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The “Should and Ought” in Holocaust Translation

History, since the ‘Linguistic Turn’,1 addresses the“should and ought” in Holocaust Studies. It identifies outof a sense of moral obligation good and evil;2 a view ofhistory, however, long since expressed by Holocaustdiarists. “If men were not evil,” reflects Hélène Berr(1921-1944) “death shall be the last embrace.”3 Her youngmind’s ‘conscious’ efforts reflect her ‘subconscious’nuance for rhythm as her writing ‘echoes’ the pertinentquestions of justice and injustice. Historians grappleintellectually with one another and slip into an impasse,whilst the voice of the dead, a young maiden in her roleas the ‘Crimson Princess’,4 the ghost that enchants theliving, instructs us with the beauty of prose, which toher lies in the true inflexions of the mind. Could thegap between our historical perception and a youngHolocaust diarist narrow to within an echo of oneanother? Can historians ‘echo’ the viewpoint of a victimof the Holocaust? How “should” they achieve this?

The beauty of the mind’s innate natural rhythms oflanguage shall not be presented as an example of over-1 The ‘linguistic turn’ denotes the idea that has been central tohistorians, namely that they need to examine the workings ofrepresentation – both in the sources they study and in their owncreation of historical narratives.” See Canning, Kathleen “FeministHistory after the Linguistic Turn: Historicizing Discourse andExperience,” in: Signs 19, no. 2 (1994), pp. 368-404.2 Michael Dintenfass, has written that we have “conflate[ed] thecognitive with the ethical,” suggesting the language of expression inHolocaust diaries and the discursive treatment of them by historiansheightens the “irrefutable evidence of the centrality of questions ofgood and evil” in history. See Dintenfass, Michael, “Truth’s Other:Ethics, the History of the Holocaust, and Historiographical Theoryafter the Linguistic Turn,” in: History and Theory 39, no. 1 (Feb 2000), pp. 1-20.3 Berr, Hélène, Journal of a Young Girl, London 2008. See diary entry, 30th

November, 1943.4 The Princess: Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal, Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892).

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sentimentality. What this article shall attempt todemonstrate is that beauty is an aspect of the literarygenre and that those who aspire to write attempt toimitate this in their own individualistic approach towriting. The diarists under review here were educatedpeople, belonging to the European Jewish assimilatedmiddle class. Some like Willy Cohn (1888-1941) had areputation as an “home d’lettre”, 5 whilst others likePhilipp Manes (1875-1944) and Lucien Dreyfus developed aliterary style long before the outbreak of war. HélèneBerr represents a young person coming of age, who writeswith an innate wisdom far in advance of her years and whoseeks the beauty of the human condition through herliterary yearning to grasp and perceive. In the case ofCäcilie Lewissohn (1883-1944) there is a fundamentalunderstanding for paradox and whimsical self-parody thatevolves out of diary writing. Each diarist feelsinspired by the arts. What they saw in literature andpoetry reflected nuances of rhythm in language that they,too, possessed, for this article illustrates how thesense of the ‘poetical lies in the prosaic’ drawingattention to the rhythm and nuances in language ingeneral and particularly to how one should and ought totranslate Holocaust diarist prose.

Diarists didn’t use their literary inspirations as‘flights of fancy’. The diarists themselves were notover-sentimental.6 What they expressed was a love oflanguage finding in words solace and very importantly,‘self-realization’. It is argued language has within itnatural rhythms and stress patterns enabling ‘self-realization’ because the action of writing creates aninternal space within the human mind, helping an5 See Conrads, Norbert, Introduction, in: Cohn, Willy No Justice inGermany. The Breslau Diaries, 1933-1941 Stanford University Press 2012, p.xii. 6 This is in response to Amos Goldberg’s article “The Victim’s Voiceand Melodramatic Aesthetics in History” in: History and Theory, Vol 48,No. 3 (October 2009).

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individual to be in tune with its inflexions. Diaristswrite with an assured fluency, offering insight aboutthemselves and their conditions. Their fluency was aresult of managing time, of making use of ink and paperand because of the shadow of uncertainty that hung overtheir lives. Hélène Berr turned to poetry when shecouldn’t find the words, seeing in poetical analogy herown circumstances and that of the tragedy of the Jewishpeople as “the loftiest star of unascended heaven,pinnacled dim in the intense inane…”7

This article addresses the use of language in Holocaustdiary writing and in translation. It attempts to answerthe question whether an echo can be achieved. If oneadopts the posture that diarists echo the literarybrilliance of what they read, and identify as a part ofthem, surely a translator can achieve the same echo whenthey translate their diary manuscripts? There are noliterary pretensions here, offsetting an indulgent self-egotism. Diarists use literary foundations often todemonstrate the pain they are suffering. Lewissohn isanother diarist who cites poetry when her own wordsfalter, writing down “Everything’s lifeless - is consumed by grief,yearning and tears,” a line borrowed from the poetess, HélèneBohlen.8

When translating poetry one is compelled to search therhythmic meter and stress patterns of language. This wasa particular challenge when translating the source ofLewissohn’s inspiration, the poet Ferdinand Freiligrath(1810-1876),9 whose verses of Oh lieb', oh lieb' so lang du lieben7 Shelley, Prometheus Unbound (1820), cited in: Berr, Hélène, Journal of aYoung Girl, London 2009.8 Bohlen, Hélène: Das Haus zur Hamm, cited in: Lewissohn, Cäcilie, ABerlin Diary 1943-1944, [a bilingual German-English edition], translatedby Stephen Graeme Hodgson and transliterated by Katrin Martin ©Südwestdeutscher Verlag, (Saarbrücken 2013), p. 78. See Saturday,20th November, 1943.9 Ferdinand Freiligrath wrote the words in 1845 in Switzerland whenhe became friends with Franz Liszt.

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kannst!, she copies down into her diary on Friday, 22nd

October, 1943. Her intention is to convey the messagethat one ought to love so long as there is an opportunityto do so, for she laments it can be taken away in aninstance. Lewissohn is a Jewess living in Berlin underan assumed identity, separated from her husband, LudwigLewissohn (1881-1944)10 and her two grown up children,Lutz (1911-*)11 and Käte (1913-*).12 Her language echoesher sense of loss to be replenished by need and this shefinds, too, when she cites her love of poetry:

“And take care that you heart glows (7)

And love draws close and love bears forth (8)

So long as another’s heart (7)

beats with warm love beside his breast.” (8)13

There is ambiguity in verse. One may draw the wordsclose wherever we find a particular resonance.Lewissohn, conscious of her own heart, recognizes her

10 Ludwig Lewissohn lived exiled in Brussels in Belgium. Before hiswife could join him war broke out. The Belgian authorities arrestedGerman Jews, who were sent to the French internment camp of SaintCyprien on 10th May, 1940. He escaped five days later and wassubsequently hidden by a French family. He remained in the south ofFrance until 1944. His secret correspondence with his wife wasdiscovered and he was arrested. It is probable that he was a victimof an SS-SD plot as his name appears on a Red Cross list with hiswife with the bogus promise of paid passage to Palestine. He wastransported to Auschwitz on 30th May, 1944. 11 Lutz Lewissohn was born on 21st January, 1911 in Berlin-Wilmersdorf. At 22yrs he embraced the idea of emigration and settledin Tel Aviv together with his sister. Both received help from theHilfsverein der Deutschen Juden under Dr. Bruno Weissenberg. In 1941 he marriedand had two children. His mother read of her grandchildren in hislast letter to her as revealed in her diary entry Tuesday 28th February,1944 three days before her arrest. 12 Käte Scherk (née Lewissohn) directed her energies into the ZionistYouth Movement. She studied Hebrew and completed courses in agronomyorganized by the Jüdische Deutsche Hilfsverein. In 1937 she and her brothersailed for Haifa and settled in Tel Aviv. She and her son Hermanndonated her mother’s diary to the Leo Baeck Institute.13 Lewissohn, Cäcilie, p. 78. See Friday, 22nd October, 1943, p. 62.

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love “drawing in” and “bearing forth” to describe herfeelings for absent cherished members of her family. Sheabsorbs poetry into her coping strategy.

The language of rhythm reflects the intimate patterns ofthe poet a translator may echo through sensitiveawareness of syllabic meter. The above extract revealsan odd-even-odd-even rhythmic meter and echoes the beautyof the original verse, which however keeps to aconsistent even meter of 8 syllables for each of the fourlines. Poetic dexterity can echo poetical sensitivitiesthrough an awareness of meter and stress. The Englishrendering of the verse, in the tradition of Victorian 19th

Century poetry, echoes an awareness of archaic forms andstructural poetical conformity. The odd-even-odd-evenrhythmic meter of the original is an approximation andreflects the poetical craft.

