Language:
English
Year of publication:
1991
Titel der Quelle:
Centennial Review
Angaben zur Quelle:
35,3 (1991) 445-459
Keywords:
Appelfeld, Aharon.
;
Westernhagen, Dörte von.
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Influence
;
Bereavement
;
Jewish literature History and criticism
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945), in literature
Abstract:
Discusses Aharon Appelfeld's novel "Badenheim 1939", in which residents of a European resort gather for a party on the night before their deportation to Poland, in terms of the disappearance of the palpable memory of those who were annihilated because their survivors who would have mourned them also disappeared. States that Appelfeld's gesture of remembering that one cannot remember seems futile but that this futility comprises the only act of memory that might address the loss of those who have disappeared. The second work discussed is Dörte von Westernhagen's autobiographical work "Die Kinder der Täter" (1987) in which she wrestles with the memory of her father, an antisemite and SS officer. Here, too, there is a collapse of palpable memory; the father turned murderer murders the father's memory. Concludes that all attempts to mourn remain unfinished but that the attempt to mourn Auschwitz remains emphatically unfinished.
Note:
On A. Appelfeld's "Badenheim 1939" and D. von Westernhagen's "Die Kinder der Täter; das Dritte Reich und die Generation danach".
URL:
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