Language:
German
Year of publication:
1998
Titel der Quelle:
Exil
Angaben zur Quelle:
17,2 (1998) 43-47
Keywords:
Katzenelson, Itzhak,
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945), in literature
Abstract:
Discusses Katzenelson's lamentation "Dos lied funem oisgehargetn yidishn folk", written in Vittel, France, where he was interned on 22 May 1943, after the suppression of the Warsaw ghetto uprising. He wrote this epic poem between October 1943-January 1944; three months later he was deported to Auschwitz and murdered. The manuscript was preserved, in two versions, thanks to the courage of two women. One copy was sewn into the handle of a suitcase and smuggled into Palestine. The second was put in a bottle, buried under a tree, retrieved, and printed after the war. Emphasizes the significance of this work, regretting that only few are able to read the original Yiddish version. Katzenelson, as a religious Jew, facing his own death and the annihilation of his people and seeing himself as one of the last remaining Jews, is deprived of his belief in the significance or purpose of the universe. He invokes the prophets, not to confirm but to deny their message. His grief causes him to behave like a lunatic, producing a pseudo-ritual addressed to an imaginary audience.
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