Similarly translators of Holocaust diaries inspired bythis awareness of rhythmic meter can look for this in thedaily entries diarists kept. It is argued that theprocess of transliteration helps to identify thesepatterns and that these provide the key to be able toecho the voice of Holocaust diarists. By observing thesyllabic measurement of sentences and each clause of asentence, this attention to detail brings awareness tothe original diarists’ ‘subconscious’ use of languagebecause as one writes one does not ‘consciously write’with the pattern of rhythmic meter in mind. It is arguedhere that the action of writing comprises natural rhythmsthat reflect an innate part of the human mind. AmosGoldberg has touched upon the importance of linguisticstudy and epistemology in our understanding of diaristwriting, combining this with an analysis of Jewishculture within its heterogeneous contexts: in Poland,Lithuania, Germany, France, Hungary and many other

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countries that fell under German occupation.14 What isinteresting is how multifarious the expression of thatculture is, but that the medium of expression in writtenlanguage reflects the syllabic patterns common to alllanguages, so that in the written word a distinctuniformity is identifiable.

This uniformity of language through an identification ofrhythmic meter in diarists’ prose reveals the humancapability of expressing oneself. Examining Jewishdiarists’ language reveals the “Jewish Mind” in terms ofits connection to culture, but reveals the workings ofthe human mind in general when it comes down to ananalysis of rhythmic patterns common to all languages.In this instance studying the rhythmic languagecomposition of Holocaust diaries reveals a great dealabout the written language we use. Observing thesepatterns indicates to the translator how she/he may echothem in her translation of prose.

Lewissohn begins her diary on her 60th birthday onThursday, 7th October, 1943, with one long sentence, whichis interesting for our study because it enables us tobreak it up into its component clauses through which wecan identify her ‘subconscious’ use of rhythmic meter.The original German is cited here to identify the numberof syllables in each part of the sentence:

“Heute an meinem 60. Geburtstag will ich anfangen diesesTagebuch zu führen, (24)

um für spätere Zeiten mein jetziges problematisches undimmerhin sehr merkwürdiges Leben festzuhalten.” (31)15

Although the syllabic measurement is numbered in bracketswhat interests the translator is the fact that the

14 Goldberg, Amos, “The Victim’s Voice and Melodramatic Aesthetics inHistory” in: History and Theory, Vol 48, No. 3 (October 2009).

15 Lewissohn, p. 45. See Thursday, 7th October, 1943.

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opening clause reflects an even meter stress and thefollowing clause an odd one. With this knowledgeidentifiable through the careful analysis of handwrittentexts a translator can begin to echo the even and oddmeter in her/his translation. This it is argued leads togreater accuracy in translation and helps to echo the‘subconscious’ use of meter used by original Holocaustdiarists.

This innovational approach to Holocaust translation aimsto reflect the authenticity of original diarist writing,achieving greater accuracy and lending insight into the‘subconscious’ rhythms diarists used. Through thismethod the sensitivity of the original language isrelayed, so that we may read Lewisohn’s opening sentencein English as follows:

“Today on my 60th birthday I will begin to keep this diary,(18)

portraying my up until now most curious life (18)

in a way that I'll be able to recall events for a much latertime.” (19)16

The length of the sentence causes it to be broken up intocompatible parts: the first two reflect the even rhythmicmeter of the original German and the latter the oddmeter. This approximates the even-odd use of theoriginal manuscript allowing for the rhythmic‘subconscious’ patterns of the diarist to find their echoin English.

I argue this innovational approach improves our awarenessof the original language’s rhythmic meter, which thetranslator can attempt to echo once she/he has identifiedthe diarist’s original inflexions in an analyticaltransliteration of the text. Keeping approximately tothe patterns of syllabic measurement aids the translator16 Lewissohn, p. 46. See Thursday, 7th October, 1943.

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in searching for words within the syntactical context oflanguage use. Rhythm reflects grammatical andsyntactical rules and searching for the language thatkeeps to this provides the Holocaust translator withgreater accuracy in rhythm, nuance and vocabulary. Thisaffords greater accuracy in general and helps brush asidethe criticism of translators accused of harbouring‘sentimentality’.

The diarists under review display sensitivity in theirlanguage since they are acquainted with literarytechniques and the nuances of language as a result of themiddle class acculturated upbringing they had. Thispermits them to write in an evocative way to establishtheir legacy. Echoing such language isn’t sentimental –it is an accurate identification of the ‘subconscious’poetical use of language within the action of writingprose. Natural patterns within writing are ‘subconsciousrhythms’ and are expressive as action. The ‘consciousaspect’ lies in the diarist’s intention, but the ‘mediumof expression’ – the actual writing – represents the‘subconscious rhythms’ of meter, a view reflected byJeffrey Shandler and Ruth Wisse.17

Poststructuralist and feminist theory arguesHolocaust diarists cannot represent a ‘conscious unity’.According to this view, ‘human experience’18 is

17 See Shandler, Jeffrey (ed.), Awakening Lives: Autobiographies of Jewish Youthbefore the Holocaust. With an introduction by Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, New Haven: Yale University Press in cooperation with YIVOInstitute for Jewish Research 2002; Wisse, Ruth R., The Modern JewishCanon: A Journey through Language and Culture, New York, Free Press, 2000. 18 Poststructuralist theory challenges the principle of coherence,arguing the conscious attempt by Holocaust diarists to representtheir past is flawed through fragmented perspectives that cannotgrasp ‘historical truth’. The ‘conscious-self’, however, is only oneaspect of our multifarious layers of individuality. There are amyriad of representative levels of the ‘conscious-self’ but our‘subconscious levels’ lie not only within us but also within themedium of action. A view to perceiving action as an intuitivefunction, rhythmic and spontaneous, follows grammatical and

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‘irreducible’ and cannot be represented.19 This leavesHolocaust Studies in an impasse. The ‘conscious level’of the human mind appears fragmented unable to recoverhuman experience. Amos Goldberg explores this issue ofthe fragmented-self and of trauma within Holocaustdiarists in his award-winning book Trauma in First Person: DiaryWriting during the Holocaust,20 which seeks to lay bare thewriters' search for meaning and their non-understandingof the ever-changing situation they faced. I adopt thesuggestion of Paul Ricouer, who proposes we viewHolocaust diarists through their perspective throughclosely echoing their language in translation accordingto their “existing time” – the time-parameters withinwhich they wrote without knowledge of wider events andhistorical outcome.21 The fear diarists lived underaccounts for their state of trauma, but in contrast toGoldberg this article suggests that although diaristsfell into the experience of trauma their life-line wastheir writing. My argument is that the action of writing

syntactical laws that provide each of us with a level of cohesion.This is what makes action – the act of writing – a process leading to‘self-realization’. For an overview of the discursive parameters seeGarbarini, Alexandra, Numbered Days. Diaries and the Holocaust, YaleUniversity Press/New Haven & London, 2006 p. 15.19 See John E. Toews, “Intellectual History after the Linguistic Turn:The Autonomy of Meaning and the Irreducibility of Experience,” in:American Historical Review 92, no.4. (1987), pp. 879-907. 20 Goldberg, Amos, Holocaust Diaries as »Life Stories« in: Search andResearch. Lectures and Papers (Ed. by Dan Michman, Yad Vashem,Jerusalem); Vol. 05.21 Paul Ricoeur labels this time specifically as “existing time”within which the diarist expresses her/himself according to themental and emotional faculties they have in conjunction with theknowledge of their existing circumstances. Importantly they arewithout knowledge of eventual outcomes, meaning that the best theyare able to do is hope. In the emotive context of ‘existing time’ –boundaries shaped by the oppressor, fate and the ‘dynamics ofhistory’ – Holocaust diarists, especially the older generation ofJews touched upon here, experienced a greater sense of vulnerabilityand of uncertainty. See Ricoeur, Paul, “Time and Narrative,” vol 1,translated by Kathleen McLaughlin and David Pellauer (Chicago:University of Chicago Press, 1984, discussed in Martin, Wallace,Recent Theories of Narrative, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1986.

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with its inherent rhythms of meter reflects theinflexions of the human mind’s function at a subconsciouslevel. Although each diarist ‘consciously’ feltapprehended by their terrible circumstances, the‘subconscious’ rhythms of their writing exude an innate‘goodness’ – common to all languages – and caused them toidentify their writing as an expression of their deepestselves, which they could not possibly part from, as ChaimAbraham Kaplan illustrates when he writes: “If my lifeends now, what will happen to my diary?”22

This article argues that because written languagecomprises innate rhythmic patterns, these reflect agrammatical and syntactical structure providing a‘natural coherence’. This explains why diarists wereattracted to writing as a coping strategy since thewriting experience through its naturally structuredinflexions through meter serves a therapeutic functiontowards ‘self-realization’. Writing creates perspectivethrough internal space and this caused diarists even moreto identify with their diaries. Montaigne expresses thisidea of connection stating: “I myself am the material formy book.”23 This quotation reveals how the process ofkeeping an intimate journal helps to make us known toourselves as well as to others. This perceptive outlook,however, of the ‘conscious-self’ doesn’t reflect the‘subconscious strata’ located within the ‘naturalrhythms’ that represent the action of writing.

