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HOLOCAUST DIARIES: BEARING WITNESS TO EXPERIENCE IN POLAND, THE NETHERLANDS, AND FRANCE

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Date Issued:
2011
Abstract/Description:
Most of the Holocaust's victims were never able to tell their stories, and of the millions of victims, only a few hundred were able to write about their experiences. This makes surviving personal testimonies precious in many ways. They provide a rich resource for understanding both individual experience, as well as the ways in which the socio-historical context (i.e. region, gender, and class) greatly influenced each distinctive experience. This study examines six Holocaust diaries, of Jewish victims, taken from three different parts of occupied Europe: from Poland, Janusz Korczak's Ghetto Diary and Chaim Kaplan's The Scroll of Agony; from Holland, Etty Hillesum's An Interupted Life:the Diaries, 1941-1943 and Letters from Westerbork and Anne Frank's Diary of a Young Girl; and lastly, from France, Helene Berr's Journal of Helene Berr and Raymond Raoul Lambert's Diary of a Witness, 1940-1943. Through an examination of these six diaries, this project analyzes how the personal experience of individuals who witnessed the period and chronicled its events helps us understand both the nature of the Holocaust experience and the specific local political, social, and economic contexts. This project argues that an examination of these texts, when studied alongside the histories of their specific local contexts, can reveal both what all victims shared, throughout Europe during the period, as well as what was localized- how the different horrors experienced, by the victims, created different versions of the same hell.
Title: HOLOCAUST DIARIES: BEARING WITNESS TO EXPERIENCE IN POLAND, THE NETHERLANDS, AND FRANCE.
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Name(s): Oldham, Jessica, Author
Lyons, Amelia, Committee Chair
University of Central Florida, Degree Grantor
Type of Resource: text
Date Issued: 2011
Publisher: University of Central Florida
Language(s): English
Abstract/Description: Most of the Holocaust's victims were never able to tell their stories, and of the millions of victims, only a few hundred were able to write about their experiences. This makes surviving personal testimonies precious in many ways. They provide a rich resource for understanding both individual experience, as well as the ways in which the socio-historical context (i.e. region, gender, and class) greatly influenced each distinctive experience. This study examines six Holocaust diaries, of Jewish victims, taken from three different parts of occupied Europe: from Poland, Janusz Korczak's Ghetto Diary and Chaim Kaplan's The Scroll of Agony; from Holland, Etty Hillesum's An Interupted Life:the Diaries, 1941-1943 and Letters from Westerbork and Anne Frank's Diary of a Young Girl; and lastly, from France, Helene Berr's Journal of Helene Berr and Raymond Raoul Lambert's Diary of a Witness, 1940-1943. Through an examination of these six diaries, this project analyzes how the personal experience of individuals who witnessed the period and chronicled its events helps us understand both the nature of the Holocaust experience and the specific local political, social, and economic contexts. This project argues that an examination of these texts, when studied alongside the histories of their specific local contexts, can reveal both what all victims shared, throughout Europe during the period, as well as what was localized- how the different horrors experienced, by the victims, created different versions of the same hell.
Identifier: CFH0003849 (IID), ucf:44693 (fedora)
Note(s): 2011-05-01
B.A.
Arts and Humanities, Dept. of History
Masters
This record was generated from author submitted information.
Subject(s): Holocaust
Personal Testimonies
Holocaust Diaries
Holocaust Experience
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFH0003849
Restrictions on Access: public
Host Institution: UCF

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