Emotion and Intellect in the Works from Terezin
In the quote opening Art Speigelman’s Maus: A Survivor s Tale. I: My Father
Bleeds History, Adolf Hitler expresses his urge to rob the Jewish people of their
humanity: The Jews are undoubtedly a race, but they are not human (9D). Hitler’s
quote begs for a response What makes one human? Many scholars and scient ist would
argue that it is t he ability to think and reason t hat defines the human species. I would
argue that it is a combination of the ability to reason with the ability to feel. In Elie
Wiesel s Night, it is his passionate anger at his spirituality alongside his intellectual
struggle with that spirituality that screams out his humanity: What are You, my God, I
thought angrily, compared to this afflicted crowd proclaiming to You their faith [. . .]
(63). In the range of Holocaust literature, there is a range of emotion mixed with
intellect, and this combination creates a picture of human beauty. One can witness this
range in Wiesel s anger and disillusionment (62, 63) and in Speigelman s father s love
and frugality (157). It is the ability to think about and feel something towards one s
situation that makes one human. In the painting Sailboat (56-57) and the poem
Birdsong (80-81) fro m the collection I Never Saw Another Butt erfly: Children s
Drawings and Poems from Terezin Concentration Camp, 1942-1944, one can see how a
range o f emotions combined with reason creat e an undeniable portrait of humanity.
In Sailboat an anonymous child artist expresses both emotion and intellect
through color choice and subject matter (56-57). The artist portrays night as a black
abyss followed by a teal-gray sky dotted w...
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...r Saw Another Butt erfly: Children s Drawings and Po ems from Terezin Concentration Camp, 1942-1944. Ed. Hana Volavkova. 2nd ed. New York: Schocken Books, 1978. 56-57.
Spiegelman, Art. Maus: A Survivor s Tale, I. My Father Bleeds History. New York: Pantheon Books, 1986.
Stargar, Nicholas. Children s Art of the Holocaust. Past & Present. Nov. 1998.
Electronic. Expanded Academic Index ASAP. 10 February 2001.
Weil, Jiri. Epilogue. I Never Saw Anot her Butterfly: Children s Drawings and Poems from Terezin Concentration Camp, 1942-1944. Ed. Hana Volavkova. 2nd ed. New York: Schocken Books, 1978. 101-104.
Wiesel, Elie. Night. New York: Bantam Books, 1982.
Weissova, Helga. Lights Out. I Never Saw Another Butt erfly: Children s Drawings and Poems from Terezin Concentration Camp, 1942-1944. Ed. Hana Volavkova. 2nd ed. New York: Schocken Books, 1978. 22, 24.
It is interesting to read the connections of Night, by Elie Wiesel because they include the experiences of the Holocaust from other people's’ points of views. In A Spring Morning, by Ida Fink, it is shocking that the innocence has been stripped away from the child as the speaker reveals, “Fire years old! The age for teddy bears and blocks” (Wiesel 129). This child is born innocent, she has not harmed anyone, yet she has to suffer. Reading about the Holocaust is difficult, I wonder how others had the motivation to live during it. The description of a little girl getting shot is heartbreaking as the speaker explains, “At the edge of the sidewalk lay a small, bloody rag…. He [Aron] had to keep on walking, carrying his dead child” (Wiesel 133).
Imagine being trapped in a ghetto, seeing communities leaving in trains, families being split up, never to see each other again.. The emotions that each and every Holocaust survivor must’ve gone through is overwhelming. Some things that are taken for granted, will never be seen again. While reading the two texts, Night by Elie Wiesel and “I Never Saw Another Butterfly” by Pavel Friedman, The two predominant emotions that prevailed most to Holocaust victims and survivors were hope and fear.
Shields, Jacqueline. "Concentration Camps: The Sonderkommando ." 2014. Jewish Virtual Library. 20 March 2014 .
Wiesel and his father were harshly testing their bond as a family during the progression of their stay. It is remarkable how such appalling conditions can bring people together in ways unimaginable. Before Wiesel came, he never did much regarding his father. While they were at the camp, Wiesel couldn’t stand being without his father. Wiesel is surprised to see how the camp changed his father. He recalls on how one of the first nights at the camp, he saw his father cry for the first time. Wiesel’s relationship with his father has been so impactful on
"Treblinka Death Camp Revolt". Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team. Niau S. Archer H.E.A.R.T., n.d. Web. 19 May 2014.
