DOCSLIB.ORG

Another Route to Auschwitz: Memory, Writing, Fiction

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Another Route to Auschwitz: Memory, Writing, Fiction Another route to Auschwitz: memory, writing, fiction Jacob Timothy Wallis Simons MA (Oxon), MPhil PhD in Creative Writing University of East Anglia School of Literature and Creative Writing © This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with the author and that no quotation from the thesis, nor any information derived therefrom, may be published without the author’s prior, written consent. Abstract Holocaust fiction is one of the most contentious of the myriad of new literary genres that have emerged over the last hundred years. It exists as a limitless adjunct, or supplement, to the relatively finite corpus of Holocaust memoir. Although in the realm of fiction the imagination usually has a primary position, in this special case it is often constricted by a complex web of ethical dilemmas that arise at every turn, and even the smallest of oversights or misjudgments on the part of the writer can result in a disproportionate level of potential damage. The critical component of this thesis will explore these moral and ethical questions by taking as a starting-point the more generally acceptable mode of memoir and, by relying in part upon elements of Derridean theory, interrogating the extent to which writing may be already internal to the process of memory, and fiction may be already internal to the process of writing. On this basis, it will then seek to justify the application of fiction to the Holocaust on moral terms, but only within certain boundaries. It will not attempt to establish a rigorous set of guidelines on which such boundaries may be founded, but instead, via an analysis of what may constitute a failure, suggest that there are a number of elements which are present when Holocaust fiction is successful. The creative component – a novel, The English German Girl – attempts to carry out a practical demonstration of Holocaust fiction along these lines. 2 List of contents 1.0 Critical component 1.1 Introduction: p.4 1.2 Memory in the context of the Holocaust: p.5 1.3 Bearing witness and the problem of language: p.15 1.4 How does fiction fit in?: p.22 1.5 Holocaust Fiction and authorial identity: p.40 1.6 Problematic Holocaust Fiction: p.43 1.7 Elements that may contribute to the success of Holocaust Fiction: p.59 1.8 Conclusion: p.91 2.0 Creative component 2.1 p.94 3.0 Endmatter 3.1 Bibliography for critical component: p.744 3.2 Bibliography for creative component: p.749 3.3 List of illustrations: p.751 3.4 List of references: p.752 3 Another route to Auschwitz: Memory, writing, fiction. ‘What shall I take to witness for thee? What shall I liken to thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? What shall I equal to thee, that I may comfort thee?’ (Lamentations, Chapter 2, Verse 13) 1.1 Introduction The tinderbox debate concerning the ethics of bringing literature to bear upon the Holocaust has caused an unspoken hierarchy of acceptability to evolve. Under this scheme, Holocaust memoir is seen as fundamentally more valid than fictional representations, which are often held to be potentially obfuscating and damaging to the project of Holocaust education. It is not my intention to challenge this perception but to complexify it. I shall argue that while testimony will always be more valuable than fiction, the Holocaust novel nevertheless has an important part to play in maintaining an awareness of the Holocaust and dialogue around it. It must, however, be rendered with sensitivity and – unusually, given the weight of scholarship which de-simplifies this notion – attention to authorial motivation. The structure of this thesis will mirror this hierarchy of acceptability. First I will discuss the concept of memory in the context of the Holocaust; drawing on Plato, Freud and Derrida, I will examine its relationship with writing and fiction. Then I will map the differing views towards Holocaust fiction, ultimately arguing in defence of its existence under certain conditions. Finally I will examine a selection of Holocaust fiction texts, attempting to ascertain where and why they have failed and succeeded. 4 1.2 Memory in the context of the Holocaust Perhaps owing to an experience of prolonged exile and persecution, the act of remembering tragedy has evolved into a central element of Jewish culture and religion. Commemoration, ritualised mourning and remembrance have been codified in a variety of high-profile ways; 1 a large proportion of Jewish holy days, from Passover to the Day of Atonement, involve a detailed recollection of tragic events that took place many centuries ago. Perhaps the best known expression of the Jewish moral imperative to remember is found in Psalm 137, composed in 586BC after the sacking of Jerusalem: By the rivers of Babylon There we sat down, yea, we wept When we remembered Zion … If I forget thee O Jerusalem Let my right hand wither If I do not remember thee Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth If I prefer not Jerusalem above my highest joy. 2 It might be argued that this ritualisation of remembrance exposes the difficulties involved in preserving uncorrupted memories from one generation to the next. These difficulties are nowhere more clearly seen than in the question of remembering the Holocaust. Foremost amongst these difficulties, perhaps, is the controversial and delicate matter of establishing the truth of testimony, both within the minds of the survivors and those with whom they communicate. Even during the Holocaust eyewitnesses were often disbelieved. Surviving documents indicate that the witnesses themselves knew that people would treat their testimony with 5 suspicion. After all, the events themselves, by their very nature, defied belief. For example, in 19 January 1942, Jacob Schulman, Rabbi of Grabow Synagogue, wrote the following letter to Lodz: Alas, to our great grief, we now know all. I spoke to an eyewitness who escaped. He told me everything. They’re exterminated in Chelmno, near Dombie, and they are all buried in the Rzuszow forest. The Jews are killed in two ways: by shooting or gas. It’s just happened to thousands of Lodz Jews. Do not think this is being written by a madman. 3 There is a tangible anxiety here that the unimaginable truth that Schulman is seeking to reveal will be received with scepticism and equivocation; that he will be thought of as a ‘madman’. After the Holocaust the act of remembering became even more difficult for survivors. The subjective nature of memory was problematic; as Irving Howe puts it, ‘memory can be treacherous among people who have suffered terribly and who must feel a measure of guilt at being alive at all.’4 Indeed, Primo Levi wrote in 1946, ‘today, at this very moment as I sit writing at a table, I myself am not convinced that these things really happened.’5 Moreover, in the majority of cases survivors had been left in a disenfranchised state. The entire apparatus of their identity – the markers of memory – had been systematically dismantled, and little or nothing remained of their possessions, communities, homes and way of life. Their family and friends had either been killed or scattered to unknown places. Forged documents and identities, often in multiples, were almost always part of the story of survival.6 Although significant physical evidence of the death camps remained, the Nazis had made an effort to destroy as much as they could. 6 So in the absence of any external confirmation of identity, memory became the only tool with which to rebuild a life. As such its reliability was vital; yet at the same time the scarcity of parameters in which to concretise memories, and the traumatisation of the minds charged with the task of remembering, destabilised the act of recollection. Matters are made worse by the Holocausts Revisionist movement, which seizes upon the frailty of survivors’ memories to further a malevolent agenda. For several years Primo Levi suffered a recurring anxiety-dream in which he repeatedly attempted to tell his sister and some friends what life was like in the camp, and everyone refused to believe him.7 In recent decades, the movement of Holocaust denial has provided a manifestation of this nightmare. ‘Too many hundreds of millions of honest intelligent people have been duped by a well- financed and brilliantly successful postwar publicity campaign’,8 writes the prominent revisionist David Irving, ‘everything that people found in Dachau was in fact installed there by the Americans’,9 and ‘the Holocaust suffered by the Germans in Dresden was real. The one against the Jews in the gas chambers of Auschwitz is complete fiction’.10 From a broader perspective, the threat posed by such views can only become magnified as the generation of eye-witnesses dwindles. This leads to an even greater weight to be placed upon the reliability of the survivor’s memory. For these and other reasons we find survivors continually feeling the need to defend the authenticity of their testimony. Primo Levi’s If This Is A Man is a case in point. In the Preface he writes, ‘it seems to me unnecessary to add that none of the facts are invented.’11 This is an odd, self-undoing statement which demonstrates the opposite of what it expresses; Levi says that it is unnecessary to state that his work is true, while at the same time making that very statement. 7 This crystallises the tension that underpins much survivor testimony. On the one hand these events undeniably happened; on the other the memory can never be said to be a faultless entity.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Central Europe
    Central Europe West Germany FOREIGN POLICY wTHEN CHANCELLOR Ludwig Erhard's coalition government sud- denly collapsed in October 1966, none of the Federal Republic's major for- eign policy goals, such as the reunification of Germany and the improvement of relations with its Eastern neighbors, with France, NATO, the Arab coun- tries, and with the new African nations had as yet been achieved. Relations with the United States What actually brought the political and economic crisis into the open and hastened Erhard's downfall was that he returned empty-handed from his Sep- tember visit to President Lyndon B. Johnson. Erhard appealed to Johnson for an extension of the date when payment of $3 billion was due for military equipment which West Germany had bought from the United States to bal- ance dollar expenses for keeping American troops in West Germany. (By the end of 1966, Germany paid DM2.9 billion of the total DM5.4 billion, provided in the agreements between the United States government and the Germans late in 1965. The remaining DM2.5 billion were to be paid in 1967.) During these talks Erhard also expressed his government's wish that American troops in West Germany remain at their present strength. Al- though Erhard's reception in Washington and Texas was friendly, he gained no major concessions. Late in October the United States and the United Kingdom began talks with the Federal Republic on major economic and military problems. Relations with France When Erhard visited France in February, President Charles de Gaulle gave reassurances that France would not recognize the East German regime, that he would advocate the cause of Germany in Moscow, and that he would 349 350 / AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK, 1967 approve intensified political and cultural cooperation between the six Com- mon Market powers—France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg.
