DOCSLIB.ORG

Perpetrators & Possibilities: Holocaust Diaries, Resistance, and the Crisis of Imagination

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Perpetrators & Possibilities: Holocaust Diaries, Resistance, and the Crisis of Imagination Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University History Theses Department of History 8-3-2006 Perpetrators & Possibilities: Holocaust Diaries, Resistance, and the Crisis of Imagination Eryk Emil Tahvonen Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/history_theses Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Tahvonen, Eryk Emil, "Perpetrators & Possibilities: Holocaust Diaries, Resistance, and the Crisis of Imagination." Thesis, Georgia State University, 2006. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/history_theses/14 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of History at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in History Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. PERPETRATORS & POSSIBILITIES: HOLOCAUST DIARIES, RESISTANCE, AND THE CRISIS OF IMAGINATION by ERYK EMIL TAHVONEN Under the Direction of Jared Poley ABSTRACT This thesis examines the way genocide leaves marks in the writings of targeted people. It posits not only that these marks exist, but also that they indicate a type of psychological resistance. By focusing on the ways Holocaust diarists depicted Nazi perpetrators, and by concentrating on the ways language was used to distance the victim from the perpetrator, it is possible to see how Jewish diarists were engaged in alternate and subtle, but nevertheless important, forms of resistance to genocide. The thesis suggest this resistance on the part of victims is similar in many ways to well-known distancing mechanisms employed by perpetrators and that this evidence points to a “crisis of imagination” – for victims and perpetrators alike – in which the capability to envision negation and death, and to identify with the “Other” is detrimental to self-preservation. INDEX WORDS: Holocaust, Jewish Diarists, Holocaust Diaries, World War II, Psychological Defense Mechanisms, Trauma, Diaries, Textual Analysis, Resistance, Imagination, Abel J. Herzberg, Éva Heyman, Hannah Senesh, Dawid Sierakowiak, Etty Hillesum, Emmanuel Ringelblum, Janusz Korczak PERPETRATORS & POSSIBILITIES: HOLOCAUST DIARIES, RESISTANCE AND THE CRISIS OF IMAGINATION by ERYK EMIL TAHVONEN A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in the College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University 2006 Copyright by Eryk Emil Tahvonen 2006 PERPETRATORS & POSSIBILITIES: HOLOCAUST DIARIES, RESISTANCE, AND THE CRISIS OF IMAGINATION by ERYK EMIL TAHVONEN Major Professor: Jared Poley Committee: Alexandra Garbarini Hugh Hudson Electronic Version Approved: Office of Graduate Studies College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University August 2006 iv Dedicated to the memory of Paul Eugene Goodwin 17 August 1971 – 15 November 2003 A Sailor, a Shipmate, and a Friend Always Missed and Never Forgotten v Acknowledgments This thesis would not be possible without the generous advice, guidance, suggestions and general help given by the following people: at Georgia State University – Prof. Michelle Brattain, Prof. Duane Corpis, Prof. Joe Perry, Prof. Christine Skwiot, Leigh Brewer, Rebecca Camp, Jamie Dortch, David Gross, and Kevin Larson; at Georgia Tech – Prof. Michael Thad Allen and Prof. Jonathan Schneer; at the University of Chicago – Prof. Michael Geyer and Prof. Bernard Wasserstein; at Harvard University – Prof. Charles Maier; at the University of Maryland – Prof. Jeffrey Herf; and at the University of Pennsylvania – Prof. Ronald Granieri. I would also like to thank the staff and docents at the William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum for their support and encouragement, especially Prof. Liliane Kshensky Baxter, Prof. E. Haven Hawley and Executive Director Jane D. Leavey. I cannot thank the Survivor Speakers at the Breman enough, especially those who permitted me to interview them between 2004 and 2005. The insights they provided were profound. I would also like to express my deepest appreciation to Prof. Alexandra Garbarini of Williams College for being on my committee and for helping me understand many of the intricacies surrounding the genre of the Holocaust diaries. Of course, I could not have accomplished anything without the unfailing love and support of my wife, Christine, who patiently put up with talk of murder and genocide for two years, despite the fact that she was working through her own MBA program. Finally, I would like to thank my thesis advisor, Prof. Jared Poley of Georgia State University, for his guidance in the production of this work, for his advice and the recommendations to Ph.D. programs, but most importantly for listening to me and just being there when I needed someone to help me work through my ideas. I could not have done it without him. vi Table of Contents Acknowledgments ............................................................................................................. v Introduction....................................................................................................................... 1 I: The Problem ................................................................................................................ 1 II: The Thesis ..................................................................................................................1 III: Victims and Perpetrators........................................................................................... 