Kinderblick auf die Shoah
Formen der Erinnerung bei Ilse Aichinger, Hubert Fichte und Danilo Kiš
Description:... After discussing books on the Nazi period written by and for descendants of the perpetrators, in which the innocence of the child's perception reflects the supposed innocence of the society, and the victims virtually disappear, analyzes three autobiographical novels by victims: Aichinger's "Die grössere Hoffnung", Fichte's "Das Waisenhaus", and Kiš's "Bašta pepeo". In all three, authors and subjects are "Mischlinge", children of one Jewish and one "Aryan" parent. Analyzes the images into which the children translate the traumatic experiences which they cannot understand, and their desperate attempts to save their self-image in the light of their stigmatization by their surroundings, or reconstruct the broken continuity of the family tradition (and of the Jewish tradition, of which, however, they know little). Criticizes psychological interpretations of these novels, which ignore the real historical context.
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