Culture and the Holocaust
Literature
Burning Books
Image shown above: A "brown shirt"throws “un-German" books-- into a roaring fire in Berlin 1933.
Photo credit: USHMM Photo Archives
Writers and Poets
In 1939, German authorities segregated Polish Jews in ghettos, or restricted zones. Originally instituted to separate Jews from the non-Jewish population, ghettos later served as staging posts for the extermination of European Jews.
Under terrible living conditions and the constant threat of deportation, Jews sought to preserve their humanity and their culture through song and verse. The Yiddish poem "Es Brent" (It's Burning) by Mordecai Gebirtig
In the Vilna ghetto and in labour camps in Estonia, Hirsh Glik wrote resistance songs including the famed "Song of the Partisans."
It became the theme song of Vilna's United Partisan Organization, to which Glik belonged.
The historian Emanuel Ringelblum founded the Warsaw ghetto's clandestine archive Oneg Shabbat, where items documenting life in the Warsaw ghetto were stored. A number of ghetto residents, such as Chaim Kaplan in Warsaw, kept diaries.
When the Nazis tried to use Shmaryahu Kaczerginski and Abraham Sutzkever to sort out valuable books for confiscation, these two Vilna writers saved some 8,000 items. While hiding in the forests they interviewed partisans and recorded their statements.
During the liquidation of the Lodz ghetto in summer 1944, writer Isaiah Spiegel hid some of his writings in a cellar. He took the rest to Auschwitz where they were seized upon his arrival. After the war, Spiegel returned to Lodz and found 16 of the hidden stories. He was able to reconstruct the rest from memory.
The experiences of Jews during the Holocaust are reflected in the works of writers and poets of the ghettos. In the over 400 ghettos of German-occupied Eastern Europe--where severe overcrowding, terrible sanitary conditions, and starvation were the norm--cultural activity constituted a form of defiance.
Un-German Books
Image shown above: Students and SA members carry piles of "un-German" literature to throw into the bonfire on the Berlin Opernplatz.
Photo credit: USHMM Photo Archives
Literature
One way the Nazis cleansed the country of "un-German" thoughts was through censorship. In their drive to rid the country of all that they deemed "un-German,” The Nazi party decreed that any book "which acts subversively on our future or strikes at the root of German thought, the German home and the driving forces of our people..." was to be burnt. The Nazis encouraged the burning of books in order to suppress opposing views and “purify” German language and literature, and primarily targeted books by Jews and Marxists.
They publicly burned books in cities across Germany. In front of the Opera House in Berlin, a chanting crowds burned books written by Jews and leftist intellectuals as Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's minister of propaganda and public information, spoke of the intended "re-education" of Germany.
A few of the authors targeted in the book burning campaign are listed below:
Einstein Havelock Ellis Feuchtwanger
Freud Gide Kafka
Kästner Helen Keller Hemingway
Alfred Kerr Jack London Heinrich Mann
Thomas Mann Marx Preuss
Proust Rathenau Erich Maria Remarque
Margaret Sanger Arthur Schnitzler Upton Sinclair
Jakob Wasserman H. G. Wells Stefan Zweig
Zola
1000s of Books Smoulder
Image shown above: Thousands of books smoulder in a huge bonfire as Germans give the Nazi salute during the wave of book-burnings that spread throughout Germany.
Photo credit: International News Photos. National Archives at College Park, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park
Poetry
Holocaust poetry derives from events beyond human comprehension, events so horrific and tragic it is a wonder that language can be used to describe them. Yet in ghettos, in concentration and extermination camps, and on transports, men, women, and children wrote - and others continue to write - poetry on the Holocaust.
Holocaust poets, both victims and survivors, wrote for many different reasons: to bear witness to the lives and culture being annihilated; to find value in a world fraught with pain and indignity; to allay fear and loneliness; to incite others to action; and to chronicle the events so that others would know of the devastation and savagery that transpired. The poets who are neither victims nor survivors wrote for a variety of reasons as well, but perhaps they share a sense of obligation to remind us about the Holocaust, an event they did not experience directly, but one they feel passionate about nonetheless.
The following bibliography was compiled to guide readers to materials on Holocaust poetry. It is not meant to be exhaustive. In most cases, annotations are provided to help the user determine the item's focus. Talk to your local librarian for assistance.
http://poets.unknowncommunity.com/db/poems/c0
Image shown above: A "brown shirt"throws “un-German" books-- into a roaring fire in Berlin 1933.
