in regard to absorbing the events internally and
making their narrations believable to future readers, so contextually extreme were the
events being witnessed. Janusz Korczak comprehended this twofold dilemma, noting on
June 26th
, 1942:
I have read it over. I could hardly understand it. And the reader? No wonder, that
the memoirs are incomprehensible to the reader. Is it possible to understand
someone else‘s reminiscences, someone else‘s life? It seems that I ought to be able
to perceive without effort what I myself write about. Ah, but is it possible to
understand one‘s own remembrances? 619
Abraham Lewin, one of the Oneg Shabbat archivists, also lamented repeatedly about this
quandary, writing from the Warsaw Ghetto the same week as the above diary entry, on
June 30th
, 1942:
Nothing here looks the way it once did, before the war. The streets are not the
same-dirty, neglected. The houses-many destroyed, in ruins. The people-not the
same. Not a Christian is seen, with the exception of a few tax officials and
collector of gas and electricity payments. The Jews look like shadows, not people.
Sometimes you meet someone like that, whom you haven‘t seen for a long time,
and you are shocked: it‘s simply hard to recognize him. It‘s not the same person.
A mere shadow of what he was. In short: everything in the ghetto has changed.
Only one thing has stayed untouched. That is: the deep blue sky; that alone, is
untouched by the domination of the all powerful dictator. 620
In the same vein, Etty Hillesum also pondered the angst of the gap between experience
and words, on Wednesday morning, April 1st, 1942:
618
Kaplan, Scroll of Agony: The Warsaw Diary of Chaim A Kaplan, 210.
Succot refers to the Feast of Tabernacles celebrated shortly after the Day of Atonement. This eight day
holiday, (7 days in Israel) commemorates the 40 year sojourn of the Israelites in the desert before reaching
the Holy Land. It was during this festival that the Warsaw Ghetto was established, which saw half a million
Jews being moved into a closed off area. 619
Korczak, Ghetto Diary, 77.
Famously, when the Nazis ordered the children of Korczak‘s orphanage in the Warsaw Ghetto to board a
train to Treblinka death camp, he refused to leave them. He went with them despite the fact that he could
have saved himself. He was murdered, along with the children, at Treblinka. 620
Abraham Lewin, in, Havi Ben Sasson and Lea Preiss, translated from Yiddish by Lea Robinson,
"Twighlight Days: Missing Pages from Avraham Lewin‘s Warsaw Ghetto Diary, May-July, 1942," Yad
Vashem Studies, 33 (Jerusalem: Yad Vashem Publications, 2005), 38.
170
Am still frightened, of course, of the great gulf there is bound to be between what
I see and experience and what I can cast in written form.621
Those penning diaries were clearly struggling with their new historical reality, grappling
with both how to represent this new, inexplicable reality in words, whilst living through
the horror physically. The hope for survival and an end to their predicament slowly
changed to struggle and despair as the realization of the finality of the situation began to
dominate their narratives. Chaim Kaplan illustrated this the same week as Korczak and
Lewin penned the previously quoted musings. This entry coincided with the liquidation
of the Warsaw Ghetto and subsequent escalation of deportations being underway in
earnest, on July 31st, 1942:
My powers are insufficient to record all that is worthy of being recorded. Most of
all, I am worried that I may be consuming my strength for naught. Should I too be
taken all my efforts will be wasted. My utmost concern is for hiding my diary so that
it will be preserved for future generations. 622
Epistemologically the above diary entries reflected the juxtaposition between knowledge
and understanding. Each narrative identity is unique, representing the thoughts and
experiences of one day. Traditionally, a narrative brings together causal events, all of
which are fused together to bring about an assumed outcome.623
In the case of the
Holocaust diary, however, the ability to fuse together the causal events culminating in the
presumed life trajectory became unattainable. Friedlander‘s post Holocaust observance
that awareness and understanding are not interchangeable is reflected in the increasing
conflicts referred to in so many of the diary narratives. Put simply, the diarists recorded
events which were becoming increasingly difficult to understand on many levels, namely,
why they were happening, why the Jews were being singled out, and how the Nazis were
managing to perpetrate such events. As the wars years progressed, heightened anti Jewish
activities enhanced both the inner conflict of the diarists and their physical deterioration,
further triggering a shift in many of the diaries from narratives of consolation, testimony
or defiance to narratives of struggle. Korczak, Lewin and Kaplan exemplified this
conflict in the previously quoted entries, questioning the motives of the Nazis and
simultaneously expressing disbelief and incomprehension as to why they were being
subjected to such extremities. These diarists referred to the crucial question of ―why‖ and
the collective struggle of the Jewish populations of Europe. Similar narratives are notable
across Europe, heightening between 1942 and 1944 as the ghettos were liquidated and
deportations to death camps reached a peak. The protagonists increasingly appeared to
contend with the seeming impossible task of describing an implausible situation, as
pondered by Janusz Korczak, on July 21st, 1942:
Tomorrow, I shall be sixty three or sixty four years old.
621
Hillesum, The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum, 1941-1943, 318. 622
Kaplan, Scroll of Agony: The Warsaw Ghetto Diary of Chaim A. Kaplan, 394. 623
This is the basis of Ricoeur‘s paradigm of emplotment, whereby life events are linked together to make
a life meaningful.
171
It is a difficult thing to be born and to learn to live. Ahead of me is a much easier
task: to die. After death, it may be difficult again, but I am not bothering about
that. The last year, month or hour. I should like to die consciously, in possession of
my faculties. I don‘t know what I should say to the children by way of farewell. I
should want to make clear to them only this—that the road is theirs to choose, freely. 624
The narratives across Europe also began to take on the collective persona which
coincided with the worsening situation. Progressively, both the inner and obvious
physical struggle, coupled with the growing realization of impending death, became the
foremost reflections in diary entries across Europe. Poignantly, so many diary entries
were a mixture of the personal and the historical struggle. Gonda Redlich wrote, perhaps
reflecting the typical lament, from Terezin, on July 25th
, 1942:
Shabbat. Till when my love? I again submitted a request for you to come.
Meanwhile, life here goes on, crazily, with twists and turns, and no relaxation.
What will eventually happen? And when will it all end? None of us will leave
this turmoil without being affected. Will deliverance ever be a reality?625
Etty Hillesum, in the Netherlands also reflected on the dire situation and her own
personal struggle battling depression, in the same week as the above entry. She wrote, on
July 27th
, 1942:
I am tired and depressed. I still have half an hour and I would like to write
for days, until all of my sudden depression has been shaken off. I have to walk
through a great many narrow, dark, subterranean passages first, before I can
see light at the end of the tunnel. 626
The narrative identity defines the temporal dimension of selfhood, thus enabling the
narrator to be displaced daily as the situation changes.627
During the Holocaust this was
the means through which the various struggles being depicted were able to be defined. In
other words, as the familiar life paradigms were depleted and the onslaught against
European Jewry intensified, the Holocaust diarists were able to de-emplot and displace
the narrating selves on a daily basis. It was this continual displacement which came to
define the narratives of struggle evident in all spheres of life. James Young maintains that
the intensity of violence against Jews became so vehement that recording and bearing
witness became an acute burden.628
Alexander Garbarini, in agreement with Young,
outlines the profound struggle of the Holocaust diarists to construct narratives that were
at the same time historically imaginable and believable to a future audience.629
A two
dimensional struggle, the personal and the public, is pronounced within the diaries
represented in this thesis. This double edged struggle was continually coupled with an
ongoing literary struggle, expressly, that of representing the Holocaust linguistically.
624
Korczak, Ghetto Diary, 101. 625
Redlich, The Terezin Diary of Gonda Redlich, 59.
Shabbat is the Hebrew word for Sabbath. 626
Hillesum, Etty, The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum, 505. 627
Ricoeur, Oneself as Another 628
Young, ―Interpreting Literary Testimony: A Preface to Rereading Holocaust Diaries and Memoirs.‖ 629
Garbarini, Numbered Days: Diaries and the Holocaust.
172
Diary writing generally had a conciliatory effect for many in the early years of the war
when they first began writing. Many of the narrative identities created by the diarists
reflected the shift from the initial intention of diary writing to the struggle it became. Not
only did the diary gradually fail to appease the turmoil being experienced by the writer,
but the risk of being caught became greater as time went on and in fact reinforced the
increasing struggle of the diarists.
On the one hand, diarists conveyed a range of motivations for writing, among
them a sense of duty, a fear of the meaninglessness of Jewish suffering, a need
for emotional release, a desire for revenge, and even personal vanity. On the
other hand, diarists struggled with numerous anxieties that writing provoked
or intensified. 630
History does not, wrote Emmanuel Ringelblum in the Oneg Shabbat Archives, in the
Warsaw Ghetto, on June 25th
, 1942,
……repeat itself. Especially now, now that we stand at the crossroads, witnessing
the death pangs of an old world and the birth pangs of a new. How can our age
be compared with any earlier one? Is there any comparison between the White
Terror of the feudal world and the slaughter of Kiev, or Rostov, where hundreds
of thousands of civilians were murdered? Hitler would physically extirpate millions
of people, simply because they refuse to recognize his New Order in Europe. 631
Ringelblum‘s introduction to his final work on Polish Jewish Relations also exemplified
his inner struggle and turmoil. On the one hand, he believed in his sacred duty to record
the facts as an objective historian, and on the other hand passionately needed to record his
personal grief at the atrocities confronting him. Ringelblum‘s text below prophetically
encapsulates the struggle of so many Holocaust narrators who seemingly never
reconciled their narratives of struggle.
When a sofer (Jewish scribe) sets out to copy the Torah, he must, according to religious law, take a ritual bath in order to purify himself of all uncleanliness
and impurity. This scribe takes up his pen with a trembling heart, because the
smallest mistake in transcription means the destruction of the whole work…I am
indebted to the Poles for having saved my life twice during this war. It is my wish
to write objectively, on the problem of Polish Jewish relations during the present
war. In times so tragic for my people, however, it is no easy task to rise above
passion and maintain cool objectivity.632
630
Ibid., 137 631
Ringelblum, Notes from the Warsaw Ghetto, 301. 632
Samuel Kassow, "Polish Jewish Relations in Emmanuel Ringelblum‘s Writings," in Emmanuel
Ringelblum: The Man and the Historian, Editor, Israel Gutman ( Jerusalem: Yad Vashem Publications,
2006), 30.
173
Assimilating the Struggle Linguistically
Scholar Lawrence Langer defined the existence of a new dimension in European
languages coined during the Holocaust, incorporated by the narrative identities narrating
the unprecedented events. This included a newly assimilated vocabulary such as
transports, selection, resettlement, aktion, relocation, Aryan and the like, terms infused by
the Nazis and swiftly incorporated into daily use by the population at large. Paul Ricoeur
claimed that the self could only be understood in relation to the other, that is, within
societal context. 633
In this respect the Holocaust diarists faced another struggle, placing
the self within a completely new reality which displaced the familiar self on every level.
Across Europe the diarists assimilated these terms into their new life paradigm, indicating
a fusion to some extent, of the self and the ―other,‖ that is, Nazism. However, the struggle
between the self and the other was accentuated by the gradual assimilation of Nazism into
the lives of the Jewish population which internally rejected Nazism on all levels, but
remained helpless to do anything of the magnitude necessary to change their fate.
Amos Goldberg‘s work on Holocaust diaries as life stories contends that in constructing a
narrative identity the protagonist was able to exist separately to the writer per se. 634
When writing a diary the protagonist was able to exist outside him or herself, if only for a
brief amount of time. Evidently, the narrative identity created a protagonist which was
accorded a necessary distance from ―the other,‖ to facilitate the documentation of such
incomprehensible events. 635
In many respects, argues Goldberg, this level of distance
was the only way the crushed protagonist was able to record the daily struggle being
endured.636
The protagonist was able to de-emplot their story, albeit without full
comprehension of what or why it was happening. In allowing one‘s consciousness a
degree of separation, the struggling protagonist reached a level of acknowledgement of
the situation they were facing, sensing that their testimony would be of some
consequence to future readers. The drastic separation from all that was valued and the
ensuing shift from hope to struggle are illustrated in the following diary entries, written
across Europe by diarists recording their struggle to reconcile their new reality.
Elisheva Binder expressed this shift when she wrote in her diary, on December 31st 1941:
So I welcome you, 1942, may you bring salvation and defeat. I welcome you my
longed for year. Maybe you will be more propitious for our ancient, miserable
race whose fate lies in the hands of the unjust ones. And one more thing. Whatever
you are bringing for me, life or death, bring it fast. 637
Anne Frank encapsulated the same sentiment when she wrote of the continual duality of
hope and struggle, on Thursday, May 25th
, 1944:
I‘ve asked myself again and again whether it wouldn‘t have been better if we
633
Ricoeur, Oneself as Another. This is asserted in each "study" as it is central to his main thesis. 634
Goldberg, Holocaust Diaries as Life Stories. 635
Ibid., 636
Ibid. 637
Zapruda, Salvaged Pages, 311.
174
hadn‘t gone into hiding, if we were dead now and didn‘t have to go through this
misery, especially so that the others could be spared the burden. But we will
shrink from this thought.
We still love life, we haven‘t yet forgotten the voice of nature, and we keep
hoping, hoping for…..everything. Let something happen soon, even an air raid.
Nothing can be more crushing than this anxiety. Let the end come, however cruel;
at least then we‘ll know whether we are to be the victors or the vanquished.
Yours, Anne M. Frank 638
Etty Hillesum in Westerbork, on July 19th
1942, illustrated her own increasing struggle as
the Jewish transports to the transit camp of Westerbork escalated, noting:
I need to talk to you so much, oh God, but I must go to bed. I feel as if I
were drugged, and if I am not in bed by ten o‘clock I shan‘t be able to get through
another day like this one. Indeed I shall have to invent an entirely new
language to express everything that moved my heart these last few days. 639
Josef Zelkowicz in the Lodz ghetto in Poland described the contradiction between
knowing and understanding, coupled with the daily struggle of recording. He wrote, on
Friday September 4th
, 1942:
How can you persuade someone he must keep living, like it or not? No words,
no language, no expression can in any way reflect the atmosphere, the wailing,
the sheer panic that have dominated the ghetto since daybreak. One who describes
the ghetto today as ―flooded with tears‘ is using not a metaphor but a futile
description , since no words can capture the scenes and spectacles that unfold in
the Litzmannstadt ghetto wherever you pin your eyes or cup your ear. 640
The narrative identities constructed by the individual diarists illustrated the redefinition
of their life stories. As previously stated, a narrative is a representation of particular
events that generally introduces a form of discourse and then progresses to an assumed
closure. 641
In fact, for many theorists the core of a narrative is the conflict introduced by
the narrator, in this case, the diarists. The Holocaust diarists traced daily events, ordering
them chronologically, selecting events which constituted that particular person‘s truth at
that particular moment, often in a dialogic form which highlighted their conflicting
emotions. A narration involves a complex combination of communication modes, such as
visual, auditory and tactile elements, all molded together to form a discourse. The diarist
is a special type of narrator who does not write as a retrospective narrating ―I‖ but rather,
records chronological observations of events and immediate emotional responses
thereof.642
Diary entries are always incremented and structured in relation to time and
space and through daily entries a narrative identity becomes recognizable to the audience.
638
Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition, 307. 639
Hillesum, Etty: The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum, 1941-1943, 496. 640
Zelkowicz, In Those Terrible Days, 262-263.
Litzmannstadt ghetto was another name for Lodz ghetto. 641
Herman, Cambridge Companion to Narrative. 642
Margo Culley, editor, A day at a Time: Diary Literature of American Women from 1794 to the Present,
(New York: New York Feminist Press, 1985).
175
Philipe Lejeune asserts that a diary is motivated by a search for communication.643
It was
this need to communicate the dichotomy between the old and new life paradigms, the
conflict between the inner self and the other, the search for the words to describe the
indescribable and the struggle to observe events that one was unable to change which
constituted the narratives of struggle. In the words of Saul Friedlander, ―intense
expressions of hope and illusions surface‖ in the depths of the diary pages, reflecting the
extremities of the human condition under unimaginable circumstances. 644
643
Philipe Lejeune, ―The Autobiographical Pact,‖ in On Autobiography, editor, Paul John Eakin.
Translated by Katherine Leary (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1989). 644
Saul Friedlander, The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939-1945 (Great Britain:
Harper Collins, 2007), Introduction, page xxv.
176
The Struggle to Write
A diary is always written alone, the narrator temporarily withdrawing to write entries at
consistent intervals. Markedly, the diarist creates a narrative identity which engages in
the act of writing per se, unlike other literary genres. The very struggle that writing had
become for so many of the diarists, described by the protagonists themselves, leads to the
assumed conclusion that it was certainly a struggle they wanted their future readers to be
privy to. The struggle to write embodied the often debilitating act of sitting and writing
whilst depleted physically and emotionally, in surroundings rendered progressively
unfamiliar. More often than not, the increasingly hopeless situation being faced by the
protagonists was reinforced through writing. Paradoxically in fact, despite initially being
perceived as an act of defiance or offering consolation, writing soon became a task
tantamount to struggle.
Individual descriptions of events, both collective and more personal, are the focus of this
work. In this capacity the escalating struggle depicted within the Holocaust diaries
crossed linguistic and geographic boundaries. The struggle of the self, physically,
emotionally and as a Jewish victim under Nazism, more often than not, appeared to be
the primary focus of the narratives of struggle as opposed to the particular events which
triggered these emotions. Diary writing was an individual response to Nazism and many
diaries initially written as narratives of testimony, solace or defiance inevitably became
narratives of struggle. Highlighting this are the following entries which signify the
personal angst of their protagonists. Etty Hillesum tried to put this sentiment into words
when writing about recording her experiences, noting on Friday morning, Sunday,
September 8th, 1942:
Later on I shall have a notebook in which I shall try to write. It will be something
I shall have to come to terms with alone, my private front line, and it will be at times
a desperate struggle. It will be like a bloody battlefield of words fighting and
struggling with one another in that notebook. And then, here and there, something
may perhaps rise over the battlefield, pure as the moon, a little story will occasionally
hover over a troubled life like a soothing smile. 645
Chaim Kaplan also described the struggle that writing was becoming, both in respect to
the burden of responsibility he felt to record and in respect to his personal anguish. On
November 26th
, 1940, he noted:
I am completely broken. Jewish Warsaw has turned into a madhouse. A community
of half a million people is doomed to die, and awaits execution of their sentence.
Six days have passed without an entry. In these days, when the very stones in the
wall cry out, the sheer volume and number of impressions leaves me without the
literary power to record and organize them. They have piled up in my brain, and
historical moments are being lost. Once again a feeling of responsibility to Jewish
historiography begins to make demands upon my conscience. 646
645
Hillesum, Etty Hillesum, The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum, 1941-1943, 523. 646
Kaplan, Scroll of Agony: The Warsaw Diary of Chaim A. Kaplan, 226.
177
The fear of their diaries being found or being caught in the act of writing is reiterated
again and again throughout the Holocaust diaries. The danger to the self and to their
families, however, did not appear to quell diary writing during this period. In fact,
defiantly, most the diarists continued their diaries until they were deported or murdered,
as evidenced by the incomplete final entries, the hidden diaries found after the war and
the words per se of the diarists. Previously denoted as narratives of defiance or solace,
increasing turmoil both on a personal and collective level saw many diarists shift their
intent from writing a narrative of testimony, defiance or solace, to a narrative of struggle,
purposefully reflecting the ongoing process of de emplotment. This conclusion may be
drawn from the diary entries themselves, the majority of which are a complex blend of
testimony, defiance, solace and struggle.
