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10 Great Essay Writing Tips
Knowing how to write a college essay is a useful skill for anyone who plans to go to college. Most colleges and universities ask you to submit a writing sample with your application. As a student, you’ll also write essays in your courses. Impress your professors with your knowledge and skill by using these great essay writing tips.
Prepare to Answer the Question
Most college essays ask you to answer a question or synthesize information you learned in class. Review notes you have from lectures, read the recommended texts and make sure you understand the topic. You should refer to these sources in your essay.
Plan Your Essay
Many students see planning as a waste of time, but it actually saves you time. Take a few minutes to think about the topic and what you want to say about it. You can write an outline, draw a chart or use a graphic organizer to arrange your ideas. This gives you a chance to spot problems in your ideas before you spend time writing out the paragraphs.
Choose a Writing Method That Feels Comfortable
You might have to type your essay before turning it in, but that doesn’t mean you have to write it that way. Some people find it easy to write out their ideas by hand. Others prefer typing in a word processor where they can erase and rewrite as needed. Find the one that works best for you and stick with it.
View It as a Conversation
Writing is a form of communication, so think of your essay as a conversation between you and the reader. Think about your response to the source material and the topic. Decide what you want to tell the reader about the topic. Then, stay focused on your response as you write.
Provide the Context in the Introduction
If you look at an example of an essay introduction, you’ll see that the best essays give the reader a context. Think of how you introduce two people to each other. You share the details you think they will find most interesting. Do this in your essay by stating what it’s about and then telling readers what the issue is.
Explain What Needs to be Explained
Sometimes you have to explain concepts or define words to help the reader understand your viewpoint. You also have to explain the reasoning behind your ideas. For example, it’s not enough to write that your greatest achievement is running an ultra marathon. You might need to define ultra marathon and explain why finishing the race is such an accomplishment.
Answer All the Questions
After you finish writing the first draft of your essay, make sure you’ve answered all the questions you were supposed to answer. For example, essays in compare and contrast format should show the similarities and differences between ideas, objects or events. If you’re writing about a significant achievement, describe what you did and how it affected you.
Stay Focused as You Write
Writing requires concentration. Find a place where you have few distractions and give yourself time to write without interruptions. Don’t wait until the night before the essay is due to start working on it.
Read the Essay Aloud to Proofread
When you finish writing your essay, read it aloud. You can do this by yourself or ask someone to listen to you read it. You’ll notice places where the ideas don’t make sense, and your listener can give you feedback about your ideas.
Avoid Filling the Page with Words
A great essay does more than follow an essay layout. It has something to say. Sometimes students panic and write everything they know about a topic or summarize everything in the source material. Your job as a writer is to show why this information is important.
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< Bibliographies
- Holocaust Fiction
Holocaust literature —— US Holocaust Memorial Museum
Introduction
Encyclopedias and reference guides, literary criticism, anthologies, novels and short story collections, additional resources.
In the years immediately following World War II, writers began to confront the daunting task of describing in fiction the seemingly indescribable world of the ghettos and concentration camps. Since that time some critics have argued that an artistic response to these atrocities could never be adequately rendered on the page. Many authors, though, have felt compelled to write these stories, as a form of testament and as a way to memorialize those silenced by the Nazis.
The earliest literary responses to the Holocaust came from the survivors of the camps themselves. Authors Elie Wiesel and Tadeusz Borowski adopted a highly mimetic, or realistic, style that blended fiction and memoir. Others, like Aharon Appelfeld, relied on allusion and allegory to depict the horrors of their experiences. Writers who did not live under Nazi persecution, including Cynthia Ozick, have also wrestled with the problem of representing the horrors of the camps without diminishing the realities of the Holocaust through over-stylization. Literary critics such as Lawrence Langer and James E. Young have traced these developments in their analyses of Holocaust fiction, while other scholars have recently placed these novels within national literary traditions.
The following bibliography was compiled to guide readers to works about Holocaust literature as well as a variety of novels and short story collections that are set in the ghettos or camps, or that explore Holocaust-related themes. It is not meant to be exhaustive. Annotations are provided to help the user determine the item’s focus, and call numbers for the Museum’s Library are given in parentheses following each citation. Those unable to visit might be able to find these works in a nearby public library or acquire them through interlibrary loan. Follow the “Find in a library near you” link in each citation and enter your zip code at the Open WorldCat search screen. The results of that search indicate all libraries in your area that own that particular title. Talk to your local librarian for assistance.
Kremer, S. Lillian, editor. Holocaust Literature: An Encyclopedia of Writers and Their Work . New York: Routledge, 2003. (Reference PN 56 .H55 H66 2003) [ Find in a library near you ]
Provides comprehensive overviews of the lives and careers of over 300 poets, novelists, dramatists, and memoirists. Appendixes provide lists of works by genre, literary themes, historic events, ghettos, and camps explored in Holocaust literature. Includes extensive reading lists for further research.
Patterson, David, Alan L. Berger, and Sarita Cargas, editors. Encyclopedia of Holocaust Literature . Westport, CT: Oryx Press, 2002. (PN 56 .H55 E53 2002) [ Find in a library near you ]
Profiles 128 of the most influential writers who survived or perished in the Holocaust, with biographical entries and lists of selected works by and about each author. Includes bibliographies of primary works and critical studies of Holocaust literature.
Riggs, Thomas, editor. Reference Guide to Holocaust Literature . Detroit, MI: St. James Press, 2002. (Reference PN 56 .H55 R43 2002) [ Find in a library near you ]
Presents brief biographical entries for 223 writers as well as critical essays about over 200 books and short stories. Includes a chronology of Holocaust literature, title index, index of authors by nationality, and a reading list for further study of the subject.
Rosen, Philip, and Nina Apfelbaum, editors. Bearing Witness: A Resource Guide to Literature, Poetry, Art, Music, and Videos by Holocaust Victims and Survivors . Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2002. (Z 6374 .H6 R67 2002) [ Find in a library near you ]
Collects brief descriptions of key works of fiction by close to 90 authors, as well as important works of poetry, art, and music by those who experienced or witnessed the Holocaust. Includes suggested age and reading levels for each work.
Sherman, Joseph. Writers in Yiddish . Detroit, MI: Thomson Gale, 2007. (Reference Z 7038 .Y53 W75 2007) [ Find in a library near you ]
Presents biographical and critical essays about 40 authors who primarily wrote in Yiddish, including several, such as Abraham Sutzkever and Chava Rosenfarb, who wrote stories, poems, and plays about the Holocaust. Includes bibliographies, photographs, and a list of references for each essay.
Sicher, Efraim, editor. Holocaust Novelists . Detroit, MI: Gale, 2004. (PN 56 .H55 H674 2004) [ Find in a library near you ]
Profiles a variety of authors, including some whose works are not yet available in English. Includes appendices about “historical novels,” postmodern Holocaust fiction, and second-generation literature, as well as an extensive list of books for further reading. Volume 299 of the Dictionary of Literary Biography series.
Alexander, Edward. The Resonance of Dust: Essays on Holocaust Literature and Jewish Fate . Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1979. (PN 56.3 .J4 A4 1979) [ Find in a library near you ]
Discusses the works of Nelly Sachs, Moshe Flinker, Abba Kovner, Chaim Grade and several Yiddish-language poets and argues that the Holocaust should be treated as more than simply a literary device by poets and novelists. Includes a selected bibliography and index.
Alvarez, A. “The Literature of the Holocaust.” Commentary 34 (November 1964): 65-69. (Library Microfilm LM0053) [ Find in a library near you ]
Discusses major novels about the Holocaust published in the twenty years following the liberation of the camps, including works by Tadeusz Borowski, Arnošt Lustig, Elie Wiesel, Piotr Rawicz, Jorge Semprun, and Ilse Aichinger.
Berger, Alan L., and Gloria L. Cronin, editors. Jewish American and Holocaust Literature: Representation in the Postmodern World . Albany: State University of New York Press, 2004. (PS 153 .J4 J47 2004) [ Find in a library near you ]
Critical essays that analyze Holocaust fiction within the context of postmodern literary theory. Includes biographical entries for each contributor as well as an index.
Bloom, Harold, editor. Literature of the Holocaust . Philadelphia: Chelsea House, 2004. (PN 56 .H55 L575 2004) [ Find in a library near you ]
Collects previously-published essays from leading literary critics and scholars. Provides an introduction to the complexities of representing the Holocaust in fiction as well as analyses of several major authors and their works.
Cargas, Harry James. “The Holocaust in Fiction.” In Holocaust Literature: A Handbook of Critical, Historical, and Literary Writings , edited by Saul S. Friedman, 533-546. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1993. (D 804.3 .H6475 1993) [ Find in a library near you ]
Overview of Holocaust-related fiction. Introduces and summarizes major novels and short stories on the subject. Includes a selected bibliography for further reading.
Ezrahi, Sidra DeKoven. By Words Alone: The Holocaust in Literature . Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1982. (PN 56 .H55 E9 1982) [ Find in a library near you ]
Systematic study of Holocaust literature written by survivors. Summarizes the various approaches taken to represent experiences in the ghettos and concentration camps in fiction. Includes chapters that explore the Holocaust as a Jewish tragedy and the Holocaust in American literature.