3 IV: Source Material......................................................................................................... 6 V: Historiography ........................................................................................................... 9 VI: Language and Trauma ............................................................................................ 12 VII: Periodization.......................................................................................................... 15 VIII: The Holocaust and Comparative Genocide ......................................................... 16 IX: Format and Representativeness of Diaries ............................................................. 17 X: “Normal Men” and What is Possible....................................................................... 18 Chapter 1: Presence........................................................................................................ 23 I: Introduction ............................................................................................................... 23 II: An Example of a Confrontational Diary .................................................................. 27 III: Depictions of Perpetrators at a Distance................................................................ 44 IV: Distance in Proximity – The Diary of Dawid Sierakowiak................................... 54 V: Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 63 Chapter 2: Dissolution.................................................................................................... 64 I: Introduction ............................................................................................................... 64 II: Sources ..................................................................................................................... 69 III: The Limitations of Language and the Need for Meaning....................................... 76 vii IV: Linguistic Mechanisms of Defense – Metaphors ................................................... 82 V: Linguistic Mechanisms of Defense – Jokes............................................................. 98 VI: Community, Individuality, and Defense Mechanisms ......................................... 103 VII: Conclusion........................................................................................................... 105 Chapter 3: Absence....................................................................................................... 107 I: Introduction ............................................................................................................. 107 II: The Use of Language to Describe Genocide.......................................................... 110 III: Silence................................................................................................................... 114 IV: Sources and Biographical Information................................................................. 119 V: Suicide and Daydreams.......................................................................................... 125 VI: Identification and Denial ...................................................................................... 133 VII: The End of Defense Mechanisms........................................................................ 137 VIII: Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 141 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 146 Bibliography .................................................................................................................. 149 1 Introduction Thoughts on the Study of Perpetrators in Holocaust Diaries “Normal men do not know that everything is possible.” – David Rousset, 1947 I: The Problem The twentieth century has been referred to as “the century of genocide.”1 From the intentional eradication
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Lithuanian Jews and the Holocaust
    Ezra’s Archives | 77 Strategies of Survival: Lithuanian Jews and the Holocaust Taly Matiteyahu On the eve of World War II, Lithuanian Jewry numbered approximately 220,000. In June 1941, the war between Germany and the Soviet Union began. Within days, Germany had occupied the entirety of Lithuania. By the end of 1941, only about 43,500 Lithuanian Jews (19.7 percent of the prewar population) remained alive, the majority of whom were kept in four ghettos (Vilnius, Kaunas, Siauliai, Svencionys). Of these 43,500 Jews, approximately 13,000 survived the war. Ultimately, it is estimated that 94 percent of Lithuanian Jewry died during the Holocaust, a percentage higher than in any other occupied Eastern European country.1 Stories of Lithuanian towns and the manner in which Lithuanian Jews responded to the genocide have been overlooked as the perpetrator- focused version of history examines only the consequences of the Holocaust. Through a study utilizing both historical analysis and testimonial information, I seek to reconstruct the histories of Lithuanian Jewish communities of smaller towns to further understand the survival strategies of their inhabitants. I examined a variety of sources, ranging from scholarly studies to government-issued pamphlets, written testimonies and video testimonials. My project centers on a collection of 1 Population estimates for Lithuanian Jews range from 200,000 to 250,000, percentages of those killed during Nazi occupation range from 90 percent to 95 percent, and approximations of the number of survivors range from 8,000 to 20,000. Here I use estimates provided by Dov Levin, a prominent international scholar of Eastern European Jewish history, in the Introduction to Preserving Our Litvak Heritage: A History of 31 Jewish Communities in Lithuania.