The interdisciplinary nature of history, the linguistic turn, explicitly the merging of
several disciplines to reflect and analyze historical events, serving to unify these events
and inject them into human consciousness, is acknowledged at this juncture. 647
So too is
the emphasis this work accords to intention when defining a narrative, which justifies the
classification of narratives delineated. Saliently, if a diarist expressed a shift in the intent
of penning a narrative of testimony, defiance or solace to an expression of struggle, the
narrative is deemed as such.
Julius Feldman in Krakow embodied a narrative of struggle when he wrote of the fear of
his diary being found, although a diary entry the following day indicates he continued to
write despite this foreboding. Two days later his diary ended in mid sentence, presumably
his fears of being caught actualized. His haunting last diary entries reflected his struggle
and determination to continue writing. He wrote, on April 9th
, 1943:
I cannot go on writing; we are in constant fear of a search for money and clothing;
all our clothes were taken from us the day before yesterday. Yesterday we witnessed
a hanging and our clothes were painted in yellow stripes to make any kind of escape
impossible. 648
Emmanuel Ringelblum in the 1943 section of his Oneg Shabbat chronicles also
commented on the fear about writing, in an entry simply dated "1943."He commented
after this entry that the terror aimed at the population at large dissipated somewhat after
the establishment of the ghetto and was directed at specific groups. Perhaps this lull
spurred others on to write, although anticipation of which groups were being targeted by
the Nazis would have been a source of continual fear for those writing in this period.
647
Sara Maza, "Stories in History: Cultural Narrative in Recent Works in European History," Historical
American Review, 101, no.5, (1996): 1493-1515.
This concept encompasses the concept that everything we think of as 'reality' is really a convention of
naming and characterizing, and anything outside of language is by definition inconceivable, something
recognized by the Holocaust diarists. In essence, one cannot enter into any reality which cannot be
articulated, to the self and through language. The power of language and linguistic trope in relation to
historical discourse was highlighted by Hayden White. 648
Feldman, The Krakow Diary, 79.
Presumably these searches incorporated searches for anything deemed forbidden, such as a diary.
Punishment presumably meant deportation or death by hanging or shooting.
178
…at the beginning of the occupation people were afraid to write because of
continuous house searches by the occupiers and their collaborators. To write
about wartime experiences was dangerous. 649
As claimed throughout this dissertation, the diary is a special literary genre. Diarists
constitute both a linguistic construct of a writing self and a written self, which they move
in and out of interchangeably. As their predicament worsened, representing the events
through which they were living became a heightened struggle. Intrinsically, the written
word and the creation of a narrative identity cannot reflect the real self, a disparity the
Holocaust diarists were acutely aware of, further exacerbating the struggle diary writing
had became for many.650
In the words of Etty Hillesum, who wrote about the transit
camp Westerbork, on September 17th
, (at night, sic), 1942:
I so wish I could put it all into words. Those two months behind barbed wire have
been the richest and most intense months of my life, in which my highest values were
so deeply confirmed.651
Depicting this relationship as a struggle became more evident in the later war years.
Many diarists grew increasingly at odds with the subject and object relationship conjured
up by the self through diary writing. In other words, the writing self may have felt the gap
between the events being recorded and the written self, namely, the words they wrote,
and both were conflicted with the unprecedented experience of what is now termed the
Holocaust. 652
In turn, the task of writing became a burden and a struggle for many
diarists as the abovementioned disparities reinforced the inability to understand not only
what was happening but why, consequently increasing feelings of isolation and
hopelessness. Added to the danger of physically continuing to write, the diary narratives
inevitably shifted to narratives of struggle for many.
Inserting the self into the narrative requires the writer to take on several narrating‖ I‘s.‖
An ability to differentiate between the self and the writing persona is also notable with
diary writing. The narrator is therefore able to control and organize the narrative into a
meaningful whole. During the Holocaust, whilst the narrators were aware of both the
writing and written selves and the importance of inserting the self appropriately into their
diary narratives, actually doing so became a struggle. The continuing turmoil and
growing awareness of their precarious situation was manifested through the increasing
649
Nechama Tec, "Sociological Reflections on Emanuel Ringelblum‘s Work," in Emanuel Ringelblum:
Man and History, editor Israel Gutman (Jerusalem: Yad Vashem Publications, 2006), 58.
It is of note that the only substantial published collection of documents from Ringelblum‘s Archives in
English was published in 1986 by Joseph Kermish. The diary quoted in this work is also scant in English so
I have taken the liberty to use other sources. Here Nechama Tec uses Kronika getta waarszawskiego, edited
by Artur Eisenbach, and translated this diary entry herself. 650
Rendell, ―On Diaries.‖ 651
Hillesum, Etty: The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum, 1941-1943, 520. 652
Garbarini ―Bearing Witness where Witness needs to be Borne: Diary Writing and the
Holocaust,‖ Chapter 5, "The Limits of Representation and The Problem of the Therapeutic: The
Relationship between Writing and Experience. "James E. Young also discusses the widening gap between
words and experience which caused much anxiety for the Holocaust diarist, in his article Writing and
Rewriting the Holocaust.
179
disparities of the linguistic self pronounced within the diary narratives. As such, the
attempt to sequence the self into the continuum of a life story reinforced the inexplicable
situation in which the diarists found themselves. Consequently, the relationship between
their lives and telling the story became an increasingly complex one, which is worthy of
further examination.
Both Amos Goldberg and Rachel Feldhay Brenner examine the loss of identity Jewish
victims experienced under Nazism, the subsequent detachment from all that was dear to
them and the consequences therein. 653
Goldberg wrote of the increasing struggle to write
as the protagonists faced total collapse under Nazi rule. He argues that in order to write
the narrative identities created by the Holocaust diarists split the self into two, the outside
identity continuing to live on a daily basis and the internal protagonist, recording events
but becoming detached and numb to the very events being recorded.654
This collapse is
also alluded to by Feldhay Brenner, who claims that the eradication of social structures
which constituted a life story hailed a conflict of the self and the narrating voices,
resulting in narratives of struggle.655
The search for the appropriate narrating voice
became an increasing skirmish, tantamount to the de emplotment concept described
throughout this work. Emplotment, based on a past which affects the present, and an
assumed future, layered upon what is considered the norm to the narrator, was destroyed
during this period, necessitating the process of de emplotment, which transformed a life
story into a narrative which was at the very least bearable. However, the protagonist
became conflicted and tormented as identity became more allusive, constituting a
dilemma in all spheres of what had been considered a normal life. The drive to continue
writing through a narrative identity was accordingly constructed as a coping mechanism
amidst destruction, heeding the split between the protagonist and narrator, which will
presently be elaborated upon.
Diary writing enhanced de emplotment and assisted the diarists in adapting to their new
circumstances to the extent that such circumstances were viably assimilated into one‘s
reality. This was due largely to the freedom from textual or other constraints that other
forms of writing require. The diary is essentially free from literary constraints other than
sequential dating, and therefore allowed the diarist to shift freely between the written self
and other narrative voices, allowing distance from impending destruction, the illusion of
normalcy and direct interaction with one‘s emotions, when required.656
The sequential
nature of the diary and the beginning and end to each diary entry further allowed the
narrators to acknowledge a plurality of selves more easily than other genres for various
reasons. The definitive end to each narration enabled a new narrative voice to be used the
following day and was easily achieved since each diary entry constituted a fresh narrative
recorded under a perceived set of new circumstances which each day ushered in.
653
Feldhay Brenner, ―Writing Herself against History: Anne Frank‘s Self Portrait as a Young Artist.‖ Goldberg, Holocaust Diaries as “Life Stories. 654
Ibid. 655
Ibid. 656
Ibid.
180
In reality, the circumstances across Europe declined as the war progressed and renewal
was synonymous with increased violence, deportations and death. Nevertheless, the
perceived renewal that each new day hailed was noted by so many diarists that it must be
acknowledged as significant to the diary protagonists. Each day endowed the diarist with
the ability to record multiple narratives through narrators positioned at various points of
the narrative trajectory. A diary also spared the diarist the task of ending the narrative,
inasmuch as the diarist, unlike other literary narrators, does not have to write an end to
the story. Rather, the diary just stops at the last entry or with the death of the diarist.
Assumedly, the Holocaust diarist who sensed the end of the diary would be synonymous
to dying was spared having to record his or her own premonition of death. These varied
narrative voices, made accessible to the Holocaust diarists through new daily entries,
allowed the diarists the fortitude to de-emplot and recontextualize their life stories via
different voices which expressed struggle, hope, defiance and hopelessness, depending on
the narrator of the hour. In this respect, the diary was the logical choice for the Holocaust
narrator, sparing the inevitable traumatic end to the story, both allowing events and
emotions to be recorded whilst the narrator was in so many ways displaced from the self.
Distance from the narration endowed the narrator with the ability to continue writing the
following day.
Conversely, the sequencing specific to diary writing coupled the dialogic nature of the
diary entries accentuated the struggle of many diarists, presumably resulting from the
constant confrontation they had with the previous day‘s entry. In turn, the diarists became
ill at ease with their words, which could not adequately represent their reality and perhaps
served to remind them of the lives they had lost. The uniqueness of diary writing lies in
the fact that despite the previous day‘s entry the narrator is able to transform what has
been written not by deleting it but rather, by taking on a new narrative voice the
following day.657
However, in the case of the Holocaust diarist the inability to eradicate
previous entries may have emphasized the deterioration of the protagonist‘s position,
thereby exacerbating their ongoing struggle and growing despair. In the words of Janusz
Korczak, on July 15th
, 1942:
It is harder to live a day right now than to write a book. Every day, not just
yesterday, is a book—a thick volume, a chapter, enough for many years. 658
Being privy to a private diary offers the reader privileged information into not only the
response of the diarist to a particular event, but insight into the act of writing per se.
Many of the Holocaust diarists recorded the shift from consolation to struggle and
described their decision to continue writing in spite of this change. Paradoxically, it
appears that even as the danger of being caught writing a diary heightened and
transportations to death camps increased, deeming the situation even more desperate
overall, many diarists felt compelled to continue writing and describe their ever growing
conflicted lives. Subsequently it may be concluded that the diarists intended to give their
future audience a glimpse into the struggle that daily life had become. In the words of
Etty Hillesum, written Saturday morning, November 22nd
, 1941:
657
Rendall, ―On Diaries,‖ 54-65. 658
Korczak, Ghetto Diary, 93.
181
I have this ever present need to write but not yet the courage to get on with it. 659
The increasingly difficult endeavor to write and continue writing is further emphasized
by numerous diary entries pertaining to promises to write, apologies for not writing and
explanations as to why there has been a lapse in writing. This is a feature common to all
the diaries in this work. Anne Frank reflected this notion, for example, on Wednesday,
May 31st, 1944, when she wrote:
Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday it was too hot to hold my fountain pen,
which is why I couldn‘t write to you. 660
Likewise, Helen Berr in Paris noted on December 22nd
, 1943:
I‘ve not noted anything in this diary for at least a week.
661
Herman Kruk from the Vilna Ghetto also noted the struggle to keep writing, the writing
narrator writing to the self, on September 20th
, 1941:
For the entire two weeks, I haven‘t held a pen in my hand because it was truly
physically impossible. Tired and exhausted from everything around. The pen fell
out of my hand, and my brain wasn‘t strong or calm enough to think up an idea.
Let us hope that from now on, I will do everything possible to record my notes. 662
Steve Rendell‘s article on diary writing appositely notes the semantics of the term in
English, ―keeping a diary,‘ which has equivalent translations in several languages.663
―Keeping‖ in this respect is synonymous with writing but is used exclusively in relation
to writing a diary, thus attesting linguistically to the unique genre of diary writing.664
Arguably, this term encompasses the obligation undertaken by the diarist to continue
writing on a continuum, for the most part daily, and the subsequent phenomena of guilt
ridden diary entries explaining lapses in writing, promises to return soon and so on, as
illustrated by the aforementioned diary entries. The self induced obligation to record
events, the disbelief of events unfolding, together with the danger of writing per se and
inevitable physical decline exacerbated by disease and starvation, enhanced the struggle
of the diarists regular return to their diaries. The narratives of struggle highlight the
conflicted diarists, confronted daily with the obligation to the self to write, the inability to
fully describe what was happening and the hardship of physically writing under such
conditions. As early as November 23rd
, 1939, Chaim Kaplan wrote:
659
Hillesum, Etty:The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum, 1941-1943, 148. 660
Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition, 307. 661
Berr, Journal, 232. 662
Kruk, The Last Days of the Jerusalem of Lithuania: Chronicles from the Vilna Ghetto and the Camps,
1939-1944, 100.
The diary editor notes that the diary entries dated September 5-18th appear to have been reconstructed a
week or so later as the diary entries for this period appear to be out of order. 663
Rendall, ―On Diaries.‖ 664
Ibid., Similar terms exist in several languages, such a ten un journal in French, continuane un diario in
Italian and ein tagebuch fuhren in German.
182
I have taken leave of my diary, because the nature of its contents, which are
nothing more than lamentations and mourning and tales of woe, wearied me.
How long can I lament? 665
Moshe Flinker from Brussels illustrated the need of the diarists to justify a lapse in
writing, reflecting the overall struggle that writing a diary had become. He wrote on June
13th
, 1943:
For the past few weeks I have not written in my diary. The main reason for this
is difficult to explain, but here it is: all this time I have been hoping for something.
I am almost ashamed of myself when I think of what it was that I hoped for, but
anyway I hoped, day by day, for --- a miracle. 666
Victor Klemperer in Dresden also wrote of the struggle to keep writing, on March 1st,
1942:
Great tiredness, muscle pains in my calves, sore feet, my hand incapable of guiding the pen. Incapable of intellectual work.
667
The struggle to write and continue the diary under Nazi rule was evidenced by what was
excluded inasmuch as to what was actually included in the daily entries. Evidently,
Holocaust diarists attempted to grasp events which could never be fully understood on
both a collective and personal level. The tension between the drive to record and the
hopelessness and loneliness that often accompanied writing was reflected by the
exclusion of events which must have been known or experienced by the Holocaust
protagonists, yet were seemingly too brutal and inexplicable to actually record. The
overall lack of discussion, for example, of sanitary conditions or lack thereof, or the
evident physical decline of so many diarists, must have simply been too difficult to be
noted. On all levels the ongoing attempts to continue writing enabled the diarists to focus
on events they so chose and to exclude events too painful to be addressed. Many
Holocaust diarists made reference to the exclusion of events, noting in many different
ways that some things could be put into words purely on the basis of being too
inconceivable to be described.
Given the theory of attestation, the active process of narration whereby the narrator takes
responsibility for his or her narration, the exclusion of events in the Holocaust diaries was
very meaningful. This author concludes that many diarists simply did not include various
events because they believed such events could not frame intentions. In simple terms, the
diarists penned diary entries based on what they believed they were able to attest to.
Clearly, the diarists took the process of narration very seriously and in choosing to
include what they conceived as words they were committed to enact, the impetus to
return to their diaries each day was fuelled, despite their increasing daily hardships. The
665
Kaplan, Scroll of Agony: The Warsaw Diary of Chaim Kaplan, 74. 666
Flinker, Young Moshe‘s Diary: The Spiritual Torment of a Jewish Boy in Nazi Germany, in, Zapruder,
Salvaged Pages, 118. 667
Klemperer, To the Bitter End: The Diaries of Victor Klemperer, 1942-1945, 25.
183
struggle to write is visible in so many of the diaries, manifested through the narrative
identity which grappled to bear witness to the self. In doing so, a linguistic identity was
established which appeared to demonstrate a constant state of conflict within the self. In
the words of Etty Hillesum, penned on Tuesday, September 22nd
, 1942:
One thing I now know for certain: I shall never be able to put down in
words what life itself has spelled out for me in living letters. I have read it
all, with my own eyes, and felt it with many senses. I shall never be able to
repeat it.668
668
IHillesum, Etty :The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum 1941-1943, 526.
184
Intentionality and the Dichotomy of the Private and Public Voice
Intention has been given much attention in this thesis due to the importance of the
underlying consciousness of a narrative identity taking responsibility to carry out words
attested to linguistically. Attestation, taking responsibility to act out intentions, is
semantically connected to the word testify, which in turn is connected to the
identification of an action and taking responsibility to recognize and believe the act will
be carried out. 669
Through words which claimed intent, the diarists applied themselves to
recording their motives for writing and in doing so inadvertently offered rationalization
for their words. 670
Clearly, differentiating words with intent and those which were
randomly selected was based on the ability of the narrator to answer the question ―why,‖
and then proceed to answer it.
A narrative identity is able to mediate between one‘s character which is innate regardless
of context, and selfhood, that is, the fluidness each person has in regard to changing
circumstances. It is selfhood, claims Ricoeur, which attests and therefore stays true to
one‘s intent recorded in life narratives. 671
Prompted by struggle on both a physical and
emotional level, the Holocaust diarists made their intention to write clear, depicting the
daily struggle their lives had become on many levels. Eminently each diary entry
constituting a completed narrative unto itself, gave the diarist the chance to reinvent
intent each day anew, which was necessary given the extremity of the circumstances.
Shifting intentions appears to have been integral to the de emplotment process and this
point is often made clear by the diarists who repeatedly reiterate varying intentions, for
example, trying to comprehend why this was happening to them, intent to testify, intent
to leave a document which would survive them and intent to voice their inner angst. The
intention of the diarists was also emphasized by their deliberate selection of words and
events, once again attesting to the responsibility of the narrators to adhere to their words.
Scholarship on diary writing, according to Esther Captain, differentiates between wartime
diaries and those written privately, advocating private diaries to be more reflective of
truth than those penned as a result of a specific circumstance with the intent of a future
audience.672
However, this work adheres to the epistemological value of the Holocaust
diaries as twofold, documents of public consciousness and as mirrors of internal emotions
and feelings reflecting private truths. The diaries represented are undoubtedly
spontaneous reactions to an unprecedented situation, and despite having a public agenda
in most instances, also represent the internal narratives of struggle on a private level. In
fact, the private and public voices of the diarists run parallel throughout most the diaries
represented in this work.
669
Paul Ricoeur, The Course of Recognition, 21-23. 670
For a detailed discussion of this concept refer to Ricoeur, Oneself as Another, 67-73. 671
Ibid., This is an observation made from reading Ricoeur‘s works and not specifically connected to one
of his books. 672
Captain, ―Written with an eye on History: Wartime Diaries of Internees as Testimonies of Captivity
Literature.‖
Alexander Garbarini, Patricia De Martelaere and Rose Wilde also differentiate between wartime diaries and
those diaries not written in the context of war.
185
Research pertaining to diary writing claims that diarists always write to a perceived
audience which is often the self, regardless of whether the intent is for the diary to be
read by someone else or not. This is further substantiated by the nature of diary writing as
almost tantamount to a form of confession. As such, a listener is presupposed, an
assumption reinforced by the common ―dear diary‖ rhetorical questions asked throughout
diary narratives, apologies made for not writing and the like, all of which are also
characteristic of the Holocaust diary. In other words, language necessitates a recipient,
even in regard to private thoughts, thus accounting for the often dialogic nature of diary
entries.673
Patricia De Martelaere notes in fact that writing a diary for oneself, while
keeping the possibility that someone is reading over one‘s shoulder, or
of one‘s death, at the back of one‘s mind, is precisely the own ―logic‘
of diary keeping. 674
Accordingly, most diaries have a level of public consciousness, even those written as
strictly private documents. Holocaust diaries are no exception, displaying a blend of both
private and public consciousness. To that end, collective consciousness and recording
public events does not actually account for the intent of the writer, since the publication
of a diary does not mean that was the intent of the diarist. This subchapter delineates the
private voice of struggle noted by diarists as a separate entity to the public voice of
struggle portrayed by the Holocaust diarist, based largely on the expressed intent of the
narrator. Notwithstanding, when reading the diaries it is nonetheless significant that the
classifications of private, and public domain in the case of the Holocaust, have blurred
parameters.