Alexandra Garbarini suggests our approach toHolocaust diarists should and ought to be based on “ourknowledge of the heterogeneity of the victims, of theirexperiences, of their wartime perceptions and coping

22 Garbarini, Alexandra, Numbered Days, p. 5. 23 See Dreyfus, Lucien, Strasbourg, Nice, 1925-1943. Lucien DreyfusCollection [Unpublished diary] RG 10.144 in USHMM Washington D.C.The quotation appears in: Garbarini, Alexandra, Numbered Days. Diaries andthe Holocaust, Yale University Press/New Haven & London 2006, p. 47.

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strategies.”24 ‘Coping strategies’ may reflect a‘conscious intention’, but they are inherentcharacteristics of action. The act of writing becomestherapeutic, rhythmic and indicative of the human mind’snatural inflexions. Natural rhythms reflect the cadencesof the human mind. These are identifiable through theobservation of rhythmic meter in written prose.25

Language patterns represent a discernible‘uniformity’ common to all languages as illustrated bythe inter-changeability among Jews in Warsaw such asReuven Ben-Shem,26 who lived in a trilingual poly-systemof Hebrew, Yiddish and Polish. Chone Shmeruk studies thecognitive process of language acquisition discernibleamong young Polish Jews exposed to the vibrancy of three‘interactive’ languages.27 Through transliteration oneidentifies the common rhythmic patterns, which may alsoact as a guide to deciphering difficult handwriting,since some manuscripts on account of compressed writingneed to be deciphered meticulously. Identifyingparticular grammatical and syntactical structures with anawareness of rhythmic meter in clauses can assist thetranscriber in discovering what seems unreadable such asBen-Shem’s 800 page diary “penned in minusculehandwriting that is almost impossible to read.”28 Oftenthe cohesion of language structure reveals ‘unknownwords’ in transliteration.

24 Garbarini, Alexandra, Numbered Days, p. 3.25 Wisse, Ruth R., The Modern Jewish Canon, p. 203.26 Reuben Ben-Shem’s diary (Courtesy of Miriam Offer, Holocaust Studies Program,Western Galilee College, Akko, Israel).27Shmeruk, Chone, “Hebrew-Yiddish-Polish: A Trilingual JewishCulture,” in: The Jews of Poland between Two World Wars, edited by YisraelGutman, Ezra Mendelssohn, Jehuda Reinharz and Chone Shmeruk, Hanover,N.H.: University Press of New England, 1989. 28 Sarah Wildman points to the seemingly “unreadable” manuscript of Reuven Ben-Shem, whose tiny scrawl presented a major challenge to transcribers.

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Furthermore, since the action of writing provides for‘cohesion’, perception and ‘self-realization’, thisenables Holocaust diarists to write perceptively in spiteof trauma. Hélène Berr writes:

“I struggle to retain the sense of pleasure because it issurely something indispensable if I am not to becomecompletely unhinged. The tangible form in which this state ofmind manifests itself is, for example, being certain that Ilive in two worlds and that I cannot integrate the one withthe other...”29

She writes of her internal persona and of her externalone in a way Anne Frank was also able to identify.30 Theinternal aspect reflects the ‘life of the mind’ with itsintuitive grasp for creativity, whilst the outer onedenotes a realm of misery and suffering. Since diarywriting offers the writer the opportunity of expressingthemselves from deep within, trying to assume thepositive inflexions of the mind, the writing itselfbecomes a creative exercise of expression; something thattakes the author away from their horrific experiencethrough the creation of internal space and this helpsthem to perceive.

Writing gives each author a power to harness theircreative energies. Hélène Berr evaluates her process ofself-expression as the ‘life of the mind’ and achievessolace in the poetry of her English greats such asShelly, who provide her with a refuge against her epochbut also with the means to perceive it when she finds anecho of the trauma she is experiencing in the sufferingand persecution of Shelley’s verse:

“Once the hungry Hours were hounds,

which chased the day like a bleeding deer,

And it limped and stumbled with many wounds29 Berr, p. 240.30 Frank, Anne, Tagebuch, Frankfurt am Main 2004, p.312.

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Through the nightly dells of the desert year.”31

In Berr the notion of evil grows innately abhorrent, asshe recognizes only the good in the human mind’sintuitive capacity and argues how banal evil becomes asit kindles its strength through fear and what is feared.Echoing her love of Shelly again she writes in her diary“Flattering the thing they feared, which fear was hate…”32

Berr identifies mankind as ‘flawed’ through notbeing in touch with the intuitive rhythms of innategoodness, which she discovers in Shelley. She explainsher epoch through her English poet:

“If only death could be as it is in Prometheus Unbound;33 that iswhat it would be if men were not evil: ‘And death shall be thelast embrace of her/Who takes the life she gave, even as amother/ Folding her child, says ‘Leave me not again’.’Astonishingly, that’s what I was trying to express just now.”34

She finds solace in these verses but is paradoxicallyaggrieved because of an innate fear of death and evil.Her perception awakens her trials within her own mind andin English literature through her love of it and throughher appreciation of writing in general she helps herselfto find an expressive medium that is an innate part ofher cultural and educated background. Her love oflanguage and her repose within it through the action ofwriting shelters her inner persona from the cruelty ofher surrounding times.

One may point to Philipp Manes (1875-1944) asanother example of the ‘life of the mind’. He followsthe whimsical nuances of memory and crosses chronologicaltime-bound perceptions. When returning home from hismandatory work placement at F. Butzke and Co., his present31 Percy Bysshe Shelly, Prometheus (1820), cited in: Berr, Hélène,Journal of a Young Girl, London 2008. 32 Ibid.33 Ibid.34 Berr, Hélène, diary entry, 30th November, 1943.

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perspective of the street evokes a memory. It is of hismother and of childhood. His deceased mother appears asan apparition on the street corner, where “throughout1892 [she] had stood each morning and given me a wave asI came home from school.”35 Such reflection paradoxicallyprovides a glimpse of melancholy and a smile as Manes’autobiographical account continues: “… (I) believed Icould see the dear face of my mother. Then my waytowards the ‘Hof’ felt lighter, for I felt her eyesaccompany me.”36

In his description of his home at Potsdamerstraße inBerlin we experience another aspect of Manes’ totality.In each material possession he covets a cherished person:

“The things that our children once gave us in celebration ofour silver wedding anniversary, outside on the balcony theboxes with the decorative plumb chickens, which our mother wasso proud of, empty, and the chairs on which we often sat,which Walter had bought,37 are stacked up just as the table,which had belonged to grandmother Elias. In the little roomthe beautiful mahogany music cabinet and the couch, whichWalter left behind.”38

35 Barkow, Ben /Leist, Klaus (ed.), Manes, Philipp, Als ob’s ein Leben wär –Tatsachenbericht Theresienstadt 1942-1944, Ullstein (2nd edition) Berlin 2005.The original reads: “…wo meine Mutter 1892 jeden Morgen gestanden undmir nachwinkte, wenn ich den Schulweg antrat,” p. 24.36 Ibid.37 Walter Manes, the author’s son who emigrated with his wife andfound themselves eventually with other Jews lost in transit amidstthe international community of Shanghai. Ibid., p. 469.38 The original reads: “Die Garnitur, einst uns von den Kindern zursilbernen Hochzeit geschenkt. Draußen auf dem Balkon die Kästen mitden Fetthennen, auf die Mutter so stolz gewesen, leer. Die Stühle,auf denen wir abends so oft gesessen, Walter hatte sie gekauft,standen aufeinander, ebenso die Tische, von denen einer nochGroßmutter Elias gehört hatte. Im kleinen Zimmer der schöneMahagoni-Musikschrank, die Couch, die Walter zurückgelassen. Wassoll ich aufzählen von unserem Eigentum, aus dem man uns nun abholte,wie Verbrecher, die keinen eigenen Willen mehr haben.” See Manes,Philipp, Als ob’s ein Leben wär p. 25.

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He ends with a question: “How am I supposed to recalleverything that one wants to take away from us, likecriminals, who no longer possess their own will.”39 It isa deeply rhetorical question. It also turns to us andchallenges those who are about to steal. The emotivepower of his writing evokes the feeling that we actuallyknow him.

