Cast upon the Waves of Fate: Jewish Narratives of Trauma and the Self under the Third Reich

Abstract

“Cast upon the Waves of Fate: Jewish Narratives of Trauma and the Self under the Third Reich” analyses unpublished memoirs written by German and Austrian Jews who suffered persecution and loss under the Third Reich. The article focuses in particular on how the memoirists address their trauma in their writing and how their trauma affects their sense of self. The memoirs discussed here were written by male and female, Zionist and non-Zionist, observant and secular Jewish memoirists; together, these personal narratives reveal a rich and nuanced portrait of the German- and Austrian-Jewish experience of radical upheaval.

Keywords:

• memoirs
• trauma
• German Jews
• Austrian Jews
• autobiographical theory

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Halbrich, “Suche nach der Bohnenstange,” 204. All translations from German are my own.

2 Halbrich, “Suche nach der Bohnenstange,” 244.

3 Filipiwska-Gottlieb, “Ein Leben geht vorüber,” 160.

4 The memoir of Charlotte Landau-Mühsam was recently published as a book with the Erich-Mühsam-Gesellschaft (2010).

5 Klüger, Still Alive, 18.

6 Gilmore, The Limits of Autobiography, 3.

7 Smith and Watson, Reading Autobiography, 1.

8 Bruner, “Self-Making Narratives,” 210.

9 Bruner, “Self-Making Narratives,” 211.

10 Jauffron-Frank, “Rückblick,” 45.

11 McAdams, “Identity,” 200.

12 Severson, Becker, and Goodman, “Introduction,” 2.

13 Leys, Trauma, 7, 16. See Van der Kolk and Van der Hart, “The Intrusive Past.”

14 Van der Kolk and Van der Hart, “The Intrusive Past,” 176.

15 Friedländer, Memory, 61.

16 Friedländer, “Trauma,” 41.

17 Van der Kolk and Van der Hart, “The Intrusive Past,” 163.

18 Rippl et al., Haunted Narratives, 9.

19 Leys, Trauma, 229.

20 See Felman and Laub, Testimony; LaCapra, Writing History, Writing Trauma; Caruth, Unclaimed Experience.

21 Caruth, “Introduction to Part Two,” 153.

22 Laub, “Truth and Testimony,” 66.

23 Bergen, War and Genocide, 79.

24 Bab, “Aus Zwei Jahrhunderten,” 182.

25 Andor, “Ich war nie,” 11, 1. The memoir’s title refers to a joke about European immigrants in Hollywood who exaggerated their successes back home. One immigrant, a Dachshund, asks another, “Did you also used to be a Saint Bernard?”

26 Frank, “Life,” 24.

27 Taylor, Sources of the Self, 130.

28 Taylor, Sources of the Self, 27.

29 Taylor, Sources of the Self, 36.

30 Taylor, Sources of the Self, 47–48.

31 Taylor, Sources of the Self, 289.

32 Taylor, Sources of the Self, 111.

33 Taylor, Sources of the Self, 177–178.

34 Goldberg, “Mein Leben in Deutschland,” 1.

35 I am grateful to the anonymous reviewer who brought my attention to Lyotard’s comparison of the Holocaust with an earthquake, which destroys not only objects and lives but also the very instruments needed to measure the earthquake itself. See Lyotard, The Differend.

36 Goldberg, “Mein Leben in Deutschland,” 6.

37 Goldberg, “Mein Leben in Deutschland,” 7.

38 Goldberg, “Mein Leben in Deutschland,” 39.

39 Goldberg, “Mein Leben in Deutschland,” 39.

40 Taylor, Sources of the Self, 27.

41 Taylor, Sources of the Self, 35–36.

42 Goldberg, “Mein Leben in Deutschland,” 57. The Reich Ministry of the Interior restricted the first names allowed for the children of Jewish parents on 17 August 1938.

