Bearing Witness BEARING WITNESS A Resource Guide to Literature, Poetry, Art, Music, and Videos by Holocaust Victims and Survivors PHILIP ROSEN and NINA APFELBAUM Greenwood Press Westport, Connecticut ● London Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Rosen, Philip. Bearing witness : a resource guide to literature, poetry, art, music, and videos by Holocaust victims and survivors / Philip Rosen and Nina Apfelbaum. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references (p.) and index. ISBN 0–313–31076–9 (alk. paper) 1. Holocaust, Jewish (1939–1945)—Personal narratives—Bio-bibliography. 2. Holocaust, Jewish (1939–1945), in literature—Bio-bibliography. 3. Holocaust, Jewish (1939–1945), in art—Catalogs. 4. Holocaust, Jewish (1939–1945)—Songs and music—Bibliography—Catalogs. 5. Holocaust,Jewish (1939–1945)—Video catalogs. I. Apfelbaum, Nina. II. Title. Z6374.H6 R67 2002 [D804.3] 016.94053’18—dc21 00–069153 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available. Copyright ᭧ 2002 by Philip Rosen and Nina Apfelbaum All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, by any process or technique, without the express written consent of the publisher. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 00–069153 ISBN: 0–313–31076–9 First published in 2002 Greenwood Press, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881 An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. www.greenwood.com Printed in the United States of America TM The paper used in this book complies with the Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National Information Standards Organization (Z39.48–1984). 10987654321 Contents Preface vii Historical Background of the Holocaust xi 1 Memoirs, Diaries, and Fiction of the Holocaust 1 2 Poetry of the Holocaust 105 3 Art of the Holocaust 121 4 Music of the Holocaust 165 5 Videos of the Holocaust Experience 183 Index 197 Preface The writers, artists, and musicians whose works are profiled in this re- source guide were selected on the basis of a number of criteria. Each indi- vidual was a victim or a survivor under the Nazi heel or of the repression of an ally of the Nazis—victims and survivors of concentration camps and ghettos, members of partisan groups, those in hiding, Jews disguised as Christians, and other victims of Nazi persecution. We have attempted to provide entries representing a variety of firsthand experiences and re- sponses. Only works by those who were there—eyewitnesses to Holo- caust history—are included. Some works cited in this book are collections of testimony, narratives, fiction, art, or poetry; each narrative, poem, or artwork in the collection is a firsthand account or artistic interpretation by a victim or survivor of the Holocaust. We have attempted to include those writers and artists who have achieved a degree of international recogni- tion such as writers Charlotte Delbo, Primo Levi, and Elie Wiesel; poets Nellie Sachs and Paul Celan; painters Norbert Troller and Leo Haas; and composers Viktor Ullmann and Herschel Glik. But this resource also in- cludes the work of less well known, unsung, and unrecognized eyewit- nesses to history whose literature or art will help the student and other interested people to gain firsthand knowledge of what it was like to be a victim of Nazi persecution in the Holocaust. This resource spans the entire period of Nazi aggression and genocide, from the early days of Nazi consolidation of power in Germany to the end of World War II. The experiences of writers and artists from many countries are represented, including those of Gentiles who shared the same fate as Jews. The experience of the Jews of Poland, of whom 3 million were killed by the Nazis, is well represented. Works from a va- viii Preface riety of ghettos, especially the Warsaw Ghetto, and from concentration camps, particularly Auschwitz, are also well represented. To put the literature, art, and music resources into context, an intro- ductory essay describes briefly the historical background of the Nazi persecution and Holocaust. The resource guide is then organized into five chapters: 1. Writers of memoirs, diaries, and fiction 2. Poets 3. Artists 4. Composers and musicians 5. Videos of the Holocaust experience Each chapter is organized alphabetically by entry, and within the entry alphabetically by title. Entries that fall into two categories are fully an- notated in the main section to which they are appropriate and are cross- referenced in the other section. Chapter 1, Writers, provides a brief overview of Holocaust writing. The entry on each writer contains the following elements: brief biogra- phy, including birth (and death) date(s), place of birth and family mem- bers, a short overview of the writer’s Holocaust experience, and in the case of survivors, their liberation and immediate postwar experience. This is followed by an annotated bibliography of recommended works, which includes complete bibliographic data, capsule description of the work, and age appropriateness. Age appropriateness was