Halperin, Irving. Messengers from the Dead: Literature of the Holocaust . Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1970. (PN 56 .H55 H25 1970) [ Find in a library near you ]
Analyzes the writings of Holocaust survivors, including Elie Wiesel and Chaim Kaplan, to determine how fiction is used by the authors to discern meaning from their camp and ghetto experiences.
Horowitz, Sara R. Voicing the Void: Muteness and Memory in Holocaust Fiction . Albany: State University of New York Press, 1997. (PN 56.3 .J4 H67 1997) [ Find in a library near you ]
Explores the relationship between what is written in Holocaust fiction and what is left unsaid. Also discusses the gap between prisoner’s experiences in the camps and how those experiences are expressed on the page by both first- and second-generation authors. Includes notes and an extensive bibliography.
Kremer, S. Lillian. Witness Through the Imagination: Ozick, Elman, Cohen, Potok, Singer, Epstein, Bellow, Steiner, Wallant, Malamud: Jewish-American Holocaust Literature . Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1989. (PN 56 .H55 K73 1989) [ Find in a library near you ]
Addresses how the Holocaust is approached in the works of ten prominent American writers. Based partly on author interviews.
Lang, Berel, editor. Writing and the Holocaust . New York: Holmes & Meier, 1988. (D 804.348 .W73 1988) [ Find in a library near you ]
Compiles 17 essays by authors, historians, and literary scholars exploring the difficulties of interpreting Holocaust history in poetry, prose, and non-fiction.
Langer, Lawrence L. Admitting the Holocaust: Collected Essays . New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. (D 804.3 .L358 1995) [ Find in a library near you ]
Collection of essays analyzing several facets of Holocaust literature. Includes in-depth examinations of works by Aharon Appelfeld, Cynthia Ozick, and Bernard Malamud.
Langer, Lawrence L. The Holocaust and the Literary Imagination . New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1975. (PN 56 .H55 L25 1975) [ Find in a library near you ]
Analyzes 18 key works of Holocaust literature and considers common themes from these texts, including the breakdown of rational thought, violation of childhood innocence, the pervasiveness of death in the camps and ghettos, and the disintegration of sequential and chronological time.
Leak, Andrew, and George Paizis, editors. The Holocaust and the Text: Speaking the Unspeakable . New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000. (PN 56 .H55 H628 2000) [ Find in a library near you ]
Series of critical essays exploring the possibilities and limitations of representing the Holocaust in fiction. Presents analyses of works written immediately after the war as well as later stories and novels by first- and second-generation writers.
McGlothlin, Erin. Second-Generation Holocaust Literature: Legacies of Survival and Perpetration . Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2006. (PT 405 .M3877 2006) [ Find in a library near you ]
Offers critical analysis of works of fiction written by the children of Holocaust survivors and perpetrators. Explores the common themes from these works, such as intergenerational transference of guilt and psychological trauma.
Patterson, David. The Shriek of Silence: A Phenomenology of the Holocaust Novel . Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1992. (PN 56 .H55 P38 1992) [ Find in a library near you ]
Attempts to establish a theoretical approach to Holocaust fiction. Explores how and why some survivors, including Arnošt Lustig, Aharon Appelfeld, Ka-tzetnik 135633, Yehuda Amichai, and Piotr Rawicz, dealt with this subject in fiction rather than memoir.
Rosenfeld, Alvin H. A Double Dying: Reflections on Holocaust Literature . Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1988. (PN 56 .H55 R664 1988) [ Find in a library near you ]
Describes the various ways authors have depicted the events of the Holocaust in literature. Explores the possibilities and limitations of fictional representations of the concentration camps, including a discussion of authors who “exploit” the Holocaust in their works.
Schlant, Ernestine. The Language of Silence: West German Literature and the Holocaust . New York: Routledge, 1999. (PT 405 .S3443 1999) [ Find in a library near you ]
Detailed exploration of how the Holocaust was depicted by generations of West German writers in the decades after World War II. Includes a selected bibliography and index.
Schwarz, Daniel R. Imagining the Holocaust . New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999. (PN 56 .H55 S35 1999) [ Find in a library near you ]
Analyzes both well-known and little-studied authors, including Leslie Epstein, Jerzy Kosinski, Tadeusz Borowski, and John Hersey, in an attempt to establish unifying themes and theories of Holocaust literature. Includes a list of works cited as well as an index.
Sicher, Efraim, editor. Breaking Crystal: Writing and Memory after Auschwitz . Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1998. (D 804.3 .B6926 1998) [ Find in a library near you ]
Collection of essays exploring the representation of the Holocaust in fictional works by second-generation and diaspora writers and filmmakers. Includes several essays about the impact of the Holocaust on Israeli literature.
Sicher, Efraim. The Holocaust Novel . New York: Routledge, 2005. (PN 3352 .H63 S53 2005) [ Find in a library near you ]
Presents an overview of Holocaust-related fiction as a literary genre. Explores the cultural and critical reception of major novels in the decades since World War II. Includes a chronology of Holocaust literature, a bibliographic essay, a recommended reading list, and an index. Part of the Genres in Context series.
Vice, Sue. Holocaust Fiction . London: Routledge, 2000. (PR 888 .H6 V53 2000) [ Find in a library near you ]
Analyzes works by Martin Amis, D.M. Thomas, Jerzy Kosinski, Thomas Keneally, William Styron, and Helen Darville. Contrasts the styles utilized by the authors in their work. Includes extensive notes, a bibliography, and an index.
Young, James Edward. Writing and Rewriting the Holocaust: Narrative and the Consequences of Interpretation . Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1988. (D 804.3 .Y6972 1988) [ Find in a library near you ]
Explores how Holocaust memory and understanding has been created by the many memoirs, novels, short stories, and poetry published in the decades after World War II. Discusses the use of the Holocaust as metaphor by both first- and second-generation writers.
Yudkin, Leon L., editor. Hebrew Literature in the Wake of the Holocaust . Rutherford, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1993. (PN 56 .H55 H45 1993) [ Find in a library near you ]
Compiles eight essays by various scholars that explore how the Holocaust has shaped contemporary Hebrew literature. Includes discussion of works by Ka-tzetnik 135633, Aharon Appelfeld, and Shulamit Hareven.
Yudkin, Leon L. Literature in the Wake of the Holocaust . Saint-Denis: Suger Press, 2003. (PN 56 .H55 Y83 2003) [ Find in a library near you ]
Analyzes literature as an “articulate reaction to the Holocaust” and discusses the ways in which the Holocaust serves as a central motif in contemporary literature.
Brown, Jean C., Elaine C. Stephens, and Janet E. Rubin, editors. Images from the Holocaust: A Literature Anthology . Lincolnwood, IL: NTC Publishing Group, 1997. (D 804.195 .I43 1997) [ Find in a library near you ]
Collects poetry, fiction, drama, and nonfiction essays organized chronologically in order to explore the history of the Holocaust, from the rise of Nazism through the ghettos and concentration camps to liberation and its aftermath.
Friedlander, Albert H., editor. Out of the Whirlwind: A Reader of Holocaust Literature . New York: UAHC Press, 1999. (D 804.3 .O87 1999) [ Find in a library near you ]
Thematically-organized collection of both fiction and non-fiction accounts of the Holocaust. Includes short stories and excerpts from novels by first- and second-generation authors.
Langer, Lawrence L, editor. Art from the Ashes: A Holocaust Anthology . New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. (D 804.3 .A78 1995) [ Find in a library near you ]
Comprehensive, interdisciplinary anthology of Holocaust-related fiction, poetry, and drama, as well as diary excerpts, essays, and reproductions of artwork by survivors.
Raphael, Linda Schermer and Marc Lee Raphael, editors. When Night Fell: An Anthology of Holocaust Short Stories . New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1999. (PN 6071 .H713 W54 1999) [ Find in a library near you ]
Collects important Holocaust-related short stories by 19 first- and second-generation authors, including Aharon Appelfeld, Arnošt Lustig, and Henryk Grynberg.
Teichman, Milton, and Sharon Leder, editors. Truth and Lamentation: Stories and Poems on the Holocaust . Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1994. (PN 6071 .H713 T78 1994) [ Find in a library near you ]
Collects short stories, novel excerpts, and poetry by both well-known and relatively obscure writers. Includes brief introductions and analyses of the works.
Aichinger, Ilse. Die grössere Hoffnung (German, 1948); as Herod’s Children (1963).
Highly symbolic, dreamlike work that describes the fate of a group of Jewish children in Vienna during World War II and how the realities of life under Nazi occupation gradually overwhelm childhood dreams.
Apitz, Bruno. Nackt unter Wölfen (German, 1958); as Naked Among Wolves (1960).
Novel about the resistance in Buchenwald near the end of the war, as the arrival of a young Jewish boy threatens to disrupt plans by prisoners to rise up against their Nazi captors.
Appelfeld, Aharon. Badenheim, ‘ir nofesh (Hebrew 1975); as Badenheim 1939 (1980).
In 1939, a group of middle-class Jews vacationing at the Badenheim resort in Austria are caught in a series of ever-tightening restrictions on their lives.
Appelfeld, Aharon. Bartfus ben ha-almavet (Hebrew, 1988); as The Immortal Bartfuss (1988).
An elderly survivor struggles to reconcile his memories of the Holocaust with his life and relationships in modern Israel.
Arieti, Silvano. The Parnas: A Scene from the Holocaust (1979).