The “linguistic turn”40 identifying the should andought in history experiences another twist: Holocaustvoices are ‘crying out’ from their past and demand theyshould be heard in the name of history. Willy Cohn (1888-1941) whose literary finesse never wrote with a view topublication, demands, however, in the name of those whomhe loved and who were martyred our engagement with his“intellectual legacy.”41 Even those who turn their backon history such as Lucien Dreyfus,42 an acculturated Jewwho had once believed in the ideals of democracy and ofthe French revolution,43 crave a response via his directappeal to God (“I thank heaven for having made me live inthis epoch and for having favoured me with the gift of39 Ibid.40 “The linguistic Turn” denotes “the idea that has been central tohistorians, namely that they need to examine the workings ofrepresentation – both in the sources they study and in their creationof historical narratives.” See Canning, “Feminist History after the LinguisticTurn,” pp. 369-70.41 Kenneth Kronenberg, Cohn’s translator, observes that Cohn wrotemunificently “without any view toward later publication.” Cohn,Willy, No Justice in Germany. The Breslau Diaries 1933-1941, translated byKenneth Kronenberg and edited by Norbert Conrads, Stanford UniversityPress 2012, Introduction, p. xii. 42 Dreyfus and his wife, Marthe, were deported to Drancy, theconcentration camp outside of Paris. From there, two months later,on 20th November, 1943, at 11.50 in the morning they began a five-dayjourney by train from Paris-Bobigny to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Of the 1,200 Jews deported along with the Dreyfuses on transport sixty-two 1,181 arrived in Auschwitz, where due to their ages Lucien and MartheDreyfus were undoubtedly among the 914 people from their transportwho were gassed immediately. Ibid. p. 55.43 Dreyfus, Lucien, Strasbourg, Nice, 1925-1943. Lucien DreyfusCollection [Unpublished diary] RG 10.144 in USHMM Washington D.C.Translated extracts appear in: Garbarini, Alexandra, Numbered Days.

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understanding”).44 His religiosity corresponds to a‘cry’. It invokes the judgment of future generations,but his “significant chronicle,” a diary consisting offour hundred pages, written in a meticulous hand, remainsunpublished.45

Every Holocaust diarist sees themselves as achronicler of history. Kalman Rotgeber, a young PolishJew living on the “Aryan” side of the Warsaw Ghettoexpresses a cry with the full emotive power of his mothertongue. Skilled translators may discern writing patternsas ‘Feingefühl’, an awareness of the finer points ofsensitivity. An individual uses discernment to provide aframework for her/his translation, but one person oftencan’t act alone. Garbarini required assistance whenfirst undertaking the transliteration of Rotgeber’shandwritten Polish. He writes with strength and revealsin an act of spontaneity what lies on his heart. Hiswords penetrate “even the most hardened hearts.”46 Yetthe lamentations continue for Rotgeber’s entire recordhasn’t been transcribed, translated and published.

Reading Holocaust diaries has led me to theconclusion that the ‘poetical lies within the prosaic’.Even 17 year old Alice Ehrmann, who writes in a hurriedstyle, possesses poetical qualities that captivate, hauntand shock. She describes the sadism of Hans Günther(1910-1945), the SS Sturmbannführer known as the “lächelndenHenker” (“the smiling executioner”) and head of theZentralstelle für jüdische Auswanderung in Prague,47 “who orderedthe covering of all openings with metal sheets so that inthe 24 hours of day neither an atom of air nor any lightcould reach the assembled mass”48 within the cattle wagonsdestined for Auschwitz. 44 Ibid., p. 47.45 Garbarini, Alexandra, Numbered Days, p. 23.46 From Garbarini’s translation of Rotgeber. Ibid., p. 1.47 See Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Dritten Reich: Wer war was vor und nach1945. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2005.

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Edith Wyschogrod has written that “after Auschwitzpoetry can be written, but history, as the ‘realistic’interpretation of the past, cannot.”49 I believe she ismistaken. This article reiterates the view that thepoetical lies within history – i.e. within diarists’prose, which exude the poetical within the prosaic. Eachdiarist expresses rhythmic patterns of ‘coherence’,making their work not only as documents of ‘self-realization’ but also as ones in which the authors revealthemselves as knowable so that the depth of their recordedhuman experience emerges as something tangible.

Garbarini ‘echoes’ the fears diarists have. Oftenthey express doubts about being able to record theirexperiences. Some diarists such as Chaim Abraham Kaplanbelieved they would need the help of future historians.Yet historians, too, have doubts in the discursiveapproach towards the Holocaust. They argue over how werepresent what appears beyond our grasp.50 The study ofthe language of Holocaust diarists, however, brushesaside these doubts. Our analysis of the action of writingindicates how rhythmic processes comprise cohesion. Evenwhen a diarist had had doubts her/his mode of writing,with its inherent grammatical and syntactical structures,led to perspicacity. In other examples it lends theirwriting a powerful “descriptive force.”51 Writing is in

48 Alice Ehrmann (who later chose a Hebraic name, Alisah, after hermarriage), describes her last year in the Theresienstadt ghetto. Shewrote her diary in Hebrew as a personal code. She describes her workand the last deportation from the ghetto to Auschwitz, consisting of2, 038 people, on 28th October, 1944. Philipp Manes and his wife,Gertrud, were included in this transport. See Shek, Alisah, Tagebuch(Oktober 1944 – Mai 1945) in: Theresienstadter Studien und Dokumente 1994,Prague 1994, p. 173f. 49 See the thematic treatment of poetry and history by Wyschogrod,Edith, An Ethics of Remembering: History, Heterology, and the Nameless Others,Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998, p. 3.50 Friedländer, Saul (ed.), Probing the Limits of Representation: Nazism and the “Final Solution.” Cambridge: Harvard University Press 1992. 51 Goldberg, Amos, Holocaust Diaries as »Life Stories« in: Search andResearch. Lectures and Papers (Ed. by Dan Michman, Yad Vashem,

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itself a maxim of instruction helping each diarist tounravel what challenges and threatens them. Sincewriting comprises cohesion there seems to be a greaterpart of the diarist embedded because of its clarity inthe diary itself.

Since writing creates an internal space forreflection, it must count as the most revealing aspect ofhuman experience. Speech, with its subtle nuances andinteractions, is affected more by the externalenvironment. It is limited through an expression of thenow, the ever-present, which paradoxically is ephemeraland has no deeply rooted connections. The action ofwriting provides in contrast a process of ‘self-realization’. It understands not just the intentionbehind writing (the expression of the ‘conscious-self’),but also the process of writing, its ‘cadences’, whichhelps us to understand human experience. Holocaustdiarists are thus in a position to understand and witnesstheir predicaments.52

Translation acts as an essential ‘interactivemedium’ between past and present. It helps us to availourselves to the subtle nuances of language such as ironyand paradox. If we turn briefly to Lucien Dreyfus, adiarist of the Third Republic and one who turned bittertowards France’s betrayal of Jews in the aftermath of the1940 defeat at the hands of Hitler, we can sample hisqualities of joy in his undoubted misery, praising Godfor being “[a] contemporary in order to savour an event.”His fervor becomes intense and his religiosityoverflowing with his prosaic style that recognizes allJews as part of the fulfillment of “the end of days” when“the Messiah will appear.”53 A feature of Jewish diarists

Jerusalem); Vol. 05. The author describes Bet-Shem’s diary as a“fabulous document” and one that “has incredible descriptive force.”52 Garbarini, Alexandra, Numbered Days, p. 6.53 Ibid., p. 48.

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is their being well-versed in the ancient Hebraic conceptof one people representative of God’s word – i.e. “apeople of the book.”

Not all Jewish diarists of the Holocaust came fromreligious backgrounds. Poland, probably the greatestcentre of Torah learning in Europe before the war, sawJewish religious influence in literary and historicalwriting belonging to young acculturated minds, whichsometimes embraced both religious and secular learningtogether. Ben-Shem’s educated background is a reflectionof this.54 Another Polish Jew, Kalman Rotgeber reachesinto the Hebraic religious-literary tradition as ‘scribeand chronicler’:

“Entreaty

The person into whose hands this diary should happen to fallis strongly urged not to discard it, or to destroy it.

In case it is not possible to deliver it to the intendedaddress – one is kindly asked to give it over to competenthands so that a future historian might ladle out the trueevidence, illuminating at least partially those terrible daysof ours full of murder, conflagration, blood, and tearsunprecedented in the history of the world, the suffering of adefenceless nation.”55

The entreaty (“Prośba” in Polish) moves the English readerbecause of the depth of Garbarini’s translated extract.Handling original manuscripts like prized archeologicalfinds, is a gift that doesn’t come to most people. Thenumber of scholars capable of translating with finesseremains rare. This is reflected by the sad truth behind54 Ben-Shem’ diary contains references to everything its author hadever studied—from Mishnah and Torah to secular literature and thework of Sigmund Freud, with whom Ben-Shem learned in Vienna in theinterwar period. Reuben Ben-Shem’s diary (Courtesy of Miriam Offer, HolocaustStudies Program, Western Galilee College, Akko, Israel).55 Yad Vashem, File 990, RG 033. Rotgeber’s account, written betweenApril and October, 1943, documents three years of Nazi occupationuntil the time of his arrest.

