The Ethics of Curiosity: Ruth Klüger, Weiter Leben

Abstract

Curiosity plays a dual role in Ruth Klüger's memoirs weiter leben. Growing up during the Third Reich, the protagonist responds to her experiences of anti-Semitic persecution with an unflinching curiosity which contrasts with the indifference and evasion displayed by the adult generation. The same desire to confront the truth about the Shoah also determines her enquiries into the experiences of fellow survivors later in life. Building on Sigmund Freud's theory of the Wißtrieb as an instinctive response to existential challenges, the article argues that curiosity interlinks the child's struggle for survival and the text's own strategy of recollection. While Klüger thematizes the limitations of both institutional and personal modes of recollection, curiosity emerges as the basis of an alternative memory practice based not on kinship or emotional ties but on a more fundamental desire to confront the truth. A universal anthropological trait, curiosity can facilitate an enduring engagement with the past which transcends differences between children and adults, men and women, victims and perpetrators.