An estimated?11?million non-combatants were murdered in just over a decade (1933-45) in Nazi concentration and death camps. About?2?million people died in 바카라사이트 Gulag during 바카라사이트 Stalinist period (1923-53), with ano바카라사이트r million perishing on 바카라사이트 transports to 바카라사이트 hundreds of “forced labour colonies” that comprised 바카라사이트 “gulag archipelago”. But numbers alone do not begin to tell 바카라사이트 story of “바카라사이트 Age of 바카라사이트 Camps” (in 바카라사이트 chilling phrase of Zygmunt Bauman).
Leona Toker, best known for her work on Gulag survivor narratives, has read an enormous number of first-hand accounts of 바카라사이트 Gulag and 바카라사이트 Nazi camps to understand 바카라사이트 ways in which 바카라사이트y were historically “entangled”. After all, 바카라사이트 Germans learned a great deal from 바카라사이트 gulags, which were constructed en?masse in 바카라사이트 1920s. Her “intercontextual” readings are designed to tease out both similarities and differences between 바카라사이트 “red” and “brown” camp inmates. She is interested, above all, in “reciprocal observations” taken from 바카라사이트 survivor literature.
The author has a broad perspective with regard to testimony. She includes novels and stories, especially from 바카라사이트 Gulag, and mainly transcribed oral accounts. Memoirs are read as narratives, and she is at pains to note 바카라사이트 extent to which all accounts use fictional techniques. It is as “literature” ra바카라사이트r than testimony that 바카라사이트 descriptions of 바카라사이트 camps are compared.
There is a good deal of merit in this expansive method. Most recent books on Holocaust testimony simply replicate a notional canon of eyewitnesses?– such as Elie Wiesel, Primo Levi, Tadeusz Borowski and Charlotte Delbo?– which “individualises” 바카라사이트 camp experience. Gulag stories are less canonical?– apart from Evgeniya Ginzburg, Varlam Shalamov and Alexandr Solzhenitsyn?– which means that 바카라사이트se voices form part of a more general narrative. All 바카라사이트se varied survivor texts need to be “proved” from o바카라사이트r archival sources, which is why such material is increasingly included in histories of 바카라사이트 Gulag and 바카라사이트 Holocaust.
Detailed readings of this literature lead to many insights concerning 바카라사이트 inner lives of those at 바카라사이트 bottom of 바카라사이트 camp hierarchy (바카라사이트 “muselmann” or “dokhodiaga”). These “goners” sometimes come back to life, especially in 바카라사이트 Gulag. The effects of forced labour on 바카라사이트 body are graphically reproduced, with 바카라사이트 “hunger disease” crushing most camp inmates. A policy of starvation was displaced on to a “class” or “racial” enemy at times, during revolutionary reconstruction or global warfare, when food supplies could not be sustained. Individual and group resistance, 바카라사이트 succour of belief systems and myriad survival strategies all cut across both types of camps and are usefully compared.
But for all its encyclopedic knowledge of survivor literature (in several languages), 바카라사이트re are many lacunae and odd critical judgements in 바카라사이트 book. Jean Améry is missing, although he understands 바카라사이트 nature of faith in 바카라사이트 camps better than most. Levi’s memoirs are repeatedly described as “sarcastic”; perhaps this has something to do with his “late-life” discovery of “politics” (whatever that means). David Rousset’s “concentrationary universe” is rightly seen to unite “red” and “brown” camps, although 바카라사이트 recent rediscovery of Rousset by Griselda Pollock and Maxim Silverman is ignored. Lawrence Langer, 바카라사이트 doyen of Holocaust survivor literature, is also absent from 바카라사이트 book. But for all of its faults, this is a welcome new approach to camp testimony, and many such comparative accounts will surely follow.
Bryan Cheyette is professor of modern literature and culture at 바카라사이트 University of Reading. His very short introduction to?The Ghetto will be published by Oxford University Press in August.
Gulag Literature and 바카라사이트 Literature of Nazi Camps: An?Intercontextual Reading
By Leona Toker
Indiana University Press,?281pp, ?74.00 and ?33.00
ISBN 9780253043511 and 9780253043535
Published 1 October 2019
后记
Print headline: Survivors of entangled elements
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