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the entreaty, since the handwritten manuscript lays inYad Vashem, without ever having been transliterated ortranslated. Garbarini’s extracts provide just a glimpse.

The Dutch Jewess, Etty Hillesum writes of herperspective in the deportation-assembly camp atWesterbork in 1943 of her duty to “bear witness wherewitness needs to be borne.”56 This encapsulates an onusof responsibility, which carries over into the process oftransliteration and translation, which if the cadences ofrhythm within writing are adhered to, can achieve an‘echo’ of the duty-bound responsibility Hillesum pleadsfor. The words diarists use address posterity, God,History and also cherished loved ones, whom they believethey will never see again. “In spite of everything Ihave to strive on if I want to be able to see my lovedones again,” reflects Lewissohn in her attempt to quellher mind through the action of writing.57

Willy Cohn reflects upon his role as communalrepresentative and caring father throughout his Breslaudiaries.58 He wrote letters as a parental guide for threeolder children who managed to leave Germany and had twoyounger ones, Suzanne and Tamara, at home. Whencorrespondence became impossible he wrote diary entrieson their behalf in a kind of letter format. His 14 yearold daughter Ruth reached the safety of Denmark on aYouth Aliyah and eventually made her way via Moscow andConstantinople to Palestine to join her brother, Ernst

56 Hillesum, Etty, An Interrupted Life and Letters from Westerbork, translated byArnold J. Pomerans, New York: Henry Holt, 1996.57 Lewissohn, Cäcilie, A Berlin Diary 1943-1944, [a bilingual German-English edition], translated by Stephen Graeme Hodgson andtransliterated by Katrin Martin © Südwestdeutscher Verlag,(Saarbrücken 2013), p. 46. See Thursday, 7th October, 1943.58 Cohn, Willy, No Justice in Germany. The Breslau Diaries, 1933-1941, translatedby Kenneth Kronenberg and edited by Norbert Conrads, StanfordUniversity Press 2012. The original German title appears as: WillyCohen, Kein Recht, nirgends. Tagebuch vom Untergang des Breslauer Judentums 1933-1941, ed. Norbert Conrads, 2 vols, (Cologne: Böhlau 2006)

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Abraham (born, 1919). She managed to leave Germany twoweeks after the outbreak of the Second World War. Herolder brother, Wolfgang Louis, (born, 1915)59 managed toemigrate to Paris.60 Ruth Cohn was to donate her father’sBreslau Diaries to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.61

Lewissohn’s diary has been in the Leo Baeck Archive,New York 36 years.62 It was donated by the author’sgrandson, Hermann Scherk, and his mother, the author’sdaughter, Käte.63 Due to the wisdom of her father whoposted his manuscript to his friend, Adolf Franck inMunich, Eva Manes, daughter of Philipp Manes, was able tocome into the possession of her father’s diary.64 Thesignificance of her treasure was acknowledged by AlfredWiener, first director of the Wiener Institute andLibrary in London, but he could not find a publisher forher father. The manuscript languished until the presenteditors managed to publish Manes’ manuscript.

Eva Manes passed away in February, 2004, at the ageof 95. She was never to see the publication of herfather’s work, indicating the kind of personal struggleshe endured. The editors of her father’s manuscriptdedicate its publication to her.65 Willy Cohn’s daughterRuth endured similar problems regarding the search for a

59 His eldest son fled to Paris immediately after taking his school-leaving examination (Abitur).60 In March 1935 16 year old Ernst joined a youth group leaving forPalestine.61 Cohn, Willy, Diary, Note Books 1-122, Central Archive for theHistory of the Jewish People, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem,Israel. All 122 “books” compromise approximately 10, 000 pages; 59“books” (4, 600 pages) cover the years 1933 to 1941. All of thesemanuscripts are housed under signature P 88 in the Central Archivesfor the History of the Jewish People, in Jerusalem. 62 Manes, Philipp, Als ob’s ein Leben wär, Berlin 200563 See Scherk, Hermann/Käte Scherk, Letter to the LBI Director, datedJanuary, 13th 1977 in the LBI Archive.64 Manes, Philipp, Als ob’s ein Leben wär, p. 16.65 The original German reads in granite reverence for the deceased:“Dieses Buch ist ihrem Gedanken gewidmet.” See Barkow/Leist, Vorwortin: Als ob’s ein Leben wär, p. 20.

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publisher, having been fortunate to receive her father’sdiaries as a result of his acquaintances at the CatholicCathedral Archive and Library in Breslau, who wereentrusted, as were his colleagues in Berlin, with copiesof his work. Together these people guaranteed thepreservation of his “intellectual legacy.”66 With thehelp of the Hebrew University his diary has been madeavailable for scholars as part of an electronic archive.Similarly, Lewissohn’s original diary is available forscholars as part of the Leo Baeck’s electronic archive.67

In the context of the overdue publications abovewounds are left raw as if events and people were onlyyesterday. This reinforces the view that writing is apowerful medium transcending boundaries of time. Theimportant need to acknowledge diaries as the foremostattribute of micro-history brings unique individuals tothe fore. Lewissohn, for instance, describes thosearound her with an immediacy that leaves her imagesvibrant within our minds:

“Once there I saw a very glad sight as people workedfeverishly together in their apartments trying to make theirhomes at least habitable once again, while out on the streetsa wonderful scene of exchange took place as people got outration cards and handed to one another food and clothes.There was a continual commotion of activity between peoplesome of whom were bombed-out while others had no means ofcooking since there's no gas or electricity nor water inpeople's homes. I gave my landlady a hand and together wecleared ruinous debris out into the streets where a mountainof rubble has appeared. And then I went home this time as faras Bayerischer Platz from where I had to walk.”68

66 This includes his memoirs, which he based on a review of hisdiaries, entitled Verwehte Spuren, Erinnerungen an das Breslauer Judentum vorseinem Untergang, and which have been edited and published by NorbertConrads (Cologne: Böhlau, 1995).67 Recently, Cohn’s intellectual legacy has been available on-line.See http://sites.huji.ac.il/cahjp/RP088%20Cohn.pdf. 68 Lewissohn, p. 82.

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Holocaust diarists reveal different motivations, althougheach realizes the importance of keeping such a writtendocument as evidence of history. The few transliteratedand translated examples that we have indicate how humanexperience of the Holocaust was unique and varied amidstthe Jewish community depending on gender, acculturated orreligious upbringing and in terms of regionalcircumstances.

What motivates Cohn, Manes and Lewissohn is theirneed to have contact with their children, far and distantand mostly beyond reach, although there were instances ofcorrespondence. Cohn was separated from his olderchildren.69 He had taught them to be dutiful, but becauseof the altered set of circumstances dividing his family,he no longer expected the care of upbringing to bereciprocated by one’s siblings in old age. Hismoralizing, though, still contributed to his sense ofpatriarchal hegemony at the head of his family with hisinfluence having some bearing upon his children abroadthrough correspondence, and later, after his death,through the medium of his diaries.70 This profound‘instructive legacy’ was no surprise bearing in mind hewas a trained pedagogue and had been a teacher at theBreslau Free Evening School of Adults and at theJohannesgymnasium, in Breslau, which remained the centre ofhis teaching activities for all of his working days.71

Cohn’s diary reflects a great deal of his life andfor this aspect of himself to be saved, along with hisother writings, would constitute a saving of his legacyfor his children and grandchildren. His diary thus69 The two youngest daughters from his second marriage to Gertrud(Trudi) were Susanne and Tamara, who was barely 3 years old. 70 Cohn, Willy, Diary, Note Books 1-122, Central Archive for theHistory of the Jewish People, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem,Israel. 71 The historian Walter Laqueur was one of his students. See Cohn,Willy No Justice in Germany. The Breslau Diaries, 1933-1941, Introduction, p.xiv.