    [Show full text]
  • Jewish Resistance During the Holocaust FALL 2020 Time/Location: ONLINE (LIVE on ZOOOM Via Mycourses) Mondays: 5:00-7:30PM (Two Tuesdays: 9/29; 10/13) Instructor: Dr
    Posted 8/31/20 UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS, DARTMOUTH Syllabus Seminar: European History: HST 521/402 Jewish Resistance During the Holocaust FALL 2020 Time/Location: ONLINE (LIVE ON ZOOOM via MyCourses) Mondays: 5:00-7:30PM (Two Tuesdays: 9/29; 10/13) Instructor: Dr. Ilana F. Offenberger Office Hours: By appointment online via MyCourses Telephone – 978 590 9961/ Email: [email protected] Course Description: Did Jews resist during the Holocaust? When, where, why, and/or why not? This seminar will deepen our understanding of Jewish resistance during the Holocaust and explore what it meant for Jews to resist. We will begin with an overview of resistance and then turn to three focus points, followed by students’ individual research and presentations. Both armed and unarmed resistance will be discussed and analyzed throughout this course. As a class we will investigate: 1. Non-Confrontational Resistance and Confrontational Non-Violence (also referred to as spiritual or cultural resistance) in the Ghettos (with a focus on the Warsaw Ghetto, documentation through the Oneg Shabbos Archive, and artwork/literature produced in the Theresienstadt concentration camp in former Czechoslovakia); 2. Armed/Violent Resistance in the form of a planned attack, focused on the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943; and 3. Armed/Violent Resistance in the form of partisan action, concentrated on the Bielski Group in Belarus. Philosophy, Course Goals,and Objectives This is not a lecture course. Beyond an introductory lecture or two, the (online) classroom experience will revolve around the discussion and analysis of assigned reading materials. You must come to class prepared by doing the readings and taking notes; the instructor will direct as much as participate in the discussion sessions but it is expected that you, individually and collectively with others, will drive the dialogue.
    [Show full text]
  • The Following Entry Is Taken from the Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, Israel Gutman (Ed.), New York: Macmillan, 1990
    Koch, Erich (1896-1986), Nazi party functionary and governor of occupied territories. Born into a working family in Elberfeld, in the Rhineland, Koch graduated from a commercial secondary school and became a railway clerk. In World War I he served as a private, and when the war was over he fought in the ranks of the Freikorps - irregular volunteer units - against the French. Koch was among the first to join the Nazi party (his membership card was No. 90). In 1928 he was appointed Gauleiter of East Prussia, and in 1930 was elected as one of East Prussia's Reichstag deputies. When the Nazis came to power he also became the Oberprasident (governor) of the region. In 1941 Koch was appointed Reichskommissar of the Ukraine and governor of the Bialystok district over the objections of Alfred rosenberg, the minister of occupied territories in the east, who wanted exclusive jurisdiction in the area. Through these appointments Koch came to govern extensive territories, ranging from Konigsberg on the Baltic to the shores of the Black Sea. His treatment of the inhabitants of these territories was exceedingly harsh and cruel; his aim was to implement the ideas of Hitler and Himmler regarding the total subjugation of the Slav peoples. Koch frequently went over Rosenberg's head, although Rosenberg was nominally his superior. After the war, Koch lived for several years in Schleswig-Holstein, under an assumed name. He was arrested by the British occupation forces and extradited to Poland in 1950. In 1959 he was put on trial in Warsaw, and on March 9 of that year was sentenced to death by hanging.
    [Show full text]
  • Simplified WWII Timeline
    ~ Belz Museum of Asian and Judaic Art ~ Holocaust Memorial Gallery ~ Simplified World War II Timeline 1933 JANUARY 30, 1933 German President Paul von Hindenburg appointed Adolf Hitler chancellor. At the time, Hitler was leader of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (Nazi party). FEBRUARY 27-28, 1933 The German parliament (Reichstag) building burned down under mysterious circumstances. The government treated it as an act of terrorism. FEBRUARY 28, 1933 Hitler convinced President von Hindenburg to invoke an emergency clause in the Weimar Constitution. The German parliament then passed the Decree of the Reich President for the Protection of Nation (Volk) and State, popularly known as the Reichstag Fire Decree, the decree suspended the civil rights provisions in the existing German constitution, including freedom of speech, assembly, and press, and formed the basis for the incarceration of potential opponents of the Nazis without benefit of trial or judicial proceeding. MARCH 22, 1933 The SS (Schutzstaffel), Hitler's “elite guard,” established a concentration camp outside the town of Dachau, Germany, for political opponents of the regime. It was the only concentration camp to remain in operation from 1933 until 1945. By 1934, the SS had taken over administration of the entire Nazi concentration camp system. MARCH 23, 1933 The German parliament passed the Enabling Act, which empowered Hitler to establish a dictatorship in Germany. APRIL 1, 1933 The Nazis organized a nationwide boycott of Jewish-owned businesses in Germany. Many local boycotts continued throughout much of the 1930s. APRIL 7, 1933 The Nazi government passed the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service, which excluded Jews and political opponents from university and governmental positions.