Primo Levi tells the readers the explicit details of the concentration camp Auschwitz, in his memoir, “Survival in Auschwitz.” The way in which the author talks about the camp is as if it is its own society. There is a very different and very specific way of life at the camp; their basic needs are provided for them, but only in the simplest form in order to have a small chance of survival. There is no clean, drinkable water, so instead they drink coffee, they eat soup twice a day, and a small amount of bread (26). There are thousands of diverse people living in the camp, who are forced to live with each other and work in a factory, reducing their self-worth to merely factors of production. The author illustrates the only purpose for the Jews is work; “This camp is a work-camp, in German one says Arbeitslager; all the prisoners, there are about ten thousand, work in a factory which produces a type of rubber called Buna, so th...
Lukas, Richard C. Did the Children Cry?: Hitler's War against Jewish and Polish Children, 1939-1945. New York: Hippocrene, 1994.
Schwartz, Leslie. Surviving the hell of Auschwitz and Dachau: a teenage struggle toward freedom from hatred.. S.l.: Lit Verlag, 2013. Print.
By means of comic illustration and parody, Art Spiegelman wrote a graphic novel about the lives of his parents, Vladek and Anja, before and during the Holocaust. Spiegelman’s Maus Volumes I and II delves into the emotional struggle he faced as a result of his father’s failure to recover from the trauma he suffered during the Holocaust. In the novel, Vladek’s inability to cope with the horrors he faced while imprisoned, along with his wife’s tragic death, causes him to become emotionally detached from his son, Art. Consequently, Vladek hinders Art’s emotional growth. However, Art overcomes the emotional trauma his father instilled in him through his writing.
Using lines and basic shapes to emphasize shading and detail and then teamed with such a complex theme, Art’s story and graphics join together in a complimentary marriage. With the nearly childlike drawings and the intense mature storyline, there is a message that this is being written by the child telling the story of the parent. The story emphasizes his father’s inability to grow and repair from his past but even without the words you can almost see that Art has never truly be able to move past his the trauma of growing up with his parents. Using his frustrations and the need to explore the history of his father’s idiosyncrasies, Art creates a poignant story not only about the tragedy of the holocaust, but of the realities of being a child growing up with survivor parents.
Spiegelman, Art. Maus II: a Survivor’s Tale : And Here my Troubles Began. New York:
"A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust-Victims." A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust-Victims. University of South Florida. Web. 19 May 2014.
In order to define personhood, one must first define a human. A Human can be thought about in two different senses, a moral human sense and a genetic human sense. In a moral sense, humans can be thought of as a person who is a member of the moral community. In a genetic sense, humans are merely any physical being categorized as a being in the human species. From this one can conclude that a person is a human in the moral sense. Furthermore, characteristics of a person must be defined in order to differentiate moral beings from genetic humans.
... drawn. What makes us human? Through the examination of human evolution, both biological adaptations and cultural adaptations which are distinct to humans can be recognized. Biologically speaking, humans are unique in that they are bipedal, they have larger brain sizes, and longer leg length. When examining the cultural evolution of humans we have a complex language system, we live in communities, engage in symbolic behavior, and act through emotional impulses. While we are often considered to be superior to all other animals, it is important to recognize that while we are animals, we have very distinct characteristics and adaptations that separate us both biologically and culturally from all other animals.
Imagine waking up on a normal day, in your normal house, in your normal room. Imagine if you knew that that day, you would be taken away from your normal life, and forced to a life of death, sickness, and violence. Imagine seeing your parents taken away from you. Imagine watching your family walk into their certain death. Imagine being a survivor. Just think of the nightmares that linger in your mind. You are stuck with emotional pain gnawing at your sanity. These scenerios are just some of the horrific things that went on between 1933-1945, the time of the Holocaust. This tragic and terrifying event has been written about many times. However, this is about one particularly fascinating story called The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne.