Here there are only words: Memorial Literature of the Holocaust

Session Submission Type: Panel Session

Abstract

These three papers each address an example of Holocaust memorial literature--two in the form of memoir, and one poetry. They provide new readings of these literary sources, either reconsidering familiar texts (in the cases of Perechodnik and Kosinski) or highlighting undiscovered aspects of a familiar genre (poetry in Yizker-bikher). These literary analyses demonstrate the ways in which Holocaust survivors internalized, processed, and presented their experiences to the postwar uninitiated. Each paper focuses on both the product and process of writing, showing both the benefits and limits of the written word to convey the survivor experience.

Sub Unit

• Holocaust Studies

Individual Presentations

• Palimpsest: Autobiography in Hiding - Carolyn Sofia, Stony Brook University

• Poetry in the Yizker-Bikher of Galicia - Daniel Stein, Congregation B'nai Shalom

Zoom Host

• Zoom Host 09