    [Show full text]
  • Guides to German Records Microfilmed at Alexandria, Va
    GUIDES TO GERMAN RECORDS MICROFILMED AT ALEXANDRIA, VA. No. 32. Records of the Reich Leader of the SS and Chief of the German Police (Part I) The National Archives National Archives and Records Service General Services Administration Washington: 1961 This finding aid has been prepared by the National Archives as part of its program of facilitating the use of records in its custody. The microfilm described in this guide may be consulted at the National Archives, where it is identified as RG 242, Microfilm Publication T175. To order microfilm, write to the Publications Sales Branch (NEPS), National Archives and Records Service (GSA), Washington, DC 20408. Some of the papers reproduced on the microfilm referred to in this and other guides of the same series may have been of private origin. The fact of their seizure is not believed to divest their original owners of any literary property rights in them. Anyone, therefore, who publishes them in whole or in part without permission of their authors may be held liable for infringement of such literary property rights. Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 58-9982 AMERICA! HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION COMMITTEE fOR THE STUDY OP WAR DOCUMENTS GUIDES TO GERMAN RECOBDS MICROFILMED AT ALEXAM)RIA, VA. No* 32» Records of the Reich Leader of the SS aad Chief of the German Police (HeiehsMhrer SS und Chef der Deutschen Polizei) 1) THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION (AHA) COMMITTEE FOR THE STUDY OF WAE DOCUMENTS GUIDES TO GERMAN RECORDS MICROFILMED AT ALEXANDRIA, VA* This is part of a series of Guides prepared
    [Show full text]
  • Nurses and Midwives in Nazi Germany
    Downloaded by [New York University] at 03:18 04 October 2016 Nurses and Midwives in Nazi Germany This book is about the ethics of nursing and midwifery, and how these were abrogated during the Nazi era. Nurses and midwives actively killed their patients, many of whom were disabled children and infants and patients with mental (and other) illnesses or intellectual disabilities. The book gives the facts as well as theoretical perspectives as a lens through which these crimes can be viewed. It also provides a way to teach this history to nursing and midwifery students, and, for the first time, explains the role of one of the world’s most historically prominent midwifery leaders in the Nazi crimes. Downloaded by [New York University] at 03:18 04 October 2016 Susan Benedict is Professor of Nursing, Director of Global Health, and Co- Director of the Campus-Wide Ethics Program at the University of Texas Health Science Center School of Nursing in Houston. Linda Shields is Professor of Nursing—Tropical Health at James Cook Uni- versity, Townsville, Queensland, and Honorary Professor, School of Medi- cine, The University of Queensland. Routledge Studies in Modern European History 1 Facing Fascism 9 The Russian Revolution of 1905 The Conservative Party and the Centenary Perspectives European dictators 1935–1940 Edited by Anthony Heywood and Nick Crowson Jonathan D. Smele 2 French Foreign and Defence 10 Weimar Cities Policy, 1918–1940 The Challenge of Urban The Decline and Fall of a Great Modernity in Germany Power John Bingham Edited by Robert Boyce 11 The Nazi Party and the German 3 Britain and the Problem of Foreign Office International Disarmament Hans-Adolf Jacobsen and Arthur 1919–1934 L.
