Post on 07-Jul-2018
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M
6XS.
ISBN
o-3rz-29568-5
Library
of
Congress
Cataloging-in-Publication
Data
available
from
the
Library
of Congress.
First
published
in
the
United
States
in
1996
by
Indiana
University
Press
First
PALGRAVE
MACMILLAN
edition:
August
2oo2
ro98765432r
Printed
in
the
United
States
of
America
D
trT4,3
Htsi
x
LÚ
OL
For Renée
and Hertha
8/18/2019 Hartman Learning From Survivors
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The
Longest
Shadow
In
the
Aftermath
of
the
Holocaust
Geoffrey
H.
Hartman
oôlorave
rmacmillan
8/18/2019 Hartman Learning From Survivors
3/12
r32
The Longest
Shadow
rg87),
163;
in
English,
Th¿
Neu
cotuuaatism:
cutlural
crilicism
and'
lh¿
Histofiûns'Debale
apolis:
Unive
8).
7.
In
th
as
rePresentations
I have
been
helped
by
Hay-
den White's
and
His¿orical
Re
resmtntian
(Baltimore:
Johns
Hopkins
University
Press, rg87),
esp.
chap'
t.
S.AharonAppelfeld,inWritingandlheHolneau'st,s6.PrimoLevididnotbeginto
write
until
t*o
y.àit
after his
release
from
the camps,
at
least
in part
because
of that
same
se
9.
Tragedy
and the
Historian,"
in
The
Non-
wish
Jeu
ind
r
(London:
Oxford
University
Press'
1968)'
ro.
t Laughter?"
in
Wriling
o'nl'
the
Holacausl'
ed'
Saul
Friedlandeç
esPeciallY
e
Holncaust,
and
"The
'Final
no.
z
(Fall/Winter rg89).
Politiæ, the
Twmlielh CmlurY
(New York:
Penguin
Books,
rg88),
"Prolog."
rg.
Forrunoif
Video
Archive
for Holocaust
Testimonies
HVT58,
Yale University
Li-
brary.
rj. See Czeslaw
Milosz,
7
)'
My
attention
was
drawn
to
e
r)
Wril¿rs
Mahe the
Holacattsl
I
e'
rg89).
Learning
from
Survivors
,
the
Archiue
is
lanning îor
the rest
of the
a
direct
knouledge
of
thl
õamts
o
rg
j
j
to
rg45
can
be
record¿d,.
The
Yale
Tesrimony
Project
Nine
A.r
i-po.t^nt
reason
for
oral
testimonies
of
the
Holocaust
is
to
allow
sur-
quent, affected
by
the extreme
experience
they-often
for
the
first
time
in
there"
always
a
grouP
sur_
or a
tempta_
Archive
can-
not
be
collectivized:
they
disconcert
us, and
alarm
even
the
interviewers.
Face
to
face
with
that world,
it
is our search
for
meaning
which
is
disclosed,
as
if we
had
to
be
comforted
for
what làa1
suffered.
For
us,
who
were
nor
there,
the
classical
axiom
holds
that
"Nothing
human
is
alien";
for
them,
"Nothing
human
is
entirely
familiar."
The
sense
of
the human
has
always
to
be restored.
r33
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r36
The
Longest
Shadow
and
which,
necessarily
incomplete
in the
camps'
extended
itself
into
the
Something
has
changed:
we
cannot
"do history"
as usual'
remain,
of
course.
onelimitcomesfromwithintheindividual,whosephysicalsurvivalhad
r37
Learning
from
Survivors
n
be).8
It
is
hard
for
me
to
forget,
on
as
the
narrator
hesitates,
then relates
lly overnight,
of
the
enrire
gypsy
popu_
,
the
teacher's
blow
and
the
fate
of
the
gypsres,
may
seem
incommensurable,
yet
that
they
are
not
part
of
a
statis_
tical
or
impersonar
narration,
that
we see
the
individuar
change
as
memory
returns,
makes
rhem
equa'y
unforgettable.
we
undersr""ã
u",i..j*"
Améry's
protest
against
"the
cold
stoiage
of
history.,,
,,[N]o
rememuår.rg
has
become
a
mere
memory....
Nothing
has
healed....
Where
is
it de_
creed
that
enlightenment
must
be
free
of
emotion?,,e
Yet
when
scars
are
exposed
and
emotions
are
given
so
direct
a repre_
sentation
by
a thousand
voices,
do
we
not
invest
that
g.oup,
and
the
f,r.ih..
thousands
each
person
stands
for
(,,I
am
my
town
archive,,,
one
of
them
remarked)
with
a grim
privilege?
Is
there
an
assumption,
however
tacit,
thatJewish
Holocaust
survivors
have
a
monopoly
on
sufferirrgl
ena
ev.n
if
there
is
no
such assumption, does
the
effect
of
their
testimony
tend
in
that
direction?
I hope
not;
but
here
a
need
for
interpretadon
shows
itself
because
of
the
immediacy
of
what
is
recalled.
There
is
something
too forceful
in
every
confession,
irrespective
of
con-
tent'
The
difference
between
confession
and
testimony
has
st'l
to
be
de-
fined:
I can
s
is
not
meant
history.
The
forces
rather
the
singularity
or
even
extreme
character
of
what
was
undergone.
For
in-
justice
has
a
universal
structure:
it
arouses
feelings
of
sorrow
ãnd
indigna_
tion
that
can
be
shared,
even
when
the
actual experiences cannot.
