Holocaust

Introduction

This study in relation to Holocaust will perform critical examination of Elie Wiesel who claims that “the literature of the Holocaust does not exist, cannot exist. It is a contradiction in terms, as is the philosophy, the theology, the psychology of the Holocaust. Auschwitz negates all systems, opposes all doctrines… A novel about Treblinka is either not a novel or not about Treblinka; for Treblinka means death—absolute death—death of language and of imagination.”

The paper attempts to maintain a claim regarding the agreement or disagreement with the viewpoint of Wiesel? The paper will also attempt to answer if literature, poetry, and art of the Holocaust can exist after the event, or does, as Wiesel asserts, Auschwitz negate all systems. The paper will also discuss if Wiesel's statement can apply to other forms of memory, memorization or representation?

Discussion and Analysis

The incorporation of basic information regarding holocaust in this paper is important, as it will help in the assessment of the statement. The term Holocaust was used to refer to the genocide of Jews during World War II. Approximately six million Jews were murdered during this state financier systematic genocide by Nazi Germany. Adolf Hitler started and led this program in coloration with Nazi Party of Germany. Various extermination camps were established throughout German occupied territories (Valerie, pp. 56-87). According to an estimate, approximately two third European Jews out of nine million were killed. More than three million Jew men, two million Jew women and one million Jew children were brutally murdered during The Holocaust.

There are different definitions of the holocaust is available, as few scholars seek the inclusion of the killing of disable people, Soviet and Polish war prisoners, Soviet and Polish civilians, Romani and others during that period in the definition. However, holocaust for many has been the term to refer the mass murder of Jews by Nazi Germany. It has been indicated by the Soviets that approximately 11 million war prisoners and civilians were also murdered purposefully under the Nazi administration.

Genocide and persecution were take place in different phases. Nuremberg Laws among several other legislations were enacted under the Nazi administration before the eruption of World War II. There were several concentration camps in which Jews, civilians and prisoners were either executed through gas chambers or prosecution or through experiments. Others were enslaved and were forced to work till death because of diseases or exhaustion. Political opponents and Jews were instantly killed, by the special units of German troops known as Einsatzgruppen, when Germany occupies any new territory in Eastern Europe. German administration quickly imprisoned Romani and Jews to overloaded ghettos, before transporting them to concentration camps through trains where they were exterminated (Cesarani, pp. 61-92). After reaching to the camp, those who survive the journey would then be killed systematically using different methods. Every part of the German administration was involved in the process that ultimately leads to genocides, which turn the Third Reich process into a state sponsored genocide (Bloxham and Kushner, pp. 71-83).

The above ...