Biographical novel based on the life of Giuseppe Pardo Roques, the chief elder of Pisa, Italy, who finds his deepest fears for the spiritual health of humanity realized under the occupation.
Becker, Jurek. Bronsteins Kinder (German, 1986); as Bronstein’s Children (1988).
After discovering that his father, a Holocaust survivor, has tracked down and kidnapped a former Nazi concentration camp guard, an East German man is forced to come to terms with the effect of the Holocaust on his family.
Becker, Jurek. Jakob der Lügner (German, 1969); as Jacob the Liar (1975, new translation 1996).
Jakob, a ghetto inmate, manufactures stories for his neighbors based on supposed radio broadcasts in order to maintain their hope in face of the realities of Nazi oppression.
Begley, Louis. Wartime Lies (1991).
Semi-autobiographical account of life in hiding in the Polish countryside during World War II.
Borowski, Tadeusz. This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen (1967).
Collection of twelve short stories which illuminate the sinister realities of human behavior in the camps.
Bryks, Rachmil. Kiddush Hashem (Yiddish, 1952); as A Cat in the Ghetto: Four Novelettes (1959).
Four short works illuminate the struggle for survival in a ghetto under the Nazis. Includes songs from the Lodz ghetto.
This is a representative sampling of Holocaust-related short story collections and novels, not a comprehensive listing. Titles are given in their original language along with titles of English translations, where available.
Epstein, Leslie. King of the Jews: A Novel of the Holocaust (1979) and as The Elder (1979).
Fictionalized account of the Judenrat (Jewish council) in the Lodz ghetto, who were responsible for running the ghetto on behalf of the Nazi occupiers.
Fink, Ida. Podróż (Polish, 1990); as The Journey (1992).
Semi-autobiographical account of two sisters who escape the Nazis by passing as Gentiles.
Fink, Ida. Skrawek czasu (Polish, 1983); as A Scrap of Time and Other Stories (1987, revised 1995).
Collects 22 short stories that chronologically explore day-to-day existence in Nazi-dominated Poland.
Fink, Ida. Ślady (Polish, 1996); as Traces (1997).
Series of short stories that illustrate the treatment of Polish Jews under Nazi occupation, as well as the struggle of survivors to rebuild their lives after the war.
Friedman, Carl. Tralievader (Dutch, 1991); as Nightfather (1994).
A woman tries to talk with her father, a Holocaust survivor, about his experiences, but finds that they lack the common language to do so.
Fuks, Ladislav. Pan Theodor Mundstock (Czech, 1963); as Mr. Theodore Mundstock (1968).
Facing deportation, Theodor Mundstock prepares for life in the concentration camps by meticulously rehearsing the experience in his apartment.
Gouri, Haim. `Iskat ha-shokolad (Hebrew, 1964); as The Chocolate Deal (1968).
Surreal novella about two survivors grappling with memories of their time in the camps while trying to find normality in postwar Germany.
Grynberg, Henryk. Zydowska wonja (1965); as Child of the Shadows (1969).
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Semi-autobiographical novel chronicling everyday life in the months immediately after the German occupation of Poland, continuing through the author’s time in hiding with “Aryan papers” during the war.
Habe, Hans. Die Mission (German, 1965); as The Mission (1968).
Fictionalized account of the Evian Conference of 1938, held to discuss the “Jewish refugee problem” caused by Nazi Germany’s increasing restrictions on Jewish life in Europe.
Hersey, John. The Wall (1950).
Narrative of the Warsaw Ghetto, from the construction of the wall separating it from the rest of the city in 1939, though the Ghetto Uprising of April-May 1943.
Hilsenrath, Edgar. Nacht (German, 1964); as Night (1966).
The residents of a Jewish ghetto struggle with the loss of their civility and humanity when confronted with the brutal realities of life under Nazi occupation.
Hilsenrath, Edgar. Der Nazi und der Friseur (German, 1971); as The Nazi and the Barber (1971), and as The Nazi Who Lived As a Jew (1977).
Max Schulz, a small-town German barber, assumes several identities—including that of a Jewish black marketeer as well as a Nazi camp guard—that take him through the most significant events in 20th century European history.
Ka-tzetnik 135633. Beit ha-bubot (Hebrew, 1953); as House of Dolls (1955).
Recounts barbaric incidents of sexual abuse and forced prostitution in the camps. Based on the life of the author’s sister.
Ka-tzetnik 135633. Karu lo Piepel (Hebrew, 1961); as Atrocity (1963), and as Moni: A Novel of Auschwitz (1987).
Explores the depravity of life in Auschwitz through a series of vignettes describing Moni, a young boy subjected to sadistic psychological and physical horrors.
Ka-tzetnik 135633. Kokhav ha-efer (Hebrew, 1966); as Star Eternal (1971).
Vivid and graphic account of existence in Auschwitz, interweaving stories from all aspects of the camp.
Ka-tzetnik 135633. Salamandra (Hebrew, 1947); as Sunrise Over Hell (1977).
Gripping account of life in the ghetto and in Auschwitz, written shortly after the author’s escape from the death marches at the end of the war.
Kaniuk, Yoram. Adam ben kelev (Hebrew, 1969); as Adam Resurrected (1971).
Allegorical story set in an asylum populated by Holocaust survivors.
Keneally, Thomas. Schindler’s List (1982), and as Schindler’s Ark (1982).
Fictionalized account of the story of Oskar Schindler, an industrialist who saved 1,100 Jews from death by employing them in his factory in Krakow.
Kertész, Imre. Sorstalanság (Hungarian, 1975); as Fateless (1992).
A young Hungarian boy’s life in Auschwitz and Buchenwald leads to a meditation on what it means to live as a Jew in light of the Holocaust.
Kosinski, Jerzy. The Painted Bird (1965); revised edition (1976).
Possibly autobiographical work set in a nameless European country during the war. A young Jewish boy passes as a Christian during the war, but the dehumanizing effect of the Nazi values system takes its toll on his identity.
Kosinski, Jerzy. Steps (1968).
Presents several dozen stories of violence and human depravity, both inside the camps and in a post-Holocaust world.
Kuznetsov, Anatoli. Babii Iar (Russian, 1967); as Babi Yar: A Documentary Novel (1967), and as Babi Yar: A Document in the Form of a Novel (1970).
Semi-autobiographical novel about life in Kiev, Ukraine, under Nazi occupation. Interspersed through the novel are eyewitness accounts and Nazi and Soviet propaganda statements from the massacre at Babi Yar in September, 1941.
Levi, Primo. Se non ora, quando? (Italian, 1982); as If Not Now, When? (1985)
Traces the resistance efforts of a group of Jewish partisans operating behind German lines in Eastern Europe.
Levin, Meyer. Eva: A Novel of the Holocaust (1959).
A Jewish woman recalls her experiences passing as a Christian in Ukraine, her eventual capture, and deportation to Auschwitz. Employs a highly mimetic narrative style.
Lewitt, Maria. Come Spring: An Autobiographical Novel (1980).
A teenage child of a “mixed marriage” observes the Warsaw ghetto from the outside, where she is unable to help those in need or avoid the ever-present threat of deportation.
Lustig, Arnošt. Démanty noci (Czech, 1958); as Diamonds of the Night (1986).
Collection of nine short stories exploring the themes of humanism during the Holocaust, despair in the camps, human interdependence, and forgetting.
Lustig, Arnošt. Modlitba pro Kateřinu Horovitzovou (Czech, 1964); as A Prayer for Katerina Horovitzova (1973).
Young Katerina joins a group of twenty wealthy Jewish American male prisoners who attempt to pay for their release from the Nazis.
Lustig, Arnošt. Noc a naděje (Czech, 1958); as Night and Hope (1962).
Series of short stories that focus on the daily lives and basic human needs of individuals living in the Theresienstadt ghetto.
Lustig, Arnošt. Tma nemá stín (Czech, 1976); as Darkness Casts No Shadow (1976).
Semi-autobiographical work about two young boys’ attempts to survive in the forest after escaping from a transport that had been bombed by the Allies.
Lustig, Arnošt. Z deniku sedmnactilete Perly Sch (Czech, 1979); as The Unloved: From the Diary of Perla S. (1985).
In the “model” ghetto of Theresienstadt, a young girl uses her sexuality as a tool to resist deportation, but the everyday disappearance of her friends and neighbors gradually takes its toll.
Minco, Marga. Het bittere Kruid: Een kleine Kroniek (Dutch, 1957); as Bitter Herbs: A Little Chronicle (1960).
The Nazi occupation of the Netherlands described from the perspective of a small Jewish girl who goes into hiding while the rest of her family is deported.
Modiano, Patrick. Les Boulevards de ceinture (French 1972); as Ring Roads (1974).
A young Jewish man discovers that his father is collaborating with the Nazis, and he must decide how to approach—and forgive—him before his father is sent to Auschwitz. The third book in the “Occupation Trilogy.”
Modiano, Patrick. La Place de l’étoile (French, 1968).
Parody of antisemitic clichés assigned to Jews in the years leading up to the Holocaust, as Raphael Schlemilovich finds himself experiencing a multitude of persecutions and torments at the hands of the Nazis. The first book in the “Occupation Trilogy.”
Modiano, Patrick. La Ronde de nuit (French, 1969); as Night Rounds (1971).
The actions of a Jewish informant for collaborationists underscore the absurdities and ambiguities of life under Nazi occupation. The second book in the “Occupation Trilogy.”