    [Show full text]
  • Die Neufassung Des § 1A Bundesversorgungsgesetz (BVG): Streichung Von Kriegsopferrenten Für NS-Täter – Schlussbericht –
    FORSCHUNGSBERICHT 472 Die Neufassung des § 1a Bundesversorgungsgesetz (BVG): Streichung von Kriegsopferrenten für NS-Täter – Schlussbericht – November 2016 ISSN 0174-4992 Die Neufassung des § 1a Bundesversorgungsgesetz (BVG): Streichung von Kriegsopferrenten für NS-Täter - Gründe für die geringe Zahl der Streichungen trotz der Vielzahl der vom Simon Wiesenthal Center übermittelten Daten - Ein Gemeinschaftsprojekt des Bundesministeriums für Arbeit und Soziales und des Simon Wiesenthal Centers Schlussbericht September 2016 2 Die Neufassung des § 1a Bundesversorgungsgesetz (BVG): Streichung von Kriegsopferrenten für NS-Täter - Gründe für die geringe Zahl der Streichungen trotz der Vielzahl der vom Simon Wiesenthal Center übermittelten Daten - Ein Gemeinschaftsprojekt des Bundesministeriums für Arbeit und Soziales und des Simon Wiesenthal Centers Schlussbericht Autoren: Dr. Stefan Klemp (Simon Wiesenthal Center) Martin Hölzl (Simon Wiesenthal Center) Ort: Bonn im September 2016 ISBN/ISSN: Auftraggeberschaft / Inhaltliche Verantwortung Erstellt im Auftrag des Bundesministeriums für Arbeit und Soziales. Die Durchführung der Untersuchungen sowie die Schlussfolgerungen aus den Unter- suchungen sind von den Auftragnehmern in eigener wissenschaftlicher Verantwor- tung vorgenommen worden. Das Bundesministerium für Arbeit und Soziales über- nimmt insbesondere keine Gewähr für die Richtigkeit, Genauigkeit und Vollständig- keit der Untersuchungen. Copyright Alle Rechte einschließlich der fotomechanischen Wiedergabe und des auszugswei- sen Nachdrucks
    [Show full text]
  • (Or) Dead Heroes?
