Language:
English
Year of publication:
1998
Titel der Quelle:
Jewish Studies Quarterly
Angaben zur Quelle:
5,1 (1998) 80-102
Keywords:
Breznitz, Shlomo.
;
Friedländer, Saul,
;
Holocaust survivors
;
Jewish children in the Holocaust
Abstract:
Examines the Holocaust memoirs of Saul Friedlaender, "When Memory Comes" (1979) and Shlomo Breznitz, "Memory Fields" (1993), which have much in common. These two works reveal the conflict of Holocaust survivors, who desire to tell but at the same time need to conceal traumatic events. Discusses Friedlaender's identity crisis due to his separation from his parents at a young age and his experience of hiding in a monastery, as well as his use of historical research as a defense mechanism (e.g. he can relate his own experiences to those of the Jewish people) and his fear that the Holocaust will recur in Israel. Breznitz, who was also separated from his parents and hidden in a Catholic orphanage, uses similar defense mechanisms, integrating the past into the present and generalizing about human nature. Both authors distance themselves from their narratives, as though they were writing about someone else, and both analyze their stories rationally, without emotion.
Note:
On Saul Friedländer, "When Memory Comes" (1979) and Shlomo Breznitz, "Memory Fields" (1993).
URL:
Locate this publication in Israeli libraries
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