On the Awful German Fairy Tale: Breaking Taboos in Representations of Nazi Euthanasia and the Holocaust in Gunter Grass's "Die Blechtrommel", Edgar Hilsenrath's "Der Nazi & der Friseur", and Anselm Kiefer's Visual Art

Peter Arnds

doi:10.2307/3252212

Śmierć porwana. O terezińskiej sztuce Hledáme strašidlo Hanuša Hachenburga z 1943 roku

Slavica Wratislaviensia ◽

10.19195/0137-1150.168.27 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 168 ◽

pp. 327-335

Author(s):

Agata Firlej

Keyword(s):

20Th Century ◽

Fairy Tales ◽

Fairy Tale ◽

Point Of View ◽

Main Character ◽

Zygmunt Bauman ◽

The Holocaust ◽

German Speaking ◽

Puppet Theatre ◽

East And West

The stolen death: About the play Hledáme strašidlo by Hanuš Hachenburg from 1943The puppet theatre play Hledame strašidlo by Hanuš Hachenburg was written in the Terezín/Theresienstadt ghetto in 1943 and over 50 years was hidden in the archive until it was presented to readers and viewers in the 1990s — but it turned out to be still surprisingly valid and cogent. The author, a 14-year-old prisoner of the ghetto, used the conventions of the puppet theatre, the carnival and the fairy tales. The mythical or fairy-tale-like “timelessness” allowed him to show the absurdity of Nazism and — yet unnamed — the Holocaust. The main character of the play, the King, captures Death itself, which soon becomes so ordinary and kitschy that no one is afraid of her. The confinement of Death — a motif known, among others, from the myth of Sisyphus — is an important theme of the theatre in Terezín; it appears also in the German-speaking opera by Peter Kien and Viktor Ullmann, Der Keiser von Atlantis Emperor of Atlantis. In this article, I show how the old themes of enslaved Death and the dance macabre between extasy and destruction become the symbols of the war, and indeed of the 20th century, which culminates in the devastating forces of the great ideologies and in which there can be found the origins of retrotopia, which is now, according to Zygmunt Bauman, the dominating point of view in East- and West-European and in American discourse. Únos smrti. O terezίnske divadelnί hře Hledáme strašidlo Hanuše Hachenburga z roku 1943Divadelní hra Hledáme strašidlo od Hanuše Hachenburga byla napsána v ghettu Terezín / Theresienstadt v roce 1943 a více než padesát let byla ukryta v archivu, aby v 90. letech si našla cestu pro své čtenáře a diváky — a ukázalo se, že je překvapivě platná a přitažlivá. Autor, čtrnáctiletý vězeň ghetta, využil konvencí loutkového divadla, karnevalu a pohádek. Mýtická nebo pohádková „nadčasovost“ mu umožnila ukázat absurditu nacismu a — tehdy ještĕ nemenovaného — holocaustu. Hlavní postava hry, Král, zachytí samotnou Smrt, která se brzy stane tak obyčejnou a kyčovitou, že se ji nikdo nebude bát. Únos smrti — motiv známý mimo jiné i z mýtu Sisyfa — je důležitým tématem divadla v Terezíně; objevuje se také v německojazyčné operě Petera Kiena a Viktora Ullmanna Der Keizer von Atlantis Císař Atlantidy. V tomto textu ukazuji, jak se staré motivy zotročené Smrti a danse macabre mezi extázi a zničení stávají symbolem války a celého dvacátého století, v který vyvrcholily ničivými sily velké ideologie a kde lze nalézt počátky retrotopie, která je podle Zygmunta Baumana dominantním hlediskem ve východním, západoevropským a americkým diskurzu.

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Stealing from God: The Crisis of Creation in Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio's Genesi and Eduardo Kac's Genesis

Theatre Research International ◽

10.1017/s0307883301000219 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 26 (2) ◽

pp. 199-208 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Matthew Causey

Keyword(s):

Genetic Engineering ◽

Nuclear Physics ◽

Science And Technology Studies ◽

Visual Art ◽

Science And Technology ◽

Art Installation ◽

Scientific Revolutions ◽

Science And Art ◽

The Holocaust ◽

Shifting Boundaries

The recent performance work, Genesi: From the Museum of Sleep, directed by Romeo Castellucci for his company, Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio, explores the ‘crisis of creation’, brought on by the scientific revolutions of genetics and nuclear physics and the cultural atrocity of the Holocaust. Genesi is analysed against Eduardo Kac's art installation, Genesis, which combines advanced media for telepresent interactivity and genetic engineering. Genesi and Genesis relate not only in the cultural concerns of science and technology studies, but in their interdisciplinary strategies, which include combining aspects of theatre, visual art, sculpture, and technology. Castellucci and Kac engage the risks inherent in the destruction possible through creation (both aesthetic and scientific) and isolate manners in which contemporary constructions of the human are challenged. The works signal an awareness of the constantly shifting boundaries and borders of aesthetic genres and the developing convergence of the disciplines of science and art.