    [Show full text]
  • Evolution and Ambition in the Career of Jan Lievens (1607-1674)
    ABSTRACT Title: EVOLUTION AND AMBITION IN THE CAREER OF JAN LIEVENS (1607-1674) Lloyd DeWitt, Ph.D., 2006 Directed By: Prof. Arthur K. Wheelock, Jr. Department of Art History and Archaeology The Dutch artist Jan Lievens (1607-1674) was viewed by his contemporaries as one of the most important artists of his age. Ambitious and self-confident, Lievens assimilated leading trends from Haarlem, Utrecht and Antwerp into a bold and monumental style that he refined during the late 1620s through close artistic interaction with Rembrandt van Rijn in Leiden, climaxing in a competition for a court commission. Lievens’s early Job on the Dung Heap and Raising of Lazarus demonstrate his careful adaptation of style and iconography to both theological and political conditions of his time. This much-discussed phase of Lievens’s life came to an end in 1631when Rembrandt left Leiden. Around 1631-1632 Lievens was transformed by his encounter with Anthony van Dyck, and his ambition to be a court artist led him to follow Van Dyck to London in the spring of 1632. His output of independent works in London was modest and entirely connected to Van Dyck and the English court, thus Lievens almost certainly worked in Van Dyck’s studio. In 1635, Lievens moved to Antwerp and returned to history painting, executing commissions for the Jesuits, and he also broadened his artistic vocabulary by mastering woodcut prints and landscape paintings. After a short and successful stay in Leiden in 1639, Lievens moved to Amsterdam permanently in 1644, and from 1648 until the end of his career was engaged in a string of important and prestigious civic and princely commissions in which he continued to demonstrate his aptitude for adapting to and assimilating the most current style of his day to his own somber monumentality.
    [Show full text]
  • Holocaust Glossary
    Holocaust Glossary A ● Allies: 26 nations led by Great Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union that opposed Germany, Italy, and Japan (known as the Axis powers) in World War II. ● Antisemitism: Hostility toward or hatred of Jews as a religious or ethnic group, often accompanied by social, economic, or political discrimination. (USHMM) ● Appellplatz: German word for the roll call square where prisoners were forced to assemble. (USHMM) ● Arbeit Macht Frei: “Work makes you free” is emblazoned on the gates at Auschwitz and was intended to deceive prisoners about the camp’s function (Holocaust Museum Houston) ● Aryan: Term used in Nazi Germany to refer to non-Jewish and non-Gypsy Caucasians. Northern Europeans with especially “Nordic” features such as blonde hair and blue eyes were considered by so-called race scientists to be the most superior of Aryans, members of a “master race.” (USHMM) ● Auschwitz: The largest Nazi concentration camp/death camp complex, located 37 miles west of Krakow, Poland. The Auschwitz main camp (Auschwitz I) was established in 1940. In 1942, a killing center was established at Auschwitz-Birkenau (Auschwitz II). In 1941, Auschwitz-Monowitz (Auschwitz III) was established as a forced-labor camp. More than 100 subcamps and labor detachments were administratively connected to Auschwitz III. (USHMM) Pictured right: Auschwitz I. B ● Babi Yar: A ravine near Kiev where almost 34,000 Jews were killed by German soldiers in two days in September 1941 (Holocaust Museum Houston) ● Barrack: The building in which camp prisoners lived. The material, size, and conditions of the structures varied from camp to camp.
    [Show full text]
  • Collaboration and Resistance—The Ninth Fort As a Test Case
    Aya Ben-Naftali Director, Massuah Institute for the Study of the Holocaust Collaboration and Resistance: The Ninth Fort as a Test Case The Ninth Fort is one of a chain of nine forts surrounding the city of Kovno, Lithuania. In connection with the Holocaust, this location, like Ponary, Babi Yar, and Rumbula, marks the first stage of the Final Solution—the annihilation of the Jewish people. The history of this site of mass slaughtering is an extreme case of the Lithuanians’ deep involvement in the systematic extermination of the Jews, as well as an extraordinary case of resistance by prisoners there. 1. Designation of the Ninth Fort as a Major Killing Site The forts surrounding Kovno were constructed between 1887 and 1910 to protect the city from German invasion. The Ninth Fort, six kilometers northwest of the city, was considered the most important of them. In the independent Republic of Lithuania, it served as an annex of the central prison of Kovno and had a capacity of 250 prisoners. Adjacent to the fort was a state-owned farm of eighty-one hectares, where the prisoners were forced to work the fields and dig peat.1 The Ninth Fort was chosen as the main regional execution site in advance. Its proximity to the suburb of Vilijampole (Slobodka), where the Kovno ghetto had been established, was apparently the main reason. In his final report on the extermination of Lithuanian Jews, Karl Jäger, commander of Einsatzkommando 3 and the Security Police and SD in Lithuania, noted the factors that informed his choice of killing sites (Exekutionsplatze): …The carrying out of such Aktionen is first of all an organizational problem.