A narrative is distinguishable largely due to its dialectic nature. To that end, the narrative
or story being told generally starts in a state of equilibrium, only to be interrupted by an
unexpected or unanticipated event. 675
It is this interaction which defines the narrative and
in the case of this last chapter it is precisely this interaction and interruption of the state
of equilibrium which constitute the narratives of struggle. Consequently, it may be
claimed that the diary narratives depicting internal struggle may be defined within
Gershon Shaked‘s classification of narratives of persecution, a narrative he claims is
defined by the equilibrium being disrupted by an unforeseen act of violence. 676
This is
exemplified in several Holocaust diaries, which depict an internal struggle between the
protagonist who had become a victim at odds with a persecutor, the familiar surroundings
which had ceased to provide a meaningful framework and the physical decline which
enhanced the tension. In short, the struggle was twofold, manifesting itself internally and
externally dealing with the destruction of Jewish communities and family units.
Describing this ongoing internal struggle, Etty Hillesum noted on Tuesday morning,
September 15th
, 1942 at 10.30am:
673
Wilde, ―Chronicling Life: The Personal Diary and Conceptions of Self and History.‖ 674
Patricia De Martelaere, in Esther Captain, ―Written with an eye on History: Wartime Diaries of
Internees as Testimonies of Captivity Literature,‖ 16. 675
Herman, The Cambridge Companion to Narrative, Introduction. 676
Gershon Shaked, "The Narratives of Persecution," Journal of Literature and the History of Ideas 4, no.
2, June, (2006): 239-248.
186
Perhaps, oh God, everything happening together like that was a little hard. I am
reminded daily of the fact that a human being has a body, too. I had thought that
my spirit and heart alone would be able to sustain me through everything. But now
my body has spoken up for itself and called a halt. 677
The struggle with the self to record what was seemingly impossible to not only
understand but to represent linguistically is perhaps at the heart of the Holocaust diarists‘
struggle. The diarists constantly refer to their ongoing dilemma of how to record their
experiences in believable language. The struggle was a complex one dealing with
physical and emotional turmoil coupled with the eradication of all known cultural and
social paradigms. Added to this was not only the ongoing struggle of representing
experiences but making their accounts believable for a future reading audience.678
Ostensibly, the narrative schema which generally fuses knowledge of a situation and
language to recount a meaningful narrative was no longer operative, given the
inexplicable circumstances of Nazism. As previously stated, the narratives of struggle
highlight the ongoing tension between experience and language, reflecting the profound
transformation of accustomed patterns of writing based on a known cultural, social or
religious context and therefore slotted into a familiar life paradigm. Clearly, such a
paradigm no longer existed during the Holocaust, thus constituting a profound struggle
between the person who was living under Nazi rule, namely, the performing self, and the
recording self. The diary narratives during the Holocaust highlight not only the
aforementioned dilemma of the diarists but the struggle associated with linguistic
representation and the inability to really comprehend not only what was happening but
why. This consequently brought into question the deeper probes into the very nature of
evil, presumably serving to exacerbate the narratives of struggle.679
Helene Berr in Paris
noted the struggle to comprehend and record what was happening to the Jews of France
as they were being transported to the transit camp Drancy and then to death camps. She
pondered about the German soldiers in her area, on Tuesday, February 15th
, 1944, noting:
If they knew would they have feelings? Would they feel the suffering of all these
people torn from their homes, of women severed from their own blood and flesh?
They‘ve become too stupid for that.
And they have stopped thinking, I keep coming back to that, I think it is the root
of all evil: it‘s the solidest prop of this regime. The destruction of personal thought
and of the response of the individual consciences is Nazism‘s first step.680
Chaim Kaplan too, described the struggle of so many diarists, that of understanding the
nature of evil, after witnessing a Nazi beating, on February 14th
, 1941:
It was hard to comprehend the secret of this sadistic phenomenon. After all, the
victim was a stranger, not an old enemy; he did not speak rudely to him, let alone
touch him. Then why this cruel wrath! How is it possible to attack a stranger to me,
a man of flesh and blood like myself, to wound him and trample upon him, and
677
Hillesum, Etty: The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum, 1941-1943, 514. 678
Garbarini, ―To Bear Witness where Witness needs to be Borne: Diary Writing and the Holocaust, 1939-
1945.‖ 679
Garbarini, Numbered Days, Chapter 5: Reluctant Messengers. 680
Berr, Journal, 258-259.
187
cover his body woth sores, bruises, welts, and without any reason?
How is it possible? Yet I swear that I saw all this with my own eyes. 681
Etty Hillesum recorded the growing internal dilemma of accepting the situation rather
than questioning and rejecting it. She wrote, in December, 1942:
The human suffering that we have seen during the last six months, and
still see daily, is more than anyone can be expected to comprehend in
half a year. No wonder we hear on all side every day, in every pitch
of voice, ―we don‘t want to think, we don‘t want to feel, we want to
forget as soon as possible‖.682
Barbara Foley noted a growing dichotomy between the individual Jewish diarist and the
Jewish community, both of which were facing total collapse.683
This struggle is given
close attention by the diarists, who perhaps still looked for some comfort in the existence
of Jewish communal life, especially in the Eastern European Ghettos, but could no longer
find it. The Holocaust diaries analyzed depict not only the texture of daily life under
Nazism but the gradual disintegration of life as it had once been. These diaries were the
personal life stories of their authors reflecting the fate of the entire community. Amos
Goldberg describes this shift from the private diary to the documentary mode as one of
the common features of the Holocaust diaries.684
Goldberg views this shift as an internal
struggle of the diarist, surmising it was perhaps a means of detaching the writer from the
declining situation and the inability to deal with it. In essence Goldberg‘s claim is that the
meaning of life is construed by constructing a narrative. In turn, the ―life story‖ of the
protagonist is internalized. Subsequently, Goldberg asserts, when a traumatic experience
begins to challenge life as it is known, an internal struggle ensues, resulting in an
overwhelming feeling of complete helplessness.685
Whilst agreeing with Goldberg to a great extent, this work argues that the redefinition of
life, paramount to ―de emplotment‖, namely, the actual deconstruction of the life
narrative, was not always complete helplessness, but rather an ongoing struggle.
Narratives of struggle dominates all the diaries represented in this work, the diarists
growing more conflicted as time wore on, both internally, as morally questionable
decisions had to be made and the gap between experiencing and comprehending events
widened, and externally, on a physical level.686
Through writing, many diarists certainly
intended to highlight their own moral, physical and emotional struggles, reflecting the
growing dichotomy between their lives of old and their current incomprehensible
circumstances. The diarist gallantly attempted to record this struggle by writing in a
681
Kaplan, Scroll of Agony: The Warsaw Diary of Chaim A Kaplan, 242. 682
Hillesum, Etty: The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum, 1941-1943, 586. 683
Patterson, Through the Eyes of Those Who were There. 684
Goldberg, ―If This is a Man: The Image of man in Autobiographical and Historical Writing during the
Holocaust.‖ 685
Ibid. 686
Morally questionable decisions refers to decisions pertaining to hiding people, compiling lists, carrying
out Nazi orders to save one‘s own family, smuggling food and so on. The physical conflict refers to the
starvation and sickness being a daily battle, in addition to being subjected to extreme violence on a daily
basis.
188
detached way, although the narrative of life cannot always be restored and the struggle in
many instances was lost, giving way to hopelessness. Goldberg further argues that the
self, in relation to identity, continuity, coherence, unity and the ability to imbue meaning
into life hardly existed for the Holocaust diarist. He consequently concludes that both on
a private and public level, the Holocaust diarists had ceased to function as functioning
human beings, but rather, became vehicles for recording death in a state of numbness.
This work fundamentally disagrees with the extremity of this conclusion, based largely
on the range of intentions and emotions expressed within the diary pages. In fact, the
intentions expressed within the diaries reaffirm a level of consciousness beyond
Goldberg‘s conclusion, for the simple fact that the diarists believed that they were able to
attest to their words. Highlighting this contention were the words of Herman Kruk, dated
January, 1943:
It‘s a struggle to survive. Simple common sense dictates—hold out.
But not everyone is capable of looking straight into the face of reality:
―And even if that is enough, how much more can you take?‖
But logic and refusal is one thing, and the survival instinct is another.
Now, of all times, they want to live. The life instinct. 687
In effect, the linguistically constructed narrative identity not only helps shape intentions
but serves to give evidence of the self. In this respect, the Holocaust diarist created a
narrative discourse which was able to express the inner and outer voice of the narrator
and express the internal and external struggles being experienced. This was the apparent
intent of many diarists, or at the very least became the intent as the situation worsened
across Europe. Put briefly, in a crisis of great magnitude such as the Holocaust, a
dramatic separation of all that was valued was experienced and, it was this crisis and
ensuing struggle that became pressing for many of the diarists to depict for future readers. 688
This crisis fuelled the de emplotment process, often expressed in dialogic form
throughout the Holocaust diaries, which facilitated different narrating selves to deal with
the unprecedented crisis. In this respect it is significant that the inner dialogue and
ensuing struggle depicted therein may represent the attestation, that is, commitment to the
intent voiced linguistically. Unquestionably, the daily records of the diarist may be
considered the fulfillment of the intent to reflect the trauma of the Holocaust to future
readers, even if the narrator perceived the truth to be indescribable. On Sunday,
September 6th
, 1942, Josef Zelkowicz voiced this struggle in his diary:
But won‘t truth remain ―true‖? This truth will cry out: Not only is everything that
has been written absolute truth, but no pen and no human force has the ability and
the talent to describe all these events as they really occurred----not only the events in
the entire ghetto but even what has been happening every hour in the past few days.
No pen, no tongue has a vocabulary capable of conveying even a small fraction of the
emotions and sensitivities that overtake anyone who has observed and heard
everything in recent days. Man, if you live as long as Methuseleh, invent a language
687
Kruk, The Last Days of the Jerusalem of Lithuania: Chronicles from the Vilna Ghetto and the Camps
1939-1944, 642. 688
Mark Luborsky, "Analysis of Multiple Life Histories: Narratives," Ethos, 15, no. 14, December
(1987): 388-381, 366.
189
with an adequate vocabulary, and marshal the ability to express in ink and writing,
over a period of days, everything that your eyes have seen, your ears have heard, and
your human heart has felt, what will you have gained by that? Ultimately your will
grab yourself by the hand and cry out, ―it isn‘t true!‖ You will not believe it even
though you have personally heard and sensed it, because your limited intellect cannot
grasp it. 689
Life narratives are molded by cultural ideals and norms, historical realities, personal
interests, social climate and the subjective perception of the narrator. The gradual
progression of a life story generally blends these factors together to imbue the individual
with a sense of identity. Through narration a writer arranges and organizes and
consequently represents information in a way which is meaningful both to the narrator
and the perceived audience. During the Holocaust it is probable that the intent of the
narrators shifted as their situation worsened, subsequently allowing the created linguistic
construct of the narrative identity to establish a protagonist which was able to depict the
ensuing and growing struggle that life had become. Many of the diarists began their
diaries with hope, coupled with the belief that some sense could be made of the anti
Jewish legislation, by slotting the experience into a known paradigm of anti Semitism.
However, their narratives slowly shifted to narratives of struggle when the realization that
they were facing an unprecedented situation was internalized, although not fully grasped.
This appears to be true both in the ghettoes of Eastern Europe and in the more liberal
Western Europe. As the war pressed on, hope turned to despair and struggle and it is this
which I believe so many of the diarists represented in this work wanted to describe to
their future audience. Abraham Lewin, Oneg Shabbat archivist in the Warsaw Ghetto
expressed this sentiment in his own private diary, on Thursday, August 13th
1942, after
his wife was seized and deported by the Nazis.
Our lives have been turned upside down, a total and utter destruction in every
sense of the word. I will never be consoled as long as I live. I have no words to
describe my desolation. 690
Steve Rendell‘s article on diary writing maintains that through diary entries the diarist in
essence seeks to depict the self in words. 691
In doing so, however, one of the paradoxes
of the diary is underscored. Somewhat ironically, the diary format makes this goal
unattainable due to the fragmented and selective nature of its‘ linguistic construction,
explicitly, writing periodic entries of a personal nature arranged sequentially by date. 692
Rendell claims that diary writing is fragmented in nature because the diarist returns day
after day to record diary entries. The recommencement of writing means that the narrator
resumes a new narrative each day and as a result, the diary is composed of lapses and
often non sequential thoughts. 693
A diarist often takes on several identities, reflected
689
Zelkowicz, In Those Terrible Days: Notes from the Lodz Ghetto, 355.
Methuseleh is the oldest person mentioned in the Tanach (the Hebrew Bible). His age is given as 969 years
old. Methuseleh has become a generic term used for anyone who reaches a very old age. 690
Lewin, A Cup of Tears: A Diary of the Warsaw Ghetto, 154. 691
Rendall, ―On Diaries.‖ 692
Ibid. 693
Ibid.
190
linguistically perhaps through different writing personas such as the thoughtful
philosopher, the historian, the lamenting narrator and so on. The narrative identity, as a
result, can be seemingly split, evidencing the protagonists seeming readiness to confront
the internal struggle being faced. Diary entries written as a reaction to a trauma as
extreme as the Holocaust became symptomatic of the internal struggle of each narrator.
In short, the diarist returns day after day but can never be quite the same as the previous
day‘s narrator. The result is a plurality of selves which the Holocaust diarist faced every
time he or she returned to the diary, recognizing the simple truth that the previous day‘s
text was written by a different self which could never be silenced or replicated.
The belief that the diarist recognized this is testament to the intent to reflect struggle. The
diarists became, in their own words, increasingly tormented by their writing, noting their
guilt at writing lapses, their inability to describe their situation, the hardship of continuing
the diary and so on. Yet, those represented in this work chose to not only continue their
diaries and portray this ongoing struggle, but to highlight their daily struggle. Chaim
Kaplan described his private struggle on July 22nd
, 1942, when he wrote:
I haven‘t the strength to hold a pen in my hand. I‘m broken, shattered. My thoughts
are jumbled. I don‘t know where to start or stop. I have seen Jewish Warsaw through
forty years of events, but never before has she worn such a face. 694
As previously claimed a narrative is not just a string of events but a process through
which events are ordered into a meaningful whole. The narrator creates a narrative
identity which in essence controls the story through interpretation of the experience. By
and large the narrative is linked to familiar paradigms mediating the narrative both
retrospectively and usually prospectively in regard to the future. 695
Consequently,
narratives reflect continuity, identity and frame intentions within a known paradigm. This
simply was impossible during the Holocaust and consequently the narrative identity
struggled in this capacity as the familiar framework was shattered on all levels. Whilst
the past could not, naturally, be eradicated internally, it could not serve to mediate any
future expectations, and this, coupled with the eradication of the previously anticipated
future, created an acute crisis for the Holocaust diarist. Explicitly, a struggle is assumed
in so many of the diaries represented in this work merely as a result of the narrators
choosing to write, despite the inability of the narrative to fit into any known life paradigm
or anticipated life trajectory. It is the action of continuing to write per se that leads me to
the conclusion that the diary narrators needed to record their personal struggle. This
further enhances the claim that many narratives of consolation were transformed into
narratives of struggle. Once again the classifications of diaries in this dissertation became
harder to determine as the situation shifted. Abraham Lewin voiced the above conflict as
a narrative of struggle, representing his reality, on September 21st, 1942 from the Warsaw
Ghetto:
Those who are far away cannot imagine our bitter situation. They will not
694
Kaplan, Scroll of Agony: The Warsaw Diary of Chaim A. Kaplan, 379. 695
Jonathan Carter, "History, Emplotment and Truth," History and Theory, 42, February,
(2005): 1-27.
191
understand and will not believe that day after day thousands of men, women
and children, innocent of any crime, were taken to their death….Almighty God!!
Why did this happen? And why is the whole world deaf to our screams? Earth,
earth, do not cover our blood and let no place be free from our cries. 696
The narrative of struggle is also predicated on the previously outlined theory of mimesis
and literature.697
Reiterating further, the narrative identity fuses life goals, motives,
expectations and agency to create a linguistic construct which commits to action. 698
Reflection of reality, mimesis, however, had to be redefined under Nazi rule. It was this
process in many respects which constituted the struggle of the diarists. Mimesis,
involving the narration of events based on individual perception of the world,
transforming events into a meaningful whole and enabling the narrative to be understood
by future readers, was the struggle faced by the Holocaust diarists. 699
The narratives of struggle typified thus far certainly attempted to imitate the chaos life
had become. Many of the diaries reflect ongoing conflict and commit to continue writing
in an attempt to overcome the struggle life had become. Alexander Garbarini refers to
this struggle in her work on Holocaust diaries noting that the diarists wrote of their ill
ease with their words, perceiving them to be unrepresentative of actual events they are
going through. 700
The words of Abraham Lewin echo this conflict. He wrote, on
December 29th
, 1942:
Our language has no words with which to express the calamity and disaster
that has struck us. 701
These words typify the dichotomy of the private and the collective struggle, each domain
being grappled with by the Holocaust diarists and both being equally as difficult to
articulate both in words and to the self.
696
Lewin, A Cup of Tears: A Diary of the Warsaw Ghetto, 183. 697
Ricoeur, Time and Narrative, Volume1, 52-70. 698
Ibid. 699
Lewin, A Cup of Tears: A Diary of the Warsaw Ghetto, 232 700
Garbarini, Numbered Days, 129-162. 701
Lewin, A Cup of Tears: A Diary of the Warsaw Ghetto, 232.
192
The Struggle of the Self through Diary Narrative
Artistically, words generally have the ability to clarify and articulate an emotion or event,
both for the author and the reader. However, in regard to living under Nazi rule many of
the diarists noted the opposite, namely, how their words were rendered obsolete and
ineffective in describing their lives. 702
This paradox of writing the Holocaust is aptly
described by author Inga Clendinnen, a phenomenon she terms the inversion effect,
whereby the act of writing merely serves to reinforce their inadequacy in articulating the
events. 703
The struggle to represent the Holocaust has been referred to at length in this work, both
through scholarly literature and the diarists themselves. Narrative identity constructs a
linguistic narration within a familiar paradigm based on cultural, social, religious and
even linguistic contexts. The context of words is a part of any narrative and the
disintegration of life as it had been on all levels was recognized in varying degrees by all
the Holocaust diarists. Fundamentally, the gap between the written word and the life
experience widened as Nazism permeated Europe. It becomes evident that words had
inherently betrayed their narrators. The Holocaust diarists struggled to overcome this
betrayal, but the rift between the experience and the words remained an abyss which was
never filled. Etty Hillesum illustrated this frustration when she wrote for Westerbork, on
Tuesday, September 22nd
, 1942:
One thing I know for certain: I shall never be able to put down in writing what
life itself has spelled out for me in living letters. I have read it all, with my own eyes,
and felt it with my senses. I shall never be able to repeat it. It would be enough to
make me despair had I not learned to accept that one must work with the inadequate
powers one has been given ---but that one must really work with them.704
Narrative identity is based on the self that the protagonist wants others to recognize. The
narrator therefore constructs selfhood based on individuality whilst projecting an image
the narrator wants the public to embrace.705
Continuity between the past and the present
is traditionally the cornerstone of narrative identity, essentially so because a narrator
constructs a narrative based on the social and cultural context that subjectively creates a
continuum of self understanding which identity is based upon. In accordance with
philosopher Jacques Lacan, who reinterpreted Freudian theory in terms of linguistics,
emphasizing the primacy of language as the mirror of the unconscious, the self as
perceived by the individual and the self as perceived by others, fuse together to
linguistically construct a narrative identity. 706
This relationship is interdependent,
identity being not only how we see ourselves, but how we are perceived and in this case,
how it is expressed in words. Consequently, creating a linguistic narrative identity is a
complex process whereby the signified, namely the concept, and the signifier, the
702
Ibid. 703
Inga Clendinnen, Reading the Holocaust (United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. Republished
2004). 704
Hillesum: Etty: The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum, 1941-1943, 527. 705
Fludernik, Identity/alterity, The Cambridge Companion to Narrative, 26-273. 706
Sean Homer, Jacques Lacan (Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group, 2005).
