This volume engages with memory of the Holocaust as expressed in literature, film, and other media. It focuses on the cultural memory of the second and third generations of Holocaust survivors, while also taking into view those who were children during the Nazi period. Language loss, language acquisition, and the multiple needs of translation are recurrent themes for all of the authors discussed. By bringing together authors and scholars (often both) from different generations, countries, and languages, and focusing on transgenerational and translational issues, this book presents multiple perspectives on the subject of Holocaust memory, its impact, and its ongoing worldwide communication.
Bettina Hofmann teaches American studies at the University of Wuppertal. She recently co-edited the volumes Life Writing: Lives in Focus of Praxis English and Performing Ethnicity, Performing Gender: Transcultural Perspectives. Ursula Reuter is director of Germania Judaica, Koeln Library on the History of German Jewry.
Acknowledgments Prologue: On Taking Renuka to Her First Concert Anne Ranasinghe Introduction Bettina Hofmann and Ursula Reuter Part I Language and Memory 01 The Tongue in Exile Carol Ascher 02 Translating Oral Memory and Visual Media in Ida Fink's "Traces" Daniel Feldman 03 Lies of Ulysses in the Forgotten Camps: French Accounts by Mittelbau-Dora Survivors and Their Uses in Memory Politics Bruno Arich-Gerz 04 French Canada as a Site of Holocaust Representation Rebecca Margolis Part II Making Sense of the Parents' Holocaust History 05 Intimate Horror: Memorializing my Mother's Holocaust Doron Ben-Atar 06 Invisible Ink: The Limits of Recovery Julia Epstein and Lori Hope Lefkovitz 07 The Impact of the Shoah on One Scholar's Journey: An Autobiographical Reflection Steven Leonard Jacobs 08 Against Forgetting: An Essay in Three Parts Elizabeth Rosner Part III 1.5 Generation 09 Hebrew as "Remedy" to the Shoah in Dan Pagis' Poetry Federico Dal Bo 10 Vicarious Witnesses and Translation in Kindertransport Poetry Christoph Houswitschka 11 Between Grief and Celebration Naomi Shmuel 12 The Girl-1943: on reading Karen Gershon Joseph Swann Part IV Objects and What to Make of Them 13 Coming to German Richard Aronowitz 14 Translating Memory: The Lagertagebuch kept by Isy Aronowitz (1940-43) and Five Amber Beads (2006) by Richard Aronowitz Christoph Heyl 15 Found Objects: The Legacy of Third-Generation Holocaust Memory Victoria Aarons 16 Why Don't You Talk to Me? Transmissional Objects in the Works of Gila Lustiger and Nicole Krauss Maria Roca Lizarazu 17 Pebbles on the Trail of Time: Peter Wortsman's and Louise Steinman's Travelogues Bettina Hofmann Part V Members of the Second and Third Generation in Quest of Their Identity 18 Attempting to Remember What They Never Knew: The Identity Quest of Second and Third Generation Holocaust Survivors as Reflected in Recent Israeli Documentary Yael Munk 19 Beyond Age and Nationality: Transgenerational and Transnational Memories in Robert Schindel's Geburtig and Der Kalte Lilian Gergely 20 Translating Silence: Non-Memory, Lost Memory and Holocaust Literature Sue Lieberman 21 Narratives beyond Words: Notes on the Embodiment of Trauma and Cultural/Religious Jewishness among Third Generation Jews in Germany Dani Kranz 22 Epilogue: The Fairy Tale of the Blessed Meal Peter Wortsman About the Contributors
Translated Memories grew out of a conference held in Essen, Germany, in July 2015. As editors Hofmann (Univ. of Wuppertal, Germany) and Reuter (Germania Judaica, Cologne Library on the History of German Jewry) state in the introduction, their "interest is in specific cases of Holocaust memory as expressed in different languages and media by members of the second and third generations of Holocaust survivors." Another crucial point of interest for them "is the mode of translation ... [understood] both literally and metaphorically." The resulting 22 essays are groundbreaking in their conceptual diversity, many of them insightful and well researched and enriched by, and sometimes paired with, compelling personal stories by the children and grandchildren of survivors. The existing literature on Holocaust memory is already vast, yet these essays put forth new and invaluable ideas that seek to answer how "later-born authors approach memories transmitted by surviving family members." Of particular note are the five essays in part 4 ("Objects and What to Make of Them"), which look at the special significance of memories carried by simple objects handed down through generations. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty. * Choice * This book is a groundbreaking addition to two emergent fields: the study of the linguistic and cultural translation of Holocaust texts, and the study of intergenerational memory. It is a must-read for scholars in the field. -- Andrea Hammel, co-editor of Translating Holocaust Lives