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Pieces Of The Past: The Holocaust Diary Of Rose Rabinowitz by C. Matas

The Deakin Review of Children s Literature ◽

10.20361/g2060q ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 3 (3) ◽

Author(s):

Kim Frail

Keyword(s):

Fairy Tale ◽

Primary Source ◽

Point Of View ◽

Foster Home ◽

Her Family ◽

University Of Alberta ◽

Warsaw Ghetto ◽

Black And White ◽

The Past ◽

The Holocaust

Matas, Carol. Pieces Of The Past: The Holocaust Diary Of Rose Rabinowitz. Toronto: Scholastic Canada, 2013. Print. Dear Canada.The “Dear Canada” series from Scholastic recently celebrated its tenth anniversary with now more than 30 titles. It includes fictional diaries written from the point of view of a child or teenager during a time of historical significance. Pieces of the Past opens with Rose in her third Winnipeg foster home having been given the diary by her “not-father” Saul. Her guardian and a psychologist by trade, Saul suggests she write in it to help remember the past. At first she is reluctant to delve into her memories of such a dark and brutal time: “this little book seems far too small to write down ‘what happened’. How will I ever fit what is stuffed into my head into these tiny pages, all the wild waking nightmares tamed onto these straight lines…” However she progressively reveals more with each entry, interspersing her present-day teenage hardships of trying to fit in at school and in someone else’s home, with the atrocities she and her family endured during the Holocaust.The entries are intimate and immediately gripping. Alternating between her teenage and more child-like voice from the past heightens the emotional connection readers will feel with Rose, whose name was changed from “Rozia” when she arrived in Canada from her native Poland. She describes the gradual and confusing process of losing all of their possessions, their home and finding shelter with various other families in cramped apartments and eventually ending up in a lice-ridden underground dug out. Although in our present day, media-driven society we have become somewhat desensitized to the atrocities of the Holocaust and war in general, Rose’s story re-personalizes the tragedy in a very powerful way. As she begins to piece together the circumstances of the deaths and disappearances of her family members, we mourn with her. Some of the subplots and underlying themes will also resonate with youth of any generation. Her only friend, Susan, is the victim of bullying. Issues associated with foster care and blended families are also explored. Although at the conclusion of the diary, Rose’s circumstances are much improved it is by no means a fairy-tale ending. The author provides a subtle moral conclusion with no utopian delusions: “So diary, no storybook life for me. I know I can never really be safe. And I know that people who think they can be are just kidding themselves. But I know I can try to be good. And I will.” The book contains a lot of useful material for the classroom. There is a historical section that provides a summary of the major events recounted in the diary. There is also a timeline of the Warsaw Ghetto, a selection of black and white photographs, and some reproductions of primary source material from the war such as a young Polish emigrant’s identification document and newspaper articles about the arrival of Jewish orphans in Canada. This book is recommended for children Grades 4-6 and higher. It is an excellent addition to the series, and like another famous diary, Rose’s story will be forever etched in the reader’s psyche.Highly recommended: 4 out of 4 starsReviewer: Kim Frail Kim is a Public Services Librarian at the H.T. Coutts Education Library at the University of Alberta. Children’s literature is a big part of her world at work and at home. She also enjoys gardening, renovating and keeping up with her kids.

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Genocide Perspectives VI: The Process and the Personal Cost of Genocide

10.5130/aaf ◽

2020 ◽

Keyword(s):

Case Studies ◽

Visual Art ◽

Religious Freedom ◽

Religious Leaders ◽

Indigenous Australian ◽

Personal Cost ◽

The Holocaust ◽

Political Choices ◽

Slow Violence ◽

Personal Sacrifice

Genocide Perspectives VI grapples with two core themes: the personal toll of genocide, and processes that facilitate the crime. From political choices governments and leaders make, through to denialism and impunity, the crime of genocide recurs again and again, across the globe. At what cost to individuals and communities? What might the legacy of this criminality be? This collection of essays examines the personal sacrifice genocide takes from those who live through the trauma, and the generations that follow. Contributors speak to the way visual art and literature attempt to represent genocide, hoping to make sense of problematic histories while also offering a means of reflection after years of “slow violence” or silenced memories. Some authors generously allow us into their own histories, or contemplate how they may have experienced genocide had they been born in another time or place. What facets contribute to the processes that lead to, or enable the crime of genocide? This collection explores those processes through a variety of case studies and lenses. How do nurses, whose role is inherently linked to care and compassion, become mass killers? How do restrictions on religious freedom play a role in advancing genocidal policies, and why do perpetrators of genocide often target religious leaders? Why is it so important for Australia and other nations with histories of colonial genocide to acknowledge their past? Among the essays published in this volume, we have the privilege and the sorrow of publishing the very last essay Professor Colin Tatz wrote before his passing in 2019. His contribution reveals, yet again, the enormous influence of both his research and his original ideas on genocide. He reflects on continuing legacies for Indigenous Australian communities, with whom he worked for many decades, and adds nuance to contemporary understanding of the Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust, two other cases to which he was deeply committed.

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