193
language pattern, sound and context, are interwoven to make the narrative meaningful.707
Thus noted, the divide between what was being witnessed and experienced and recording
it in symbolic linguistic order presented an irreconcilable quandary for the Holocaust
diarist. Whilst this concept has been referred to previously in this work, reiteration is
necessary at this juncture as it is essentially echoes the struggle of the Holocaust diarist.
Primarily, the Holocaust diary was based on familiar syntax, trope and vocabulary of
whatever language the diarist was writing in. Increasingly, however, the complex
relationship between the linguistic swerve and the context which construes a narrative
identity were at odds. Consequently, the continuum of social and cultural context and
linguistic interaction between the self and the other during the Holocaust became
disconnected.708
Words defining the circumstances were almost impossible for the
narrator‘s themselves to comprehend, the gap widening as the both the social and cultural
context and human dignity gradually depleted. The relegation of the new status of
individual victim and as part of an oppressed group collectively, saw the Jewish diarists
struggle to reconcile this new reality. In the words of Herman Kruk written from the
Vilna ghetto in Lithuania, dated December 29th
, 1942:
―God, Look Down from Heaven!‖
The vocabulary has become impoverished. Concepts lose their clarity. Everything
that was dreadful and terrible is pale and put to shame. Words stop affecting and
influencing. 709
Consequently, the assertion that the struggle of the self is intertwined with the events
being described by the diarists is apt. The discrepancy between the redefinition of life
which I have termed de emplotment, the words written and the experience lived,
encapsulated the struggle of the self. The act of writing gave the diarist no choice but to
incorporate their words into familiar structure and trope and, in doing so presumably
reinforced the gap between words and experience.710
The protagonists had to place the
self in the moment, and consequently not only recorded the inconceivable events, but
through writing claimed ownership of these events which was part of their de
emplotment.711
Through writing the diarists de-emplotted simply because words assisted
the assimilation of the new reality into one's consciousness. Often having the adverse
affect, however, writing often enhanced the inner struggle due to the inconceivable nature
of the words being written. The constructed narrative identity narrated the new reality not
only to a perceived future audience but to themselves, and did so in accessible language.
This had the ironic affect of creating an illusion of normalcy despite the diametrically
opposed reality of an unprecedented abnormal situation. In adherence to attestation, it
707
Ibid. 708
The concept of the self and the other is Paul Ricoeur‘s which theorizes that the self has to react within
the cultural and social context in which he or she lives to make a narrative meaningful. 709
Kruk, The last Days of the Jerusalem of Lithuania: Chronicles from the Vilna Ghetto and the Camps,
1939-1944, 439. 710
Young, Writing and Rewriting the Holocaust: Narrative and the consequences of Interpretation.
In both her dissertation and her book ―Numbered Days,‖ Alexander Garbarini also discusses the gap
between words and experience. 711
Ibid.
194
may be concluded that the diarists took responsibility for their words. In doing so, they
often shifted from writing narratives of consolation or defiance, to narratives of struggle.
This accelerated with the realization that deportation and annihilation would actualize
The diary protagonists gave a unique voice to their diaries, as evidenced through the
easily accessible ability to differentiate the unique voice of the various narrations. The
individual struggle of each diarist is reflected both through the narratives written and the
events excluded, in addition to the motivation for recording expressed. Coupled with the
events recorded were the personal laments and angst of the narrators, which they intended
future readers to be privy to, thereby justifying the classification of the struggle of the
self.712
The struggle of the self is illuminated through the varying reactions to events
described by the Holocaust diarists across Europe, which the diverse examples below
exemplify. Mary Berg wrote from the Warsaw Ghetto on June 15th
, 1943:
I have not written for a long time. What good does it do to write; who is
interested in my diary? I have thought of burning it several times, but some
inner voice forbade me to do it. The same inner voice is now urging me to
write down all the terrible things I have heard during the last few days. 713
Rutka Laskier noted her personal struggle when she noted from Bedzin, Poland, on
January 30th
, 1943:
Today a hundred demons are running wild inside of me.
714
Chaim Kaplan from the Warsaw Ghetto noted his own struggle too, and wrote in despair
on June 27th
, 1942:
I do not exaggerate when I say that we have reached a state of lack of breath.
There is simply no air. Every minute is like a thousand years. Every day is a
never ending eternity. 715
Helene Berr wrote from Paris, in an entry dated ―evening,‖ January 10th
, 1944:
Will I make it through? It‘s an ever more harrowing question. Will we come
out of this alive? 716
Baruch Milch, from Galicia in the Ukraine wrote, on August 29th
, 1943:
The thought of suicide besets me at all times. The torment is unbearable and I
don‘t know whether I‘ll be able to evade the murderers, especially since the war
is dragging on and on. For whom and for what should I go on living? What is the
712
The struggle of the self is differentiated to the more public struggle, and, the physical struggle of the
diarists, both of which are inextricably bound to the struggle of the self. 713
Berg, The Diary of Mary Berg: Growing up in the Warsaw Ghetto, 222. 714
Laskier, Rutka’s Notebook: January-April 1943, 32. 715
Kaplan, Scroll of Agony: The Warsaw Diary of Chaim A. Kaplan, 362. 716
Berr, Journal, 237. Helene Berr was transferred from Auschwitz to Bergen Belsen, where, in answer to
her tragic question, she did not survive. She died days before liberation.
195
value of a man who‘s broken in body and spirit? 717
Within Paul Ricoeur‘s theoretical framework regarding personal and narrative identity,
the struggle of the Holocaust diarist can be reflected upon. Ricoeur suggests that identity
comprises selfhood, the unchanging genetic code which makes an individual unique, and
sameness, the experience of the more fluid self epitomized by keeping one‘s word and
reacting to circumstance.718
Ricoeur‘s model contends that the dialectic of selfhood and
sameness defines an individual as an agent of action with unique characteristics which
remain constant.719
This philosophy is based on the premise that one's identity is based on
cultural context, the capacity to adapt to new situations and the unique genetic code of the
individual.720
As such, the narrative identity creates a narrative which attests to or takes
responsibility for the self. 721
The struggle reflected in the Holocaust diaries indicates that
whilst the narrator was able to de-emplot and to some extent continue daily life under
Nazism, most diarists were rendered non functional in relation to their unprecedented
new cultural context. As a culturally and socially mediated construct, the narrative
identity tries to define the protagonist, namely the self, in a presentable way to future
readers. 722
During the Holocaust the diarists represented in this thesis wrote of their
obligation to record, yet could no longer make sense of their circumstances. This
instigated an inner struggle which was almost impossible to resolve. Whilst continuing to
write within an unfamiliar framework, the changed perception of the self as an integral
part of a familiar society, to that of an oppressed minority with a victim mentality,
transformed both self perception and public perception. This shift enhanced the conflicted
narrator who began to construct a doomed protagonist seemingly unable to reconcile this
new reality.723
The narrative identity within Ricoeur‘s framework mimics the individual by constructing
the identity of a central character, in the case of the diary, the self. The narrative identity
is able to both construct a narrative that is interactive with the cultural framework
familiar to the protagonist, and able to affirm the intention of the individual that the
words written will be acted upon. This fusion broke down during the Holocaust,
primarily because interaction with a familiar cultural framework had collapsed and the
diarists could no longer be sure that they could carry out intentions. For example, writing
that they would refuse deportation and fight to the end, even with the best intentions, did
not ensure the words would be attested to, constituting a struggle of great magnitude.
The Holocaust diarist was faced with the increasing struggle of the self as the dichotomy
of words attesting to survival, the imminent end of the war and the like, juxtaposed words
confirming deportations and annihilation, all of which served to enhance their hopeless
situation and inability to act on accordance to their intent.
717
Baruch Milch, Can Heaven be Void, 179. 718
David Wood, On Paul Ricoeur.1-20.
Ricoeur refers to the self as Ipse, the Latin term and to sameness as idem. 719
Ibid. 720
Ibid. 721
Ibid. 722
Ibid. 723
This is based on both Ricoeur‘s theory of the self and Lacan‘s theory that the perception of the self and
the way one is perceived construct identity.
196
The narrative identity controls the narrative by giving it meaningful order based on
known life paradigms. The inability to do so, coupled with the recognition of their
diminished ability to take responsibility for words that had been articulated, further
enhanced the narratives of struggle. Ricoeur claims the enunciation of discourse by the
self as a subject bears witness to the very core of that person‘s identity.724
To this end, the
extent to which one bears responsibility for intentions and interacts with surroundings in
a meaningful way is central to one‘s being. During the Holocaust the ability to do so
diminished to the extent that it became almost nonexistent. Nonetheless, this is a very
complex statement because ironically, the mere act of writing itself was attesting to the
intent to bear witness and survive. However, throughout Europe it became notably more
difficult to fulfill the words written as the war progressed, recognized by the diarists
themselves. Regardless of geographic, gender, linguistic or other differences, the struggle
to fulfill or attest to their words was experienced by most the diaries analyzed. For
example, Elisheva Binder in Stanislawow voiced this paradox on Friday, January 30th
,
1942, when she wrote:
When fear crawls out in the evenings from all four corners, when the winter
storm raging outside tells you it is difficult to live in the winter, when my soul
trembles at the sight of distant fantasies, I shiver and say one word with every
heartbeat, every pulse, every piece of my soul—liberation. In such moments it
hardly matters where it is going to come from and who will bring it, so long as
it‘s faster and comes sooner. Doubts are growing in my soul. Quiet!!725
In accordance with Ricoeur‘s claim that the narrative identity is culturally and socially
mediated (the self as the other), the breakdown of the familiar societal structure under
Nazism ignited an ongoing struggle for the Jewish population of Europe. The self was
increasingly unable to make sense of the other that is, the cultural and social framework
in which he or she lived. Coupled with the assertion that an individual does not merely
enact a role or function but has the aptitude to vary or transform actions, the struggle of
the diarists to confront Nazism all but disappeared, being tantamount to a loss of the self.
Chaim Kaplan‘s understanding that his identity had been compromised is clear in his
diary entry written on May 30th
, 1942:
Outside annihilation; inside-terror. Woe unto us for we are lost. Another night
of slaughter. This time the victims numbered only eleven. Once more pain and
worry on every face; once more the quaking heart with the arrival of the evening
shadows. Will you live to see the light of dawn? Every echoing footstep, every rustle
in the surroundings casts the terror of death over you. You are certain that death
sentences have already been drawn up; it is merely a matter of waiting your turn—
your turn to die. Perhaps it will come tonight, perhaps in a few more nights, but
you will not escape your fate. 726
724
Ricoeur, Oneself as Another, 'fifth study, " 113-139 , "sixth study," 140-168. 725
Binder, "Elisheva Binder‘s Diary: Accord of Pain and Hope, "in Zapruder, Salvaged Pages: Young
Writers’ Diaries of the Holocaust, 319. 726
Kaplan, Scroll of Agony: The Warsaw Diary of Chaim A. Kaplan, 343.
197
In his detailed work on autobiographical works during the Holocaust, Amos Goldberg
supports the preceding assertions. He theorizes that the traditional notion of narrative
identity adhering to the approach that the simple act of telling the story imbues the
narrator with not only identity but dignity, may have had the opposite effect during the
Holocaust. 727
In fact, argues Goldberg, life during the Holocaust created an irrevocable
internal struggle between the narrator and the protagonist, which work in unison in the
traditional diary genre, but were at increasing odds during the Holocaust.728
Heeding the
above arguments which are substantially reinforced when analyzing these claims through
Ricoeur‘s framework, Ricoeur states that the self is identified through interacting with the
other, the self essentially making choices in context of his or her society and taking
responsibility for those choices. 729
Stripped of customary societal context and the
freedom of choice to a far reaching extent, the self during the Holocaust was depleted and
in crisis, thus, as Goldberg argues, fueling a dichotomy between the self telling the story
and the unfamiliar self appearing within the story, widening the gap between the narrator
and the unfamiliar protagonist central to the diary. 730
Based on Ricoeur‘s prototype the extent to which we can bear responsibility for our
intentions and interact with our surroundings in a meaningful way is central to one‘s
being. During the period of the Holocaust the ability to do so diminished, to the extent
that it became almost nonexistent. Nonetheless, this is a very complex statement because
arguably the mere act of writing itself was attesting to the intent to bear witness, survive
and so on. However, throughout Europe it became notably more difficult to fulfill the
words written as the war progressed, as recognized by the diarists themselves. Regardless
of geographic, gender, linguistic or other differences, the struggle to fulfill or attest to
their words was experienced across the board by most the diarists represented in this
work.
Despite the struggle the diarist continued writing, a crucial factor when analyzing their
physical demise. The structure of the diary allowed the diarist to start anew each day and
in doing so use varying narrating ―I‖s. Smith and Watson‘s work on autobiographical acts
suggests that for the most part, the first person self reference, ―I‖ is used by the narrator
in the life narrative, and this is especially true of a diarist. 731
During the Holocaust each
day allowed the diarist to start the struggle afresh, allowing the diarist, to narrate a new
story with a new chance to reposition the self along the unfamiliar Nazi paradigm.732
Many of the Holocaust diary entries exhibit a shift from the traditional diary narrator,
using the first person reference ―I,‖ to second person usage such as ―you‖ or ―one,‖ in
addition to references to the plural first person, ―we,‖ and so on, which may evidence this
repositioning of the self as a coping mechanism. The disunity of the narrator is
tantamount to Goldberg‘s contemplation that the worsening situation in Europe saw the
727
Goldberg, ―If This is A Man: The Image of Man in Autobiographical and Historical Writing during the
Holocaust.‖ 728
Goldberg, Holocaust Diaries as Life Stories. 729
Ricoeur, Oneself as Another, 113-168. 730
Goldberg, Holocaust Diaries as Life Stories. 731
Smith and Julia, Reading Autobiography: A Guide for Interpreting Life Narratives,15-49. 732
Once again the de emplotment theme
198
diarists slowly separate the once fused narrator and protagonist. 733
This essentially
allowed the diarist as the narrator to tell the story and the protagonist, which of course
was the self, to suffer. Etty Hillesum exemplified this on Friday morning, July 10th
, 1942,
in a variation from her usual first person diary entries, notably verbalizing a hard day.
A hard day. A hard day. We must learn to shoulder our ―common fate‖; (sic)
everyone who seeks to save himself must surely realize that if he does not go
another must take his place. As if it really mattered which of us goes. Ours is
now a common destiny, and that is something we must not forget.
A very hard day. 734
Likewise, Helene Berr, whose first person ―I‖ dominated her diary, reverted to the plural
usage of ‖we‖ in the diary entry below, which described how she was struggling to accept
her new reality. Perhaps her use of this plural pronoun offered her the distance she
needed to record the inexplicable. She wrote on Monday, December 13th
, 1943:
Even if it is just another rumor, that does not alter the fact that thousands of people
have been and are being arrested every day, that the number of deportees has now
reached almost a hundred thousand, and that with or without a scare, reality exists.
And we owe it to chance alone not to have experienced the same fate; the scares serve
only to rend the veil in which we were shrouded, to make us aware of what we should
have been aware of all the time, since it existed, and it was aimed at us. 735
The split between these once united constructs ensued as the narrator slowly began to
record events which the protagonist had to endure, a separation seemingly necessary for
the diarist to distance him or herself from the increasingly horrific events.736
It is this split
that Goldberg claims enhanced the struggle and irreversible internal chasm of the self.737
Indeed, the struggle of the self through diary narratives began to dominate the Holocaust
diaries, especially in the later years of the war. Helen Berr articulated the essence of this
sentiment on September 12th
, 1942, when she knowingly wrote, reflecting the collective
narrative of the Holocaust diarist:
I can no longer write this diary because I no longer belong entirely to myself.
So I am simply noting external facts, just to remind myself. 738
733
Goldberg, Holocaust Diaries as Life Stories. 734
Hillesum, Etty: The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum 1941-1943, 484. 735
Berr, Journal, 231. 736
Goldberg, Holocaust Diaries as Life Stories. 737
Ibid. 738
Berr, Journal, 129.
199
The Collective Struggle through Diary Narrative
Throughout this work it has been noted that a diary has both a private and a public face.
The dichotomous relationship between these two faces is always connected, as reflected
through the merging of intimate diary entries and the recording of historical events.
Dialogic entries, promises made about future testimonials and an assumed audience also
strengthen the assumption that diarists during the Holocaust aimed to portray their
testimonials about the collective fate of European Jewry. This is evidenced by diary
entries revolving around references to elaborate plans about hiding their diaries. The
intent to compose thoughts about the very real risks of writing and note descriptions
pertaining to arrangements ensuring their diaries would be read, reflected not only the
intention of the diarists to ensure a legacy would survive even if they did not, but the
innermost struggle involved in doing so. We are able to grasp the struggle and intent of
Moty Stromer, for example, who reflected the public side of his personal struggle when
he wrote in hiding on May 28th
, 1944:
I know that I am writing with many errors, but I cannot write in Polish because
everybody would be able to read it. If God only helps me to live through this terrible
period, I will, together with my brother in law in America, publish this whole
experience as a separate work. 739
Given that diary writing is a means of observing and defining the self, many who would
not have otherwise penned a diary did so during this period with the express intention of
producing a document which would bear witness to their fate. As the situation
degenerated under Nazi rule the connection to public events became more pronounced.
This enhanced the drive to record for posterity whilst relaying personal laments and most
diaries subsequently resulted in a mixture of both.
Many diaries which began as testimonials or as a means of consoling the self or spiritual
defiance were slowly transformed into narratives of struggle. This is illustrated as the self
in relation to the other, was slowly depleted as the war years wore on. Markedly, the
linguistically constructed struggle in words assisted the de emplotment of the narrator,
helping the writer to reinterpret the self and recontextualize their life stories. The struggle
to write was recognized by the diarists as such, many noting that they endured the
struggle in the hope that their extreme hardship would be recognized by future readers. In
keeping with their own disbelief and shock at the unprecedented situation in which they
found themselves, the Jewish diarists during the Holocaust may have foreseen the
possible reactions of future readers and shifted their intent and subsequent diary entries
accordingly. The assumption that diarists appear to alter their diary entries in keeping
with predicted expectations of their future readers may have triggered the modification
from an intimate, private diary, to one with a more public face. On Friday, September 4th
,
1942, Josef Zelkowicz wrote of the horrific deportation of the children from Lodz ghetto
in language which was, in its simplicity, intended to be believable to a future audience:
739
Stromer, Memoirs of an Unfortunate Person: the Diary of Moty Stromer, 202.
He wrote the diary in Yiddish. He actually wrote that he would call the published version of his diary
"Memoirs of an Unfortunate Person."
200
The sun dips to the west. Dusk has come. As the sun sets, everyone feels the
encroachment of the impending events. No one believes in miracles anymore.
All three speakers made it clear that the decree is irreversible-twenty thousand
Jews must be deported from the ghetto. Sent away for good. Never to be seen
again. Twenty thousand, one fifth of the ghetto population. That means that one
Jew in five must report by him or herself or be taken away as a sacrifice. Who
can be absolutely sure that he or she will not be in that one in five?
There has never been a sunset like today‘s . 740
This chapter focuses on those narratives which were written with the main intent of
reflecting struggle. In this respect, the diarist turned to the public domain, probably in
response to their presumed imminent death or, as a means of adapting to a future
audience.
