JS-3100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Paul Celan, Todesfuge

• School: Vanderbilt University
• Department: Jewish Studies
• Course: JS-3100
• Professor: Smith Helmut

Document Summary

The ways we think about individuals/tragedies cannot be used in. Tragedy gives an unsatisfactory way to think about the holocaust. "if it"s a novel, it"s not about auschwitz; and if it"s about auschwitz, it"s not a novel" -ellie weisel. Novels normally have artificial amplification, which the holocaust can"t have. There is no black and white for perpetrators and victims: you"re not just either a bystander or a horrible murderer (there were people who played other roles) Mordechai rumkowski: head of the jewish council was also in gray zone. But he also has power, and this power becomes part of who he is. Steps into a role where he decides about the fate of others (not just him saving his own life anymore) Written in pencil in the sealed railway-car o. The end is open to interpretation: tell him that i _____ . Importance of legacy: only he can bring it bc he killed his brother.