Literature

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Literature From the Holocaust
Alyssa Hasell
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Literature Living On

• Although millions of Jews died in the Holocaust,
  they live on in the literature left behind.
• Literature from the Holocaust includes
• -stories from the survivors
• -stories of heroes and rescuers
• -the German point of view
• -stories written in the aftermath

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Stories From the Survivors

• Many survivors were too traumatized by their
  experiences to re-tell them
• The majority of Jewish authors dared to share
  their stories by the 1960s, only after the trial
  of Adolf Eichmann.
• Some of these literary works include
• -All But My Life by Gerda Weissmann
• Klein
• -This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen
• by Tadeusz Borowski
• -Survival in Aushwitz by Primo Levi
• -Night by Elie Wiesel
• Here, Jews are taken to Auschwitz, a
  concentration camp.

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Stories From the Survivors (Cont.)

• One of the most praised of the survivor authors
  is Elie Wiesel, whose memoir of his struggle with
  his faith in the face of German cruelty is
  excerpted here

Never shall I forget those flames which consumed
my faith forever. Never shall I forget that
nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all
eternity, of the desire to live. Never shall I
forget those moments which murdered my God and my
soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I
forget those things, even if I am condemned to
live as long as God Himself. Never.
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Stories of Heroes and Rescuers

• The Holocaust was a time of extreme confusion and
  devastation for Jews.
• Out of this crisis, there arose heroes among the
  Jews themselves and in compassionate outsiders.
• Accounts of rescue and heroism include
• -Their Brothers Keepers by Philip Friedman
• -Rescue The Story of How Gentiles Saved Jews
  During the Holocaust by Milton Meltzer
• -Schindlers List by Thomas Keneally

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Heroes and Rescuers (Cont.)

• Of these books, Schindlers List is the most
  well-known and celebrated account of rescue
  during the Holocaust.
• The story is based on the heroics of Oskar
• Schindler, a former German proponent
• sickened by the senseless killing of so
• many Jews.
• He used his extreme wealth and power to
• employ Jewish workers in his factories to
  save them from concentration camps and,
  ultimately, death.

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The German Point of View

• Holocaust literature not only consists of the
  Jews and their stories, but those of the German
  soldiers, leaders, and nation as well.
• It consists of
• -Hitlers propaganda and manipulative
  speeches
• -the analysis of the German nations moral
  downfall in the war
• -viewpoints from the children of Nazi
  murderers
• -the struggle soldiers felt in staying loyal
  to their country or to
• their own morals

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The German Point of View (Cont.)

• Those ideas are seen in
• -Hitler A Study in Tyranny
  by Alan
• Bullock
• -Hitlers Children Sons
  and Daughters of
• The Leaders of the Third
  Reich Talk About Themselves and Their Fathers,
  Gerald Posner
• -War Without Friends By Evert Hartman

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Stories From the Aftermath

• It took a lot of time and a lot of eye-opening
  literature for the world to realize the scale of,
  and accept the idea of the Holocaust.
• Some of these shocking literary works include
• -The World Must Know The History of the
  Holocaust as Told in the United States Holocaust
  Memorial Museum by Michael Berenbaum
• -While Six Million Died by Arthur Morse
• -Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
• To the right, a Holocaust memorial in
• Miami is pictured.

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Aftermath (Cont.)

• In the novel Number the Stars, a young girl named
  Annemarie from Denmark struggles to save her best
  friend Ellen, a Jew, from the German Nazis.

Now she was ten, with long legs and no more
silly dreams of pink-frosted cupcakes. And now
she and all the Danes were to be bodyguard for
Ellen, and Ellen's parents, and all of Denmark's
Jews. Would she die to protect them? Truly?
Annemarie was honest enough to admit, there in
the darkness, to herself, that she wasn't sure.
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Conclusion

• No matter what form it takes on, the literature
  of Holocaust stands as a record and a reminder of
  a tragedy that cannot and will not be
  forgotten.
• "We who lived in concentration camps can remember
  the men who walked through the huts comforting
  others, giving away their last piece of bread.
  They may have been few in number, but they offer
  sufficient proof that everything can be taken
  from a man but one thing the last of human
  freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given
  set of circumstances - to choose one's own way.
  Victor Frankl

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Works Cited Page

• Florida Center for Instructional Technology
  (2005). A Teachers Guide To The Holocaust.
  Resource retrieved September 20, 2005 from
  http//fcit.coedu.usf.edu/holocaust/arts/lit.htm
• All images found on www.google.com images search
  engine under Holocaust and Holocaust
  literature