Hartman Learning From Survivors

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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


2/12

The

Longest

Shadow

In

the

Aftermath

of

the

Holocaust

Geoffrey

H.

Hartman

oôlorave

rmacmillan


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


6/12


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8/12


9/12


10/12

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


11/12


12/12

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,,

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