By Chance I Found a Pencil: The Holocaust Diary Narratives of Testimony, Defiance, Solace and Struggle.

Transcription

1 By Chance I Found a Pencil: The Holocaust 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

2 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. 1

3 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 2

4 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 Yad Vashem. 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 Israel, the library staff at Yad Vashem, Jerusalem, The University of Melbourne and, at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Warsaw, Poland, (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. 3

5 Table of Contents Abstract... 1 Declaration... 2 Acknowledgements. 3 Table of Contents 4 Forward 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 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 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

6 Chapter 4 The Narratives of Solace Finding Solace in the Act of Writing 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 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 The Collective Struggle through Diary Narrative 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 Secondary Sources

7 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 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 Jews. Her last entry trails off mid sentence. 6

8 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 Warsaw Ghetto 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

9 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. 8

10 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: Nazism and the Final Solution, (U.S.A: Harvard University Press, 1992), is representative of scholarly works reflecting the voice of the victim. 9

11 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,

12 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, Etty Hillesum 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): 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, HarperCollins, USA, 2007, Introduction, pages xxvi. 8 Etty Hillesum, Etty: The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum , 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 , (Amsterdam: 1986, 2002). Etty Hillesum was a Dutch Jew murdered at Auschwitz. 11

13 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 27 th, 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), Martin Gilbert, The Holocaust: The Jewish Tragedy (Great Britain: Fontana Press, 1986). Yehuda Bauer, Rethinking the Holocaust (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002). 12

14 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. 13 Western 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

15 foreboding expressed in the diary entry of Etty Hillesum penned in Westerbork Transit camp in the Netherlands, on August 24 th, 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 27 th, 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 , Amos Funkenstein, " History, Counterhistory and Narrative, " in Probing the Limits of Representation, ed. Saul Friedlander (Great Britain: Harvard University Press, 1992), 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), 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

16 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. 25 Goldberg, 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, (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):

17 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. 32 The 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. 34 In 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), James E. Young, " Toward a Received History of the Holocaust," History and Theory 36, no. 4 (1997): 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 65 th 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) : Ibid. 16

18 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

19 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. 39 The 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), 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): 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