Compare and Contrast diary of Mary Berg and Adam Czerniakow - Research Paper Example

Compare and Contrast diary of Mary Berg and Adam Czerniakow Introduction Traditional attempts to write about the Holocaust often focused on the Nazi perpetrators instead of the victims themselves. The collection of the written accounts, which make up history, is limited in regard to the Holocaust, prominently due to the fragmented writings left behind by the victims of the Holocaust. Moreover, some of the diarists censored their diaries, incorporating some details and leaving out many events perhaps too confronting and difficult to comprehend. To this end, the Holocaust diaries serve as a distinctive literary form, comprising its own unique genre that constructs meaning, intention and experience of a certain Jewish diarist at a certain point in history (Wiese and Betts 33). Background The Holocaust was a horrific episode of catastrophes that orchestrated the deaths of millions of people. One of the prevalently targeted groups during the Holocaust was the Jews. The unfortunate turn of events started in1933 amid the rise of the Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party. The strategy for the systematic extermination of European Jewry was implemented and almost effectively carried out through strategies such as Ghettoization (Kurek 190). Ghettos were highly dense quarters characterized by poor living conditions as exemplified by overcrowding, hunger and deplorable sanitation. Most of the areas designated as ghettos were rundown neighborhoods. The rationale of the ghetto was to gather the Jews and isolate them. The invading Germany wanted to manage the cornered Jewish population by compelling them to live in segregated parts of towns or cities, otherwise referred to as Ghettos. During their occupation of Eastern Europe, Germans created at least 1,000 ghettos within the occupied territories. The Ghettos were characterized by disease, starvation and death (Kurek 192). The largest of the ghettos was Warsaw, where close to half a million Jews lived. Synopsis Warsaw Ghetto: A Diary by Mary Berg Mary Berg’s diary was the first one to be published in 1945 and can be considered to be a living witness to the atrocities committed by the Nazis. Mary Berg was unique among the witnesses of the Warsaw Ghetto in that the Germans exempted her from the danger of deportation and extermination since her mother was an American citizen (Kremer 253). In October 1939, Mary, the daughter of a prosperous Lodz art dealer, had just turned fifteen when she wrote her first entry. She wrote her last entry in March, 1944, when she was nineteen-and-half years of age, when there were on board a ship to America (Pentlin 5). Mary felt guilty that her father’s money and her mother’s status provided her family some measure of protection. Eventually they used their American passport for German prisoner of war exchange. Her family had gone to Warsaw in an effort to flee the terror of Lodz. Her family was subjected to the tightening vice of terror in Warsaw, until Mary confronted her fear of registering with the German police, when she realized that their only opportunity lay in claiming unique privileges as foreign nationals (Kremer 254). The family was removed from the ghetto by the German prior to the deportations, temporarily interned and later transported to Lisbon and freed during in a war time exchange. Synopsis Adam Czerniakow: the Warsaw diary of Adam Czerniakow Adam Czerniakow was born in 1880, in Warsaw. The author undertook his studies in Warsaw and became actively involved in Jewish public life before the First World War. The author devoted himself to preserving and promoting the interests of the Jewish craftsmen and he published extensively on subjects related to Jewish artisans. Czerniakow official title was the Chairman of the Jewish Council and as from 1941, he was considered as the “mayor,” although the chairman of the Jewish Council in Warsaw was the mainly used title (Berger 255). Czerniakow diary and notebooks avail modern day scholars with a distinct perspective on Holocaust. His diary avails a systematized and logical account of the episodes that transpired while being the Warsaw Judenrat (Czerniakow, Hilberg, Staron and Kermish 12). The diary represents an immense collection of thoughts spanning from September 6, 1939, until July 23, 1942, a day prior to his untimely death (Berger 258). There are nine notebooks that constitute Czerniakow’s experiences, although one of the notebooks (notebook five), was lost. A comparison of the Diaries Mary’s and Czerniakow’s writing talent is evident throughout the diaries where they paint a vivid detail of life in the Ghetto and its social structure. In many instances, the authors are proud of what they report as they narrate that a large part of the Jewish community pulled together and functioned as a community within the Ghetto (Schiff 4). The Jewish population living in the Ghettos instituted secretive schools and used children to smuggle in food to assist the impoverished, besides constructing a vibrant cultural institution. In the face of the deplorable conditions and the stress, friendship and companionship with others was essential (Berger 256). The diarists felt empty and at other times a mixture of happiness and nightmare. Mary Berge frequently questioned herself whether she possesses the right to save herself and abandon her closest friends to face their bitter fate alone (Kremer 255). Similarities between the Diaries The Holocaust diaries can be considered as literary historical narratives, exemplifying not only the