Language:
German
Year of publication:
2000
Titel der Quelle:
Peter Weiss Jahrbuch
Angaben zur Quelle:
9 (2000) 102-114
Keywords:
Weiss, Peter,
;
Levi, Primo,
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945), in literature
Abstract:
Discusses a part of the testimony of Witness 5 for which there is no actual basis in the protocols of the Auschwitz trial; it generalizes about the camp, declaring that only the cunning could survive; the slow-witted, the mild, the impractical, the grieving and the self-pitying were trampled underfoot. The form and the words used echo the Beatitudes, but the meaning is exactly the opposite, showing the cultural rift implied in the Holocaust. At another point, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus warns the disciples that if they fail they will be trampled underfoot; Weiss may have meant to allude to this aggressive utterance and Christian aggression against the Jews. Weiss's description of the requirements for survival accords with that of Primo Levi in "If This Is a Man". Points out that Levi was inspired by Dante's Ulysses, who also survives by cunning. Thus this passage in "Die Ermittlung" is thick with intertextual allusions.
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