    Juli Székely HEROES AFTER THE END OF THE HEROIC COMMEMORATING SILENT HEROES IN BERLIN Living (or) dead heroes? Although meditations over the influence of key figures on the course of history have already been present since antiquity, the heroic imagination of Europe considerably changed in the nineteenth century when the phenomenon of hero worship got deeply interwoven with a project of nation-states.1 As historian Maria Todorova describes, ‘the romantic enterprise first recovered a host of “authentic” folk heroes, and encouraged the exalted group identity located in the nation’ and then it ‘underwrote the romantic political vision of the powerful and passionate individual, the voluntaristic leader, the glorious sculptor of human destinies, the Great Man of history.’2 Nevertheless, in the period after 1945 these great men – who traditionally functioned as historical, social and cultural models for a particular society – slowly began to appear not that great. In 1943 already Sidney Hook cautioned that ‘a democratic community must be eternally on guard’ against heroic leaders because in such a society political leadership ‘cannot arrogate to itself heroic power’.3 But after World War II the question was not simply about adjusting the accents of heroism, as Hook suggested, but about the future legitimacy of the concept itself. Authors extensively elaborated on the crises of the hero that, from the 1970s, also entailed a Juli Székely, ‘Heroes after the end of the heroic. Commemorating silent heroes in Berlin’, in: Studies on National Movements,
    [Show full text]
  • Jonathan Sacks: a Unifier of Ideas and a Teacher of the World by Clive Lawton
    Chag Chanukah Sameach! 1964-2020 Celebrating 56 years of publishing GEORGE FREY OAM - FOUNDING EDITOR, 1964 DECEMBER 2020 KISLEV-TEVET 5781 ChanukahIN THE CITY SUNDAY 13 FeaturingFeaturing DECEMBER 4PM - 8PM REDDACLIFF PLACE AMAZING BYRON BAY (TOP END OF QUEEN ST MALL) Shai Shriki Band STREET CONCERT DELICIOUS FOOD LIGHTING OF THE GIANT MENORAH KIDS SHOW SINAI COLLEGE CHOIR ON SCREEN SENSATIONAL Cyrious Acrobat Due to Covid, registration is required TO BOOK FREE ENTRY TICKETS NOW: CLICK HERE! ON THE LARGE SCREEN 8th Day For any questions or for more information, Please email: [email protected] or call 0738436770 For More Information: Call 07 3843 6770 or PROUDLY 2 VisitSHALOM www.chabadbrisbane.com/chanukah MAGAZINE | NOVEMBER 2020 SUPPORTED BY A PROJECT OF FEATURE THE TIMES OF ISRAEL The last bar mitzvah before Kristallnacht By Ellen Bachner Greenberg As bad as things were, they could not have The rabbi’s ominous imagined that only a few weeks after Fredi Bachner’s bar mitzvah, synagogues throughout sermon on my father’s Austria and Germany would be destroyed on Kristallnacht, including the Rykestrasse big day carried him Synagogue, where Fredi’s bar mitzvah was through the pogrom, celebrated. the camps, and then liberation: ‘It doesn’t become daytime before it literally becomes night’ Fredi Bachner and the Rykestrasse Synagogue, the site of his 1938 The Rykestrasse Synagogue, Berlin. (The Folklore Research Center, Hebrew bar mitzvah. (National Library of Israel) University of Jerusalem; available via the National Library of Israel Digital Collection) At the time of my father’s bar mitzvah His bar mitzvah would be the last held at the in Berlin, Hitler had been in power Rykestrasse Synagogue for many years.
    [Show full text]
  • Proquest Dissertations
    UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY Prize Possession: Literary Awards, the GGs, and the CanLit Nation by Owen Percy A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH CALGARY, ALBERTA JANUARY 2010 ©OwenPercy 2010 Library and Archives Bibliotheque et 1*1 Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington OttawaONK1A0N4 OttawaONK1A0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre inference ISBN: 978-0-494-64130-9 Our file Notre r6f6rence ISBN: 978-0-494-64130-9 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par Nnternet, preter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distribute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non­ support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la these ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation.
    [Show full text]
  • Covering up Chelmno: Nazi Attempts to Obfuscate and Obliterate an Extermination Camp
    ORE Open Research Exeter TITLE Covering Up Chelmno: Nazi Attempts to Obfuscate and Obliterate an Extermination Camp AUTHORS Terry, NM JOURNAL Dapim: Studies on the Holocaust DEPOSITED IN ORE 08 March 2018 This version available at http://hdl.handle.net/10871/31993 COPYRIGHT AND REUSE Open Research Exeter makes this work available in accordance with publisher policies. A NOTE ON VERSIONS The version presented here may differ from the published version. If citing, you are advised to consult the published version for pagination, volume/issue and date of publication 0 Covering Up Chelmno: Nazi Attempts to Obfuscate and Obliterate an Extermination Camp Personal Details Nicholas Terry Department of History, University of Exeter Amory Building, Rennes Drive, Exeter, EX 4 6 JP, United Kingdom +44 1392 726455 [email protected] Funding: none Disclosure: no conflicts of interest Abstract The centrality of deception and secrecy to the Nazi extermination of the Jews has long been recognised, yet numerous questions remain regarding its significance for the ‘Final Solution’. This article examines Nazi attempts to cover up the first extermination camp established by the Third Reich at Chelmno. It demonstrates that in the Warthegau region of occupied Poland, the Nazis played a shell game to deceive victims and bystanders by pretending that deportees were transferred from the provinces to the Lodz ghetto, or from the Lodz ghetto to the provinces and to Germany. The contradictory cover stories used by the Nazis to obfuscate deportations to Chelmno succeeded for a while, but were eventually seen through. While Nazi deception measures are more vividly recorded in postwar testimonies, this article also shows that Nazi attempts to erase the physical evidence of mass murder through the cremation of the corpses can be documented much more extensively than hitherto appreciated using contemporary sources.