Nałkowska, Zofia. Medaliony (Polish, 1946); as Medallions (2000).
Seven short stories depicting Nazi atrocities in Poland. Based in part on the author’s findings as part of a special postwar committee to investigate Nazi crimes.
Némirovsky, Irène. Suite française: roman (French, 2004); as Suite Française (2006).
Two novellas depicting life in occupied France in 1941. Part of a proposed five-part series that was cut short when the author was sent to Auschwitz, where she died in 1942.
Ozick, Cynthia. The Shawl (1980) and Rosa (1983).
Two short works that tell the story of how a single traumatic experience during the Holocaust continues to resonate throughout the life of a survivor.
Potok, Chaim. The Chosen (1967).
Two boys from different Jewish traditions try to make sense of the stories about the Holocaust they hear as they grow up in postwar New York City.
Presser, Jacques. De nacht der Girondijnen (Dutch, 1957); as Breaking Point (1958), and as Night of the Girondists (1992).
Jacques Suasso Henriques, a secular Dutch Jew, attempts to record how he came to be imprisoned in the Westerbork camp, and how he and his fellow prisoners take different approaches to survive.
Rawicz, Piotr. Le Sang du ciel (French, 1961); as Blood from the Sky (1964).
Boris, a Jew, tries to pass as a Ukrainian nationalist but is arrested and tortured in an attempt to make him give up his true identity.
Rybakov, Anatolii Naumovich. Tiazhelyi pesok (Russian, 1978); as Heavy Sand (1981).
Exploration of Jewish life in Ukraine before and during German occupation, told through the experiences of a large family. Loosely based on actual events. One of the first Holocaust novels published in the Soviet Union.
Sebald, Winfried Georg. Austerlitz (German, 2001); as Austerlitz (2001).
Relates the story of a child who escaped the Holocaust by going to Britain before the war, and his efforts as an old man to reconstruct what happened to his family.
Semprun, Jorge. Le Grand Voyage (French, 1963); as The Long Voyage (1964) and The Cattle Truck (1993).
Semi-autobiographical account of the author’s deportation from France to Buchenwald in 1943 interspersed with events that occurred well before and after the journey.
Singer, Isaac Bashevis. Sonim, di Geshichte fun a Liebe (Yiddish, 1966); as Enemies: A Love Story (1972).
Holocaust survivors grapple with fear, alienation, and complex relationships with their Jewish heritage in postwar New York.
Uris, Leon. Mila 18 (1961).
Novelization of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising of 1943.
Wallant, Edward Lewis. The Pawnbroker (1961).
A Holocaust survivor is haunted by his dreams and memories of the camps, which cause him to draw comparisons to his life as a pawnbroker in Harlem.
Weil, Jiří. Život z hvězdou (Czech, 1949); as Life With a Star (1989).
A Jewish bank clerk has his possessions, then his loved ones, and finally his identity stripped away by his oppressors, known only as “they.”
Wiechert, Ernst. Der Totenwald: ein Bericht (German, 1945); as The Forest of the Dead (1947).
One of the earliest Holocaust novels, written by a non-Jewish German citizen sent to Buchenwald for criticizing the Nazi regime. Provides a first-person view of the camp well before the Holocaust entered the public consciousness.
Wiesel, Elie. L’aube (1960); as Dawn (1971).
A survivor from Buchenwald joins a militant organization in Palestine after the war, where he is asked to execute an English hostage.
Wiesel, Elie. L’oublié (French, 1989); as The Forgotten (1992).
A Holocaust survivor’s struggle with Alzheimer’s disease late in life leads his son to travel to Hungary in search of his father’s past before his memory slips away altogether.
Wiesel, Elie. Le Jour (French, 1961); as The Accident (1962).
While recovering after being struck by a car in New York, a Holocaust survivor relates his experiences during the war and the overwhelming sense of guilt that still haunts him.
Wiesel, Elie. Les Portes de la forêt (French, 1964); as The Gates of the Forest (1966).
A 17-year-old boy hides from the Nazis, first in the forests of Transylvania and then in a Hungarian village, where he tries to pass as a deaf-mute Gentile.
Wojdowski, Bogdan. Chleb rzucony umarlym (Polish, 1971); as Bread for the Departed (1997).
Semi-autobiographical novel of life in the Warsaw ghetto, told through a series of episodes recounting the cruelty, hunger, and depravity forced upon ghetto residents by the Nazis.
Subject Files
Ask at the reference desk to see the subject files labeled “ Literature ” containing newspaper and periodical articles.
Subject Headings
To search library catalogs or other electronic search tools for works of literary criticism about Holocaust fiction, use the following Library of Congress subject headings to retrieve the most relevant citations:
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945), in literature
- Jews in literature
- National socialism in literature
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Holocaust And Literature Essay
The relationship between the Holocaust and Literature has certainly been a useful one. The Holocaust has defined almost every Jewish writer and many non-Jews, from Saul Bellow to Jorge Semprun. Yet, there appears to be a disconnection between what they both represent- the juxtaposition between literature's inherent attention to representation and appropriation and the inalterability of the Holocaust along with our moral obligations to its memory. Academically speaking, a good literary piece innately distorts narratives and jeopardizes reality's details. However, to speak of compromising reality in the context of the Holocaust seems almost profane. The heart-rending stories of these events need no artistic elaboration. The Holocaust literature has always been restricted to documentation and criticized for any artistic amplification, deeming it unconscionable and blasphemous. Nonetheless, it has always been recognized as a literary genre, leading critics to argue that a work's veracity atones for any literary merit. The memoir, the raw and undistorted narrative, which has been defined as the archetype of this genre, far outshines any artistic demands and embellished stories. According to Elie Wiesel , “Then, [Auschwitz] defeated culture; later, it defeated art.” Historically, critics have openly rejected any form of artistic representation of the Holocaust. In 2002, Norman Kleebatt, curator as the Jewish Museum of New York, lead a delegation of peers in their plead to take down several works of an upcoming exhibition, “Mirroring Evil: Nazi Imagery/Recent Art,” which was said to document one of contemporary culture's most enduring themes: our fascination with facism. As the grandson of people who died in the Holocaust, witnessin... ... middle of paper ... ...and literary critic, C.S. Lewis, “Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. It enriches competencies that daily life requires and provides; and in this respect, it irrigates the deserts the our lives have already become.” In perspective, literature complements history rather than antagonizing it. As a matter of fact, literature evokes empathy from the readers and makes stories more relatable. Through literature we are able to feel, imagine and identify with these stories, not solely learn about them. For example, Night hits the perfect emotional pitch, not only from its horrifying stories but the seemingly unplanned delivery of the facts through the use of literary tools. Above all, literature is our way of keeping these memories and events alive from one generation to another. Literature has the power to make these stories timeless and eternal.
In this essay, the author
- Analyzes how the relationship between the holocaust and literature has been useful. the holocaust defined almost every jewish writer and many non-jews, from saul bellow to jorge semprun.
- Explains that the holocaust literature has always been restricted to documentation and criticized for any artistic amplification, deeming it unconscionable. the memoir, defined as the archetype of this genre, far outshines artistic demands.
- Explains that critics have openly rejected any form of artistic representation of the holocaust. in 2002, norman kleebatt led a delegation of peers in their plead to take down several works of an upcoming exhibition, "mirroring evil: nazi imagery/recent art."
- Argues that some critics, such as ruth franklin, believe that holocaust literature is no more than literary pieces inspired by the holocaust.
- Analyzes how a thousand darknesses demonstrates how fine and arbitrary is the line between fiction and reality.
- Explains that the holocaust is one of history's most rigorously documented events, yet these events are almost impossible to digest and comprehend. through literature, we are able to travel in time and space.
- Analyzes how literature complements history rather than antagonizes it. it evokes empathy from the readers and makes stories more relatable.
- explanatory
- Analyzes the inhumane treatment of fellow humans in the twentieth century. the holocaust in germany was an unspeakable event in human history, and its depiction in elie wiesel's, night, helped develop an awareness of the value of tolerance.
- Analyzes how a closer examination of night helps us think about another part of humanities’ nature, the gaining of, use, and abuse of power.
- Explains that the nazis were cowards, attempting to cover their inhumane tracks. the first death camp was at dachau in 1933 and later at stutthof.
- Analyzes how night is effective in making its point through a raw portrayal of how things were during the holocaust, although full of death and despair, helps us to appreciate life.
- Analyzes how elie wiesel uses imagery, diction, and foreshadowing to describe and define the inhumanity he experienced during the holocaust.
- Analyzes how wiesel used imagery to portray forms of inhumanity in his biography.
- Analyzes how wiesel suggests the end of their hope, losing their illusions as they entered the concentration camps, where they would struggle.
- Analyzes how elie wiesel's diction in night is responsible for its insinuation. he tells readers that nothing could keep them from the truth they were about to endure.
- Concludes that uses imagery, diction, by the descriptions of himself, and foreshadowing, to clearly portray the inhumane experiences he took part in during the holocaust.
- Argues that the holocaust's impact alone is devastating, but differing opinions may provide alternative perspectives against its popular status as the worst-ever.
- Argues that the holocaust is the worst crime in contemporary times. the nazi party framed anti-semitism using racial considerations.
- Argues that it is impossible to determine what could be worse than the holocaust as a crime against humankind, given that other portions apart from the contemporary times do not involve fully reliable tools for historical documentation.
