A procession of shadows: Examining Warsaw Ghetto testimony
Mark Celinscak
Abstract
The
diaries
and
memoirs
of
the
Warsaw
Ghetto
lament
the
destruction
of
Warsaw
and
the
loss
of
its
people.
These
accounts
document
life
in
the
Ghetto
and
testify
to
the
horror
and
tragedy
of
those
merciless
days.
The
following
paper
reviews
a
number
of
diaries
and
memoirs
concerning
the
Warsaw
Ghetto
in
order
to
compare
the
unique
nature
of
the
documents,
as
well
as
to
explore
the
challenges
and
distinctions
of
each
narrative
form.
An
examination
of
the
accounts
show
how
the
diaries
depict
individuals
in
transformation,
while
the
memoirs
reveal
writers
struggling
with
the
confines
of
their
own
imaginations
in
order
to
restore
the
events
as
they
happened.
Furthermore,
the
diaries
exemplify
how
the
brutal
conditions
in
the
Ghetto
impacted
and
wrought
changes
in
the
individual
writers.
In
contrast,
the
memoirs
demonstrate
survivors
attempting
to
retrieve
the
loss
of
self.
The
work
of
the
memoirists
underlines
the
sheer
impossibility
of
transmitting
the
horrors
of
the
Holocaust
and
exemplifies
its
destructiveness
on
life.
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Copyright © 2010 The New School Psychology Bulletin | Print ISSN: 1931-793X | Online ISSN: 1931-7948