    [Show full text]
  • State of Florida Resource Manual on Holocaust Education Grades
    State of Florida Resource Manual on Holocaust Education Grades 7-8 A Study in Character Education A project of the Commissioner’s Task Force on Holocaust Education Authorization for reproduction is hereby granted to the state system of public education. No authorization is granted for distribution or reproduction outside the state system of public education without prior approval in writing. The views of this document do not necessarily represent those of the Florida Department of Education. 2 Table of Contents Introduction Definition of the Term Holocaust ............................................................ 7 Why Teach about the Holocaust............................................................. 8 The Question of Rationale.............................................................. 8 Florida’s Legislature/DOE Required Instruction.............................. 9 Required Instruction 1003.42, F.S.................................................. 9 Developing a Holocaust Unit .................................................................. 9 Interdisciplinary and Integrated Units ..................................................... 11 Suggested Topic Areas for a Course of Study on the Holocaust............ 11 Suggested Learning Activities ................................................................ 12 Eyewitnesses in Your Classroom ........................................................... 12 Discussion Points/Questions for Survivors ............................................. 13 Commonly Asked Questions by Students
    [Show full text]
  • Holocaust and World War II Timeline 1933 1934 1935
    Holocaust and World War II Timeline 1933 January 30 German President Paul von Hindenburg appoints Adolf Hitler Chancellor of Germany Feb. 27-28 German Reichstag (Parliament) mysteriously burns down, government treats it as an act of terrorism Feb. 28 Decree passed which suspends the civil rights granted by the German constitution March 4 Franklin Delano Roosevelt inaugurated President of the United States March 22 Dachau concentration camp opens as a prison camp for political dissidents March 23 Reichstag passes the Enabling Act, empowering Hitler to establish a dictatorship April 1 Nationwide Nazi organized boycott of Jewish shops and businesses April 7 Laws for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service bars Jews from holding civil service, university, and state positions April 26 Gestapo established May 10 Public burning of books written by Jews, political dissidents, and others July 14 The Nazi Party is declared the only legal party in Germany. Law on the Revocation of Naturalization stripping East European Jewish immigrants, as well as Roma (Gypsies), of German citizenship 1934 June 20 The SS (Schutzstaffel or Protection Squad), under Heinrich Himmler, is established as an independent organization. June 30 Night of the Long Knives – members of the Nazi party and police murdered members of the Nazi leadership, army and others on Hitler’s orders. Ernst Röhm, leader of the SA was killed. August 2 President von Hindenburg dies. Hitler proclaims himself Führer. Armed forces must now swear allegiance to him Oct. 7 Jehovah’s Witness congregations submit standardized letters to the government declaring their political neutrality Oct.-Nov. First major arrests of homosexuals throughout Germany Dec.
    [Show full text]
  • 'However Sick a Joke…': on Comedy, the Representation
    10 ‘However sick a joke…’: on comedy, the representation of suffering, Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s Melodrama and Volker Koepp’s Melancholy Stephanie Bird Primo Levi invokes the notion of a joke when he first arrives in Auschwitz. The prisoners, who have had nothing to drink for four days, are put into a room with a tap and a card that forbids drinking the water because it is dirty: ‘Nonsense. It seems obvious that the card is a joke, “they” know that we are dying of thirst and they put us in a room, and there is a tap, and Wassertrinken Verboten’.1 In Levi’s example, the relationship of mocked and mocker is clear, as is the moral evaluation that condemns those that would ridicule and taunt the prisoners. Yet in Imre Kertész’s novel Fateless, the moral clarity offered by Levi is obscured is absent from Kertész’s reference to the notion of a joke. In it, the 14 year-old boy, György Köves, describes how the procedure he and his fellow passengers must undergo from arrival in Birkenau to either the gas chambers or showers elicits in him a ‘sense of certain jokes, a kind of student prank’.2 Despite feeling increasingly queasy, for he is aware of the outcome of the procedure, György nevertheless has the impression of a stunt: gentlemen in imposing suits, smoking cigars who must have come up with a string of ideas, first of the gas, then of the bathhouse, next the soap, the flower beds, ‘and so on’ (Fateless, 111), jumping up and slapping palms when they conjured up a good one.
    [Show full text]