- Argues that technological advancements like photography, film and sound recordings have made the contemporary times a well-documented era in human history, but the fact that the pre-contemporary times involved poor historical documentation raises questions.
- Concludes that the holocaust is the worst crime in human history. reliable historical documentation tools such as photography, film and sound recordings have emphasized the magnanimity of holocaust as a severely violent point in contemporary times.
- Explains that graphic novels are ideal for visual learners, inexperienced or unenthused readers, and anyone else who may not find traditional print books enticing.
- Opines that graphic novels can be great tools for some, if not all, readers, but the holocausts are a difficult subject, not always easy to read about.
- Analyzes how spiegelman uses different strategies to keep his graphic novel unlike the others while still remaining true to the subject.
- Analyzes how maus ii depicts mice being undressed, beaten, and threatened. the text gives a description to the frame in telling what was going on as well as what people were saying.
- Analyzes how maus ii uses graphic novels to take on a serious subject.
- Analyzes how maus ii depicts the underweight and skinny mice in a line with two areas on the sides of them.
- Analyzes how spiegelman creates a bonding relationship between the image and the text unlike any other graphic novel of his time.
- Describes the sources of information on graphic novels in schools and libraries.
- Explains that although the holocaust happened decades ago, the effects of the horrific actions still resonate with people everywhere. there is a plethora of news articles and art exhibits that are centrally focused on the holocaust.
- Explains that 42,500 nazi controlled camps and ghettos housed jews during 1933-1945, which is during hitler's reign as fuhrer of nazi germany.
- Explains that there were multiple types of camps that were documented, such as auschwitz, 30,000 labor camps, 1,000 prisoner-of-war camps and brothels. between 15 million and 20 million people were imprisoned and died in these camps.
- Explains that the holocaust memorial institute's study of death camps was unprecedented, and it rocked the historical world. dr. margargee told eric litchblau that he expected to find approximately 7,000 camps.
- Analyzes the magnitude of the holocaust and the importance of information like this for the allies in world war ii.
- Opines that new historical numbers and information will always be an issue in regards to the holocaust. the discovery of information never stops either.
- Explains that the holocaust is a big topic in history classes, since world war ii and the holocaust go hand in hand.
- Explains that the holocaust evokes feelings of empathy for the victims, and anger toward the persecutors.
- Analyzes how adolf hitler, born in austria, became an artist after receiving the best grades in his primary school art class. after his rejection from secondary school, he continued to live with his mother until her death.
- Explains how adolf joined the nazi party and gained power in the "beer hall rebellion." after serving five years in prison, he wrote his autobiographical book, mein kampf.
- Explains that hitler gained much of his power legitimately, so he was appointed to the position of chancellor. hitler used this power to spread the fear of communism and remove those who opposed him.
- Explains that hitler stressed the idea of a master race called the "aryans." the aryan race exemplified everything that the jews were not, and this became the basis for the removal of jews from german life.
- Explains that jews remained the main target throughout the holocaust, but many other groups were also targeted. hitler ordered a series of "mercy killings" for germans who suffered from physical or mental disabilities.
- Explains that the first concentration camps were not built to kill jews, but to remove nazi opposition. they became places of cruelty and death.
- Explains that the holocaust ended out of necessity, but it brought many more deaths to those still in the camps as the liberation neared.
- Explains that many felt that germans should be held responsible for their actions. the holocaust overview states that allied representatives joined together at the nuremburg trials and categorized the crimes into three main groups.
- Describes the inhumane acts committed against civilians, before or during the war, or persecutions on political, racial or religious grounds in execution of or in connection with any crime within the jurisdiction of the tribunal.
- Analyzes how hitler's hatred of jews and racism from many germans led to the near extermination of an entire race.
- Cites altman, linda j. the holocaust, hitler, and nazi germany. berkeley heights, nj: enslow publishers, inc., 1998.
- Opines that the holocaust was a terrible time in history; many innocent people were killed, all because of their faith. the book night portrays the vigorous journey wiesel and his family undergo throughout this torturous time.
- Describes dr. mengele's experiments on the twins of auschwitz, which included extreme surgeries, chemical testing, castration, pressure chambers and exposure to extreme trauma.
- Narrates how an ss man hurried by shouting, twins, twins! he stopped to look at them. miriam and eva looked very much alike.
- Explains that mengele wanted his experiments to run smoothly, so the twins had to be healthy. they were injected with unknown substances that left them with an extremely high fever and swollen limbs.
- Analyzes how dr.mengele is introduced when eliezer and his family are faced with the very first selection.
- Explains that the nazis ordered death marches to transport prisoners to dachau camp. they were cruel and inhumane, but they weren't dumb.
- Analyzes how ellie was imprisoned in a death march after having surgery on his foot. ss guards ran along with him and his inmates but no one replaced them.
- Analyzes how after the death march everyone was extremely intolerable and weak. some gave up and decided to die. others fought for shelter inside the barrack; they flooded in trampling one another.
- Narrates how eliezer's father becomes violently ill while settling into another camp, and ellie can't do anything but tend to his fathers needs. the camp was liberated, but he was no longer the same due to violence.
- Cites the work "angel of death.", the holocaust crimes, heroes and villains by louis bülow privacy.
- Analyzes how the holocaust left a mark on european history as well as impacted the lives of many families.
- Analyzes how hitler's anti-semitism was present in europe before the holocaust, when ferdinand ii and isabella of spain issued the edict of expulsion which gave the jews the choice of converting to christianity or leaving the country.
- Explains that hitler became infatuated with his control over vast lands and expanded his regime. the nuremberg laws of 1935 initiated the persecution of jews, the burning down of synagogues and shops owned by jews.
- Explains that jews were to wait to see if they survived hitler's regime or be caught and moved away from their home. they were taken to ghettos in poland and later moved to concentration camps.
- Argues that multiple sources with divergent advantages and strategies allow humanity to have a clearer understanding of the holocaust; when compared, the resources' limitations become apparent.
- Analyzes how the graphic novel maus shows the reader exactly what is happening without fear of misinterpretation from its message.
- Compares maus to the textbook's europe in the contemporary world, which gives a detailed description of the nazis' atrocious actions.
- Argues that primary sources are reliable resources for humanity to understand historical phenomena.
- Analyzes how smith's textbook provides a lively description of auschwitz, while the documentary night and fog provides documentation of prisoners' dispositions.
- Explains that superlative resources enable humanities comprehension of the holocaust. each resource has its own limitations and levels of validity.
- States that smith, bonnie g., europe in the contemporary world, 1900 to the present: a narrative history with documents. boston: bedford / st. martin's, 2007.
- Explains that spiegelman, art. maus ii: a survivor's tale : and here my troubles began. tammes, peter.
- Explains how the convention on the prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide was approved unanimously in 1948.
- Explains that adolf hitler gained support by promoting anti-semitism with charismatic oratory and propaganda and transformed the weimar republic into the third reich, a single-party dictatorship based on the totalitarian and autocratic ideology of nazism
- Describes heinrich himmler's role as reichsführer of the ss, a military commander, and leading nazi party member. he oversaw all internal and external police and security forces, including the gestapo.
- Explains reinhard heydrich, a high-ranking german nazi official, chaired the wannsee conference in 1942, which discussed plans for the deportation and extermination of all jews in german-occupied territories.
- Explains that adolf otto eichmann was a german nazi and ss-lieutenant colonel and one major organizers of the holocaust. he was charged with the task of simplifying and managing the logistics of mass deportation of jews to ghettos and extermination camps in german-occupied eastern europe.
- Explains that richard glücks was a high-ranking nazi official directly responsible for the forced labor of the camp inmates.
- Describes rudolf ferdinand höss, a ss-lieutenant colonel, who was the first commandant of auschwitz.
- Explains that christian wirth was a german police and ss officer during the program to exterminate the jewish people of poland during world war ii.
- Explains that germans blamed the jews for all their misfortunes, including their lack of food, their defeat in world war i, and high interest loans on the government’s purchase of weaponry.
- Explains that jewish teachers were fired regardless of their education, teaching ability or accomplishments. the nazis warned that the jews were threats to germany and world peace, which made the schools a hostile place for the jewish students.
- Explains that the treaty of versailles installed a democratic government called the weimar republic, unaccustomed to democracy; many germans had little faith in their president and elected reichstag.
- Explains that jews were not allowed to participate in politics, nor had professions like doctors or lawyers. they were initially in the ghettos, where they were isolated from the society.
- Narrates how jewish homes and businesses were vandalized, doors and windows broken, about 800 were destroyed, and synagogues burned to aches. insurance companies did not cover the costs for repairs.
- Explains that concentration camps and extermination camps were built by germany in their territory or in occupied territories. the number of camps increased during the years 1939 to 1943.
- Cites buignion, françois (2002-11-05). "dialogue with the past: the icrc and the nazi death camps".
- Explains bartoletti, susan campbell, and hitler youth.
- States that dwork, deborah, and r. j. van pelt. holocaust: a history. new york: norton, 2002.
- Analyzes samantha power's "a problem from hell": america and the age of genocide.
- Describes gottfried, ted, and stephen alcorn's deniers of the holocaust. brookfield, ct: twenty-first century, 2001.
- Explains goldhagen, daniel jonah, hitler's willing executioners: ordinary germans and the holocaust.
