By Chance I Found a Pencil: 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

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.

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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

______

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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 . 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 , the library staff at Yad Vashem, , The University of Melbourne and, at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Warsaw, , (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.

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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

4 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

5 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 . Her last entry trails off mid sentence.

6 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 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.

7 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.

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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: and the Final Solution, (U.S.A: Harvard University Press, 1992), is representative of scholarly works reflecting the voice of the victim.

9 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.

10 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, 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, (: 1986, 2002). Etty Hillesum was a Dutch Jew murdered at Auschwitz.

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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).

12 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. 13Western 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).

13 foreboding expressed in the diary entry of Etty Hillesum penned in in the , 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,"

14 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. 25Goldberg, 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.

15 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. 32The 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. 34In 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.

16 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).

17 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. 39The 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.

18 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.

19 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).

20 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.

21 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.

22 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).

23 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.

24 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. 62Ibid. There are many reasons cited for the uniqueness of the Holocaust diary, beyond the scope of this thesis. 63 Ibid.

25 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. 65This 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.

26 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 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.

27 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.

28 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.

29 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.

30 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.

31 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.

32 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.

33 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

34 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.

35 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.

36 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.

37 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).

38 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.

39 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.

40 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.

41 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.

42 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.

43 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.

44 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.

45 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

46 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.

47 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.

48 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.

49 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, 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.

50 waiting for Auschwitz or labor camp. 139

On February 8th1943, 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.

51 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.

52 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.147As 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.

53

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.

54 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.

55 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.

56 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.

57 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.

58 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

59 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.

60 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.

61 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.

62 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.

63

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.

64 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.‖

65 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.

66 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.

67 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.

68 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.

69 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.

70 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

71 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.

72

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.

73 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.

74 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.

75

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

228Ibid., 464 229 Ibid., 581 230 Redlich, The Terezin Diary of Gonda Redlich, 75. The diary was only unearthed in 1967.

76 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

231Victor 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.

77

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.

78

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.

79 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.

80 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.

81 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.

82 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 15th 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.

83 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. 256It 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.

84 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.

85

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).

86 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.

87 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.

88 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.

89 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

90 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 4th1942:

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.

91

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.

92 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).

93 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

94 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.

95

…....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.

96 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.

97

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

98 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.

99 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

100 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. 327Although 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

101 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.

102

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 4th1941:

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.

103 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.

104 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. 349At 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.

105 ―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.

106 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.

107

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.

108 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. 365Ruard 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.

109 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.

110 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.

111 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

376Feliks 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.

112 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.

113 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.

114 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.

115 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.

116 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.

117 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.

118

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.

119 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 9th (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.

120 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.

121 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.

122 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.

123 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.

124 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.

125 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.

126 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.

127 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.

128 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.‖ 453In 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.

129 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.

130 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

131

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.

132 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. 475Alain 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.‖

133 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.

134 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.

135 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.

136

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.

137 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.‖

138 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.

139 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.‖

140 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.

141 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.

142 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. 521Alon Confino, "Narrative Form and Historical Sensation: On Saul Friedlander's Years of Extermination," History and Theory 48, Issue 3 (2009): 199-219.

143 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.525Accordingly, 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.

144 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. 530After 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).

145 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.

146 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.

147 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.

148 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.

149 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.

150 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

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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.

152 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.

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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

154 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

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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.

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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.

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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.

158 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.

159

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.

160 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.

161 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.

162

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.

163 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.‖

164 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.

165 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.

166 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.

167 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.

168 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.

169

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.

170 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.

171

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.

172 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.

173 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).

174

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.

175 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.

176 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.

177 …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.

178 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.

179 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.

180

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.

181

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.

182 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.

183 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.

184 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.

185 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.

186 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.

187 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.

188 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.

189 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.

190 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.

191 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).

192 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.

193 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.

194 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.

195

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.

196 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

197 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.

198 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."

199 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.

200 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.

201 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.

202 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.‖

203

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.

204 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.

205 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.

206 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.

207 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.

208 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.

209

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.

210 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

211 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?‖

212 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."

213 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.

214

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

215 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.

216 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. 787This 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.

217 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.

218 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.

219 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.

220 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.

221 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.

222 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.

223

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.

224 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.

225 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.

226 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.

227 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.

228 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.

229 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."

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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, solace and struggle

Date: 2010

Citation: Kaufman, F. L. (2010). By chance I found a pencil: the Holocaust diary narratives of testimony, defiance, solace and struggle. PhD thesis, Arts - School of Historical Studies, The University of Melbourne.

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