Academic Lynn Z. Bloom has written extensively on the diary genre. She notes that the
perceived notion of a future audience facilitates the diaries ultimate focus, which may
explain why diary entries predicated on privacy metamorphose into public documents.741
With the progression of time, those who had started their diaries as an exclusively private
document began to adapt their diary to an audience which would potentially read of these
inexplicable events somewhere in the future. Scholars Bloom, Didier and Captain base
this conclusion on various studies of private diaries, which, in contrast to diaries with a
public face, lack sufficient development and detail to make it comprehensible to any
future audience.742
Strikingly, an exclusively private diary has no concern for the image
of the self and selectivity in regard to a topic is more spontaneous and daily. In contrast,
the public diarist, whilst of course still maintaining an individual narrative identity when
writing, tends to write more in response to a situation. This evidently became the focus of
the Holocaust diarists who had started keeping a diary for numerous reasons, ascertained
in earlier chapters, but ended up realizing their diary entries needed to be linked to the
cultural and social context of Nazism if they were to survive their authors. This
transformation or de emplotment process was in itself a struggle, perhaps enhancing the
realization of the narrators themselves that their fate was indeed sealed.
Whilst the diarists represented in this work certainly maintained a private voice as their
entries reflect, they recognized a connection to the outside world was urgent if their
740
Zelkowicz, In Those Terrible Days: Notes from the Lodz Ghetto, 286.
The 3 speeches refer to the speeches given by the Jewish leaders of the ghetto about the impending
deportations. 741
Lynn Z. Bloom, "I Write for Myself and Strangers: Private Diaries as Public Documents," in, Inscribing
the Daily: Critical Essays on Women’s Diaries, eds. Suzanne C Bunkers and Cynthia Anne Huff (U.S.A:
University of Massachusetts Press, 1996), 23-37.
Professor Lynn Bloom was the first Aetna Chair of writing at Connecticut University, president of the
National Council of Writing Program, on the Board of the National Archives of Composition and Rhetoric
at the University of New Hampshire, is the co author of American Biography: 1945-1980 and edited
Forbidden Diary: A Record of Wartime Internment 1941-1945. 742
Ibid.
Captain, ―Written with an Eye on History: Wartime Diaries of Internees as Testimonies of Captivity
Literature.‖ 742
Ibid.
201
words were to tell their stories. Chaim Kaplan recognized this complex relationship
between the public and the private, particularly in the last entries made before his
deportation. To that end his entries were a blend of his personal angst and the need to
record the collective struggle of Polish Jewry. Kaplan was aware that a future audience
would need to put the Jewish experience under Nazi rule into context and as his diary
progressed he paid great attention to not only his own struggle but to details of life in the
ghetto. His intent to reflect struggle is pronounced. He wrote, for example, on July 28th
,
1942, just a week before his diary came to an abrupt end:
I am plagued by nightmares. Fear and worry pre occupy me---fear lest I be
deported; worry about where to find my bread. My income has stopped. The
sums owed to me by others are lost. Besides what he needs for food, no one has
a penny to his name, and payment of debts isn‘t taken into consideration at all.
But the main thing is fear of expulsion. The only ones partially insured against
expulsion are workers in the factories that German firms have taken under their
protection. 743
Avraham Tory also wrote a diary intended for future audiences. Many of diary entries,
whilst recording historical facts, poignantly depict his personal disbelief at the
increasingly shocking situation. Illustrating this is his diary entry written on April 6th
,
1943, after rumors of another execution spread throughout the Kovno ghetto. This entry
fuses the narrator‘s obvious personal struggle with his attempt to record the fate of Kovno
Jews.
When we saw that we would not be able to save additional Jews from the train, we
climbed on the cart so as to return to the Ghetto. My head was full of depressing
thoughts. Our eyes kept seeing terrible scenes; eyes peering through the barred
windows; Jews trying to break out when the boxcar doors were flung briefly open,
and then pushed brutally back inside by the soldiers of the guard. We were upset we
did not manage to save more Jews.
These scenes of February 6, 1942 come alive before my eyes when I read the balance
sheet of murder drawn up by Israel Kaplan, a Ghetto inmate , who was taken to Riga
on that day together with 500 other Jews. Israel Kaplan was a teacher in the ghetto.
He used to record events in the ghetto. Now and then he would come to me with the
aim of setting straight some detail of some event or conversation. This same Kaplan
had called my name through the boxcar window, crying for help. I approached the
car twice, but was unable to find a way to rescue him. 744
When choosing to write a diary, the diarist presumably makes the assumption that the
sequential nature of diary entries and the absence of literary constraints will ensure the
diary will be conceived as a sincere and truthful document. This is an essential
component of the collective struggle through diary narratives and perhaps what motivated
the diarists to write. Steven Rendall claims that the lack of premeditation of a diary
743
Kaplan, Scroll of Agony: The Warsaw Diary of Chaim A. Kaplan, 388-389. 744
Tory, Surviving the Holocaust: The Kovno Ghetto Diary, 278.
February 6, 1942 was the date when the inmates form the Kovno ghetto were summoned to the ghetto
square to be sent to work in Riga. Many were killed and many tried to resist being put into cattle cars to be
deported. Tory witnessed the round up.
202
strengthens the implication that the diary reflects a direct link between mind and
language, again pertinent when considering the narratives for future readers.745
At this point a number of observations about the spontaneity of the diary are crucial. A
diary written with a specific goal in mind is not the same as a totally private diary in
which the diarist writes in codes, may not mention names and essentially writes just for
the self. I have previously argued that this was not the case during the Holocaust as most
the diarists appear, in their own words, to be writing with a future audience in mind. One
may argue that the diarists selected a diary narration for several complex reasons, a
crucial one being the relationship between time and the diary, which are inextricably
bound. Previously ascertained is the argument that each diary entry is a narrative unto
itself, thus allowing the diarist closure at the end of each day. For a diarist who was,
under Nazism, a ―persona non gratis,‖ stripped of dignity and rights and who surmised
that a new day may bring deportation or death, the diary genre was a logical choice,
allowing the daily struggle to come to an end even if it was to be renewed the following
day. It was also collective by nature since it recorded the voice of an entire community.
The Holocaust diarist wanted to reflect a reality which had become a daily struggle.
Ricoeur‘s assertion that intention is crucial to a narrative identity is important in
understanding why a diary was the best choice for a Holocaust writer wanting to reflect
struggle.746
Daily entries allowed the diarist to narrate the daily conflicts which came to
an end at the end of the entry and started afresh the following day. In that respect, whilst
the intention of the Holocaust diarist may have had a more public voice than the
traditional notion of a diary, the diarist was still able to write in diary form, free of artistic
consciousness required by other genres. Consequently, the diarist was able to write of his
or her struggle and commit to testifying to this struggle. Moreover, they were able to
insert themselves into a collective historical document, which allowed their personal
tragedies to be linked with a collective one. Through their diaries, the diarists both
attested to their words and enhanced their de emplotment. The redefinition of the self
during this period was tantamount to life itself.
Robert Fothergill used the term ―serial autobiography‖ to denote diaries in which the
diarists committed to bring to together a coherent narrative in diary form, as opposed to a
diary which simply records random events in no controlled fashion. 747
The diarists
during the Holocaust were undergoing a very complex process of de emplotment, during
which they had to assimilate their new reality devoid of rights, dignity, physical comforts
and any control over their lives. In this capacity, these diarists penned serial
autobiographies, realizing that their diaries needed to have a unified narrative with a
central protagonist, themselves, if their diaries were to have any future impact. In this
respect the narratives were part of the collective Holocaust narrative. Coupled with the
realization that this was historically an unprecedented period, the Holocaust diarist was
also confronted with the struggle of reconciling the intent to record events and to making
their words believable to future readers.
745
Rendall, ―On Diaries.‖ 746
Ricoeur, On Time and Narrative, 175-226. 747
Bloom, I Write for Myself and Strangers: Private Diaries as Public Documents, 22-37.
203
The disparity between words and life was recognized by the diarists, presenting them not
only with a personal struggle per se, but imbuing them with a glimpse of the disbelief
future readers would experience when reading their diaries. Intuitively, the diarists
understood that a memoir or traditional autobiography would possibly be perceived as
having tainted authenticity as these genres lack the time component so crucial to diary
writing. In other words, the Holocaust diarists perhaps believed that daily entries, written
sometimes over years, would be more convincing to future readers who would
understand that day after day the traumatic struggle depicted could not have been revised
or blurred with hindsight, and was consequently quite simply, the truth. The diary was
not reliant on memory, was able to mediate the struggle with immediacy, did not need to
develop a central protagonist as one existed by virtue of this genre, and, as both the
narrator and the protagonist, the diarist could focus on the ensuing struggle in a way that
was palatable to future readers. Again this reinforces the diarists' awareness that their
diaries had a public face.
Through the use of the diary genre the Holocaust diarist was able to create a narrative
identity which was able to include the new language of the Holocaust, did not have to
transcend daily life under Nazism nor offer explanations as to why such a fate had
befallen them. Through their diary entries the narrative identities created by the diarists
had the flexibility to redirect both intentions and identity on a daily basis. The Holocaust
diarist was able to preserve experiences and struggles which may have been lost in
retelling, and, because the diary lacked the development of a story, it allowed the diarists‘
struggle to be recorded with the authenticity of one living through that moment. 748
Further enhancing the authenticity of the narrative identity was the repeated reference to
the very act of writing which allowed a special relationship between the diarist and the
perceived audience to develop. To this end, the Holocaust diarist was able to describe the
personal and collective struggle being endured, aimed at an audience perceived to be
reading their diaries in another cultural context, namely, a post war reader free of the
constraints of Nazism.
The diary narrator during the Holocaust controlled the text and did not have to confront
the possible end, explicitly, death, but rather, was able to focus on the intent to attest to
their crisis situation. Ironically, the very reason that the diarists chose diary writing to
depict their struggle often served to enhance the struggle, due largely to the recognition
of the fragmented identity the self had become.749
Paradoxically, it may be this feature
that allowed the future audience a truly authentic glimpse into the personal and collective
struggle of the individual protagonists and the Jewish communities of Europe during the
Holocaust.
748
Anderson, Autobiography. 749
Rendall, ―On Diaries.‖
204
The Separation of Narrator and Protagonist
The Narration of Struggle
Throughout this work it has been established that life narrations are shaped and
constructed within cultural, social, historical and personal paradigms, the familiar
frameworks which constitute life. One‘s sense of identity is shaped by the models
outlined in great detail throughout this work. As these familiar paradigms were eroded, so
too was personal identity. To this end the narrative identity created by the Holocaust
diarists may be understood as the last vestige of familiar identity the diarists had.
Ironically, however, whilst the diarists clung to a linguistic narrative they could still
control, their struggle to write often served to remind them that their life narratives had
all but disappeared. The de emplotment process central to this thesis was therefore a
confusing process through which the diarist struggled to combine the loss of the old and
the assimilation of the new. It is significant to recall that within Ricoeur‘s framework of
narrative identity, the narrator or character within the narrative is not distinct from
personal experience.750
Expressly, Ricoeur advocated, one‘s identity is predicated on
experience, and the two are therefore deemed inseparable. The loss of life‘s familiar
paradigms on all levels was therefore tantamount to a loss of identity. Ownership of
thoughts, action and experience are the essence of the self and as these elements were
eroded under Nazi rule, so too was the essence of what constitutes the self. As a result
this drastic separation of European Jews from all that was valued initiated a struggle for
not only their lost identities but for life itself.
As a consequence, the diarists began to slowly separate the narrating self and the
protagonist, which were, in context of the diary genre, initially one and the same.751
Etty
Hillesum appeared to have recognized the gradual disengagement of the self and the
other, which may have been not only a natural reaction to extreme trauma, but a means of
distancing the still living self from the self experiencing a living death. She wrote of this
disparity of the self as deportations were rapidly increasing, Saturday morning, eleven
o‘clock, on July 11th
, 1942:
This is, of course, a mood, one of many one comes to recognize in oneself in these
new circumstances. But it is also a part of me, and an opportunity. A part of myself
is beginning to predominate. But for the rest; a person is only human. Even now I
keep telling my heart that we two will have to carry on even if I am separated from
those without whom I now think I cannot live. 752
Inherently the narratives of struggle portray a Holocaust diarist who wanted to construct a
narrative which encompassed the ongoing struggle. The most effective method was
deemed as telling the story through a central character, the protagonist, in a diary is the
self. The public face of the diary narrative moved the narrative identity to the center stage
in an effort to depict the struggle of the self in relation to the other. The pronoun ―I‖ was
750
Ricoeur, Oneself as Another. 751
Goldberg, Holocaust Diaries as Life Stories. 752
Hillesum, Etty: The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum 1941-1943, 486.
205
naturally used throughout the diary, regardless of the original language the diary was
written in. However, this narrative ―I‖ appears to become an increasingly fragmented
voice in many diaries, as the situation disintegrated. Amos Goldberg attributes this to the
complete collapse of the central character in the diary, namely the diarist, whose fate had
to be disclosed by the now desolate narrator. In fact, the narrator had the unenviable task
of narrating his or her own death.753
In this sense, according to Goldberg‘s conclusions,
de emplotment had failed and the diarist was merely recording the annihilation of the
self. 754
Put simply, the narrating ―I,‖ the voice of narration, and the narrated ―I‖, the
object, namely, the protagonist, became disconnected as the trauma of the Holocaust
deepened. Goldberg claims that so depleted were the Holocaust diarists, that the narrative
identities created were simply a means of recording death.755
In traditional diaries the narrator is a unified voice following a known trajectory of life,
even in the case of trauma in which a dramatic life change is experienced in one domain,
whilst other realms remain constant. The collapse of life in all familiar contexts during
the Holocaust is reflected in the diary narratives as the dichotomy of the self became
more pronounced as the self disintegrated. 756
However, this work deviates from
Goldberg‘s conclusion, arguing that the self reflected not merely a narration of death, but
were written to reflect their redefined situation. As such, these narratives were not ones of
complete hopelessness only serving to record one‘s own death, but rather, reflect the
fundamental trait of human nature, of struggling valiantly to the end.
The Holocaust diarist, in keeping with all other forms of narrative, censored the self when
selecting what to include and what to repress. As the reality of Nazi rule in Europe
enhanced the loss of collective and personal identity for the Jewish population, the split
between the diary narrator and protagonist widened. Perhaps as a coping mechanism this
separation allowed the diarist to continue writing. The narrator was able to organize a
lucid narrative each day, organizing the narrative in a coherent way with the protagonist
at the center. To make a narrative coherent to a future audience, the Holocaust diarist
recognized that their diaries needed to follow a traditional sequence of beginning, middle
and end, in addition to emplotting events in a unified framework if their words were to be
meaningful to future readers. As events became more and more the antithesis of
traditional emplotment, the task of articulating the experience became more arduous,
thereby instigating a wider split between the narrator, who could tell the story coherently,
and the protagonist featuring as the central character in a story of catastrophe.
Within this work much has been analyzed in regard to the ability of the Holocaust diarist
to emplot the events through which they were living. In doing so, their inevitable de
emplotment assisted to piece together the incomprehensible events being recorded.
According to Rachel Feldhay Brenner, the consciousness of life as a narrative allows the
narrator a semblance of control, and in this respect the diarists de emplotment process
753
Goldberg, Holocaust Diaries as Life Stories. 754
Ibid. 755
Ibid., 17-19. 756
Smith and Watson, Reading Autobiography: A Guide for Interpreting Life Narratives, 49-83.
206
was enhanced by the creation of a narrative identity and diary writing.757
De emplotment
reconstructed, redefined and assimilated the new life story, recorded and based on an
entirely new context, enabling the narrator to fuse their diary narrations with future
readers in much the same way the traditionally emplotted narrative is read and
understood. The evidence of the success of the diarists, who intentionally wrote to depict
their struggle, is in the reading, and pointedly, anyone reading the Holocaust diaries today
is able to conceive, albeit minimally, the demise of the familiar life paradigm and the
struggle therein.
The struggle for connectedness and control was fast deteriorating. Whilst many diarists
found solace in the control that writing allowed them, the control shifted to struggle as
deportations to death camps, liquidations of ghettos, starvation, disease and violence
escalated throughout Europe. The diary narrator became an increasingly disconnected
voice, separating the once unified narrator and protagonist. This in turn enabled the
narrating "I" to recount the suffering protagonist central to the narrative, namely, the self.
This assertion needs further explanation. Throughout this work the diary has been
portrayed as dialogic in nature, the narrator positioning the self within the narrative
trajectory. In relation to the spoken word, writing is a more permanent means of
communication and therefore requires a higher level of consciousness on behalf of the
narrator. One may therefore deduce that the Holocaust diarist had a high level of
consciousness and a strong sense of the self when committing his or her words to
posterity. To that end, the positioning of the self in the diary was subject to change as the
situation dictated. The more unbearable the situation became the more pronounced the
rift between the narrator telling the story and the protagonist experiencing the events,
became.
In varying ways, scholars writing about recording trauma, such as Dori Laub and
Dominick La Capra, reinforce the contention that the traditional narrative scaffolding of
narrative could not be used in the aftermath of the Holocaust to describe the events by
survivors.758
This quandary was cited as the trope of silence by Holocaust scholar
Lawrence Langer. 759
It is sound to assume that even those living through the events at
the time were faced with Langer‘s trope of silence, that is, how to represent the event.
Scholar Dominick La Capra also pondered the question of representing the Holocaust,
and whilst the aforementioned scholar‘s conclusions are predicated on survivors relating
their narratives, arguably the same issues were at stake for the diarists writing at the time.
The separation of narrator and protagonist was therefore a strategy of survival, enabling
the diarist to continue writing. In fact, La Capra‘s theory of transference which involved
acting out the trauma after the fact in a therapeutic framework may have been the
unconscious reasoning behind the increasing split between the narrator and the
protagonist. In other words, writing a diary may have been a form of acting out trauma by
those living through it, the narrator recording the story of the central protagonist. La
757
Feldhay Brenner, ―Writing Herself against History: Anne Frank‘s Self Portrait as a Young Artist.‖ 758
Dominick La Capra, Conclusion: Acting out and Working Through: Representing the Holocaust,
History, Theory and Trauma (New York: Ithaca, 1994). 759
Deborah Schiffrin, In Other Words: Variation in Reference and Narrative (New York: Cambridge
University Press, 2006). A discussion of the trope of Silence can be found on page 203.
207
Capra‘s theory claims that trauma is first suppressed and then returns in often repetitious
narratives, and can only be accepted after acting out the past trauma which allows
recognition of the trauma and closure.760
La Capra‘s assertion of repetition and acting out
the trauma is of course a philosophical, academic assertion written after the Holocaust.
However, as a theory it may be argued that this is what diary writing had become for
many during the Holocaust. Writing allowed the diarist to engage in recording repetitious
events within a repetitive framework, in this case specifically returning day after day to
the same diary. In doing so, the diarists figuratively acted out the events which were
almost impossible to grasp. By and large it is arguable that diary writing during the
Holocaust was the precursor of La Capra‘s acting out simply because it may be viewed as
a ―working through‖ process.
Subsequently, ―acting out‖ is in many ways tantamount to this work‘s theory of de
emplotment, that is, trying to come to terms with the enormity if events through an
emotional readjustment. The more pronounced the separation of narrator and protagonist
within the Holocaust diaries became, the greater the distance to engage in the present and
cope with the ensuing struggle was obviously necessitated. In short, the increased
separation of the diarists‘ voices made it possible for the diarist to attest to his or her
words. The split between the voice of the diarist into a visible narrator and protagonist
features in most diaries represented in this work. Janusz Korczak, for example,
exemplified the struggle of coming to terms with his circumstances throughout his diary.
This is reflected by repeated descriptions of his personal struggle and the collective
struggle of the Jews in the Warsaw ghetto, both through personal diary entries and via his
metaphorical Planet Ro story.761
Korzcak‘s de emplotment process saw the separation of
himself as the narrator and the protagonist, the central character who was experiencing
the inexplicable. On July 27th
, 1942, for example, Korczak wrote a rare entry directly
referring to the war, particularly the war against the Jews, although the Nazis were not
mentioned by name. In this diary entry Korczak acted out the role of the Nazis as part of
the de emplotment process and tellingly tries to understand the war from their point of
view. In doing so he separated himself, the narrator, from the diary events, as evidenced
by the use of third person pronouns such as "Jews", "you" and "we."