- Explains the term anti-semitism, which refers to the prejudice or hostility against the jews.
- Explains that anti-semitism became a political force in germany after the historian heinrich von treitschke's article stating that "the jews are our misfortune". nazi propagandists used propaganda to create external and internal enemies.
- Explains that the sanctions of the treaty of versailles in 1919 forced germany to relinquish its territories and pay an enormous sum of money as reparations for war damages.
- Explains how hitler established an absolute dictatorship, requiring officers and men to take an oath of allegiance to hitler. hitler invited the austrian chancellor, kurt von schuschnigg, to bertesgarden and forced him to sign an agreement.
- Explains that the reichstag members approved hitler's request to suspend civil rights, including the sanctity of the home, the privacy of mail phone conversations, and the freedom of speech, press and assembly. anti-semitism became a nazi government policy in 1935.
- Explains that the évian conference was held in 1938 to free jews from their persecutors, but internal situations in those countries did not allow them to get results. the international committee of the red cross did little to save jews during the holocaust.
- Opines that society has to remember the events in the world during the nazi dominion and to avoid events like the spanish inquisition, napoleonic wars, world war i, especially the holocaust.
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The Holocaust was the murder and persecution of approximately 6 million Jews and many others by the Nazi regime and its collaborators. The Nazis came to power in Germany in January of 1933. The Nazis thought that the “inferior” Jews were a threat to the “racially superior” German racial community. The death camps were operated from 1941 to 1945, and many people lost their lives or were forced to work in concentration camps during these years. The story leading up to the Holocaust, how the terrible event affected people’s lives, and how it came to and end are all topics that make this historic event worth learning about.
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Imagine living in a completely different world then you do now. Where you are kept in a confined space with no one and nothing to do. That’s what the jewish people of 1933 to 1945 suffered with. Concentration camps were everywhere, there was nowhere to go or hide. The Holocaust had an atrocious impact on jews and they will never be thought of the same After the camp, many were grateful for what they had and no longer took anything for granted. Each article shows a different way of how Jewish people were treated badly but each shares the same message. After the holocaust was over everybody was grateful for what they had.
Holocaust Essay
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Eighteen million Europeans went through the Nazi concentration camps. Eleven million of them died, almost half of them at Auschwitz alone.1 Concentration camps are a revolting and embarrassing part of the world’s history. There is no doubt that concentration camps are a dark and depressing topic. Despite this, it is a subject that needs to be brought out into the open. The world needs to be educated on the tragedies of the concentration camps to prevent the reoccurrence of the Holocaust. Hitler’s camps imprisoned, tortured, and killed millions of Jews for over five years. Life in the Nazi concentration camps was full of terror and death for its individual prisoners as well as the entire Jewish
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Poetry, Essays, & Short Stories by Children of Survivors
This section is devoted to.
Poetry, Essays, & Short Stories by Children of Survivors and Our Parents.
From Maxine Shoshanna Persaud, Toronto, Canada:
Many years ago I wrote the following words into my diary on a night when my parents were having a particularly hard time coping with life. Life, not as we see it , but as seen through the eyes of Holocaust survivors. I could not comfort them that night and so I wrote this in the hope that I could absorb some of their pain, so that they might live again, not merely exist. I wanted to communicate what they could not. Since then, I have learned that words, even the words of the survivors themselves, pale when compared to the atrocities committed against them by the Nazis.
That time so long ago and yet, so near They gassed the beaten then, melted them Like the hot wax of a shabbos candle The blood stained ball of each rising sun, and I, formed only by G-d’s will not word, living only on the dreams of the two that would conceive me, cried out in anguish, lamented, in my invisible, outraged soul. For those whose earthly screams, were forever silenced, In a world where few can still hear their tortured echoes. Crimes against humanity never die, only the victims. And we all suffer the legacy. ——————————–
The following three poems are from Izzy Nelken:
Yom HaSho’a 1996
By izzy nelken.
Y om HaSho’a in Israel I remember it so well Going back twenty two years Re-living some of my worst fears We had to turn the TV off So my mom wouldn’t be reminded of…
Of what was she not supposed to be reminded? What was the secret that was so well guarded? My parents were with me at home but where were mom’s parents? how come she was alone? There were stories of a horrible train which mom told with a great deal of pain I knew that her parents came to a terrible fate That had something to do with bigotry and hate
As a kid I learned not to ask which was not always an easy task Until this very day, I’m missing details there are only a few, very sketchy tales
So I would go on to school dressed up like a fool In Khaki shorts and a white shirt which had so much starch that it actually hurt US kids took turns standing by a Yahrzeit candle each one for a little while back then, in Israel, that was the style I tried my best to look sad as I stood by the candle But my friends would tell jokes that were too funny to handle So I would start to smile but just for a while Pretty soon my shift was done and now it was time to really have some fun Some other kid took my place he stood by the candle and made a serious face So I tried to make him laugh by saying all sorts of funny stuff
Looking at all of this now I am beginning to see how The Nazis tried to destroy the flame and the spark and they almost managed to make it totally dark But somehow our parents managed to survive and they made it to the free world alive We were all kids of the second generation and our parents brought us to the Israeli nation I went to a Hebrew school with a Jewish “in crowd” And of that, we can all feel very proud Standing by a candle so many years later I feel the tears which were masked by laughter ============
Trying to grasp Elie Wiesel’s “Night” It’s an internal fight I read two pages, leave and come back imagine the gallows around someone’s neck
Elie’s father was well respected it didn’t help him when he was “selected” whatever they had was taken away and there was nothing you could do or say
My grandfather had a lot of clout but our entire family was wiped out he had a factory and property and bank accounts today, I am filled with doubts: a man works all his life to collect then, one day it is taken, so what’s the effect?
“Men to the left, women to the right” mother and sister are soon out of sight this happened to our parents but could have been us and yesterday, we made such a fuss should we eat Italian or Chinese? they survived on snow, so please…
sitting in Chicago, my belly is full they weren’t so lucky, under Nazi rule
you stand in a group of five barely alive and try to survive
A few days after Elie’s operation the Nazis announce an evacuation should they leave or should they stay? what’s the right answer, who can say? they must decide there is no place to hide
The other day I went for a run on the Lakeshore, under the sun with a Walkman and a bottle of Evian what can I say, it was a lot of fun But can you imagine running all night the SS guard has you in his sight the machine gun is fired if you get tired
Elie slept just above his dad the Nazi hit him on the head and the next day, he was dead
This is very real and also un-imaginable there’s a lesson here but it’s so intangible
What’s important in life? my family and my wife education, career and financial success who are we trying to impress?
But in times of extreme strife an extra blanket may save your life all you want is soup and bread and a place to rest your head
We live very good here and it won’t disappear This I try to believe so I can live a normal life with my wife =============
The ghosts of Auchwitz are chasing me again just like they did when I was ten I sat with in the kitchen with my mom trying to speak, I was quite dumb
Tried to listen to what she had to say wished it was just another regular day and now its midnight and I am drunk smoked a cigar and smell like a skunk what is the meaning of life, I try to figure with the skills of a mathematician and all its rigor
Menke Kalisch, Kopel Reich those are important figures in my psych I can feel them fight with all their might “Torah is important, everything else is fake” No! More dough you got to make
Mom would wake up every morning and sort of go into mourning Where is her family and Galanta, she tried to shout Do you know what this is about?
Lisa lies next to me. so innocent never had to deal with anything indecent wish I could be like her and think that life is fair But I think of my uncle, whom I never met but can’t seem to be able to forget and both of my grandparents and their families rolling in their grave whom no one wanted to save
===================================================
From Jackie Ruben:
I am a psychology graduate student. My grandmother is Hungarian and, although she left Hungary right before the war, she lost many relatives including her parents and two siblings. I wrote the following personal essay at the beginning of this year. Would you pleasepost it in the Cybrary?
Jackie Ruben—-
In My Grandmother’s Kitchen
By jackie ruben.
What do we talk about, as my grandma chops the onions, the green peppers, the tomatoes, and starts to saute them at low heat?…. I have a mental picture of my beautiful grandmother, ever vigilant, making sure that the onions are translucent enough, yet not burnt. Everything’s all right….
“Mami, where are your parents?”
Something changes…Can my little child memories crystallize?
“They’re dead….,”a whisper,”…. they were killed….”
She sets her wooden spoon down and stares out the window, her left hand touching her cheek and covering her mouth, as I’ve often seen her do since that first memory, so many years ago.
“Were they killed with a sword?”
No answer… What’s happened here? I’ve never seen my grandmother cry… herbright green-grey eyes become water as I approach her, wandering, fearing whatever it is, what the shadow, the terrible thing is…
And she hugs me and whispers in my ear, “No, my ‘muggetcita,’ my little flower, no…”
Later that day, my mother would explain that my grandmother’s parents, her sister Irenke, her brother Gyula, his wife Etush, their children and many more family members, had been “gassed,” whatever that meant, at a place called Auschwitz. I learned the meaning of that name way before I could spell…I also learned soon enough not to ask my grandmother about her family too often. She didn’t even talk with my mom and my aunt about those things. Although I was curious, I didn’t want my Mami to cry. Words floated in low, somber tones, though, and I heard them all…”Nazis…SS…Zyklon B…concentration camps….” And I remembered.
