The Holocaust is a terrible phase in the Jewish history which has motivated many artists to reflect the events as they happened to instill understanding in the modern society. In this light, literature and other forms of art have been instrumental in bearing witness of what transpired in the darkest moments of the Nazi regime. Considering that the administration in question was not willing to own up, there is negligible plausible evidence to back up claims that the Holocaust happened. However, the fall of Nazism allowed some survivors to live to tell the story. Autobiographies and memoirs, in this light have been at the focal point of explaining how the world was tricked into believing all was well while the Germans slaughtered the Jews in masses.
Elie Wiesel, a holocaust survivor, highlights the deceit that the government of Hungary banked on in the initial stages of Jewish suppression. The authorities alleged that there were certain individuals whose citizenship could not be proven and Moshe, a religious leader in Elie(zer)’s neighborhood is expelled to Poland together with other victims. The protagonist, and the remaining Jews assume that things will get back to normal although this marks the initial stages of their troubles.
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The German scheme was so organized that even the Jews themselves felt at ease despite the red flags. Moshe returns to give the people of his village the accounts of what transpired in Poland. He describes the Gestapo and their merciless killing of Jews in the forest. He further informs them how Gestapo forced the victims to dig their graves before they were shot. However, the Sighet Jews were not moved by the warnings and continued living as if life was normal until the authorities arrived to exercise their tyrannical rule. In this light, it is notable that the Holocaust was a reality that even the Jews could not believe even as it approached. The rest of the world, therefore, could have fallen for the belief that it was mere propaganda if the Jews themselves were caught like sitting ducks.
The transfer of the Jews from villages to the Sighet ghettos was another scheme that requires a deeper understanding to ascertain how the Holocaust was executed. The Jews were huddled together by the SS in the conviction that they “were going to remain in the ghetto until the end of the war” (Weisel). By allowing the ghettos to have a Jewish council and Jewish police there was ambiguity as to who were the real rulers of the ghetto. The German scheme was such effective that the Jews themselves remained ignorant of the escalating matters believing that after the war they would return to their normal lives. It would hard, therefore, to collect the accounts of Holocaust from people who did not know when the rain started beating them.
The Jews were not only stripped of their dignity as they were moved from ghetto to ghetto, but were also subjected to an atmosphere of disbelief whereby it was difficult to come to terms. Eliezer recounts the unreal temperament when he saw the Rabbi, whose face was shaven, among the people being deported. To him, the experiences were like a page from a story book as even the dignified members of the society had been disillusioned by the experiences at the ghetto. The prevailing situation numbed the minds of many and thus the accounts of Holocaust could not be compiled effectively. Luckily though, there are few survivors like Eliezer who were sharp enough to take in the events and retell the story after the fall of Nazi regime.
Mass killing and forced exodus of the Jews were other effort by the Nazi administration to wipe out any evidence that would give the world the picture of Holocaust. The various concentration camps such as Auschwitz and Buchenwald are some of the stops where Jews were either sent to labor or the gas chambers. Eliezer was in the two camps and got the first hand information that was kept from the rest of the world. Although escape was unthinkable, the defeat of the Nazi forces enabled the protagonist to live to tell his story. It was also the norm for the Nazi forces to order the Jews to march away from the approaching forces. Anyone who could not keep up with the march was shot dead. This meant that the Germans covered their tracks until they were defeated.
During and after the war, the victims and targets of Holocaust were cast to far off lands and thus uprooted from their community and people. Eliezer, for example, lost his mother in Auschwitz and ended up in Belgium and later France after the Holocaust. With the survivors going different ways, much of the Holocaust accounts were scattered. Holocaust literature, in this light, will have to rely on firsthand experience form survivors who were keen to note the various developments effected by the Nazi.
The Holocaust experience was traumatic to the victims and was detrimental in influencing their interpersonal relationships. The Nazi forces were extremely cruel to the Jews that life had become a privilege that few were lucky to have. In this light, individuals were more concerned about their own lives. There were tensions among the German forces and the victims they mobilized, the victims themselves and the people they met on their way. The Holocaust was a dark moment where even blood ties were sacrificed at the expense of individual self perpetuation.
Cynthia Ozick, in the short story titled “The Shawl” highlights the tense interpersonal relationships during the Nazi regime. The fictitious story revolves around Rosa who happens to have a baby girl Magda and a niece named Stella. The three are in a group that is marching towards a Nazi concentration camp under armed guards. The prevailing relationship is tense as the guards are under orders to kill any Jew that appears to be a bother. In this light, the Jews view the guards as the murderers and tormentors while the guards take the Jews for captives and a bother to their community.
Although Rosa is marching in a group towards a concentration camp, it is only the Jews who are being rounded up considering that there are villages on their way where villagers have come out to watch their march. However, there is apprehension in Rosa as she contemplates leaving her daughter with one of the villagers. But the situation is very delicate as she is unsure whether any villager would be willing to take the child. Considering that the villagers are not being rounded up with the Jews, it is apparent that they are non-Jews and thus likely to treat Rosa as an outsider.
Even blood ties are weakened by the Holocaust as individuals tend to worry about themselves first before they mind their kin. This explains the desperate situation whereby there isn’t much at disposal to support family ties. In “The Shawl,” for example, Stella helps in carrying Magda although she is jealous of her. Stella is described as malnourished and haggard, explaining why she would also have wished to be carried in a shawl like a baby. Her childish desire a teenager also explains the exhaustion arising from the forced march. Rosa, on the other hand is unsure of what is transpiring in Stella’s mind. She does not like the way Stella stares at Magda and is afraid she may harbor cannibalistic ideas. Indeed the hunger that plagues the Jews on the march is enough to make people with blood ties fear each other. More so, the fear of being murdered collectively also compels people to resist compulsions that arise from blood ties. In “The Shawl,” again, Rosa cannot bring herself to defend her daughter from the wrath of the guards after she is discovered. Instead, she watches helplessly as Magda is picked and unceremoniously thrown to her death over the electric fence. Rosa knows it is futile to confront the guards because it will not stop them from killing the baby and instead she will most likely be killed in the process too. This confirms that the Holocaust was so grave that everybody sought to fight for his life and desisted fro wasting it in the name of fighting for kin.
The erosion of kinship ties as a result of the torments of the Holocaust is also highlighted on Elie Wiesel’s book titled Night. The protagonist describes his father’s helplessness as he grows weaker under the Nazi oppression. The weight of looking after his father makes him wish that the father would die so that he would use his remaining strength to fight for his own survival. Eliezer later reveals that he is too scared and disillusioned to heed to his father’s call as he dies and does not even have room for tears on learning of the death. It is the same case with Rabbi Eliahou’s son who had noticed that his father was limping and opted to run ahead and leave him behind in his bleak future. This confirms that the Holocaust badly severed interpersonal relationships even in blood ties.