Photo credit: USHMM Photo Archives
Writers and Poets
In 1939, German authorities segregated Polish Jews in ghettos, or restricted zones. Originally instituted to separate Jews from the non-Jewish population, ghettos later served as staging posts for the extermination of European Jews.
Under terrible living conditions and the constant threat of deportation, Jews sought to preserve their humanity and their culture through song and verse. The Yiddish poem "Es Brent" (It's Burning) by Mordecai Gebirtig
In the Vilna ghetto and in labour camps in Estonia, Hirsh Glik wrote resistance songs including the famed "Song of the Partisans."
It became the theme song of Vilna's United Partisan Organization, to which Glik belonged.
The historian Emanuel Ringelblum founded the Warsaw ghetto's clandestine archive Oneg Shabbat, where items documenting life in the Warsaw ghetto were stored. A number of ghetto residents, such as Chaim Kaplan in Warsaw, kept diaries.
When the Nazis tried to use Shmaryahu Kaczerginski and Abraham Sutzkever to sort out valuable books for confiscation, these two Vilna writers saved some 8,000 items. While hiding in the forests they interviewed partisans and recorded their statements.
During the liquidation of the Lodz ghetto in summer 1944, writer Isaiah Spiegel hid some of his writings in a cellar. He took the rest to Auschwitz where they were seized upon his arrival. After the war, Spiegel returned to Lodz and found 16 of the hidden stories. He was able to reconstruct the rest from memory.
The experiences of Jews during the Holocaust are reflected in the works of writers and poets of the ghettos. In the over 400 ghettos of German-occupied Eastern Europe--where severe overcrowding, terrible sanitary conditions, and starvation were the norm--cultural activity constituted a form of defiance.
Un-German Books
Image shown above: Students and SA members carry piles of "un-German" literature to throw into the bonfire on the Berlin Opernplatz.
Photo credit: USHMM Photo Archives
Literature
One way the Nazis cleansed the country of "un-German" thoughts was through censorship. In their drive to rid the country of all that they deemed "un-German,” The Nazi party decreed that any book "which acts subversively on our future or strikes at the root of German thought, the German home and the driving forces of our people..." was to be burnt. The Nazis encouraged the burning of books in order to suppress opposing views and “purify” German language and literature, and primarily targeted books by Jews and Marxists.
They publicly burned books in cities across Germany. In front of the Opera House in Berlin, a chanting crowds burned books written by Jews and leftist intellectuals as Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's minister of propaganda and public information, spoke of the intended "re-education" of Germany.
A few of the authors targeted in the book burning campaign are listed below:
Einstein Havelock Ellis Feuchtwanger
Freud Gide Kafka
Kästner Helen Keller Hemingway
Alfred Kerr Jack London Heinrich Mann
Thomas Mann Marx Preuss
Proust Rathenau Erich Maria Remarque
Margaret Sanger Arthur Schnitzler Upton Sinclair
Jakob Wasserman H. G. Wells Stefan Zweig
Zola
1000s of Books Smoulder
Image shown above: Thousands of books smoulder in a huge bonfire as Germans give the Nazi salute during the wave of book-burnings that spread throughout Germany.
Photo credit: International News Photos. National Archives at College Park, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park
Poetry
Holocaust poetry derives from events beyond human comprehension, events so horrific and tragic it is a wonder that language can be used to describe them. Yet in ghettos, in concentration and extermination camps, and on transports, men, women, and children wrote - and others continue to write - poetry on the Holocaust.
Holocaust poets, both victims and survivors, wrote for many different reasons: to bear witness to the lives and culture being annihilated; to find value in a world fraught with pain and indignity; to allay fear and loneliness; to incite others to action; and to chronicle the events so that others would know of the devastation and savagery that transpired. The poets who are neither victims nor survivors wrote for a variety of reasons as well, but perhaps they share a sense of obligation to remind us about the Holocaust, an event they did not experience directly, but one they feel passionate about nonetheless.
The following bibliography was compiled to guide readers to materials on Holocaust poetry. It is not meant to be exhaustive. In most cases, annotations are provided to help the user determine the item's focus. Talk to your local librarian for assistance.
http://poets.unknowncommunity.com/db/poems/c0