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became his surest way of guaranteeing his parentalinfluence into the future even beyond his own death.Such thoughts “led him to discussions with acquaintancesin Berlin, and with the Director of the CathedralArchive, in Breslau, about how his manuscripts, andespecially his many diaries could be saved fromdestruction by the Nazis in the horrors that were aboutto be unleashed.”72 As a chronicler of history Cohn whohad matriculated in the subject from the University ofBreslau in 1909 at the age of 21 saw himself in the roleof an historian.73 It was only due to a trick of fate andevidence of his first encounters with anti-Semites thatresulted in his intellectual abilities maturing late inlife.74

Aged in their sixties Cohn, Manes and Lewissohnrepresent the older generation rooted in the GermanBildungsbürgertum of the latter quarter of the nineteenth-century. Their writing style reflects a maturity andcultural finesse representative of acculturated middle-class German Jewry. Through the medium of writing theywere able to document not only the National Socialistepoch, but also their entire lives ranging from childhoodto different memories in adulthood. The latter reflectsthe yearnings of the inner persona whilst the need todocument external experience became a burden and oftenclashed with the repose of their intrinsic nature. Theclash between these two worlds Berr sums up in herresponse to a friend, André Boutelleau, who absolves allresponsibility turning a blind eye to the horror, whilstBerr writes in her diary:

72 Ibid., p. xiii.73 Willy Cohn, a Medievalist, had his dissertation published, DieGeschichte der Nomannisch-sicilischen Flotte unter der Regierung Rogers I. und Rogers II(1060-1154), (Breslau: M & H. Marcus, 1910.74 Other historians on the faculty of the University of Breslaurejected him. His attempt to gain a professorship at the pedagogicalAcademy of Breslau was also thwarted. See Conrads, Norbert, in:Cohen, Willy, p. xiii.

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“…André Boutelleau cannot and will not enter into the world ofmisery and suffering that I have discovered, and that I wouldbe obliged to give only a part of myself to what he’s asked meto do.”75

She had been asked to translate Shelley’s A Defence of Poetry,but the goal seemed inappropriate to her the more sheheard of arrests and deportation. In contrast Cohn wasable to plough into intellectual pursuits as part of hiscoping strategy, researching Jewish history in Breslaubefore 1933, but in his diary he also reveals aperceptive grasp, conscious of the significance of whatwas happening around him. As Norbert Conrads writes ofCohn, “he increasingly came to understand theimplications of the Nazi regime’s persecution of the Jews[as] a conscious witness of the terrible times in whichhe lived.”76

The significance of being educated in the lastquarter of the nineteenth-century helped to shape each ofthe three older diarists under review with a literaryawareness placing them uniquely in a position from whichfuture historians would benefit. Their expressivequalities in the English above ‘echo’ what theirtranslators have achieved. The self-deprecation theauthors suggest reflects their seeing of themselves as‘ordinary’, not realizing perhaps how ‘unique’ theirwords would prove to be. Lewissohn writes a week beforeher arrest:

“Yesterday something new untoward happened. MyOberstleutnant, a father of 57 years of age suffered a heartattack whilst caught in the latest of the air-raids onSiemenstadt station, leaving his work place wrecked and himdead. His whole family is at a loss, for he was never one tohave complained. I'm extremely sorry, for he was a fine

75 Berr, p. 240.76 Conrads Norbert, Introduction in: Cohen, Willy, p. xii.

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person and a fabulous father who ought to be still alive forthe sake of his wife and children.”77

Her words can’t possibly imagine how they represent asense of impending doom. She writes with an atmosphereof desolation permeating the rhythmic meter of her prose.The translated extract above brings out this atmosphericsense of the inevitable; a sense of death haunting in theshadows. She wasn’t to realize that she, too, should havebeen able to live on for the sake of her children. Shewas murdered on 18th April, 1944, in Auschwitz.Translating the original manuscript makes one wonderabout the forces in history, about coincidental eventsand fate and poses the eternal question before God andconscience: why?78

However, diaries aren’t able to reveal everything.It is a necessary corollary of the cultural historian’srole as transcriber and translator to research officialrecords in order to piece together what diarists leaveout. This brings us into contact with the rhythmicnuance inherit in bureaucratic-speak. The anti-Semiticlanguage of the perpetrators is chilling, in absentcontrast to the warmth of diarists, especially in theirinternal reflection of their minds. Viktor Klempererwrites: “Words can be like very small doses of arsenic;it’s swallowed kind of unnoticed and seems to be without77 The original German reads as: Gestern eine neue Unglücksbotschaft:der Oberstleutnant, ein Mann von 57 Jahren, ist auf BahnhofSiemensstadt, als er von seinem Werk kam, das auch völlig bei demletzten Angriff zerstört worden ist, durch einen Herzschlag totumgefallen. Die ganze Familie steht vor einem Rätsel, da er niegeklagt hat. Mir tut es sehr leid. Er war ein feiner Kerl undfabelhafter Mensch und hätte für Frau und Kinder noch lange am Lebenbleiben müssen. See Lewissohn, p. 109.78 Interestingly Norbert Conrads identifies fate playing a hand inshaping Willy Cohn’s role as a chronicler of history, writing: “[…]he became one of the most important chroniclers, not only of thehistory of the Jews in Silesia, but of Germany as a whole. Cohn neversought this role; it was thrust on him by fate and his ownintellectual leanings.” See Conrads, Norbert, Introduction, in:Cohen, Willy, p. xii.

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any effect but after a while the poison is still there.”79

He provides the definitive analysis of Nazi language,revealing its grammatical structure heavily based in theimperative tense. Since written language reflects theinflexion of the human mind, the sense of aggression Nazibureaucrats use to repel their reader and to make themfeared,80 is indicative of their impersonal bureaucraticlanguage of command as the following, paragraph 1, clause2 of the "Police Decree Regarding the Recognizing ofJews"81 reveals:

„Der Judenstern besteht aus einem handtellergroßen, schwarzenausgezogenen Sechsstern aus gelbem Stoff mit der schwarzenAufschrift Jude.“82

Lewissohn learns to her cost how the regime made itimpossible for her to live, especially after therestrictions imposed on accommodation („Gesetz überMietverhältnisse mit Juden“) on 30th April, 1939, whichdecreed: "Jews are permitted to form a binding rentagreement only with other Jews"83 Lewissohn doesn’t tellus how she spent the first two and half years of the warin a “Judenhaus.” According to the anti-Semiticlegislation of the Nazi regime, she could only have arental agreement with other Jews in a designated communal

79 “Worte können sein wie winzige Arsendosen: sie werden unbemerkt verschluckt, siescheinen keine Wirkung zu tun, und nach einiger Zeit ist die Giftwirkung doch da.”Klemperer, Victor, Die unbewältigte Sprache, Darmstadt 1966.80 See Hodgson, Stephen Graeme, “Themes: Persecution,” in: Lewissohn,p. 175: “The wearing of the yellow star on items of clothing such asan overcoat or suit was introduced by the "Police Decree Regardingthe Recognizing of Jews." Its language was enough to make theaffected person feel as if they had committed something unlawful.The Nazi mentality was infectious, immobilizing the victims intoacceptance.” 81 “Polizeiverordnung über die Kennzeichnung der Juden vom 1.9.1941.”RGBl. 1941 I p. 547.82 “The Jewish Star must be the size of an ordinary saucer, shouldhave a black outline around yellow material upon which the word 'Jew'is to be seen in black lettering." 83„Juden dürfen Untermietverträge nur mit Juden abschließen.“ See Ingo Münch(ed.),.

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area – this was intended as a prelude to deportation.She was racially stigmatized before the war losing herhome at no. 3 Pariserstraße, where she had lived most of hermarried life since her marriage in 1910. Her husband haddecided upon a life-of-exile in Brussels from 1939onwards, and even a greater distance away were her grownchildren in Palestine. Her separation induced bouts ofloneliness and depression, making her more dependent onthe writing of her diary.

A translator is challenged by the less obviousmanifestations of anti-Semitism, the undercurrent within‘ordinary people’, who follow the conventions of everyday civility. Philipp Manes observes his next-doorneighbor: “an expressive woman, whose husband and sonwere at work, [who] was fully aware of the state ofaffairs regarding deportation and often gave livelydescriptions of each transport.”84 For Cohn the instanceof civility remained up to the very last moments ofdeportation leaving his and his family’s arrival at Fort9, near Kovno (Kaunas), in Lithuania, deceptive until theNazis – under SS Standartenführer, Karl Jäger (1888-1959)85 –conducted their murderous execution and that of athousand other Breslau Jews through mass-shooting onNovember, 29th, 1941. Willy Cohn, his wife Gertrud, andtheir two girls, Suzanne and Tamara, the youngest beingbarely 3 years old, were among the victims.86

84 The original German: “Meine Nachbarn, eine tüchtige Frau, derenMann und Sohn in Arbeit standen, wußte genauser Bescheid mit den soaktuellen Dingen der Evakuierung und gab oft lebendige Schilderungender letzten Transporte.” In: Manes, Philipp, Als ob’s ein Leben wär, p. 22.85 Jäger was from 23rd September, 1941, onwards head of theSicherheitspolizei and SD for the Generalkommissariat Litauen, with hisheadquarters situated in Kaunas. He is known for the so-called“Jägerbericht,” written on 1st December, 1941, which documents ingreat detail the mass executions of Jews.86 More than 67, 000 human beings were murdered in Kovno (Kaunas),Lithuania.

