Language:
English
Year of publication:
2004
Titel der Quelle:
Gal-Ed; on the History of the Jews in Poland
Angaben zur Quelle:
19 (2004) 51-74
Keywords:
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Personal narratives
;
Jewish ghettos
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
;
Jews
Abstract:
In July 1945 an anonymous diary, written in the margins of a book, was found at the site of the Łódź ghetto. The entries cover the period 5 May-3 August 1944. The diarist was evidently a young man; his parents died in the ghetto, and in August 1944 he and his sister were deported and probably perished. The diary is written in four languages: English, Hebrew, Polish, and Yiddish. Ben-Amos criticizes various essays about and translations of the diary. She reflects on the function of each language in which the diary was written: English served to express the writer's hope of gaining a wider audience, or as a vehicle for confronting personal and universal problems; he used Hebrew and Yiddish to express his connection to his fellow Jews; he used Polish to deal with the grim reality of the present. Notes that, in addition to the motives common to all ghetto diarists, this writer had other motives: to reflect on the corrupt moral order that the Nazis imposed on the ghetto Jews, to reflect on the politics of his situation, and to leave behind a work of literature.
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