determined by the work’s content, its vocabulary and its complexity of concepts and sentences. In addition, educational materials that designate age appro- priateness, such as the catalogues of the United States Holocaust Me- morial Museum, Social Studies School Service, and the Anti-Defamation League, were utilized. Chapter 2, Poets, begins with an essay on Holocaust poetry. Quite a few poets were Gentiles who empathized with the plight of the Jews. Each entry features a biographical sketch of the poet and discussion of the nature of the poet’s work. Entries cite the anthologies where the poet’s work can be found, along with complete bibliographic data, the title of the poem, and the page on which it is located. Chapter 3, Artists, features survivor artists who completed their pieces relating to their Holocaust experience either during the Holocaust or after and includes an introductory essay on Holocaust art and artists. The entry on each artist includes a biographical sketch (although in some cases little information is available) followed by a brief description of the artist’s work and a list of artworks and sources where they can be found or institutions where they can be viewed. Preface ix Chapter 4, Composers and Musicians, follows the format of the pre- vious chapters. This section contains entries on books, sheet music, and musical scores. Wherever possible composers are named, the compiler of the songs noted, and the sources for obtaining the music given. Many songs arose from the folk, however, not from an individual; and since the mother tongue of Eastern European Jews was Yiddish, many of these songs are in that tongue. Chapter 5 features a bibliography of annotated videos about the Ho- locaust experience. The guiding principal in selection was a film’s em- phasis on the victim-survivor. Documentaries are included if they contain a significant amount of survivor testimony. Following a general introduction, entries are arranged alphabetically by title. Wherever pos- sible, videos by survivor producer-directors are featured. A considera- tion in selecting videos is a lack of grotesque photos that might be inappropriate for younger viewers. Each video entry includes title, run- ning time, whether in color or black and white, age appropriateness, vendor, and a description of the video. The name of another writer, artist, or musician in an entry is in bold if the person is the subject of another main entry. The number of Holocaust memoirs, diaries, fiction, poetry, art, music, and videos is great. This resource is not meant to be exhaustive, but it is designed to provide teachers, librarians, students, and those interested in the Holocaust with direction for selecting firsthand accounts and re- sponses to the experience of the Holocaust. Historical Background of the Holocaust To understand events of the Holocaust and the literature, art, music, and film that depict them, one must understand the historical context in which they took place. Hitler legally came to power as chancellor in Germany by appointment on January 30, 1933. It did not take long for him to impose laws and decrees that circumscribed the lives of the 500,000 Jews of Germany. Jews were dismissed from all government jobs; Jewish medical professionals could not practice on “Aryans” (the word for Gentile Germans). Jews were exposed to ridicule, humiliation, and random beatings. Racist doctrine alienated the Gentile population from Jews. Boycotts, book burning, and cultural exclusion made Jews who thought they had been accepted into German society feel unwanted and fearful, their lives threatened. Jewish artists and musicians had their works banned as decadent. With the Nuremberg laws enacted in 1935, marriage and social intercourse between Jew and Aryan was prohibited. A new category was invented, “mischling,” a half-breed, someone part Jewish, part Aryan. When the Reich annexed Austria in 1938, the dis- criminatory laws were applied to Austria’s 180,000 Jews. On November 9, 1938, a huge government-sponsored riot, now recalled as Kristallnacht, left most synagogues and Jewish institutions burned and sent 30,000 Jews to concentration camps until they could prove they could leave Germany. Whereas a number of Jews found refuge in nearby countries in Western Europe, few were admitted to the United States. Indeed, the Jews became a “refugee problem” as countries closed their immigration doors. Ten thousand Jewish children from Greater Germany (Germany, Austria, and part of Czechoslovakia) were permitted to go to England on the Kindertransport, however, but they had to leave their parents xii Historical Background behind. Writers and poets tell of this permanent separation. In 1939 the one means by which Jews made a living, commerce, was taken away. Germany swallowed up Czechoslovakia, and Palestine, the haven prom- ised by the League of Nations as a Jewish homeland and ruled by Great Britain after World War I, was closed to Jewish immigration. Jewish property was confiscated, or sold at a fraction of its worth.