Jews go east. No bargaining. It is no longer the question of a Jewish grandmother
but of where you are needed most—your hands, your brain, your time, your life.
Grandmother. This was necessary only to hook on to something, a key, a slogan.
You say you cannot go east….you will die there. So choose something else.
You are on your own, you must take the risk. For clearly we, to keep up
appearances, are obliged to bar the way, to threaten, prosecute and reluctantly
to punish.
And you butt in, uninvited, with a fresh wad of bank notes. We have neither
time nor desire for that sort of thing. We are not playing at war, we were told
to wage it with the greatest possible expedition, efficiently, as honestly as
760
La Capra, Acting out and Working Through: Representing the Holocaust, History, Theory and Trauma, This is based on Freudian theory. 761
The Tale of Planet Ro can be found on page 82 of Korczak‘s diary. This was an allegory of the Nazi
takeover.
208
possible.
The job is not clean, or pleasant, or sweet smelling. So for the present we
must be indulgent to the workers we need. One likes vodka, another, women,
a third likes to boss everyone around while yet another, by contrast, is meek
and lacks self confidence. We know: they have their vices, shortcomings. But
they reported on time while you were philosophizing, procrastinating. Sorry,
but the train must run on schedule, according to a timetable prepared in
advance.
Here are the railway tracks.762
Helene Berr in Paris actually referred to the split between the narrator and protagonist as
being essential to the de emplotment process, noting the need to separate the two if she
were to attempt representing the experience. Berr wrote, on October 10th
, 1943:
Writing, writing the way I want to—that is to say with complete sincerity and
never thinking that others will read me, so as not to affect my attitude—to write
all the reality and the tragic things we are living through, giving them all their
naked gravity without letting words distort them, is a very difficult task and
requires constant effort. Then there is the considerable repugnance I feel at thinking
of myself as ―someone who writes‖ because for me, perhaps mistakenly, writing implies
a split personality, probably a loss of spontaneity and abdication (but maybe these
are prejudices). 763
The narrative identity is able to accentuate the temporality of selfhood. Through the
narrative identity, the narrator is able to establish the sense of the self, including choices
and the ability to interact with the society in which he or she exists. 764
Within this
framework the narrative identity is the dialectic of sameness, oneness of identity and
selfhood, as already noted. Moreover, the self is always fluid, the narrative in essence
constructing identity of the character which in turn attests to the written words of the
narrative. In doing so, the narrative identity takes responsibility for the words written,
thus affirming the ability to affect one‘s life and bring about change. Herein, the gradual
separation of narrator and protagonist during the Holocaust may be understood. Ricoeur‘s
model is based on the assumption that the attestation of one‘s intentions enhances self
esteem and confidence and is therefore inextricably bound to the extent to which the
narrator is able to attest to his or her linguistic construction. During the Holocaust it is
befitting to conclude that the ability to attest to one‘s words was severely depleted as the
result of the inability to represent the experience in words and the decreasing likelihood
that attesting to survive for example, would eventuate. As such, the self was displaced
and a separation between the narrator and protagonist was perhaps the only means
available to the diarists to attest to some extent to their words. Daily accounts allowed the
creation of a daily narrative offering the narrator a new dialectic each day, and in doing
so enabled the diarist the chance to attest to that day‘s entry. Bearing witness to the self
created on a particular day allowed the narrators to bear witness to the self at a particular
762
Korczak, Ghetto Diary, 103-104. 763
Berr, Journal, 156. 764
Paul Ricoeur, Oneself as Another, 140-169.
The Sixth Study in this book, the Self and Narrative Identity, focuses on this assertion.
209
moment, as opposed to the impossible task of seeing their predicament in unity, which
would have predicated a total collapse of the self.
This argument also strengthens the claim that the diary was the natural choice for the
Holocaust narrative. In the words of Etty Hillesum, who was lamenting her bouts of
melancholy on Wednesday morning, December 17th
1941:
In the past I would let the malaise get me down completely. Would stay in bed,
desert life without a struggle. But now heroically under the cold tap, trying to think
all the while: What‘s wrong. What‘s brought this on? And then suddenly, as I was
washing, an image, or call it what you like. Struck me, and I said to myself: well,
you have been born anew into a new day. 765
Unlike the autobiography or memoir, which requires a unified narrator throughout, the
diary allowed the narrative identity distance and disunity, embracing identity fluctuations
and change. In the case of the Holocaust diarist, the narrating voice allowed distance
from the diary narrative of the previous day. This in turn facilitated the disengagement of
the narrating voice and the central protagonist, and in so doing, accommodated traumatic
shifts in circumstance. The narrator was consequently able to formulate intentions and
attest to carrying them out on behalf of the protagonist. Bearing in mind the dialogic
nature of the diary, the slow detachment between the narrator and protagonist depicted
within the diaries appears almost as if a third neutral bystander had entered into the diary
narrative.
The increasing separation of narrator and protagonist was fuelled by the diarists‘ growing
urgency to adapt their diaries to a future audience. The inner turmoil and trauma of the
narrator somehow had to be recorded coherently for future audiences. Subsequently, the
narrator was able to record the trauma of the central protagonist, the self, through
carefully constructing the protagonist‘s struggle in a controlled and articulate narrative.
Bearing in mind that a narrative is a process of emplotment which is organized by the
narrator, the Holocaust diarist was able to record in the absence of all familiar life
paradigms through positioning the narrating voices in a way which allowed the narrator
enough distance from the trauma to engage in the narrative. This allowed the diarist to
frame intentions and assume responsibility for the words being written, simultaneously
according the future audience a chance to share the journey of the central protagonist.
This attempted distance is reflected in the words of Etty Hillesum, who, in one of the
final pages of her diary as she lay at home very ill awaiting her return to Westerbork,
distanced herself from her trauma, signified by changing from ―I‖ to ―you.‖ Written on
Friday morning, October 2nd
, 1942(in bed), Hillesum noted:
But…..now I am really ill, truly I am. I give You another two and a half days. If
Jopie comes round later and gives me that searching look from his sincere and
earnest eyes again, then I won‘t tell him any more fibs, like ―oh in actual fact I‘m
feeling very well, and I‘m sure going to be going along with you on Wednesday.‖
I‘ll say instead,‖ let me go on struggling a bit longer with myself, and I‘m sure to
find out what‘s best for me. Still, I would like to go on Wednesday for a little while!766
765
Hillesum, Etty: The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum 1941-1943, 187.
210
You‘re asking too much my girl. Don‘t become over confident. Do you want to wreck
your life first and then have to be restored to health back here again? I really do think
that‘s what you want.767
Amos Goldberg argues that the protagonist was essentially only living to record his or her
death, a premise this work deviates from. Although the struggle to stay alive and the
collapse of personal identity are indisputable, it is debatable whether or not that recoding
one‘s own demise, the non narrative as Goldberg terms this, was the sole purpose of the
diarists. 768
The struggle to continue writing was voiced by the diarists themselves. In
addition to Goldberg‘s claim of the dichotomy of the narrator and protagonist recording
the annihilation of European Jewry and indeed one‘s own personal death, this work
asserts that the split between the narrator and the protagonist was illuminated as the
narrator‘s intent to highlight their historic situation, their personal plight and that of their
families and European Jewry was heightened. The non narrative described by Goldberg,
in which the diarist records his or her own death in a state of complete hopelessness, is
disputed in this work, based on the words of the diarists themselves.
Knowledge of impending doom and the assimilation of this reality are two different
domains. Throughout this work I have argued that diary writing allowed the diarists to
attest to their words, in turn giving them a purpose to live, despite the affirmation through
writing, that life was tenuous and had become an incomprehensible struggle. De
emplotment was compounded through writing as the rift between the recording self and
the protagonist increased. As the diary narrative continued, the reaffirmation of the self
and the narrative which had been functioning on many levels slowly became dominated
by the voice of struggle.
766
Hillesum, Etty: The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum 1941-1943, 540. 767
Ibid. 768
Goldberg, On Saul Friedlander’s “The Years of Extermination.
211
Conclusion
Why a Diary?
The answer to the question as to why the diary was the choice of so many Jewish victims
who wanted to write during the Holocaust was one which became increasingly clearer as
this thesis progressed. Although other genres such as memoirs and letters were written
during the Holocaust, I believe that diary writing was a natural consequence of the de
emplotment process for several reasons, which have been examined throughout my
dissertation. A narrative is essentially the narrator‘s representation of events weaved into
a story, comprising of many separate events emplotted into a meaningful whole. Often
laced with discourse prose, this process traditionally moves along a linear trajectory
which comes to a natural end. In fact, the traditional linear progression of a narration
repeatedly highlights an assumed trajectory of beginning, middle and not simply an end
but also an assumption that there will be closure. It is this assumption which I believe
made the diary a natural genre for so many who sought to represent the events they were
witnessing under Nazism. It is salient to reiterate at this juncture, that the term Holocaust
was only deemed as such in the post Nazi period, a reminder that the diarists, whilst
increasingly aware of the inexplicable events they were witnessing, did not know the
devastating outcome, a feature which enhances the uniqueness of the diary genre in
relation to other autobiographic models, including memoirs.
It became acutely recognizable that the diaries analyzed were synonymous with the
disintegration of all familiar life paradigms. In other words, the traditional narrative
trajectory no longer existed. In fact, any assumed closure was replaced by the assumption
of an unnatural death. Consequently, the identity of the Holocaust narrators was not only
called into question but was facing destruction, necessitating the need to readjust,
transform and redefine the familiar narrative. It is this transitional process I have coined
de emplotment. To that end, the diary genre facilitated the development of a narrative
identity. In turn, one‘s personal identity was enhanced by according reflection, free of
restrictive schematic codes and the necessity of producing a unified narrative focusing on
known life paradigms. Simultaneously, the diarist was able to reconfigure the self
linguistically which, empowered the diarist to take responsibility for framed intentions. A
single diary entry, even if it were several pages long, enabled intentions to be realistic
simply due to the length and time span within which it was written. The diarist was able
to respond to incomprehensible circumstances, focusing on daily accounts of events
without having to delve into the motivations of the Nazis. The "self" was therefore placed
within a safe continuum which was subject to change on a daily basis.
Regardless of personal circumstance, the diaries represented are individual responses
with one theme common to all, expressly, not only trying to comprehend the
incomprehensible, but to represent it linguistically. Choosing to keep a diary afforded the
diarists the ability to record daily, within a framework which accorded some distance
from the trauma and a fresh start each day. The diary narratives enabled the diarist to
create a narrative identity able to include, exclude and modify events they so chose,
whilst situating themselves within the narrative at a place which allowed them to cope
with the events they were attempting to represent. Diary writing granted the possibility of
212
emplotment to some extent, albeit on a very limited scale, namely, one day. Accordingly,
the diarist created a narrative identity which was able to shift and attempt to adapt to the
new life paradigm. Paradoxically, the emplotment of the Holocaust diarist evolved into
de emplotment, an essential process if a degree of control over the self was to be
maintained within a framework which had all but stripped the self of any identity. In this
sense the diary was the obvious choice for so many who felt the need to record their
plight. A diary accords primary significance to a specific day or hour rather than
interpreting life events with long range effects or expectations, and in doing so was able
to keep a semblance of normalcy. 769
This genre also signifies the individuality of each
diarist and therein is the contribution this thesis makes to Holocaust scholarship.
The diary is a form of self definition, enabling the narrator to construct both a linguistic
identity and a reality of sorts, according to wartime diary scholar Rose Wilde. 770
When
reflecting upon why diary writing was the choice of so many during the Holocaust it
became evident that through attributing importance to a short segment of life, one day,
one week and so on, the narrator was able to develop to some extent, without the
retroactive perspective of a memoir, the assumed future of an autobiography, or the trope
and sophistication of other genres. In this capacity the narrator was able to momentarily
interpret life within a traumatic framework which assumed death as the end of the
story.771
Corresponding with Paul Ricoeur‘s theory of time and human experience being
unequivocally bound, the diary encapsulates this fusion perfectly, especially for the
diarist whose life narrative was being narrated within such a traumatic paradigm. The
diary narrative afforded the diarist the possibility of change within a framework which in
reality, did not allow this possibility. Other autobiographical genres, for example, move
towards a completed life narrative, unlike the diary which records the process of life with
no definitive end. As such, the process of life reflected in diaries allows for daily change
inasmuch as the diary is discontinuous and fractured, in accordance with daily events,
moods and so on. Diary entries do not have to be unified as these narratives are not
concerned with character development and plot. In fact, the seemingly singular constraint
on diarists is merely time per se, that is, daily or weekly entries which are dated. There is
no end to the diary, as noted by Philipe Lejeune, and in this respect the Holocaust diarist
was psychologically if not physically, protected from death. 772
Intrinsically this enabled the Holocaust diarist to carry out the intention of completing the
day‘s entry and to that end, allowed one to organize and attest to intentions. Most literary
texts move toward progression and the future, or, in literary terms, the end of the story.
The Holocaust diary entries, however, were contrary to the progression of a traditional
narrative, formulating intentions related to their perceived deaths, such as hiding their
diaries and last wishes. Once again the juxtaposition of the consolation of writing and the
opposite effect it may have had in reality needs to be acknowledged. Despite the
769
Ibid. 770
Wilde, ―Chronicling Life: The Personal Diary and Conceptions of Self and History.‖ 771
. Weintraub, Autobiography and Historical Consciousness. 772
Lejeune, ―How do Diaries End?‖
213
reinforcement of a shocking predicament, the diary is not in the traditional sense a
literary text as it is free of trope, linguistic swerves and traditional discourse. The diary
afforded the diarist the luxury of distance when needed, dialogic discourse and the chance
to not only complete a narrative each day, but to start afresh the following day if they
were so able.
Analogous to one‘s inner consciousness, the diary allowed the diarists in a limited
capacity, to maintain a small part of the familiar paradigm they had once been a part of.
Through words the Holocaust diarist was able to revert back to familiar daily occurrences
which perhaps offered some relief from their suffering. For example, in the midst of
writing about deportations and liquidations, many diarists make references to more
mundane activities, such as Janusz Korczak‘s diary entries about weighing the children
and Etty Hillesum‘s musings about reading. The diary enabled the diarist to shift from
recording impending disaster to imparting a line or two about the familiar, thereby
allowing the diarist to retain at least linguistically, a small part of the past. The freedom
from textual discipline enabled the diarists to move relatively freely from one voice to
another and this, coupled with the ongoing nature of diary writing, empowered the diarist
with the ability to maintain some control over the self.773
The narrative identities created by the diarists coupled with the nature of the diary genre,
enabled the diarists to position and distance the self along the continuum of their life‘s
trajectory. In a time of crisis daily diary entries imbued one with the strength to continue
writing. The diary mimicked the construction of identity which in turn entitled the diarist
to articulate the self, thus preserving some part of the identity they had been stripped of.
To this end, the diary allowed the self to enter into a dialogic relationship with the new
social construct of victimhood. Lacanian theory asserts that one cannot exist without
recognition by the other, and it is this dimension that the diarist, through a complicated
relationship between protagonist, narrator and the perceived audience, made the diary a
special form of discourse.774
It may therefore be deduced that daily diary writing allowed
the diarist the luxury of being displaced on a regular basis. In turn, the diarist could
reposition him or herself daily which may account for the numerous people who chose
this genre over others to recount their trauma. Other genres such as memoirs require a
unified narrative identity relaying a narrative which was becoming far too painful to
narrate. Quite simply, the diary allowed self censorship, distancing, disunity of the self
and reinvention on a daily basis. At the same time, the diary accommodated those
struggling to maintain identity through dialogic writing and the fusion of the self with the
other. The diarist was able to progress through a moment in time which was
incomprehensible.
773
Robert Moses Shapiro, Editor, Holocaust Chronicles: Individualizing the Holocaust through Diaries
and other Contemporaneous Personal Accounts (New Jersey: KTAV Publishing House, 1999). 774
Ricoeur, Oneself as Another.
Homer, Jacques Lacan
This is the basis of the title "Oneself as Another."
214
Philipe Lejeune notes that the beginning of a diary is generally distinguished consciously
by the diarist. 775
This is of profound significance as it would have appealed to the
narrator who perceived or was beginning to perceive such an uncertain end. The opening
diary entry certainly gave the Holocaust diarist a sense of self and allowed not only
intentions to be framed, but offered the possibility of attesting to intentions. Diary writing
also enabled what Paul Ricoeur termed appropriation, the process of extracting meaning
from individual experiences with others, whilst retaining a sense of the self.776
Starting a
diary was an action which the diarist believed he or she could carry out, permitting an
identity to be constructed, albeit a linguistic identity, which within Ricoeur‘s framework
is tantamount to the self. This theory is evident in most diary entries analyzed, which
state intent and the belief that intentions would be enacted. Anne Frank in Amsterdam
wrote in her opening diary entry written on June 12th
, 1942:
I hope I will be able to confide everything to you, as I have never been able to
confide in anyone, and I hope you will be a great source of comfort and support.777
Mary Berg in the Warsaw Ghetto, alluding perhaps to a previous habit of diary writing
noted that she was consciously resuming this task, in the first entry of her wartime diary
on October 10th
, 1939:
I have not written my diary for such a long time that I wonder if I shall ever catch
up with all that has happened. This is a good moment to resume it. 778
Similarly, Etty Hillesum in Amsterdam noted at the beginning of her diary, on March 9th
,
1941:
Here goes, then. This is a painful and well nigh insuperable step for me: yielding up
so much that has been suppressed to a blank sheet of lined paper. The thoughts in my
head are sometimes so clear and so sharp and my feelings are so deep, but writing them
comes hard. 779
By the same token, Janusz Korczak‘s first diary entry from the Warsaw Ghetto stated in
an undated entry that "reminiscences make a sad, depressing literature." 780
Moshe Flinker in Brussels also announced his intent at the beginning of his diary, writing
on November 24th, 1942:
For some time now I have wanted to note down every evening what I have been
doing during the day. But, for various reasons, I have only got round to it tonight.
First, let me explain why I am doing this, and I must start by describing why I came
here to Brussels. 781
775
Lejeune, How Do Diaries End? 776
All Ricoeur's works quoted in this thesis discuss the theory of appropriation. 777
Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition, 1. 778
Berg, The Diary of Mary Berg, 1. 779
Hillesum, Etty: The letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum, 1941-1943, 4. 780 Korczak, Ghetto Diary, 5. 781
Flinker, Young Moshe’s Diary: The Spiritual Torment of a Jewish Boy in Nazi Germany.
215
The definitive beginning of the diary propelled the narrative identity to the dialectic of
sameness and selfhood within Ricoeur‘s paradigm, which enabled the narrator to mediate
between the self and the other. In doing so, the narrating voice and the experiencing self
were fused, giving the diarist enough distance to not only to write but to frame and carry
out the intention to record for posterity. Diary writing allowed the diarist not only to take
responsibility for the words he or she had constructed but to commit to the obligation of
fulfilling this responsibility. Within the fast declining circumstances under Nazi rule the
time frame of a diary entry allowed this commitment to be recognized, because the
intention to write one more diary entry had the possibility of being actualized. Other
literary genres propel the narrator and protagonist forward and what comes next is the
central to the narrative. In the case of the diary, however, there is always a time perceived
by the diarist as beyond the next entry which makes the diary ongoing or very hard to
complete.782
In fact, in regard to a life narrative the diary protected the Holocaust diarist
to a great extent, from the traditional narrative trajectory of drawing on the past and
progressing towards a perceived end. Rather, it allowed a discontinuous narrative to be
formulated which could be renewed each day and stopped at any point if the diarist so
desired.