43 Goldberg, “Mein Leben in Deutschland,” 48.

44 Jauffron-Frank, “Rückblick,” 23–24.

45 Meyer, “Erinnerungen,” 16–17.

46 Goldberg, “Mein Leben in Deutschland,” 47.

47 Goldberg, “Mein Leben in Deutschland,” 47.

48 Améry, At the Mind’s Limits, 51.

49 See Voigtländer and Voth, “Nazi Indoctrination.”

50 Landau-Mühsam, “Meine Erinnerungen,” 51.

51 Goldberg, “Mein Leben in Deutschland,” 52.

52 Weiler Wolf, “Notes,” 184.

53 Weiler Wolf, “Notes,” 192–193.

54 Fairbrook, “Dear Family,” vol. 3, 3, 14.

55 Grove, “Unauslöschliche Erinnerungen,” 6.

56 Grove, “Unauslöschliche Erinnerungen,” 9.

57 Rosenthal, “Memories,” vol. 2, 62.

58 Rosenthal, “Memories,” vol. 2, 2, 60.

59 Rosenthal, “Memories,” vol. 2, 60, 2.

60 Rosenthal, “Memories,” vol. 2, 7.

61 Rosenthal, “Memories,” vol. 2, 7, 65.

62 Qtd. in Gilbert, The Holocaust, 35.

63 Goldberg, “Mein Leben in Deutschland,” 41.

64 Weiler Wolf, “Notes,” 188–189.

65 Weiler Wolf, “Notes,” 211–212.

66 Landau-Mühsam, “Meine Erinnerungen,” 51.

67 “German Jewish Refugees 1933–1939.”

68 Jauffron-Frank, “Rückblick,” 24.

69 Goldberg, “Mein Leben in Deutschland,” 59.

70 Goldberg, “Mein Leben in Deutschland,” 61.

71 Goldberg, “Mein Leben in Deutschland,” 60.

72 Oppenheimer, “A Few Days,” 39.

73 Meyer, “Erinnerungen,” 10–11.

74 Oppenheimer, “A Few Days,” 18–20.

75 Oppenheimer, “A Few Days,” 23.

76 Oppenheimer, “A Few Days,” 24.

77 Oppenheimer, “A Few Days,” 4.

78 Lavsky, Before Catastrophe, 256.

79 Katz, “Autobiography,” 28.

80 Strauß, “Ein Leben,” 64.

81 Fairbrook, “Dear Family,” vol. 7, pt. 3, ch. 23, 4.

82 Queller, “Meine Erlebnisse,” 21. The English translation reads: “Red-White-Red until death.” These words were spoken by Austrian Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg on 24 February 1938.

83 Queller, “Meine Erlebnisse,” 22.

84 Queller, “Meine Erlebnisse,” 87.

85 Robert, “Memoirs,” 43.

86 Robert, “Memoirs,” 41.

87 Robert, “Memoirs,” 66.

88 Halbrich, “Suche nach der Bohnenstange,” 133.

89 Halbrich, “Suche nach der Bohnenstange,” 205.

90 Halbrich, “Suche nach der Bohnenstange,” 208.

91 Katz, “Autobiography,” 54–55.

92 Watson, “Toward an Anti-Metaphysics,” 59.

93 Bruner, “Autobiographical Process,” 176.

94 Nelson, “Narrative and Self,” 3–4.

95 Olney, Metaphors of Self, 44.

96 Bloch-Wresinski, “Streiflichter,” 4–5.

97 Taylor, Sources of the Self, 27.

98 Taylor, Sources of the Self, 28.

99 Taylor, Sources of the Self, 28.

100 The classical model of trauma in Judaism is the destruction of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem on Tisha B’Av, first in 586 bce by the Babylonians and then again in 70 ce by the Romans. The normative interpretation of these events in biblical and rabbinic literature presents the sin of the Israelites as having led to divine wrath and punishment in the form of the destruction of the Temples and exile. In this penitential model, the collective atonement of the Israelites was necessary for divine forgiveness and redemption.

101 Taylor, Sources of the Self, 28.

102 Goldberg, “Mein Leben in Deutschland,” 56–57.

103 Goldberg, “Mein Leben in Deutschland,” 48.

104 Goldberg, “Mein Leben in Deutschland,” 62.

105 Horowitz, “Woman in Holocaust Literature,” 365.

106 Olney, Metaphors of Self, 3.

107 Oppenheimer, “A Few Days,” 1.

108 Weiler Wolf, “Notes,” 17.