shifting reality that the victims had to comprehend on a daily basis, but also the events they conceived as reality (Berger 266). The day-to-day accounts avail no revision, thus allowing the post Holocaust reader, reading in retrospect, to try and comprehend how an individual in such a tragedy delineated the paradigms of reality (Schiff 6). The diarists entered events can be considered to be historical facts as they were observed by diverse diarists at given moment in a certain place, the Warsaw Ghetto. The two holocaust diaries bring out the heterogeneity of the victims in regard to wartime perceptions, personal experiences and responses, which is critical when analyzing the coping mechanism of the victims of Nazism. Both accounts bring out and acknowledge the trauma and disbelief apparent within the ghetto (Kurek 194). Mary’s and Czerniakow’s Ghetto diaries share a central concern. The two diarists share approaches in how they reflect on the horrifying circumstances in which they found themselves. Mary illustrates in horrifying detail the deteriorating conditions within the Ghettos from year to year. Every year she recorded an entry concerning what she did on her birthday, comparing the previous birthday in the Ghetto to the present birthday she is writing about at the moment. Much of diary details graphic details of what she witnessed from her apartment window and when she made panicky forays into the streets (Pentlin 6). Czerniakow kept a daily diary throughout his tenure as the Chairman of the Jewish Council in Warsaw. His diary detailed key incidences of the Warsaw Ghetto such as the events, actions and the life within the Ghetto. Irrespective of the atrociousness of the assignment before him, Czerniakow demonstrates an understanding of the historical task facing him and his resolve to meet the challenge as exemplified by his account of September 23, 1939, the day he assumed the reigns of Judenrat (Trunk 14). On the day he was appointed as the Chairman of the Jewish community in Warsaw Ghetto, Czerniakow is at a momentous role in a city under siege. Czerniakow’s moral fiber is also apparent and the events recorded in the diary portray the author as a man who strived to do his best in order to lighten the suffering of his Ghetto’s inhabitants (Berger 256). For instance, Czerniakow negotiated the release of many Jewish prisoners from the Jewish prison. One cannot fail to notice the deep sense of satisfaction (empathy and compassion) he feels for saving the lives of some members of his community. Mary Berg is proud to be able, as young people, make some contribution in the Ghetto. Amidst the fear and horror around them, they realize life continues. Nevertheless, the diarists recognize the momentary happiness was just an illusion as all individuals in the Ghetto had a narrow prospect for the future (Kurek 195). With an ever increasing sense of foreboding thought, it was increasingly difficult to shut out “the sad world” around them. For instance, in the summer of 1941, Mary described a recurrent dream or nightmare where she saw Warsaw drowning in blood and her family walking over prostate corpses (Kremer 254). Despite the valuable insights presented by diaries of Mary Berg and Adam Czerniakow, theorizing about the Holocaust presents historians with an epistemological problem: knowing or understanding the organized annihilation of millions of Jews and the trauma visited upon the victims (Berger 264). Hence, it may constrain the capacity of a post Holocaust historian to record the trauma and devastation of the Holocaust, which constrains the ability of the diaries penned during this period to explain the events and record the experience per se. Thus, the experience and the facts cannot be adequately reconciled. Conclusion The diaries of the Holocaust represent life stories through which identities are constructed reflecting how the narrators selected, edited, fought and grappled with their new reality (Berger 260). Adam and Mary developed individual narrative identities grappling with the apparent representational adequacy. Their diaries represent narratives of solace, testimony, defiance and struggle (Wiese and Betts 34). The two diarists share an understanding of Jewish life in the Ghetto and the Nazi Policy. The diaries detail vivid narrations of degradations, misery and slaughter that mirror the story of millions of Jewish population (Eastern European Jews), who were impounded into Ghettos prior to their extermination in death camps dotted across Eastern Europe. Works Cited Berger, Alan. Bearing Witness to the Holocaust, 1939-1989. New York: The Edwin Mellen Press, 1991. Print. Czerniakow, Adam, Hilberg Raul, Staron Stanislaw and Kermish Josef. The Warsaw Diary of Adam Czerniakow: Prelude to Doom. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 1999. Print. Kremer, Lillian. Holocaust Literature: An Encyclopedia of Writers and their Work. New York: Routledge, 2003. Print. Kurek, Ewa. Polish-Jewish Relations 1939-1945: Beyond the Limits of Solidarity. Lublin: Wydawnictwo CLIO, 2012. Print. Pentlin, Susan. The Diary of Mary Berg: Growing up in the Warsaw Ghetto. Oxford: One World Publications, 2009. Print. Schiff, Tyrone. The Warsaw Diary of Adam Czerniakow: Analyzing Collaboration. University of Michigan, 24 Nov. 20008. Web. 10 Oct 2012. Trunk, Isaiah. Judenrat: The Jewish Councils in Eastern Europe under Nazi Occupation. Nebraska: Bison Books, 1996. Print. Wiese, Christian and Betts Paul. Years of Persecution, Years of Extermination: Saul Friedlander and the Future of Holocaust Studies. New York: Continuum US, 2010. Print. Read More