Holocaust War in Literature - Essay Example

Holocaust war literature Imagine sitting in a cold, crowded room with no clothes on. Think of what it would be like to be referred to as "87." This is what it was like for many people who lived through the horrors of the Holocaust and many other events caused by the Nazi regime. However, not all of them lived to tell their story. The writing of Gnter Grass, Thomas Mann, and Eliezer Wiesel displayed social protest towards the Nazi regime in Germany through their literature. To prove this point, it is necessary to examine the underlying factors of World War II, the climax of the Nazi regime. It is also helpful to refer to analysis of the works by each of these authors to help determine how they affected society and how they changed it. Through analysis of several works, elements such as characterization, plot, setting, theme and structure will be studied. The Holocaust coincides with World War II, and was started with Hitler's invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939 (Saldinger, 6). The original problem, though, began several years earlier. In January of 1933, Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany, which had a Jewish population of 566,000. Soon after, in March, Hitler was given dictatorial powers. Concentration camps were slowly evolving from the ghettos which they once were, and Jews were gradually being prohibited from a variety of things, including owning land and being newspaper editors. Hitler continued to make alliances with other nations, which eventually helped him to be able to persecute many other people besides those in the lands he ruled (Holocaust Timeline). Several days after the Nazis invade Poland, England and France declare war on Germany, as they wisely chose not to ally with Hitler. February 12, 1940 marked the first deportation of German Jews into Poland, which was already occupied. Two short months later, Denmark and Norway were invaded. Other lands continue to be invaded by Hitler and his Nazi regime, with many Jews being sent to concentration camps to live the last few months of their lives. On April 30, 1945, Hitler committed suicide. On the same day, Americans freed 33,000 people from camps, marking the beginning of the end of the Holocaust (Holocaust Timeline). Memories of the horror of seeing people die every day have remained with all three of the previously mentioned authors. In their writing, they have used a variety of elements to successfully recall these experiences. Elie Wiesel, in particular, is widely known because of his amazing sense of honesty that is displayed through his Night Trilogy. Wiesel did not try to cover the brutality of events that occurred, but rather gave a detailed description so as to leave an acting impression on the reader. However, this impact was not meant to be one of guilt. Instead it was to ensure that readers would not let an event anything like the Holocaust occur again. He used images of young, dying children and adults being burned to death to convey his themes. The novel itself is actually an autobiography, though there are elements of fiction present throughout. After his experiences, Wiesel "dedicated his life to preserving the memory of the Holocaust victims," which proves to be the basis for all of his writing ("Wiesel's Night Recalls the Holocaust, 1956"). Born in Transylvania in 1928, Wiesel received a thorough Jewish education and it was thought by his parents that he would later be a proficient rabbi. In 1944, Nazis invaded his hometown and he was taken to Auschwitz, which is where his gruesome story really began. In the end, Elie and two sisters survived but, along with two hundred thousand other Jews, the rest of his family died. The original version of Wiesel's novel And the World Remained Silent appeared in Yiddish in 1956. Two years later, he translated the book to French and changed the title to Night. Eventually, it was expanded to include two of his other works and became known as the Night Trilogy. In 1960, it was published in English, adding to the eventual list of nine printings and the honor of being the "most widely read account of a Holocaust survivor" ("Wiesel's Night Recalls the Holocaust"). The book proves to be effective because it shows the view of a fifteen-year-old boy, who ends up gaining much sympathy from readers, while still giving a precise view of the Holocaust. After all of the events described are taken in, the idea remains that the same thing happened to over a million other victims, many of whom still struggle, both physically and spiritually, to comprehend. The book ends with Elie looking into a mirror and not recognizing who he is. All of the events that took place in the concentration camps have had such a great impact on his life that he no longer knows who he is because his identity was stripped away when he was given a number, which became his new name. To reach this resolution, a variety of different themes are brought up, including the representation of an education in reverse. This means that a young, optimistic teenager is faced with death in such a harsh way and is therefore forced to deal with it before he knows how to. In addition, the prominent theme of the downfall of humanity is stressed ("Wiesel's Night Recalls the Holocaust"). The trilogy has been acclaimed by many critics for showing the devastating effects of evil on innocence, innocence being the purity of the young boy. Night Trilogy has been praised for its honesty, among other things, but especially stands out with its variety of themes and vivid descriptions. However, there have also been many critics who have denounced Wiesel's belief that God abandoned Jews, realizing that not only Jews were persecuted by the Nazis. It is believed by such critics that even the inviting language of the book leads readers to believe that it is remotely possible to understand the horrors of the Holocaust when it never will be possible without having experienced them (Alter, 3). In analyzing the three