Language:
German
Year of publication:
2004
Titel der Quelle:
Jahrbuch des Simon-Dubnow-Instituts
Angaben zur Quelle:
3 (2004) 139-146
Keywords:
Presser, J.
;
Westerbork (Concentration camp)
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
Abstract:
J. Presser, a Dutch-Jewish historian (1899-1970; the J. stands for Jacques but also for Jacob) was commissioned by the Dutch Rijksinstituut voor Oorlogsdocumentatie to write the history of the Holocaust in the Netherlands. The two-volume work, "Ondergang: De vervolging en verdelging van het Nederlandse jodendom 1940-1945", appeared in 1965. Presser felt that before he could write an objective history, he must give expression to the human, subjective experience of the Holocaust. In his semi-autobiographical novella "De nacht der Girondijnen" (1957) his hero, a Jewish antisemite named Jacques, becomes a Kapo in Westerbork. An incident there leads to his identification with Judaism and deportation to Sobibór. (This was in fact the itinerary of Presser's wife; he himself survived in hiding.) Suggests that the act of writing this story represented Presser's conversion from assimilation to Jewish identity. Discusses the legitimacy of this literary work in the light of Adorno's dictum about writing after Auschwitz. Adorno feared that Holocaust literature would create the cozy illusion of the emergence of human nobility in every existential situation and obscure the distinction between executioner and victim. Presser's novella does not fall into this trap.
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