Comparisons between the written word and oral discourse reflect a stark contrast, based
on the momentary and spontaneous nature of conversation. Whilst both speech and
writing require syntax and grammatical structure, the written word is generally edited,
contrived and more formal in structure than the spoken word. I posit that the diary is the
closest literary form to the spoken word, encouraging the diarist to enter into a dialogic
relationship with the self and the perceived audience. During the Holocaust a genre free
of linguistic constructional restraints sanctioned the diarists to assert the self as much as
was possible through the written word, another probable reason for choosing diary
writing as a means of recording the inexplicable. Whilst most Holocaust diarists
recognized their imminent destruction, the diary legitimized some distance from events,
providing a psychological barrier. This enabled some reaffirmation of personal identity
and the possibility of recording in conceivably believable words. In this respect it may be
assumed that writing was more liberating than the prospect of oral dialogue articulating
their predicament ,which was not only increasingly dangerous but was perhaps simply
not enough to ease the burden.
As is the case with all narrations, the diarist was able to construct a fictional audience.
Fittingly at this stage, mention needs to be made of Philip Lejeune‘s famous
autobiographical pact, an unspoken agreement he theorized, between the reader and
autobiographical text, which extends to those reading a diary. 783
This pact distinguishes
the autobiography genre as an implied agreement between the author and reader that the
narrator claiming authorship as the protagonist is recognized and identified as the person
782
Lejeune, ―How Do Diaries End?‖ 783
Philippe Lejeune, "The Autobiographical Pact," in On Autobiography, ed. Paul John Eakin, translated
by Katherine Leary (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1989).
Originally published as L’Autobiographie en France. Paris. Colin, 1971
216
whose name is on the title page.784
The identification between the author, narrator and
audience recognizes the self and the protagonist as being one and the same, an
assumption which extends to those reading diaries. In short, an audience perceives a diary
as a daily account of events written by the author identified in the diary. The reading
audience understands the diary as being a record of the unique and authentic expression
an individual, capturing the momentary process of a life being lived on the date recorded
at the beginning of the diary entry. In accordance with Lejeune‘s autobiographical pact,
reading a diary imbues the reader with the sense of reading the stream of consciousness
of the diarist, who is the fusion of narrator, protagonist and author identified by name at
the beginning of the diary.785
Even an anonymous diary implies the same assumption,
largely as a result of the recognition of the structure of the text which identifies the text
and the narrator as one and the same. The simple act of identification with one‘s narrative
by ascribing a name to the text may in fact be viewed as a statement of the self. During
the Holocaust those penning diaries possibly believed that this genre would present the
most believable account of unbelievable events to their future readers. In addition, the
diarist understood that a diary would be implicitly comprehended as a document of the
self, untainted with literary expectations, literary imagination or a completed life
narrative.
The autobiographical genre is distinguishable from historical narrative, according to
scholar Jeremy Popkin, since the former is based on the temporality of the author‘s
lifespan and the latter in collective time.786
The diary is an exclusive literary genre.
This is even more pronounced in the case of the Holocaust, due to the merger of
temporality based on the lifespan of the author and historical narrative, situated in
collective time. Whilst the Holocaust diarists are subjective narratives with the diarist
undoubtedly at the center of the story, they do not place themselves as onlookers
recording from the outside, but as active protagonists within the historical moment of
Nazism. This complex relationship allowed discontinuous diary entries to be recorded
which ended with the day, rather than recording unified narratives inevitably ending with
annihilation.
784
Smith and Julia Watson, Reading Autobiography: A Guide for Interpreting Life Narratives, 7-9. 785
The same autobiographical pact remains intact, even if the author of a diary is anonymous. The diary is
recognized as a unique genre as long as it is dated sequentially, begins with familiar trope such as ‗dear
diary‖ and so on. The reader will make the same assumptions whether a name is assigned to the diary or
not. 786
Jeremy D Popkin, "Historian on the Autobiographical Frontier," American Historical Review 104,
no. 3 (1999): 725-748.
217
Conclusions about the Diary and De emplotment
Throughout this work a new concept central to the main thesis has been developed which
is the antithesis of emplotment, namely the disjointed narrative of displacement, which I
have coined de emplotment. This concept further denotes a process which encapsulates
the redefined Jewish victim within the paradigm of Nazism. Primarily, the construction of
a narrative identity therein helped redefine life within a framework which had eradicated
all familiar contexts. The diaries represented reflect the process of de emplotment which
was central to the Holocaust diarists attempting to come to terms with the inconceivable.
In doing so, they addressed the question not of how such a fate had befallen them, but
why. For many, the diary became the means through which order could be maintained as
life was redefined in the absence of events which could be weaved into a meaningful
whole.
Having elucidated the above exposition it is noteworthy to devote a sentence or two on
my choice of terminology, namely, the Latin based prefix ―de,‖ which I fused with
emplotment. Originally pondering the term ―re emplotment‖, a prefix which assumed
some renewal of the life narrative, it was ultimately rejected quite simply because no
renewal of the familiar life narrative was evident in the diary narratives examined. In
turn, this led to the usage of the ―de‖ prefix denoting removal or separation, seemingly
more apt. A narrative is traditionally a process which assumes continuity and a trajectory
which moves forward to its conclusion. De emplotment was necessitated in the absence
of both continuity and a discourse moving the narrator to an assumed end, propelling the
self to make sense of a new life narrative. 787
This process seemingly encompassed an
unexpected end, which appeared increasingly to be tantamount to violence and death.
Subsequently, the term de emplotment denotes the process of loss and redefinition of the
life story and the self per se. Despite the use of terms with the ―re‖ prefix, such as
redefinition and recontextualize which have been used throughout this work, the
implication was not of renewal but of separation from the traditional. In fact, the usage of
the prefix ‗re‖ in words being applied to describe the shift in circumstance for the diarists
perhaps provided the trigger in coining the term de emplotment, so profoundly unsuitable
and ironic did the ramifications of a positive prefix sound. The ability to renew the self
was almost nonexistent and the shift or de emplotment was a permanent one, heralding
the removal of the old life paradigm being replaced by a new unfathomable one. On this
basis the word de emplotment seemed to depict the life narrative described in so many of
the diaries.
Within Paul Ricoeur‘s model, narrative emplotment is based on a past which affects the
present, and an assumed future. Based on what is considered the narrator‘s norm, life
events are therefore emplotted along a familiar continuum, which under Nazism was
eradicated. As voiced repeatedly within the holocaust diaries, the past no longer had any
connection to the present reality and the future was deemed as possible deportation,
violence, loss of loved ones and ultimately, death. Emplotment was reconfigured to de
emplotment, an all encompassing re adjustment and redefinition of identity and reality
which was discontinuous and no longer able to be mediated through a familiar paradigm.
787
The assumed end was deportation and death.
218
A life narrative constitutes the making, remaking and redefinition of an identity through
telling and retelling the story, forming the basis of emplotment. A life story is based on
traditional genres of narrative primarily dependent on a past, present and future
trajectory. It is placed a familiar framework, situated within the context of time and place,
and subsequently emplotted. Upon analysis it is apparent that autobiographical narration,
the narrative of the self, is a complex process of telling, retelling and inserting the self
into a fluid interaction with familiar social and cultural paradigms.
The story of the self can take many forms. For example, the narrator and the plot can be
distinct entities, the narrator telling the story which has its own separate existence or, a
discourse into which direct dialogue is interwoven can be written so the narrator slips in
and out of the story.788
A narrator may choose to narrate the self through time which is
not necessarily chronological as it can include flashbacks, flash forwards and inversions
of causal order. Moreover, autobiographical narrations may place the author in various
spatial dimensions, such as one hour or one year in the life of the narrator. Regardless of
such variations the understanding between the reader and narrator are not only implicitly
recognized, but pivotal to the relationship between the two. To this end it is recognized
that events which comprise a story, essentially known as the plot, need to converge and
be fused together if the events being described are to be a meaningful whole rather than a
string of unrelated events being reported. It is this convergence or emplotment which
enables a story to be told, read and understood.
The basis of Ricoeur‘s theory is Aristotle‘s notion of emplotment in regard to the Greek
tragedy and epic.789
Originally devised to represent mimesis of life, mimicking life‘s
intentions, causes, actions and unforeseen eventualities, emplotment was the basis of
unifying narrative.790
Put simply, a narrative transforms mimesis into comprehensible
stories that articulate the complex factors which comprise every life story. Ricoeur‘s
theory extended the relationship between mimesis and emplotment, expanding mimesis
into three categories, simply denoted as mimesis one, two and three. Ricoeur‘s mimesis
claims that narrative emplotment is based on understanding of the world structures which
are temporal in nature, the ability to mediate function thereby transforming events into
stories and the ability to write the narrative which accords meaning to the reader. 791
Thus
established, the term de emplotment was apt during the Holocaust, as it is based on the
presumption that the understanding of world structures (mimesis one) and the inability to
mediate between agency, goals and relationships into a meaningful whole (mimesis two)
became inconceivable. As a result, the assumption on behalf of the Holocaust diarist, that
future readers would comprehend their narratives (mimesis three) and make sense of their
words, was somewhat dubious when they recorded their diaries. Regardless, they
continued recording, documenting the de emplotment process and the historical narrative
788
Herman, The Cambridge Companion to Narrative, 39-44.
Smith and Watson, Reading Autobiography: A Guide for Interpreting Life Narratives, 71-75. 789
Ricoeur, The Course of Recognition, 69-150.
This chapter discusses recognizing the self. Originally Aristotle coined the term emplotment (muthos), as a
term which could unify a complex blend of intentions, causes and contingencies. 790
Ibid. 791
Ricoeur, Time and Narrative, Volume 1, 30-35.
219
which instigated it. Herein is the contribution this thesis makes to the body of work which
reflects the victim response to the Holocaust.
The diary is an extension of the autobiographical genre, immediately recognizable to the
reader because of its distinctive sequencing, usually regular dating, coupled with the
obvious amalgamation of narrator and protagonist. The gravity and unexpectedness of the
Holocaust negated the assumed continuity of a life story, calling into question not only
the traditional trajectory of life and the ability to emplot the self within known paradigms,
but presented the Holocaust narrators with the seemingly impossible task of telling a
story which words could not describe. Literary mimesis pertains to the representation of
life through the written word. Although one can speak in a disjointed fashion and still be
understood, written prose needs to be more structured if it is to be comprehended. A
reader follows a story without the guidance of the narrator, unlike conversation which is
guided by the participants who are always present. Consequently, a story needs to be told
within known paradigms, relying on the inferences of the reader. In this respect the diary
seemed an obvious choice for one who wanted to record during the Holocaust, since this
genre is perceived as authentic because of its daily sequencing and spontaneous accounts
written free of structural or literary constraints.
During the Holocaust the basis of Ricoeur‘s narrative theory was called into question.
Mimesis one, world structures being assumed and understood and Mimesis two, the
weaving of narrated events into a meaningful whole, guilelessly became meaningless
during the Holocaust. Consequently, the Holocaust diarist would have called into
question Mimesis three, that is, the future reader making sense of the narrative. Quite
simply, narratives based on mimesis of reality cannot exist outside known paradigms and
it was this quandary that the Holocaust diarist was faced with. No assumptions could be
made about Nazism as no precedent for such a regime had yet been conceived. When
faced with recording such incomprehensible events the diarists concluded that through a
structured diary genre a discontinuous narrative would be validated. Furthermore, the
diary allowed the narrator to not only record the de emplotment process, but through
chronological diary entries, assimilate their new inexplicable reality. The Holocaust
diarists presumably chose the diary as the most coherent means of narrating
discontinuous events.
Emplotment involves a narrative based on familiar contexts, be it cultural, religious,
gender based or the like. These life paradigms formulate not only prior conceptions but
are the basis of what one holds meaningful. They not only shape perceptions but are
drawn upon to construct new meanings and assimilate events into one‘s consciousness.
Identity is therefore forged through an accumulation of past experiences, the present
situation and future expectations, which generate continuity and meaning to the self.792
During the Holocaust the crisis was of such an enormous magnitude that the individual
was dramatically separated from what was valued and familiar. Whilst emplotment
involves fusing an understanding of life based on meaningful cultural and social norms,
intent and action, de emplotment involved abandoning one‘s meaningful norms, shifting
792
Ibid.
220
intentions and redefining actions within a paradigm that suppressed all previous norms.
In order to survive, intentions and actions which constituted the uniqueness of an
individual had to shift drastically if the self were to survive on any level. This de
emplotment, although not voiced as a coherent concept, was certainly recognized by
several diarists who redefined themselves as victims under Nazi rule. They endeavored to
linguistically construct a narrative identity which would symbolize their demise,
simultaneously reconstructing and redefining life without a meaningful past, present and
perhaps no future other than certain death.
Emplotment fuses several incidents into one long meaningful story. According to Paul
Ricoeur, time is constituted as open and indefinite in storytelling, defined by the common
linguistic usage which propels the narration forward, such as ―then‖, ―afterwards‖,
―finally‖ and so forth.793
Clearly this traditional form of narration was obscured for the
Jewish Holocaust diarist, who was no longer able to propel a narration forward to a
traditional end. The use of connecting words which move the trajectory to its natural end,
such as ―afterwards‖ and ―finally‖ were obscured in the Holocaust diaries, conceivably
signifying an end that was too hard to bear. In fact, as will be asserted shortly, this was
perhaps the basis of choosing a diary over other genres, as the words ―finally‖ or
―afterwards‖ only signified the end of a day and not of a life.
Paul Ricoeur devoted much energy to the relationship between time and narrative, which
is inextricably linked to my own theory of de emplotment. Quite simply, as the war wore
on the diarists realized that their time was running out. Ricoeur concluded that all
narratives are situated within time, without which a story could not unfold. Within this
hypothetical time moves the story forward, and in doing so the reader infers, predicts and
assumes in order to not only read the narrative but to make it purposeful. A story could
not be written or read if not placed in a time frame which allowed both the narrator and
reader to be guided through the narrative.
Most narratives move through time using time expressions such as then, tomorrow,
afterwards and finally which, combined with the readers foreshadowing, prediction and
assumptions, fuses episodes into a intelligible whole.794
It is this union that Ricoeur
asserts is essential for a meaningful narrative. Thus established, it is arguable that as
events unfolded during the Holocaust it became almost impossible to slot any narrative
into this traditional paradigm. For example, the elements of sequence such as memory,
flashbacks and projection became irrelevant to the Jewish victim within the Nazi
framework. The narration process was knocked out of sequence under Nazi rule and the
linear progression of events could no longer be assumed. Projection and assumption
could not be made by the Holocaust narrator because events being experienced had no
precedent, no apparent trigger and could not be stopped or controlled by the victims. This
story could not be deduced, predicted or understood. The diary, using the natural time
measure of one day, legitimized the narration of short stories which began and ended
within a defined time measurement, namely, twenty four hours.
793
Wood, On Paul Ricoeur: Narrative and Interpretation, 1-33. 794
Ibid.
221
Episodic events which were not progressive within the life trajectory resulted in de
emplotment. Just as the emplotment denotes the fusion of events becoming a life
narrative, de emplotment is the process whereby events become unraveled, rendering
them episodic and incoherent, no longer having the ability to be emplotted meaningfully.
The diary was a vehicle for combining a degree of unified, sequential dating, with
disunity, in the form of daily diary entries, each of which stood alone as a small self
contained narrative.
Diary writing was the choice of many, whose narratives were interrupted episodes of
irreconcilable disunity, in contrast to the traditional narration of emplotted events
occasionally interrupted but able to be repaired and reach a final conclusion.
Traditionally, any new event or story in the life of an individual is slotted into the
familiar framework which assimilates the new event whilst maintaining the old. Under
Nazism the framework of old all but disappeared, despite efforts until the very end to
maintain a semblance of the familiar. De emplotment became a survival mechanism,
allowing the narrator, even if only in words, to assimilate the drastic shift in the absence
of all familiar life paradigms. The emplotted whole became obsolete, replaced by
disjointed episodes, heeding de emplotment in an effort to give life some meaning. Victor
Klemperer noted this discontinuity on March 19th
, 1942, when he wrote:
Que Sais –je? I know nothing about the past because I wasn‘t there; and I know
nothing about the present, because I was there-(sic)That‘s what goes through my
head while reading Arthur Rosenberg‘s The Origins of the German Republic, Berlin,
1928. 795
Within Ricoeur's complex framework of the self and identity, a narrative defines the self
because it can never be entirely neutral. 796
In agreement with this assertion the Holocaust
diarists inadvertently brought their own cultural, religious, social and personal biases into
the recording. This is clearly evidenced by the narrative identity of the diarist which
became profound to the extent that each is recognizable to the reader. As circumstances
shifted so too did the narratives, whilst writing personas remained constant, allowing a
semblance of personal identity to be maintained. In accordance to traditional narrative
theories, the self designates identity in terms of a whole life, reflected in the childhood,
adulthood and old age scenarios depicted in many life stories. De emplotment confronted
this traditional narrative when the realization that the traditional life expectancy and the
reality under Nazi rule was irreconcilable. The diary was a natural extension of this. It
enabled the diarist to increasingly separate the narrating self and the protagonist and
define identity according to daily diary entries which were complete unto themselves. In
this capacity the diarist emplotted a day, essentially enacting de emplotment.
Gathering events, actions, goals and needs into a meaningful whole requires a pre
existing understanding of the norms of society, in addition to an explicit cultural and
social context. During the Holocaust the Jewish victims were faced with the task of
795
Klemperer, To the Bitter End: The Diaries of Viktor Klemperer 1942-1945, 36. 796
Ricoeur, Oneself as Another, 1-27.
Freud also referred to the subjectivity of language, as did Lacan‘s interpretation of Freud.
222
fusing together events which seemingly had no explicit context correlating to the norm.
Although the Holocaust diarists were required to emplot new events into a whole, the
term emplotment is insufficient because of the understanding and meaningful whole it
encapsulates. To this end, de emplotment describes the process of living through events
which cannot be weaved together as a meaningful whole, remaining episodic and
disjointed for the narrator. In agreement with the conclusions of scholars such as Saul
Friedlander and Alon Confino, an unbelievable event is assimilated into a palatable
consciousness once expressed in words.797
Whilst this is inescapable, the Holocaust diary
was able to record the disbelief and the ensuing de emplotment process, whilst
maintaining an individual voice. Conceiving, researching and drawing conclusions
pertaining to the de emplotment process, has contributed to the unique nature of this
dissertation, in addition to expanding new research possibilities.
797
Friedlander, Probing the Limits of Representation: Nazism and the Final Solution.
Alon Confino, "Narrative Form and Historical Sensation: On Saul Friedlander‘s The Years of
Extermination," History and Theory 48, no. 3 October (2009): 199-219.
223
Conclusions about Intention and Attestation as Reflected in the Diary Narratives
Diary writing perfectly combines the narrative process with the creation of a narrative
identity. This involved the synthesis of dialogic interaction between the self and a
perceived audience. To this end, the diary was able to facilitate an individual response to
the dire circumstances in which the Jews of Europe found themselves. Throughout this
dissertation the diaries have been classified thematically in accordance to what I
perceived as the central intentions of the individual diarists. Boundaries of classification
were often blurred and fluid, changing throughout the de emplotment process. Inasmuch
as it was possible for a post Holocaust reader, however, perceived intention was the basis
of diary classifications within this work.
As Ricoeur astutely noted, the intention to speak presupposes the expectation of actually
being heard.798
This work concludes that this reasoning extends to the intention of writing
during the Holocaust, which presupposed the expectation of being read. Whilst not all
Holocaust diarists set out to write for a discerning future audience from the onset, as
circumstances shifted so did the growing intention to record for future generations. I have
concluded that the four main categories of expressed intent in the Holocaust diaries were
testimonial, consolation, defiance and struggle. Thus established, regardless of the initial
motivation to write, the assumption of an audience seems to characterize the diary
narratives regardless of intentions. Notably, the classifications of intent represented in
this work are those understood to be explicitly expressed by the diarists themselves.
