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A review by anciense
Auschwitz and After by Charlotte Delbo
5.0
Key words from this book: hope(lessness), guilt, cold, why?.
I am almost afraid to rate/review this, because how can you rate/review a book about this topic? Who am I to say whether or not I liked the way someone wrote about their trauma/experiences?
This book was heart-breaking, but in a way I have never read before. The writing style seemed detached and not as emotional as other Holocaust literature I've read which I think is interesting. It also communicates what Delbo makes clear: "You cannot understand" (p. 127). How can we ever know what it was like? How can we ever know if we do not speak the same language as survivors (and I not only mean Holocaust survivors, but every kind of survivors)?
"There are people who say, "I'm thirsty." They step into a café and order a beer." (p. 145)
But even though the writing style read detached and non-emotional, the details of Delbo's memories make it tragic nonetheless - one poem that broke me was Prayer to the Living to Forgive Them for Being Alive, a couple of sentences of which: "I beg you / do something / learn a dance step / something to justify your existence / something that gives you the right / to be dressed in your skin in your body hair / learn to walk and to laugh / because it would be too senseless / after all / for so many to have died / while you live / doing nothing with your life." (p. 230)
The third part of the book speaks so much about how the survivors believe that everything must have changed, the hope to be free again - to start their lives again and, upon their return, the realization that nothing at all has changed, that there is still war, that there always will be war, etc. It is heartbreaking but very important but very depressing.
I could go on for ages and ages about this book and I think I will have to come back to the many sentences, stories and poems I have marked to fully process this. I think this is a very important part of Holocaust literature precisely because it is not that emotive, because it does not attempt to be able to convey you things you have to know ("I do think. I think people should know. They've got to know. Why would we have made this great effort to return if it's all for nothing, if we remain silent, if we don't say what it was like?" / "What good does it do to say it?" (p.344)).
I would recommend it if you're interested in Holocaust literature or cultural memory, but be aware that this book is extremely, extremely depressing - also sad, but mostly depressing (as it should).
Also, last addition: what I mean with non-emotional, is that she does not go into detail about the horrors, does not make it a spectacle or a heroic tale, as many other books I have read - she tells it like it happened, how she perceived it. I cannot convey to you what I mean with this, but it's such a great book. Omg.
I am almost afraid to rate/review this, because how can you rate/review a book about this topic? Who am I to say whether or not I liked the way someone wrote about their trauma/experiences?
This book was heart-breaking, but in a way I have never read before. The writing style seemed detached and not as emotional as other Holocaust literature I've read which I think is interesting. It also communicates what Delbo makes clear: "You cannot understand" (p. 127). How can we ever know what it was like? How can we ever know if we do not speak the same language as survivors (and I not only mean Holocaust survivors, but every kind of survivors)?
"There are people who say, "I'm thirsty." They step into a café and order a beer." (p. 145)
But even though the writing style read detached and non-emotional, the details of Delbo's memories make it tragic nonetheless - one poem that broke me was Prayer to the Living to Forgive Them for Being Alive, a couple of sentences of which: "I beg you / do something / learn a dance step / something to justify your existence / something that gives you the right / to be dressed in your skin in your body hair / learn to walk and to laugh / because it would be too senseless / after all / for so many to have died / while you live / doing nothing with your life." (p. 230)
The third part of the book speaks so much about how the survivors believe that everything must have changed, the hope to be free again - to start their lives again and, upon their return, the realization that nothing at all has changed, that there is still war, that there always will be war, etc. It is heartbreaking but very important but very depressing.
I could go on for ages and ages about this book and I think I will have to come back to the many sentences, stories and poems I have marked to fully process this. I think this is a very important part of Holocaust literature precisely because it is not that emotive, because it does not attempt to be able to convey you things you have to know ("I do think. I think people should know. They've got to know. Why would we have made this great effort to return if it's all for nothing, if we remain silent, if we don't say what it was like?" / "What good does it do to say it?" (p.344)).
I would recommend it if you're interested in Holocaust literature or cultural memory, but be aware that this book is extremely, extremely depressing - also sad, but mostly depressing (as it should).
Also, last addition: what I mean with non-emotional, is that she does not go into detail about the horrors, does not make it a spectacle or a heroic tale, as many other books I have read - she tells it like it happened, how she perceived it. I cannot convey to you what I mean with this, but it's such a great book. Omg.