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Cohn’s diary represents the Jewish experience of hiscommunity in Breslau as well as including a detaileddescription of the journey he and his wife undertook toPalestine in 1937 to visit his son Ernst Abraham. Thefact that the couple travelled without their very youngdaughters, staying with relatives, accounts for theirreturn to Germany. Cohn realizes that this was the lastopportunity he had had to emigrate and the increasingrestrictions to his world signify the terrible isolationof his community prior to its deportation. His recorddescribes German-Jewish life until the point of hissudden leaving and murder. It is astonishing to learnthat his last diary entry, November, 17th 1941 occurs justtwo weeks before his murder and that of his wife andyoung daughters.

Manes describes his Berlin days, but unlike Cohnkeeps a record of deportation. He further documents thetwo and a half years of his imprisonment and describeshis function within the administrative apparatus of theTheresienstadt ghetto with sole responsibility for thearts. His writing has been interpreted as a defiance ofdeath through culture, an attribute observed in otherdiarists.87 His writing also reflects an intimateexpression of the mind’s inflexions, with a fondness formemory, family and friends. This led him to document thelives of others including biographies of his newacquaintances in the ghetto, Arthur Eichengrün (1867-1949),88 Georg Gradnauer (1866-1946)89 and Leo Löwenstein

87 Garbarini writes of diarists possessing “the power of agency,”seeing in the action of writing their ability to be self-confidentand in control, which stood in stark contrast to their powerless andvulnerable circumstances. See Garbarini, p. 6. 88 The writing of biography demonstrates how P.M. saw his time in theghetto not as his persecutors had wanted, but as a creativeopportunity to explore another genre of writing. He reinforced hisintellectual pursuits as a defensive mechanism against his inhumanesurroundings. Eichengrün, founder of the Cellon-Werke, was reputedlythe lone discover of aspirin.

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(1879-1956)90 and the recollections of Elsa Bernstein(1866-1949)91, revealing his talent as a biographer. Itis the language of intimacy, however, with an appeal tothe lay reader that reveals the genteel humanity and loveof this admirable man.

In the summer of 1943 Manes comes across one day afair haired little infant, a child of less than a yearcradled in its little makeshift cot. The mother hadplaced her child outside in the sunny courtyard upon thecircular bench around the thick trunk of the old chestnuttree in the centre of the yard, whose foliage providesenough shade for this little son of Israel. Manes isthoroughly overwhelmed by this chance encounter on a lateSaturday afternoon with no one else present except himand the child. It is a beautiful moment as Manesexperiences a joy and beauty in seeing the sleepingcomfort of the little body, which gives him strength ofmind. Attached to the child is the mother’s note:“please let the infant rest in this hallowed spot.”

Many diarists have been proclaimed as ‘heroes’ andas ‘soldiers’ against the oppressive tide oftotalitarianism and fascism.92 Yehuda Bauer has broadenedthe concept of “resistance” through his conceptual term“Amidah,” which in Hebrew translates as “standing upagainst.”93 He defines resistance as a demonstration ofhuman dignity such as providing victims with cultural,religious, political and educational support as well asfood and medical care. The Jewish and non-Jewishrelatives of Lewissohn’s family and friends may count89 Gradnauer was a leading republican politician and counted as one ofthe prominent figures in Theresienstadt. See Schönhoven, Klaus, in:Benz, Wolfgang/Graml, Hermann (ed.), Biographisches Lexikon der WeimarerRepublik, Munich 1988.90 Löwenstein was founder of the Reichsbund jüdischer Frontsoldaten.91 Bernstein published fiction under the pseudonym ‘Ernst Rosmer’.92 Wisse, Ruth R., The Modern Jewish Canon, p. 203.93 See Bauer, Yehuda, Rethinking the Holocaust, Yale University Press/New Haven & London 2001, p. 120, cited in: Garbarini, p. 59.

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within this broad definition of “resistance,” since theywere defying the regime’s decrees in the name of humandignity.

Micro-history, however, challenges the division ofhistory into heroes and villains, of victim andperpetrator and attempts an explanation of humanity andinhumanity. For Lucien Dreyfus the qualities of‘heroism’ lie within the ordinary person’s spiritualresistance to physical suffering: “The hero is a personwho has been the victim of some tremendous tragedy andhas withstood his disgrace with courage.”94 The ‘heroic’within a person becomes a consequence of the inhumane,which Dreyfus understands as God’s personal challenge.In his view religiosity, suffering and martyrdom coalesceto form an essential unity.

Since the “Linguist Turn” history is no longer justa subject of objectivity and has become in the context ofthe Holocaust a more telling investigation into what isgood and evil to explain how those who commit crimes arenot just monsters of our imagination, but are in fact‘malnourished’ human beings crushed by their powerfulegotism. One sees how harmful they are to themselvesbecause the perpetrator cannot attain that peace of mindManes is able to capture in his beautiful description ofa sleeping infant. How, why, and what makes otherssadistic is a deeper question asked of society. BarbaraKirshenblatt-Gimblett suggests an “awakening” experienceamong diarists, which demonstrates the power of agencyindividuals can have when societal ills challenge them.95

Lewissohn’s diary entry of January, 31st, 1944,interestingly demonstrates the power of collective actionover war and propaganda. In Kempinski’s, the author’sfavourite restaurant, everyone’s meal is simultaneously94 Garbarini, Alexandra, Numbered Days, p. 54. 95 Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Barbara, introduction, in: Shandler,Jeffrey, Awakening Lives, New Haven: Yale University Press 2002.

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interrupted by the wireless broadcast of Hitler’seleventh anniversary speech96 and the ominous sound of thewailing air raid sirens. The restaurant clientele, olderpatrons, head directly for the cellar. “Everyone stormedout or down to the shelter on the premises,” Lewissohnrecalls.97 The restaurant salon empties. Only thediarist and Hitler on the radio are present. In thatinstance she realizes there isn’t an audience. It is amoment of epiphany as she realizes most Berliners justwant to survive the horror of war. For a moment sheidentifies with the German community because she sees inthem a reflection of her own desire just to live and bereunited with her loved ones.

The diary describes another unusual occurrence, thistime at Kranzlers98 when the author encounters two Moslemstudents studying in Berlin. Both are political refugeesfrom Palestine. She is initially sympathetic, but thengrows critical: “Astonishingly the same rabid fanaticismpercolates in their heads too. That was something I hadnaturally not wanted to learn of.”99 She realizes theyare expressing the same “rabid fanaticism” that hadgotten into the heads of German youth, which she hadfirst experienced in the geserah of November, 9th, 1938.

96 An SS-SD report claims there is still a belief in the concept ofthe “Führer,” but the fact that Hitler had delegated responsibilityto Goebbels on the Home Front and had made fewer public addressessince the defeat at Stalingrad in 1942/43 without once ever visitingthe bombed out civilians of the Ruhr, Hamburg and other north-westernports, had registered dissatisfaction among many women and thecivilian population in general. Public dissatisfaction with Hitlerwas a capital offence and people were wary of informants if theirabsent minded talk at work or any other public place drew suspicionagainst them. See “Geheime Meldungen…” in: Michalka, Wolfgang (ed.),Deutsche Geschichte 1933-1945. Dokumente zur Innen- und Außenpolitik, FischerTaschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1994, pp. 298-9.97 Lewissohn, Cäcilie, A Berlin Diary 1943-1944, p. 104.98 A café on the Kurfürstendamm.99 Lewissohn, Cäcilie, A Berlin Diary 1943-1944, p. 104.

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Willy Cohn earned a reputation as a gentleman ofwords with a love of history, of his community and of thechildren in whose absence he still tried to be a parentto, seeing in his diary his legacy unto them – a clearexample of not “just writing himself into history” forfuture historians and interested lay readers, but alsointo the future as a connection to his children andfuture grandchildren. Norbert Conrads importantlyremarks that many of Cohn’s grandchildren living inIsrael have not grown up with German as theirgrandparents and great grandparents did100 so that theimportance of an English translation (English being theglobal language) provides them with an important‘interactive link’ to their great grandfather. As Cohn’stranslator, Kenneth Kronenberg, echoes the originalGerman, and demonstrates through his translation skillshow Cohn benefited from his acculturated upbringing inGermany. Curiously, Germany, which would ultimatelyleave Cohn, Manes and Lewissohn with no justicewhatsoever, would never rob them of the skill to writeand perceive in the language and culture of their mothertongue. Was there no small victory in that?