novels, it has been highly compared to The Diary of Anne Frank in that they are the two most well known Holocaust recollections. Because of the different manners in which they were written, the horrifying realities are described in different ways ("Wiesel's Night Recalls the Holocaust"). Though Wiesel's works are very well known, there are several other authors that have written about the same topic. Two examples of these writers include Gnter Grass and Thomas Mann. Yet each still retains their own style. Mann's writing has been said to be influenced by his family, as well as the environment in which he grew up, which happens to be a main subject of his books (Franks, 1583). Contrary to Wiesel, Mann was more concerned with the general ideas of Nazism than the Holocaust. Doctor Faustus is accepted as Mann's best work, as it has been read and analyzed by a very diverse group of people from around the world. Joseph Frank acclaims it as, "a sublime and sophisticated aesthetic expression of the raw reality of contemporary historical experience" (Meyers, 1). Mann, unlike other writers, does not simply retell his story in gruesome detail, but rather changes the perspective and uses his main character, Adrian, to portray a dictator, i.e. Hitler. Characters, such as the Winfried theological students, the Kridwiss Circle, and the Jewish Chaim Breisacher, all express Nazi ideology (Meyers, 1). However, the harsh personalities of these characters are matched with other characters who are seemingly more innocent and nave. While Adrian can be compared to Hitler, he maintains his own character in that parallels can be seen between his disease and the fate of Germany under Nazi rule (Meyers, 1). As the Nazis gain more control over Germany, his disease progressively worsens. By creating a main character with a disease, Mann allowed himself to relate stages of the disease with different themes in his writing. These themes include the attempt to break away from past problems and prosper, as well as redemption through love for humankind. Other main themes include breaking-through in musical, military, pathological, and political ways (2). In his novel, Mann avoids risks and snobbery, and retains a prudent attitude, yet still manages to leave readers at a loss (Blackmur, 97). Doctor Faustus attempts to create an image of absolute knowledge immediately followed by the loss of everything. One of Mann's major criticisms regarding all of his novels pertains to his manner of writing. He transitioned from being a symbolist to a social novelist, yet still retains some elements of symbolism in his writings (Cowley). Quite different from the perspective of both Mann and Wiesel, Grass, as he was a German, took on a contradicting viewpoint. He was born in Poland, which became the scene for several of his novels. As a young teenager he joined the Hitler Youth and was later drafted into the army. Though he himself was biased to the ideology of the Nazis, he realized the effects of the genocide taking place and used his literary talents to oppose. Grass, throughout his life, has tried to keep the remembrance alive, like so many other authors (Lechner). Though he found some contents of Holocaust books to be repulsive, he believed that they should still be available for the public to read because of the impact they have. When his novel, The Tin Drum, first appeared in print in 1959, many Germans were furious with his cynical depiction of the Nazis ("Gnter Grass"). The novel is narrated by Oskar Matzerath ("The Tin Drum"), a three-year old dwarf who seems to be the only one who realizes what the Nazis are planning. This book has been praised for its imaginatory motives and extraordinary characters. However, when it was published, the government rejected it as a choice for a local prize because the content was considered "provocative" ("The Tin Drum"). In one of his other books, Dog Years, he deals with Nazis in a different way, focusing on their crimes and their postwar acceptability. Grass proves, because of his versatility, to be a "prominent target for critics" (Lawson, 1). This is because he serves to be both a political activist and a writer. The two sides of him tie together in that in his political essays he writes with the grace and language of a writer. "He develops balanced arguments based on facts embedded in historical context" ("Gnter Grass"). A critic of Grass, Volker Neuhaus, said that throughout all of Grass' works, his poetic words form a constant. Regardless, Grass' work is now considered by most to be historical and possibly even realistic. Through literature, Wiesel, Mann and Grass have conveyed several very different themes to readers. All three of these men began with the intent to ensure that an event such as the Holocaust would never occur again. To do this, they created characters with which readers could easily relate, as well as settings which horrified the readers i.e. concentration camps. Common to all three of these authors are the elements of plot and structure. While it may not have been intentional, all of their works relating to the Nazi regime ended up being considered a cross between historical fiction and autobiography. Also communal between the writers is the themes. Wiesel's themes include the downfall of humanity and the effects of evil on innocence, while Mann's include the attempt to leave the past behind and a break-through in musical, military, pathological, and political ways. While all slightly differing, they share the same basic idea of protest against the Nazi regime. In this aspect, all have been successful because nothing even remotely as horrible as the Holocaust and rule by the Nazi regime has yet occurred. This is exactly what the writers wished to accomplish through their writings, the assurance that the rule of the Nazi regime would be a one-time event. Conclusion From the child survivor's point of view, Wilkomisrki's text actually creates the world which they cannot describe. Blake Eskin stated that Fragments 'requires a