    [Show full text]
  • Pdf/133 6.Pdf (Abgerufen Am 07.04.02)
    ARBEITSBERICHTE Geographisches Institut, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin M. Schulz (Hrsg.) Geographische Exkursionen in Berlin Teil 1 Heft 93 Berlin 2004 Arbeitsberichte Geographisches Institut Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin Heft 93 M. Schulz (Hrsg.) Geographische Exkursionen in Berlin Teil 1 Berlin 2004 ISSN 0947 - 0360 Geographisches Institut Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin Sitz: Rudower Chaussee 16 Unter den Linden 6 10099 Berlin (http://www.geographie.hu-berlin.de) Vorwort Der vorliegende Band ist im Rahmen eines Oberseminars zur Stadtentwicklung Berlins im Sommersemester 2002 entstanden. Die Leitidee der Lehrveranstaltung war die Kopplung von zwei wichtigen Arbeitsfeldern für Geographen - die Bearbeitung von stadtgeographischen Themen in ausgewählten Gebieten der Stadt und die Erarbeitung und Durchführung einer Exkursion zu diesem Thema. Jeder Teilnehmer konnte sich eine für ihn interessante Thematik auswählen und musste dann die Orte in Berlin suchen, in denen er das Thema im Rahmen einer zweistündigen Exkursion den anderen Teilnehmern des Oberseminars vorstellte. Das Ergebnis dieser Lehrveranstaltung liegt in Form eines Exkursionsführers vor. Die gewählten Exkursionsthemen spiegeln eine große Vielfalt wider. Sie wurden inhaltlich in drei Themenbereiche gegliedert: - Stadtsanierung im Wandel (drei Exkursionen) - Wandel eines Stadtgebietes als Spiegelbild politischer Umbrüche oder städtebaulicher Leitbilder (sieben Exkursionen) und - Bauliche Strukturen Berlins (drei Exkursionen). Die Exkursionen zeugen von dem großen Interesse aller beteiligten Studierenden an den selbst gewählten Themen. Alle haben mit großem Engagement die selbst erarbeitete Aufgabenstellung bearbeitet und viele neue Erkenntnisse gewonnen. Besonders hervorzuheben ist die Bereitschaft und Geduld von Herrn Patrick Klemm, den Texten der einzelnen Exkursionen ein einheitliches Layout zu geben, so dass die Ergebnisse nun in dieser ansprechenden Form vorliegen. Marlies Schulz Mai 2003 INHALTSVERZEICHNIS STADTSANIERUNG IM WANDEL 1.
    [Show full text]
  • OJL WEB (1).Pdf
    JULY 2013 SERVING OREGON AND SW WASHINGTON Denise & AnnA WEtHEREll Mother-Daughter Duo Pamper Portlanders, Aid African Refugees SPeciAl SecTiOn | FOOD chefs, Restaurants, Stores: They Want You To eat Well MACCABIAH Ten Oregonians Bound for Jewish Olympics in Israel ENERGY Renewables Are Big in Green Northwest Northwest Investment Counselors Team 15 years of Independent Advice and Integrity You’ve always known this day would come. We value transparency, prudence and creating Whether your wealth was part of an employer tailored portfolios for our clients, freeing them savings plan, locked up in a family trust, part from the worry about their fi nancial future. We of a loved one’s will or simply someone else’s align with our clients’ interests, charging solely responsibility, the worry of managing those a fee for management services, never any sales investments wasn’t yours. Now it is. commissions, account set-up fees or research fees. At NWIC, we are experts in helping clients with If that day has come, let us help shoulder the the sudden burden of responsibility for wealth. burden with you. 340 Oswego Pointe Drive, Suite 100 • Lake Oswego, Oregon, 97034 Offi ce: (503) 607-0032 • Toll-free (800) 685-7884 [email protected] • www.nwic.net Northwest Investment Counselors Team TRUSTWORTHY 15 years of Independent Advice and Integrity COMPREHENSIVE SOLUTIONS You’re Invited July 10th, 2013 FEDERAL INCOME TAXES, THEN AND NOW How the new tax laws might affect you. visit our website or call to register for this complimentary event GRETCHEN STANGIER, CFP® WWW.STANGIERWEALTHMANAGEMENT.COM 9955 SE WASHINGTON, SUITE 101 • PORTLAND, OR 97216 • 877-257-0057 • [email protected] SECURITIES AND ADVISORY SERVICES OFFERED THROUGH LPL FINANCIAL.