Though
it
is
the
case
thar
the
Nazi-inspired
Holåcaustwas
unique
in
both
conception
and implementation-it
instrumentarized
the
tittini
or
ati
itre
Jews
through
camps
and
factories
whose
formal
product
wa,
¿ä"trr-tti,
horrible
truth
simply
numbs
both
intellect
and
heart.
we
can
,.rpo.rJ-,o
death
only
as
we
remember
life:
the
livingness
of
a
person,
an
hour
before,
or
yesterday,
how
such
a
one
looked,
loved,
would
speak.
To
view
these
witnesses
on
the
screen
is
not
to
exclude
other
sufferin
urrt
to
be
reminded
of
every
injustice,
great
or
small,
that
wastes
human
life.
This
point
has particular
importance
because
other
persecuted
groups
could
come
to feer
thatJews
are
seeking
to
exceptionalize
the uoloJaust
at
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I
I
i1
I
The
Longest
Shadow
ss,
dogs, Afte.
ajourney
already
fatar for
a part
of
the mass
packed\into
the
wagons,
she
tells us that at
a certain
moment
she passed
into
"another state"
(øz
second,
éøtl
marked
by
dissoci
actl¡
d
arrival at
s? She
pened
wh
brutall
she
exper
etÌveen
camP
Pnsoner.
r46
vantage.
Fussell
quotes
unintelligibility
of
his
di
re
Second
War,
on
rhe
relarive
trying
to
write
a
prop
ld
really
ger
hold
ofifyou
were
cury-wise
from
proper
¡onder
the
stuff
slips
away
mer_
oI
one
sort
or
another
erect
ratherartiñciar
structures
than
try
to
recaplure
it
5.
primo
Levi,
moRosenrhal
[New
york:
S
Establishment
of
Clinical
Wurh,
ed,.
7.
Edirh
P.,
Holocaur
),
ry?rf.
caust
Testimonies, yale
un
rchive
for
Horo_
8.
Iß
Rea
Origin
g.
preface
to
the
poinr
of
view
of
high
communication entre le
m
donner
les
moyens,
en
ras
g_arder
cette
possibilité
d,ur
ur
cassette
vidéo,
de
sauve-
de
s'accroître."
(There
is
a
cr
et
à
I'intelligence
des
éìèves
and
that
of
the
teachers.
.
.
.
n
the
world
ofthe
deportees
on
video,
to
safeguard
this
lecting
all
these
testimonies
understanding
ofstudents
tr
Port
which
would
allow
the
_
ro.
This
issue
of
how
im¿
re,
go8.
tional
kind
ofeducation,
one
ially,
can
be
part
ofan
emo-
¡mportant,
ofcourse)
to
a
de
ool
and
cognitive
way
(also
press,
rg4g.
morte
à Auschwitz
it,
1965),
66.
a.r.-1,'-lltton'ne¡e
le
voit
"
Le
eonaoi
o
ulvor
of
the.po.l
pot
regime,
who
.
.es
a.similar
feeling.
,,Now,
r
really
alive
or
ifJhe
died
survivor
himself
(he
died
in
lc
rch
parodies
the
at
once
commanding
and
falsely
con_
Learning
a"-i*i*i
47
i
I
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r50
The
Longest
Shadow
interview
the
character
less of a
personal
and
more of
a social
and
historical
event."
General
3r.
absolu
entre
le
savoir
livresque
quej'avais acquis et
ce
que
me
comprenais
plus
rien."
In "Le
lieu et
la parole,"
Cahins
du
Cinimø,
37
(t985):
374.
Holocaust
Testimony,
Art,
and
l
rauma
Ti?r¿
I
ugi.r,
uncharacteristically,
with
an
assertion.
Today
the
relation
of knowl-
edge
to
the
means
of
representation
has
changed.
This
is
especialry
clear
in
the
area
of
the
Holocaust.
we
notice,
on
the
one
hand,
^ar,
.*i.*s
of
knowledge,
a plethora
of
derail
abour
rhe
"Finar
solution',
furnished
by
the
techniques
of
modern
historiography
and
the
punctilious
and
overånfi-
dent
record-keeping
of
the
perpetrators
themselves.
on
the
other
hand,
powerful
visual
media
are
at our
disposition
to
convert
this
knowredge
into
simulacra
of
the
original
event.
euestions
arise,
therefore,
about
tnJlimrts
of
representation:
questions
less
about
whether
the
extreme
event
can
be
represented
than
whether
truth
is
served
by
our
refusal
to
set
limits
to
reP
resentation.
It
should
not
be
assumed,
in
other
words,
that
questions
about
repre_
senting
the
extreme
are
only
technicar
in
nature (how
can
we frnd,
m)aru
strong
enough
to
depict
what
happened?)
rather
than
scruples
about
the
end,
abowt
the wisdom
of recalling
what happened.
In
the
past
this
scruple
was
often
declared
formulaicaily.
so
Jewish
chroniclers
àf
,h"
c.rrr^å..
hesitate
at
the
threshold:
"In
trying
to tell
of
the
wrath
and
the
rage,
not
a
heart
has
the
strength,
the
hand
fails
on
the page."
we
tend
to
foiget
this
heart
and
this
hand.
Our
endurance
is
taken
for
granted,
.,
*.li
^
u'
inevitable
prurience
and
curiosity;
and the critique
of
rearism,
of
its
refusal
to
set
limits,
is left
entirely
to
the dogmatists
among
us.
To
take forms
of
'representation
seriously
means
to
acknowledge
their
power
to
move,
influence,
offend,
wound.
That
is
why the
consãrvative
theme
of
representationar
ìimits
is important,
and
why
the
issue
has
been
central
to
poetics
until
very
recently.
At
present
the
question
of limits,
in
r5l
And
out
of
her
mouth
a
stone
passed
into
my
open mouth.
"This
is
the
srone
of
witíesi,"
she
said,
"that
stops
every heart.,'
-Allen
Grossman,
,,The
Ether
Dome,,