For Lewissohn her separation from her loved onesoccurs before the gathering of war clouds. This helpsher to cultivate the illusion in her head that theirleaving was on account of their dreams and hopes and notbecause of war. Importantly, her grown up childrendepart for Haifa circa 1937 when individual choice stillcarried sway and wasn’t a result of compulsion. Manes’100 Willy Cohn was named by his father, Louis Cohn (1843-1903) and hismother, Margarete Hainauer, after the young crown prince and futureKaiser, Wilhelm II, in 1888 the year he came into the world – the so-called Year of the Three Kaisers – which rounded off with the ‘youngpretender’s’ accession. Cohn’s parents saw themselves as patrioticGerman Jews and wished to augment their new social-class standing notjust through the entrepreneurial achievement of their business butalso through the gesture of patriotically naming their son after aroyal personage. This was an indication that German Jews felt self-confident and an integral part of German middle class society.

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daughters, Eva and Annemarie, leave because there is noalternative as he realizes in August, 1939, that theirsudden departure would be in their safest interests – notbecause he foresaw the Holocaust, but because he foresawEurope’s impending doom through aerial attack. Thepropaganda movies of the time, like the British film TheShape of Things to Come (1937) gave full voice to the societaland collective fear of mass bombing.

Not being judgmental means that we should and ought toperceive the Holocaust through the lens with which thediarist provides us. Cohn describes the parting from hisdaughter Ruth at Breslau railway station as if he wantsto use every available second to crowd more into theavailable minutes of time. “In a matter of just 15minutes my Ruth’s train shall depart […] it is impossibleto say how one feels at such a moment […]. Yet one hasto accept what’s in the best interest of the child.”101

He describes how he feels as a father, how his daughterhad previously appeared to him as the problem child ofthe family. It gyrates with his nervous disposition tothink that this parting is forever: “Now our third childmust leave, will I ever see her again? It’s something Ican’t think about.” Even the slow gradual coming of thesteam locomotive seems suspended in time as he gathers afew more minutes to speak softly in his daughter’s earagainst the backdrop of passing commuters.

“As I’m writing, she’s already sitting in the train,which is about to leave Breslau at any minute,” Cohncontinues, “all the importance of her upbringing till nowis about to come to an end, but it is my hope that shewill never forget her childhood.” His words soundpedagogical and yet tremor with emotion as he continues,

101 The translated extracts above from Cohn’s originally unpublishedhandwritten manuscript in the Central Archive for the History of theJewish People, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, are my owntranslations.

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“We gave all that parents could possibly give. So soonhas the train departed that Trudi has broken out intears.” He watches from the platform, facing the silenceof his daughter’s engaging eyes that question and ask formore farewells as the train leaves. Her mother, Trudi,has already gone to the back of the passenger enclave,sitting on a bench watching her husband and the departingtrain from a distance. My translated extract echoes thatlast farewell: “[…] and now, just when she had learned tobe mature enough to cater for our needs she has beentaken from us. One mustn’t think anything negative; onlyon the welfare of the child.”102

As a translator I refrain from sentimentality andecho the original language as it appears according torhythmic meter, so that the translation reflects thisnuance of linguistic expression emotively as diaristsattempt to grapple with extreme external conditions. “Ifeel so down hearted and miserable,” laments Lewissohn inher last diary entry. Her perpetual lack of sufficientfunds drives her into a constant state of worry, adeterioration and paralysis: “I really can't be doingwith this awful cold,”103 she continues as her health,too, deteriorates. Her last remaining attempt atoptimism tries to rally against her difficult position.“I have my ideas and plans to pursue and bring tofruition,”104 she continues as she tries to convinceherself, but her self-assurance is lacking. This is afar cry away from the beauty of the language ofintrospection she had previously enjoyed. Under theduress of anxiety and mounting external pressures theappreciation she had once had for the arts, her music,nature and poetry vanishes, consumed by fear. “Thank God

102 Cohn, Willy, Diary entry 16/09/1939, Note Book 90, Box 2, CentralArchive for the History of the Jewish People, The Hebrew Universityof Jerusalem, Israel.103 Lewissohn, p. 96. See diary entry Saturday, 3rd March, 1944.104 Ibid.

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our building has remained untouched,” she exults after araid, so that relief, too, after the exertion of fearplays its part.105

In contrast boundaries of time through memory andreflection could be transcended. The action of writinggave spiritual strength to the internal faculties ofmemory so that diarists like Manes are in their elementwhen it comes to describing that internal landscape ofthe mind, slipping in and out of ‘different time zones’and giving his writing to the uninitiated a greaterchallenge for it doesn’t follow conventional boundariesof time. Time serves the purpose of elucidation throughmemory, which reinforces one’s individuality. As anexternal force time remains corrosive and saps the spiritbecause the horizons are limited and burdened by theatmosphere of uncertainty. As Lewissohn tries toconfront her weakness the language rhythms of her writinggrow urgent and draw us into her fear of the future, “I’mon the constant look out for any other means of adding tomy present income, but at the moment it just isn't thateasy.”106 These are her last words.

We may draw certain conclusions. That our ‘echo’ oforiginal diarists in the English language displays afiner detail for accuracy and ambience, with asensitivity and awareness for the natural languagepatterns in the action of writing. Writing provides forcohesion. It shouldn’t be over-exaggerated when diaristslike Lewissohn question themselves fearful ofuncertainty, health and lack of money. Her concerns arepressing ones as her external reality appears to fold in,but her situation was ever present with danger throughthe threat of arrest and deportation and of the Alliedbombing. For other diarists like Cohn and Manes, whoalso represent her generation, being older and vulnerable105 Ibid. 106 Ibid.

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reinforces antithesis. There is always antithesis, aparadox of vibrant energies as one falls between thepedestals of pessimism and optimism. As Lewissohn putsit in her New Year entry, 1944, “when shall all thismadness finally come to an end? No one can really know,whether he's an optimist or a pessimist. God can onlyanswer.”107

Writing it was argued earlier served a therapeuticaction, for the pattern of language reflects an internalcohesion on account of its inherent grammatical andsyntactical structures. The dynamic of language is inits action. Although ‘conscious purpose’ unleashes theprocess it is absent from the subconscious flow of wordsother than when it intercedes to pause and review. Inspite of structure, the pace of language can alterhurriedly and more haphazardly and exude “a sense ofinescapable urgency.”108 This denotes perhaps confusion,paranoia, and fear, reawakening the poststructuralistargument that trauma incapacitates the individual’sability to record.

Yet the thorough analysis of writing patternsreveals that the structure of language remains intact.Grammatical and syntactical structures remain becausethis reflects the natural inclination of language. Anabandoning of structure, a departure from the naturalrhythms of language would result in a more clipped style,but even then as Ehrman’s writing109 demonstrates thepower of her words makes up for her lack of descriptiveelaboration. The ‘life of the mind’ may be challengedbut the internal rhythms that sustain it are kept inplace because even in their depression and sufferingunder the effects of trauma diarists when they choose to

107 Ibid.108 Garbarini, p.16.109 Shek, Alisah, Tagebuch (Oktober 1944 – Mai 1945) in: TheresienstadterStudien und Dokumente 1994, Prague 1994, p. 173f.

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write are still finding solace and salvation in the actionof writing, which reinforces their identities within,even when Lewissohn has cause to lament, “Oh God whatkind of time are we in! And where are all the people inmy life who had once stood close and were taken away?”110

The diarist’s experience is ultimately acommunicative experience and although the action ofwriting leads to ‘self-realization’ that realizationisn’t always welcome as certain external and internaltruths have to be faced. The ‘life of the mind’ shapesthe diarist’s internal time-perceptions, separating themfrom the external chronological sequencing of time. Inmost cases a diary isn’t a reflection of the latter.Diary entries are either long or short and often containinformation over a period of days and in the context ofinner reflection (upon family, friends, childhood etc.).The boundaries of time are transcended as the pastpredominates and encroaches over any sense of thepresent. The aspect to bear in mind is that the diarypossesses the dynamic of looking back. It is a book ofreflection drawn invariably towards the past and lesstowards the future, and any concern for the future isbased on a prognosis of one’s present.

That present is however the common denominator, theone that assures balance because the life force thatrepresents action is a facet of the present. Even if adiarist’s preoccupation is with the past the medium toenable this reflection is the dynamic of action, which is afeature of an ever changing present. The impulses oflanguage are what connect us as human beings. Startingfrom the standpoint of a transcriber we can identify thelanguage patterns of rhythm and with more assuredness theaction of translating can with close attention to thesepatterns ‘echo’ the meter and stress of the diarists who110 Lewissohn, p. 98. See diary entry, New Year’s Day, Saturday, 1st

January, 1944.

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once lived, and provide for their legacy, which continuesto live in their translated words. Realization of thisbecomes more paramount when we see that these diaries ofthe past are ‘interactive mediums’ between ourselves asscholars and the dynamics of history. The words ofdiarists are brought closer to us the more our words oftranslation echo the sensitivities of rhythm.