    [Show full text]
  • Mitte, and Moved Into Our Offices There
    www.livingbauhaus.de www.livingbauhaus.de WE LOVE BERLIN Living Bauhaus supports the following projects: • Sponsoring member of the Deutsche Filmakademie e. V. • Sponsoring member of the Staatsoper Unter den Linden • Sponsorship of the Leinemann-Stiftung • Sponsorship of the Plakat OST foundation • Sponsorship of the Living Bauhaus Kunststiftung Hamburg • Sponsorship of STAR HAIR GmbH Maik Uwe Hinkel with Klaus Wowereit at the topping out ceremony of the Living Bauhaus “Oxford-Residenz” project on 22 June 2006 Dear Sir/Madam, dear Living Bauhaus friends, For over twenty years now, our company has been developing residential properties in Brandenburg and in the centre of Berlin. The Arkonaplatz, the Rheinsberger Straße, the Schröderstraße, and the Schlegelstraße are some of the locations we have been involved in redeveloping. At the beginning of 2007, we completed the “Oxford-Residenz”, an ideally situated property in the Kleine Jägerstraße 11 in Berlin-Mitte, and moved into our offices there. In 2009, we finalised our “Kastaniengärten” project in Prenzlauer Berg with 41 apartments, town apartments, and loft apartments, as well as two commercial units. We have nearly completed our two most current projects: ten exclusive apartments and two generously proportioned commercial units have been developed in the “Meisterhaus” at Hausvogteiplatz 14. In the Scheunenviertel, we have nearly completed the construction of the “Prado Residenz” as well as the front section and garden house of the “Sophie-Charlotte” and “living” houses at Linienstraße 216 – 217. Both projects have been fully sold, and the preparations for our new projects are in process. We can already reveal that things are going to get exciting in the Markgrafenstraße, Bismarckallee, and other projects in and around Berlin.
    [Show full text]
  • Literary Urbanism, Visuality, and Modernity
    LITERARY URBANISM, VISUALITY AND MODERNITY by JOHN BRIGHT TEPE III A thesis submitted to The University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of English College of Arts and Law The University of Birmingham October 2009 [Type text] University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. Abstract Literary Urbanism and the Symbolist Aesthetic argues that the modern city influences urban writers to develop particular literary-visual practices that translate urban experience into poetry and prose. Chapter one considers how urban planning in Paris during the Second Empire inspired Charles Baudelaire‘s theories of modernity and aesthetic history. Chapter two discusses how A.C. Swinburne translates Baudelairean modernity into an English literary perspective through Sapphic poetry, and the importance Swinburne‘s association with painters has in this process. Swinburne‘s friendship with James McNeill Whistler, for example, results in the ekphrastic poem ―Hermaphroditus,‖ which uses sculpture to comment upon the modern city‘s potential to heighten perceptual consciousness. Chapter three studies the application of ekphrasis in urban writing, especially the way in which Arthur Symons‘ poetry uses symbols to render an immediate awareness of the city.
