Language:
English
Year of publication:
2006
Titel der Quelle:
Diacritics; a Review of Contemporary Criticism
Angaben zur Quelle:
36,1 (2006) 86-96
Keywords:
Didi-Huberman, Georges.
;
Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Exhibitions Influence
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Photographs
Abstract:
An exhibit shown in Paris in 2001 included photographs of Nazi camps, including four snapshots secretly taken in August 1944 by members of the Sonderkommando at Auschwitz's crematorium no. 5. In the catalogue of this exhibition, which was entitled "Images malgré tout", the art historian Georges Didi-Huberman argued that far from being "unimaginable" Auschwitz is only "imaginable", and that images are indispensable for grasping the reality of Auschwitz. Didi-Huberman's text evoked sharp criticism in the journal "Les Temps Modernes", edited by Claude Lanzmann, and his statements were equated to Holocaust denial. Didi-Huberman answered his critics in 2003, in an essay entitled "Malgré l'image toute", where he stated that the available visual fragments are compelling, even though there can be no total image of Auschwitz. Suggests that Didi-Huberman's approach is Christological, in that he believes that photographic images of Auschwitz play a role in knowing the Holocaust comparable to the role which the Shroud of Turin and Renaissance art play in a Christian's knowing God.
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