certain level of involvement [...], you must use your own imagination.' He goes on to state that 'when his child's eye notices a menacing boot or grey uniform, the reader must rely on his prior knowledge of the Holocaust to fill in the rest.' This shows the importance of the relationship between texts and the world in which they are read. To a reader of the text who lived through the existence described by Wilkomirski, it generates real memories of the events which took place. Child survivor Daisy Miller states 'I'm not going to say whether Wilkomirski is true or not, but child survivor memory has to be allowed.' Miller heads a group of child survivors who have had a mixed reaction to the revelations regarding Wilkomirski. Miller does not believe it matters whether Wilkomirski is authentic or fraudulent. According to her, the power of the text comes through 'what he represents' and the way he is able to 'relate to the pain of being victimized, of being alone.' Wilkomirski articulates the emotions that genuine child survivors are unable to. Joan Ringleheim, who works for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, states that 'even if his story is a total construction, he says something about the perception of children that I don't know that anyone else has said [...] I don't remember anyone writing so constructively.' Ringelheeim believes that the Wilkomirski text, because of its literary power, is more useful as a historical document than some authentic testimonies. She states that if he was proven to be an imposter she 'wouldn't have taken it off the shelf [...] there are so many books that are terrible. They may be true, but they are boring.' Whilst it matters in one sense that Fragments offers a historical 'truth' regarding the Holocaust, if we look at it as a fiction based on fact, as Keneally's Schindler's List is, the text can be seen as having historical relevance. Like Keneally's novel, Fragments was created due to the author's vast research into the holocaust. Wilkomirski used this research to offer an original account of the Holocaust. Raul Hilberg explains the main problem historians have with the text, stating, 'If you get rid of all the inaccuracies, what remains' In considering this question it must be deduced what is meant by the word 'inaccuracies.' If the meaning is taken as fabrications, all of the evidence suggests that nothing relating to the Holocaust will be left. If, though, the novel is look at in the same light as the work by Keneally, the mixture of historical research and fictional imagination combines to offer us a representation of the realities of a moment in history. If the only history we have with regards to the holocaust comes through the medium of texts, each should be judged on its historical authenticity rather than whether it claims to be fact or fiction. White's theory asserts that it is impossible to separate history and literature, since the only history we can perceive comes through literary texts. For this reason, the distinction between historical fact and literary fiction must be collapsed. Both Fragments and Night are historical in the sense that they represent an actual event. They are both also, as all narratives are, fictive to some degree. The main feeling generated by both texts is that they accurately describe the pain felt by the victims. As child survivor and psychologist Robert Krell states of Wilkomirski, 'His motives are not false.' This statement can also be applied to Wiesel. While the literary techniques used have been called into question, in the case of complete fabrication by Wilkomirski and partial fabrication by Wiesel, the acclaim both books have received comes from the literary power with which they represent the Holocaust experience. They both force the reader to rethink their assumptions about the Holocaust. Each new narrative which is published will add to its legacy and become, by the very fact that it can be written down in the form of a story, 'questionable as to [its] authenticity' and 'susceptible to being considered as tokens of reality.' As tokens of the realities of the Holocaust, Fragments and Night are amongst the strongest. It is important when reading narratives that the quality of the work is separated from the intentions of the author. When this is done, the Revisionist arguments become non-existent since they refer to the inaccuracies of the accounts, not the power of the narrative. If it is assumed that all narratives are in some way fictive, it is the way in which the account is personalized in order to convey emotion to the reader which gives the text its power. For both accounts, the quality of the fiction outweighs the many questions raised about the authenticity of the text. Works Cited "The Tin Drum." BBC Education. 13 March 2002. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ "Wiesel's Night Recalls the Holocaust." DISCovering World History. Gale Research, 1997. 8 March 2002. http://www.galenet.com/servlet/DC/ Alter, Robert. "Elie Wiesel: Between Hangman and Victim." After the Tradition: Essays on Modern Jewish Writing. E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1969. Blackmur, R.P. Eleven Essays in the European Novel. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 1964. Cowley, Malcolm. "The Last Great European: Thomas Mann." Think Back on Us: A Contemporary Chronicle of the 1930s. Southern Illinois University Press, 1967. Franks, Carol. "Thomas Mann." Critical Survey of Short Fiction. Pasadena: Salem Press, 1993. Vol. 4, 1582-1593. Holocaust Timeline. The History Place. http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/holocaust/timeline.html. Lawson, Richard H. Gnter Grass. Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., 1985. Lechner, Silke. "Question Why Will Remain." Financial Times. London, 23 February 2002. Meyers, Jeffrey. "Mann: Doctor Faustus." Disease and the Novel. Macmillian Press, Ltd., 1985. Saldinger, Anne Grenn. Life in a Nazi Concentration Camp. San Diego: Lucent Books, 2001. Read More