Holocaust… The word that symbolized my family’s taboo subject.To me, it is a word that encompasses it all, yet will never be enough. It is a word that has followed me throughout my life. It is also the wound of my heart that will never heal.It is, in short, my family legacy–one that, I have sworn to myself, I will pass down to the generations–the most important lesson to teach my kids.
The meaning of the word “Holocaust” embodies, more than anything, the biggest lesson, the most important present that my grandmother has given me. She has taught me, through her pain, that we must never forget. Sixty years have not eased the crack in her soul.When my grandmother thinks of her Hungarian family, she is my age again, timeless, finding out again and again and again that she will NEVER see her family again.
And I have turned my twenty-three years of learning on her. We went to Hungary last year, she and I, as well as my parents. For her, it was the first time she would return in close to sixty years.
We went to Mezocsat, the town of her youth. We found the Jewish Cemetery and there, amidst the overgrown weeds and fallen tombstones, we saw the wall with the names of the town’s Jews that had been taken. There are no tombs to visit… there are only names and ages on a wall, unchanging, like the faces on the photographs…
For the first time in my life, my dead family materialized… I saw then, that those names had belonged to REAL people. I felt their presence, our link… people who were not just my grandma’s family who had been murdered in the Holocaust, but MINE as well.
My family too had been murdered.
And although we had not tombstones, you see, we did put a little stone at the wall, for each of the “Schwarcz” listed and for the rest of the Mezocsat Jews, whose memories only survive as names on these hard, cold walls, and as memories in those old folks who knew them and those young folks who, like me, refuse to forget.
When I went back home to visit during the winter break, the few photos left of my family became oh-so-precious.I laser-copied them.
Irenke, my grandmother’s sister, you and I were born on the same date… I have your Yiddish name, Bluma… and, like you, I like to cook…
“Oh sons of Irenke,” I wrote in my photo album,” Oh, children of Gyula, where are your sweet little faces? Sweet Irenke and Etush, you’re frozen in time forever. Beautiful Jewish women. Innocent Jewish women. Where’s Hermina, my mother’s “Mami,”-your body wasn’t allowed to follow its natural course neither in life nor in death. Your spirits surround me, your eyes haunt me. I look at your hands in these old photos but can’t reach across death and time to touch them… I can see them becoming ashes… WHY?”
“Irenke, you haunt me, sister, grand-aunt…Twin: we were born years apart, yet on the same date. Who were you? What were your dreams? Beautiful photos don’t reveal the horror. Bluma, I didn’t know you but you won’t be forgotten. You weren’t given a chance to have your own children, my cousins too have been murdered. I give you my descendants. They’ll remember you, though it isn’t the same, is it?….Would you have taught your little ones how to make “kalacs” and recite the “Sh’ma” like my “Mami”-your “Margitka” taught me? We’ll never know….”
There are six empty pages in my photo album that will never be filled with the photos never taken of my murdered family’s descendants.
There are six million empty album pages that will never be filled.
From Jessica Hollander: I wrote this poem when I was in my first year of high school, at age 14. I submitted it in a poetry writing contest in southern California and won first place for it. there was a special ceremony and Mel Mermelstein was present to give my award. Here it goes….
There Lies Hope
By jessica hollander.
With one great swipe of his unmerciful hand, He led us destruction. With one great tear streaming from my eye, I send myself back in time to those painful years. A time when the world was ablaze with a burning hatred. A hatred so threatening and vicious, Against a humble people so full of innocence. Why?
I question myself, gazing above into the clear blue sky. Expecting an answer, but no answer comes. With each fresh tear, I struggle with my burden Until one night in my dream The answer is revealed.
I received the following poem from From Diane Schmolka:
In All Those Camps For every particle of dust there was a name Not only when the sunlight reveals their properties floating in air that it is a phase through which they energize It is in the pulse of non-perceived awareness that their power utters every word in the primeval language once spoken in time. There are those I love dearly who do not believe there is any gift created by suffering loss. It is only when they are ready to let their arms brush against minute mouldered remains settled on cot posts, door jambs hospital beds and barbed-wire fences; when they journey to places wherein loved ones embrace them they can know joy from severed attachment I have watched them in their sleep When they dream, I believe tortured relatives sprinkle symbolice speech in pantomimes denied any sense in mornings Like ash, feelings well up from any past time as dead loved ones create moments the way a cat quietly arrives on what you’re reading to claim you for their own. I know when I awake on nights wherein I see no moon that stars will always shine from bones pulverized in all those camps I know now I can sing Kaddish only when charoset has once stuck in my throat. by Diane Schmolka. first published in “The Ottawa Unitarian” Summer,1995
Poetry, Essays, & Short Stories by Children of Survivors
If you have art, poetry, short stories, plays, etc. by survivors in your family or inspired by the fact that you are a child of a holocaust survivor, please contact remember.org.
Remember. Zachor. Sich erinnern.
Remember.org helps people find the best digital resources, connecting them through a collaborative learning structure since 1994. If you'd like to share your story on Remember.org, all we ask is that you give permission to students and teachers to use the materials in a non-commercial setting. Founded April 25, 1995 as a "Cybrary of the Holocaust". Content created by Community. THANKS FOR THE SUPPORT . History Channel ABC PBS CNET One World Live New York Times Apple Adobe Copyright 1995-2022 Remember.org. All Rights Reserved. Publisher: Dunn Simply
APA Citation
Dunn, M. D. (Ed.). (95, April 25). Remember.org - The Holocaust History - A People's and Survivors' History. Retrieved February 28, 2022, from remember.org
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The Moral Corruption of Holocaust Fiction
In his 1998 essay “Who Owns Auschwitz?” the survivor and Nobel Prize-winning author Imre Kertész grappled with the problem of how to represent the Holocaust in literature and film. The paradox he expressed was that “for the Holocaust to become with time a real part of European (or at least western European) public consciousness, the price inevitably extracted in exchange for public notoriety had to be paid”. That price was the Shoah’s “stylisation”: its transformation into either “cheap consumer goods” or “a moral-political ritual, complete with a new and often phony language”. In both cases, he argued, the Holocaust gradually becomes the realm not of reality, not of history, not of jaw-dropping, thought-defying tragedy, but of kitsch.
Kitsch has indeed come to dominate the field – from the Broadway adaptation of the Diary of Anne Frank to Schindler’s List . At the other end of the spectrum, masterpieces, often by survivors – Primo Levi, Paul Celan, Jean Améry – tend towards aesthetic and intellectual rigour, resisting closure and withholding comfort. Much of so-called “Holocaust fiction” is aimed at children and included in the “Holocaust curricula” that are mandatory in many jurisdictions, though fatally handicapped by a refusal to show children violence or even darkness. In the years since Kertész’s essay, however, a micro-genre of Holocaust fiction for adults has proliferated: The Tattooist of Auschwitz, The Librarian of Auschwitz, The Violinist of Auschwitz. Unlike the children’s fare, these have no excuse for their optimism.
That John Boyne was not included in Kertész’s list of offenders is surely a matter only of timing: just a few years later, in 2006, Boyne’s children’s book The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas would exemplify the terrifying commercial drive to expunge the Holocaust of its horror, and its Jewishness. Its plot revolves around the nine-year-old narrator, Henry, who is confused and sad after his Nazi commandant father relocates the family to Auschwitz (which he pronounces as “Out-With”, a pun that does not make sense in German; he also calls Hitler “the Fury”, though he’s nine and perfectly capable of pronouncing the word Führer). He has no idea what’s going on, even though it was no secret that Jews were being deported to occupied Poland. Our innocent little Henry befriends a boy his age, Shmuel, who’s always hanging out by the perimeter fence – weird, given that he would more likely have been performing slave labour and would have been immediately shot if found attempting escape. They share snacks that Henry takes from his kitchen (Shmuel, despite being from Krakow, a highly developed city, and fluent in Polish and German – Yiddish is never mentioned – has only eaten chocolate once). Inexplicably, Henry doesn’t much question why Shmuel is bald, emaciated and imprisoned along with his entire family, which, by the way, is “disappearing” one by one (somehow Shmuel is also unaware that people are being executed). Henry crawls under the fence to help Shmuel look for his dad, and the two boys are immediately swept up in a death march and led into a gas chamber. Henry squeezes Shmuel’s hand and tells him he’s his best friend “for life”, and they are promptly murdered. When Henry’s family realises he is dead, they are sad.
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas may read like a paint-by-numbers parody of Holocaust fiction, yet it has sold more than 11 million copies, been adapted into a major motion picture and become the most assigned Holocaust novel in English schools, with the Centre for Holocaust Education at University College London finding that 35 per cent of teachers used it in lessons about the Holocaust. And this in spite of the fact that, according to the centre’s study, it has “contributed significantly to one of the most powerful and problematic misconceptions of this history, that ‘ordinary Germans’ held little responsibility and were by and large ‘brainwashed’ or otherwise entirely ignorant of the unfolding atrocities”. Boyne has, of course, defended his work, telling the Guardian that by relating to his central characters “the young reader can learn empathy and kindness”. OK.
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The moral corruption of Holocaust fiction
John Boyne’s shameless sequel to The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas exemplifies a genre that expunges the genocide of its horror, and its Jewishness.