    [Show full text]
  • Diplomarbeit
    DIPLOMARBEIT Titel der Diplomarbeit „Verbrechen der Einsatzgruppen - Strafverfolgung vor österreichischen Geschworenengerichten am Beispiel des Prozesses gegen Josef Wendl“ Verfasser Walter Kornfeld angestrebter akademischer Grad Magister der Philosophie (Mag. Phil.) Wien, 30. März 2012 Studienkennzahl lt. A 312 Studienblatt: Studienrichtung lt. Geschichte Studienblatt: Betreuer: Univ. –Doz. Dr. Bertrand Perz INHALTSVERZEICHNIS EINLEITUNG 1 1. DIE NACHKRIEGSJUSTIZ IN ÖSTERREICH 4 1.1. DIE ANFÄNGE - VERBOTSGESETZ UND KRIEGSVERBRECHERGESETZ 4 1.2. DIE VOLKSGERICHTE 9 1.3. JURISTISCHE VERFOLGUNG NACH 1955 – PROZESSE VOR GESCHWORENENGERICHTEN 12 1.4. WIE FUNKTIONIERT EIN GESCHWORENENGERICHT? 16 2. DIE EINSATZGRUPPEN – VON SICHERHEITSPOLIZEILICHEN AUFGABEN HIN ZUM MASSENMORD 17 2.1. ENTWICKLUNG DER EINSATZGRUPPEN - VON ÖSTERREICH ÜBER DAS SUDETENLAND NACH POLEN 17 2.2. AUFSTELLUNG UND VORBEREITUNG DER EINSATZGRUPPEN FÜR DEN EINSATZ IN DER UDSSR 18 2.3. BEFEHLE AN DIE EINSATZGRUPPEN 19 2.4. DER BEGINN DES EINSATZES IN DER UDSSR – GLIEDERUNG UND VORGEHEN DER EINSATZGRUPPEN 21 2.5. MARSCHWEG UND EINSÄTZE DER EINSATZGRUPPE B 26 2.6. MARSCHWEG UND EINSÄTZE DES EINSATZKOMMANDOS 8 28 2.6.1. Der Marschweg des Kommandos 28 2.6.2. Organisation des Kommandos 29 2.6.3. Einsätze des Kommandos bis Ende März 1942 29 3. TÖTUNG DURCH GAS – EXPERIMENTE ZUR „VERBESSERUNG DER TÖTUNGSTECHNIK“ 32 3.1. DIE ENTWICKLUNG DER GASWAGEN 33 3.2. MASSENMORD MIT GASWAGEN IM VERNICHTUNGSLAGER CHELMNO 37 4. TATORTE 39 4.1. MALY TROSTINEZ 39 4.2. MOGILEW 42 5. DIE MOTIVATION DER TÄTER – EIN ERKLÄRUNGSVERSUCH 44 6. EXKURS: ZUM BEFEHLSNOTSTAND 49 7. JURISTISCHE VERFOLGUNG VON NS-STRAFTATEN IN DER BUNDESREPUBLIK DEUTSCHLAND 52 7.1. STRAFVERFOLGUNG DER EINSATZGRUPPEN IN DER BRD 54 7.2.
    [Show full text]
  • From Boston to Berlin with the Zamir Chorale of Boston I Don't Believe In
    From Boston to Berlin with the Zamir Chorale of Boston I don’t believe in ghosts. But when Zamir was in Berlin in December of 2011, I had the eerie sensation that we were channeling the spirits of Germany’s departed Jewish musicians. The Louis Lewandowski Festival committee had invited us to come to Berlin and represent the United States at their upcoming celebration of the life and work of the greatest nineteenth-century composer of synagogue music. I had a feeling we would be interested, but I was unprepared for the enthusiasm with which the members of Zamir responded to the invitation. Thirty five singers (along with a handful of spouses and partners) were eager to travel and pay for a rather expensive flight. But none of us could have anticipated the amazing experience that was about to unfold and change our lives. The festival was organized and underwritten by Mr. Nils Busch-Petersen, an influential philo- Semitic Berlin lawyer, who has served as District Mayor of Berlin-Pankow, Chief Executive of the National Association of Medium-and Large-scale retail, and Managing Director of the Berlin- Brandenburg Trade Association. He is also CEO of the Friends of the Berlin Synagogal Ensemble, and published author of four books about German Jewish merchants. Busch-Petersen spared no expense in planning this festival; there were huge billboards advertising the festival all over Berlin, and the choirs were treated like visiting royalty. Our first concert was in the Krankenhauskirche in Wuhlgarten, a neighborhood of East Berlin, and a 75-minute bus ride from our hotel.
    [Show full text]