Traditionally, words spoken with certain intent are for the most part understood as such,
resulting in the designated subject being able to react in recognition to the person
talking.799
Ricoeur further claims that a meaningful narrative is mediated by experience,
both past and present, combined with known cultural and social paradigms. To be
meaningful interaction between the text and audience, labeled ―mimesis three‖ within
Ricoeur's philosophical framework, is necessitated. 800
The construction of a narrative
identity assumes a future reader will be able to recognize parts of the narrative as
familiar, thereby facilitating understanding of the narrative. As such, one writes with the
intent of being understood, based on the understanding that words written outside a
known familiar framework or context, renders the words meaningless. It was this
scenario that the Holocaust diarists appear to have feared in connection to their own
words, so unprecedented was their new life paradigm. This fear was expressed repeatedly
by Holocaust diarists. Many diarists markedly concluded future readers would be unable
to recognize any social or cultural paradigms being recorded, so unspeakable had they
become. As such, they were faced with the dilemma of writing familiar words within
familiar lexical frameworks whilst creating a narrative identity which would allow a
window into the hitherto unknown paradigm of Nazism. In the words of Oscar Rosenfeld,
dated November 1943:
798
Ricoeur, The Course of Recognition. This concept is reiterated in the concluding chapter, pages 247-
263. Mimesis three is the third part of Ricoeur‘s emplotment theory, essentially stating that in order to be a
meaningful narrative the story needs to be understood by the reader. 799
Ibid. 800
Ibid.
224
As soon as freedom of movement, the freedom to act, was gone, words, adages,
sentences too, could no longer be used in the conventional sense. The transformation
of forms of living forced the transformation of forms of concepts. 801
He further noted, on the same day that "new words had to be created, old ones had to be
endowed with new meaning. " 802
Chaim Kaplan too, expressed this sentiment on July 26th
, 1942, when the liquidation of
the Warsaw Ghetto was well underway.
I have no words to express what has happened to us since the day the expulsion
was ordered. Those people who have gotten some notion of historical expulsions
from books know nothing. 803
Herman Kruk noted the same misgivings on December 29th
, 1942, when he wrote in a
diary entry with the title ―God, look down from heaven.‖
The vocabulary has become impoverished. Concepts lose their clarity.
Everything that was dreadful and terrible is pale and put to shame. Words
stop affecting and influencing. 804
In addition to the assertion that when speaking and writing one presumes to be
understood, this theory extends to the premise not only being able to gauge reaction from
words, but from actions.805
Ricoeur claims that the human capacity to frame intentions
and to attest to actions is tantamount to the human condition. His attestation theory
focuses on taking responsibility for one‘s intentions, carrying out promises and acting
upon expressed intentions may be considered almost indistinguishable from conscience. I
believe this to be central to the Holocaust diarists‘ very survival in many respects. This
conclusion was reached upon the realization that writing a diary entry with intent to
return to it the following day as this genre dictates, was an intention which the narrator
was able to attest to, which was synonymous to life itself for the Holocaust diarist.
Nazism negated all that was meaningful in the life narratives of the diarists, transforming
their life stories into ones of doom and destruction. Intention in the traditional sense,
expressly living a life which follows an intended and expected trajectory, was obliterated,
leaving in its stead an incomprehensible new reality. Living another day to record another
diary entry seemingly replaced the intentions of old such as marrying, bringing up
801
Rosenfeld, In the Beginning was the Ghetto: Notebooks from Lodz, Notebook J, 229. 802
Ibid. 803
Kaplan, Scroll of Agony: The Warsaw Diary of Chaim A, Kaplan, 382. 804
Kruk, The Last Days of the Jerusalem of Lithuania: Chronicles from the Vilna Ghetto and the Camps,
1939-1944, 439. 805
Paul Ricoeur: The Hermeneutics of Action, ed. Richard Kearney (London, California, New Delhi: Sage
Publications, 1996). Ricoeur states that the story told is about the action of the ―who,‘ which is the narrative
identity. Ricoeur claims that attestation bears witness to the self, giving the narrator the capacity to
formulate intentions and the commitment to enact them. This is only meaningful if understood by the self
contextually and assumedly extends to the intended audience.
225
children, and studying. With a diminished capacity to take responsibility and attest to
intentions, diary writing enabled de emplotment by imbuing the Holocaust narrators with
the ability to presume that they still had the magnitude to act, synonymous to life itself.
Ricoeur proposes the term narrative identity as characterizing the ability to narrate events
and to narrate the self, which principally lies at the core of diary writing. 806
He theorizes
that identity is the fusion of two entities, sameness and selfhood.807
Within this
framework, the ability to attest to one‘s words, that is, keep a promise or bear
responsibility for one‘s intentions, affirms the self, as opposed to sameness, which gives
one a numerical and qualitative identity so a particular person, for example, will always
be recognized as that person regardless of circumstance. It may thus be concluded that
the ability to believe in one‘s capacity to carry out intentions affirms identity. This being
so, intention was not only intrinsic to the narrative identities created by the Holocaust
diarists but virtually affirmed life in the midst of annihilation.
I believe that the diarists‘ intentions and the belief that they could attest to their words
was crucial to the diary writing process. It is this conclusion that has also contributed to
the diary classifications enunciated in this thesis. In simple terms the intentions expressed
by the diarists themselves were adhered to when classifying the diaries, which
unmistakably not only affirm the intentions of the Holocaust diarists but attest to the
responsibility of their words. The belief that an action could be carried out, such as
returning to the diary the following day, writing a diary for future generations, defying
Nazi rule or consoling the self, formed the basis of the diary classifications, but perhaps
more importantly, was the affirmation of the self which the Nazis had stripped the Jews
of. In other words, fundamental to diary writing during the Holocaust was that "writing
the self" bears witness to identity.
The hypothesis that a linguistic construction engages the responsibility of the writer to
commit to the narrative expressed and, in doing so, attests to the self is salient. Ricoeur
presents a very lengthy discussion delineating various forms of intention of which this
work will not elaborate further. Suffice to note that distinguishing between ―intentions‖
which are intended to be carried out and those which are not, is an academic debate.
Essentially, Ricoeur classifies intentions into three main categories, that of an intentional
act in the past, acting with intention in the present and the intention of acting in the
future. It is the second and third distinctions which are relevant to the Holocaust diarists,
whose words attested to writing with express intent. 808
Describing an action as
intentional intrinsically distinguishes between the applications of the self to the question
of why an action was carried out. Describing an action as intentional is tantamount to the
belief that the expressed intention will be carried out. It is akin to the belief that the self is
able to act and consequently forms the basis of what Ricoeur classifies as an intentional
action.
806
Ricoeur, The Course of Recognition, 23-69. 807
Ibid. This is the "idem" identity, that which remains the same in the diversity of occurrences and ipse
identity, that which gives one the capacity to change. 808
Ricoeur, Oneself as Another, 67-73.
226
Paul Ricoeur‘s theoretical framework, through which the diaries have been analyzed,
attributes narrative as reflecting the basis of the dimensions of the human condition. He
renders narrative as the reflection of agency, social and cultural network, intention and
human action. In short, intentionality appears to be the cornerstone of narrative identity.
Within most literary genres an action is narrated by the narrator and carried out by a
central protagonist or the more minor antagonist. In this respect a diary is unique in that
the narrator is both the narrating voice and the protagonist. This being so it is apt to
conclude that a diary is dictated by the intentions of the diarist, who controls the meaning
and final product of the narrative, rendering the narrative a document of self
representation. It may therefore be deduced that a diary is clearly perceived by the
audience as reflecting the explicit intention of the diarist. Indeed this presumption
appears to have been even more critical to the Holocaust diarists who set out to create a
discourse which would not only enhance a narrative identity but could perhaps lay claim
to their fast disappearing individuality and their intent to salvage it.
As a unique response to Nazism, each diary written in this period outlined both personal
and collective intentions. Under Nazi rule de emplotment was called into play as previous
norms were superseded with unprecedented suddenness and brutality. In turn, diary
writing was a narration performed with explicit intentions, which had become
increasingly dangerous to the diarist who ran the risk of arrest or even death if caught.
Regardless of this perceived risk, or perhaps because of it, writing became the express
intent of the Holocaust diarists, their narrations representing their continued capacity to
act, albeit under extremely limiting circumstances, and to attest to their actions.
Attestation, the belief in the self to carry out intentions, was pivotal to the Holocaust
diarist. It helped maintain recognition of the self as a part of society and as an individual
who still had the capacity to respond to a situation, in essence, the capacity to continue
living.
227
By Chance I found a Pencil
History tends to be collective in regard to the Holocaust, recounting the collective fate of
the Jews of Europe, a particular ghetto or area, recounting the rise of Nazism, the
working of the Judenrat, activities of the Youth movements and the annihilation of the
victims.809
Referring to this historgraphic leaning, Amos Goldberg makes a perceptive
observation in his articulate review of Saul Friedlander‘s book on the history of the
Jewish extermination.810
He observes that the dichotomy of bringing the voices of the
victim into the public forum, whilst serving to personalize the Holocaust, has also served
to lessen the excess of the experiences being described.811
Consequently, although the
sheer volume of material written and available to the public concerning Nazism and its
victims has served to articulate both the Nazi and victim narrative, it must be conceded
that it has ironically normalized such an unprecedented historical event. This paradoxical
outcome in fact enhances the importance of the Holocaust diaries, serving as a reminder
that despite the collective catastrophe the Holocaust constitutes, it was an
incomprehensible individual tragedy for each and every victim. Therein is the essence of
this thesis, explicitly, the dynamic nature of the diary discourse epitomizing a reality
which, whilst impossible to represent fully, is able to offer an authentic reflection of this
period.
When one writes in an autobiographical mode, several forces are at hand to make these
life stories meaningful to both the narrators and the audience. Initially the narrator assigns
various meanings to events and psychological processes that shift as time moves
forward.812
Despite the transformation and fluctuations which constitute a life, the
autobiographical subjects register both consciously and unconsciously, complicity with
and their own personal shifts in terms of what Smith and Watson classify as cultural self
locating.813
This term denotes the dialectic nature of narratives which tend to reflect the
temporal nature of events combined with discourse, ultimately serving as a mimesis of
life. Cultural self location, the positioning and repositioning of the narrative identity,
reflects transitions in the continuum of life emplotted to make sense of these events and
transform them into a unified whole.814
Despite the fluid nature of narratives which have
the ability to shift, transform and redefine, stories do not generally lie outside known
paradigms. This observation is based on the understanding therein that the self emplots
events within familiar contexts, even when change is drastic. This generalization is based
largely on the notion that even if a drastic change occurs in the life narrative, other
domains remain constant. In regard to linguistic construction this premise is clearly
evidenced by the immediate assumptions made when reading a text, based on familiar
cultural and social frameworks, allowing emplotment both in terms of recording events
809
The Judenrat refers to the Jewish councils appointed by the Nazis to carry out Nazi orders in each
ghetto. The Zionist Youth movements were very active in the ghetto ―underground‖ network, smuggling
out information regarding concentration camps, smuggling in weapons and so on. 810
Goldberg, ―The Victim‘s Voice and Melodramatic Aesthetics in History: Review of Saul Friedlander‘s
book, The Years of Extermination.‖ 811
Ibid. 812
Smith and Watson, Reading Autobiography: A guide for Interpreting life Narratives, Appendix A 813
Ibid. 814
Ibid.
228
and understanding. The Holocaust narrator was faced with an unprecedented situation,
wherein all known conventions were shattered. In turn, the emplotment of life events
inadvertently shifted to the de emplotment process as reality became increasingly
disjointed and unbelievable, even to those bearing witness to these events.
To this end, scholar Michael Bamberg designates the dilemmas that the self faces in
regard to identity, which were arguably exacerbated and exaggerated immeasurably for
the Holocaust narrator. Bamberg designates the sameness of a sense of self in the face of
change, one‘s uniqueness and capacity to act (agency), as elements of self which may
elicit a state of quandary.815
In all respects the Holocaust diarist, situated in the temporal
framework of Nazi run Europe, was faced with the struggle of the self to a degree
previously incomprehensible. During the Holocaust the self and consequently one‘s
identity, was faced with maintaining uniqueness within a system which legally forbade it.
One‘s sense of self in the face of legal discrimination, violence, sickness, starvation,
deportations, and ultimately being transported to one‘s death, was quite simply depleted
under Nazism. Conclusively, whilst the identity of the Holocaust diarist was depleted,
leaving no choice but to de-emplot and redefine a life, the self was not entirely
eradicated. This is the core of the de emplotment concept, ultimately a process which
salvaged at least part of the self of old, fusing it with the redefined identity and saving it
from total obliteration. The choice to continue writing affirms the significance of this
work which serves as a reminder to the post Holocaust generation, that behind every
victim of Nazism lay an individual life narrative.
This study has served to reinforce the voice of the Holocaust victim and what Amos
Goldberg has coined the narrative of disbelief. 816
Assimilating the all encompassing Nazi
rule and devastating consequences thereof is the basis of de emplotment, denoting the
process of absorption of disbelief and the erosion of familiar life paradigms. Whilst
acknowledging the process of de emplotment reflected through the linguistically
constructed narrative identities, however, one must always be conscious that the whole
self can never be fully represented linguistically. A narrative identity is an accumulation
of the self in relation to the other, that is, a cultural and social context serving to enhance
the plurality of roles, thereby establishing a multifaceted identity.817
One‘s identity is
therefore maintained by the interaction of the self and different facets of life, including
the individual dialectics such as family and personal relationships, coupled with the
collective, such as religious, educational and social paradigms. The reciprocity between
not only the multifaceted life contexts but also between the past, present and perceived
future create an identity. The period belatedly termed the Holocaust ushered in not only
the eradication of life‘s familiar paradigms but necessitated a redefinition or de
emplotment of the self, which is almost visible when reading the Holocaust diaries.
815
Michael Bamberg, Identity and Narration, Handbook of Narratology, eds. Huhn, Peter, Pier, John,
Schmid, Wolf, Schonet, Jorg, Berlin (New York, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2009), 132-143. 816
Ibid. 817
This is based on Paul Ricoeur‘s theoretical framework which has been the basis of this work, namely,
the self functions in relation to the other.
229
The diary is devoid of literary imagination and for the most part, untainted by
recollections or hindsight. Rather, it records the incomplete process of life. Philipe
Lejeune‘s autobiographical pact extends to the diary in two main respects.818
A unique
understanding between the diarist and the audience is established, which embellishes an
undeniable obligation by the diarist to remain situated in one‘s place throughout the
diary. Simultaneously, the reader embraces this by identifying the diarist as both narrator
and protagonist819
As a result the uniqueness of the author‘s self is captured through self
writing and understood by the reader to be the person whose name appears on the title
page.820
In other words, the reader of the Holocaust diaries comprehends the undeniable
identification of the author with the narrator in the diary, namely, the diarist. This
unspoken agreement between reader and text is experienced whenever someone reads
―dear diary‘ or sees sequential dating on each page, signaling instant recognition that the
text is a diary. With this understanding comes the unspoken distinction that the text being
read is an open discourse in a state of flux, recording daily changes of the narrator who is
articulating authentic thoughts and experiences.821
To this end the reader not only reads,
but comprehends the diary as a personal, spontaneous jotting. Coupled with this
understanding is the underlying assumption that the diary narration lacks retrospection
and literary construction, an unspoken understanding associated uniquely with the diary
genre. Once distinguished by the reader as a diary, the reader fuses the above
assumptions and internalizes the text as the experience of one individual interacting with
a specific social and cultural agency. Herein is perhaps the strength of the Holocaust
diary narrative perceived by an audience as both a historical record of this period and also
as a personal discourse of the victims in a perpetual state of de emplotment and
readjustment.
This thesis establishes the Holocaust diary as its own unique literary genre which
constructs the intention and experience of an individual Holocaust diarist. For this
purpose the concept of de emplotment was conceived, serving to illustrate the complex
process of redefining a life devoid of all familiar contexts. This thesis further establishes
the reasons a diary was not only conducive to de emplotment but facilitated this process.
My analysis was constructed within Paul Ricoeur's framework of narrative construction,
the figuration of narrative identity, intention and attestation and the complex relationship
between them thereof. Within this framework the diaries were further thematically
classified and analyzed. Largely spurred by scholarly works focusing on the voice of the
victim, I believe this thesis makes a notable contribution to the body of work which shifts
the focus from the historical narrative of Nazism, to the individual narratives of the
Jewish victims of the Holocaust.
818
Lejeune‘s autobiographic pact is discussed in the sub chapter ―why a diary?‖ at the beginning of this
conclusion. The autobiographical pact is cited in footnote no. 751. 819
Bamberg, Identity and Narration, 132-143 820
Lejeune, ―On Diary.‖
The autobiographical pact is outlined in Phillipe Lejeune, "On Autobiography." Theory and History of
Literature 52 (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1989) . 821
John E Toews, "Intellectual History and the Linguistic Turn: The Autonomy of Meaning and the
Irreducibility of Experience," The American Historical Review 92, no. 4 October (1987): 879-907.
230
Much has been written about the power of language and trope in relation to the recording
of historical events.822
Just as this thesis has argued that a life story is narrated through
the retelling, so too is history. The notion that history is certainly literary rather than
merely empirical is central to this dissertation, thereby applauding the Holocaust diarists
who wrote themselves, wittingly or not, into post Holocaust consciousness. In doing so,
not only has a voice been given to the victims of Nazism, but an authentic glimpse into an
incomprehensible historical chapter has been rendered possible as so many Holocaust
diarists envisaged. Future research will certainly reinforce the power of the Holocaust
diaries as authentic personal and historical narratives of testimony, defiance, solace and
struggle, just as the diarists expressly intended, and ultimately attested to. Fittingly, I will
conclude as I began, with a diary entry from Chaim Kaplan‘s Scroll of Agony, portraying
the powerful blend of literary text and historical documentation that the Holocaust diary
signifies: He wrote, on July 16th
, 1942:
The Whole Nation is sinking in a sea of horror and cruelty…..I do not know if anyone
else is recording the daily events. The conditions of life which surround us are not
conducive to such literary labors. Anyone who keeps such a record endangers his
life, but this does not alarm me. I sense within the magnitude of this hour and my
responsibility to it. I have an inner awareness that I am fulfilling a national
obligation…….My words are not rewritten, momentary reflexes shape them. Perhaps
their value lies in this…..My record will serve as source material for the future
historian. 823
822
This idea that history is interdisciplinary and related to philosophy, known as the linguistic turn, was
propounded by Gustov Bergmann, Ludwig Wittenstein and later by Richard Roty (1967) and Hayden
White. 823
Kaplan, Scroll of Agony: The Warsaw Ghetto Diary of Chaim A Kaplan, 9.
This entry can be found in the Moreshet Archives of Kaplan‘s ―lost‖ diary pages, "Moreshet Archives,"
Archive D.2.470, Yad Vashem, Jerusalem.
It is included in the introduction, but not in the English translation of the diary. For unknown reasons
several diary entries were not included in the English translation, but can be found in the original Hebrew
in the "Moreshet Archives."
231
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Minerva Access is the Institutional Repository of The University of Melbourne
Author/s:Kaufman, Fiona Lisabeth
Title:By chance I found a pencil: the Holocaust diary narratives of testimony, defiance, solaceand struggle
Date:2010
Citation:Kaufman, F. L. (2010). By chance I found a pencil: the Holocaust diary narratives oftestimony, defiance, solace and struggle. PhD thesis, Arts - School of Historical Studies, TheUniversity of Melbourne.
Persistent Link:http://hdl.handle.net/11343/36050
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