By Ann Manov
In his 1998 essay “Who Owns Auschwitz?” the survivor and Nobel Prize-winning author Imre Kertész grappled with the problem of how to represent the Holocaust in literature and film. The paradox he expressed was that “for the Holocaust to become with time a real part of European (or at least western European) public consciousness, the price inevitably extracted in exchange for public notoriety had to be paid”. That price was the Shoah’s “stylisation”: its transformation into either “cheap consumer goods” or “a moral-political ritual, complete with a new and often phony language”. In both cases, he argued, the Holocaust gradually becomes the realm not of reality, not of history, not of jaw-dropping, thought-defying tragedy, but of kitsch.
Kitsch has indeed come to dominate the field – from the Broadway adaptation of the Diary of Anne Frank to Schindler’s List . At the other end of the spectrum, masterpieces, often by survivors – Primo Levi, Paul Celan, Jean Améry – tend towards aesthetic and intellectual rigour, resisting closure and withholding comfort. Much of so-called “Holocaust fiction” is aimed at children and included in the “Holocaust curricula” that are mandatory in many jurisdictions, though fatally handicapped by a refusal to show children violence or even darkness. In the years since Kertész’s essay, however, a micro-genre of Holocaust fiction for adults has proliferated: The Tattooist of Auschwitz, The Librarian of Auschwitz, The Violinist of Auschwitz. Unlike the children’s fare, these have no excuse for their optimism.
That John Boyne was not included in Kertész’s list of offenders is surely a matter only of timing: just a few years later, in 2006, Boyne’s children’s book The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas would exemplify the terrifying commercial drive to expunge the Holocaust of its horror, and its Jewishness. Its plot revolves around the nine-year-old narrator, Henry, who is confused and sad after his Nazi commandant father relocates the family to Auschwitz (which he pronounces as “Out-With”, a pun that does not make sense in German; he also calls Hitler “the Fury”, though he’s nine and perfectly capable of pronouncing the word Führer). He has no idea what’s going on, even though it was no secret that Jews were being deported to occupied Poland. Our innocent little Henry befriends a boy his age, Shmuel, who’s always hanging out by the perimeter fence – weird, given that he would more likely have been performing slave labour and would have been immediately shot if found attempting escape. They share snacks that Henry takes from his kitchen (Shmuel, despite being from Krakow, a highly developed city, and fluent in Polish and German – Yiddish is never mentioned – has only eaten chocolate once). Inexplicably, Henry doesn’t much question why Shmuel is bald, emaciated and imprisoned along with his entire family, which, by the way, is “disappearing” one by one (somehow Shmuel is also unaware that people are being executed). Henry crawls under the fence to help Shmuel look for his dad, and the two boys are immediately swept up in a death march and led into a gas chamber. Henry squeezes Shmuel’s hand and tells him he’s his best friend “for life”, and they are promptly murdered. When Henry’s family realises he is dead, they are sad.
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas may read like a paint-by-numbers parody of Holocaust fiction, yet it has sold more than 11 million copies, been adapted into a major motion picture and become the most assigned Holocaust novel in English schools, with the Centre for Holocaust Education at University College London finding that 35 per cent of teachers used it in lessons about the Holocaust. And this in spite of the fact that, according to the centre’s study, it has “contributed significantly to one of the most powerful and problematic misconceptions of this history, that ‘ordinary Germans’ held little responsibility and were by and large ‘brainwashed’ or otherwise entirely ignorant of the unfolding atrocities”. Boyne has, of course, defended his work, telling the Guardian that by relating to his central characters “the young reader can learn empathy and kindness”. OK.
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With his latest treacly tome All the Broken Places – complete with title so maudlin it preempts all mockery – Boyne has gifted us with a Holocaust novel so self-indulgent, so grossly stereotyped, so shameless and insipid that one is almost astonished that he has dared. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas at least was written for children. One anxiously waits to see how this grown-up sequel performs.
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So far, it has been hailed as “ a powerful novel about secrets and atonement after Auschwitz ” in the Guardian and lauded in hundreds of positive reviews on GoodReads. As with the preceding novel, All the Broken Places has a heavy-handed, pedagogical plot. If the moral of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas was “don’t murder Jewish little boys lest your non-Jewish one be killed”, that of Broken Places is “if you were complicit in the murder of Jewish little boys, you may be absolved if you later prevent the murder of at least one non-Jewish little boy”. Boyne resumes the story with Henry’s naughty older sister Gretel – now 91– gradually, and tediously, relating her life up to this point. (I advise against reading this book, but if you insist on doing so be warned that the remainder of this paragraph contains “spoilers”.) At the end of the war her father was immediately hanged, and she and her mother emigrated to Paris. They dated French guys, but then had their heads shaved in a humiliating ritual. Gretel said a lot of things like “We’re guilty too”, and her mother said a lot of things like, “Your father’s crimes! His. All his. Not mine. Not yours”, and “Those filthy Jews!” Anyway, Gretel emigrated to Australia, where she fell in love with a Treblinka survivor she didn’t even realise was Jewish. (He, apparently, wasn’t too curious about a “Gretel” in post-war Australia.) Once her past was revealed he left her, but his friend – a historian, of course! – subbed in. Now Gretel is a crotchety, rich widow in London. A new family moves into her building, with an abusive husband who threatens to kill his cute son. When Gretel tells him not to beat his wife, he whines, “But she can be so annoying.” Gretel threatens to turn him in, and he threatens to reveal her Nazi past. She murders him and finishes the novel in prison, which she says is not too bad.
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Kertész bemoaned the way Holocaust art devolves into the dutiful repetition of “certain words”. What are they? Boyne suggests a few contenders. How many times does All the Broken Places refer to the “truth”? Forty-two. Guilt? Thirty-six. Past? Thirty-four. Trauma, horror, and monster get ten uses each. The dialogue is leaden and expository: “My daddy’s not a monster”; “It doesn’t matter any more. It’s all in the past.” The narration is bloated and risible: “He was gone. Louis was gone. Millions were gone”; “I had witnessed too much suffering in my life and done nothing to help. I had to intervene.”
This is not literature. As a grown-up sequel to children’s trash, All the Broken Places serves two roles. First, to demonstrate that Boyne definitely did not think that the Germans were innocent, definitely knew they were “complicit” and “guilty” and that history is “complicated”, etc, thanks very much. Second, to serve as a sort of fan fiction for those peculiar adults who long for the comfort of a childhood favourite.
As to this first goal, at least, it is a consummate failure, a wildly simplified narrative that misrepresents the extent of Nazi ideology. As in The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas , Boyne underestimates the family’s awareness of the Holocaust, lending his German characters an exaggerated naivety, or implausible deniability. To take one ridiculous example, how on Earth would a girl active in the Jungmädelbund (a girls’ section of the Hitler Youth), nursed on anti-Semitic propaganda, not notice that a guy named David Rotheram, who presumably speaks with a Yiddish accent, is Jewish? And while Boyne mechanically asserts that the past is “complicated”, he betrays no knowledge of those complications. He portrays Nazi officials as swiftly killed, omitting that hundreds of them held high-ranking positions in the post-war West German government. Simultaneously, he portrays their families as unscathed (save a head-shave), omitting that in the Russian zone – the only one tending to summary executions of Nazis – women were frequently raped by the occupiers. Boyne flaunts a teenager’s understanding of the causes and consequences of the Second World War: Germans were poor, then naughty, then poor again. Indeed, he at no point even alludes to any present-day legacy of Nazism: not the rise of the right-wing nationalist Alternative für Deutschland, not synagogue terrorism in Europe or America, not even, at any point, the mere concept of Holocaust denial. Instead, this sterile novel stays well confined within a London apartment building, unaware of and uninterested in the world outside.
As with so much Holocaust fiction All the Broken Places utterly fails in its stated purpose: making the next generation slightly less likely to participate in the next genocide. Achieving that goal would call for a radical revamping of Holocaust education, to focus on multiple genocides and on the horrifying fact that they were widely supported, and that the ideology that enabled them was believed even by – especially by – elites. In the case of the Holocaust, this ideology was Nazi racial pseudoscience: an elaborate thesis of eugenics supported by American funding (including from the Rockefellers) that also advocated the destruction of the disabled, Gypsies, political dissidents, homosexuals and others. Boyne’s reduction of Nazi ideology to a fringe belief, expressed in infrequent outbursts – “those filthy Jews” – is all the more absurd now that he’s writing for grown-ups. The issue, in short, is that judging by the last ten years of Western political life, humans are less able than ever to apply any sort of epistemic reflection to the news cycle, political discourse and scientific opportunism, and God forbid authors like Boyne be those charged with changing this.
In the self-serving afterword here Boyne essentially repeats that he writes about Nazis so as to humanise them, “exploring emotional truths and authentic human experiences”. Setting aside his total inability to render human experience as anything other than a Hallmark card, he’s fundamentally wrong: the purpose of Holocaust education should not be to recognise the good in bad people, but to recognise the bad inside good people.
We don’t need anyone to teach us how to recognise the barefaced devil; the danger is the insidious and gradual creep of violence into the civilised and everyday. This is what the philosopher Theodor Adorno’s dictum – “To write poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric” – warned of: art unable to recognise the break the Holocaust represented with the past, afraid to apprehend the failure of the civilising project. With this childish drivel in which the villains and victims come labelled and sorted, Boyne yet again seems immune to its lessons.
All the Broken Places By John Boyne Transworld, 384pp, £20
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This article appears in the 26 Oct 2022 issue of the New Statesman, State of Disorder
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