Conclusion
At the heart of this lesson, we presented the writings of four people, two of whom survived and two of whom were murdered by the Nazis. For many survivors there …
Course: Poetry and the Holocaust
An Exercise Book with a Black Cover – Poetry and the Holocaust
This is Itamar Yaos-Kest’s story written in Israel fifty years after his experiences. It reverberates with much emotion on relationships within the family and the surrounding environs. After the Germans …
“Hunger”
And now to the young boy in a concentration camp. Itamar Yaos-Kest was born in 1934 in Sarvash, Hungary as Peter (Petr) Kest and after the Germans invaded in March …
Prisoner Experience in the German Camps
In the second video, Dr. David Silberklang, whom we met at the beginning of the first lesson, will present aspects of the prisoner experience in the Nazi camp system. Although …
The Nazi Camp System
And now we progress to the extraordinary story of a ten year old Jewish boy writing poems in a concentration camp in Germany and the fraught relationship of the adult, …
Discussing the Poem and the Prose Quotes
From Cytryn’s writing, one can sense the desperate swing of the pendulum between desolation and hope. From his poem and the two quotes from “The War” choose and discuss one …
Analyzing “The Cheerful Pessimists”
From the title of the poem to the last line, the writing is suffused with a false bravado that underlines a feeling of helplessness prevalent in the ghetto. We know …
“The Cheerful Pessimists”
The Cheerful Pessimists Dear friends! To hell with sorrow What does it have to do with youth? Pessimism is worthless. Dear friends! Not every day can we laugh. Off with …
Avraham Cytryn
The second poet we present here was three years older than Abramek Koplowicz. Avraham Cytryn was born in 1927 in Łódź and lived through the suffering of the Łódź ghetto …
“The Beggar”
And now, to the poem itself: “The Beggar” Sad and hunched over, spent and bent over He walked the streets (dressed) in his rags The beggar. Forgotten by all, at …
Who is the young poet Abramek (Abraham) Koplowicz?
The Łódź ghetto — or Litzmannstadt as the Germans renamed it in honour of the German general in the First World War, General Litzmannby — was by all accounts the …
Abramek (Abraham) Koplowicz
In this step we will watch the second part of the video on the Ghettos, focusing on additional aspects such as the so called “Judenräte” (Jewish councils), the deportations to …
Historical Background on Ghetto Łódź
Before we present the poems and discussion on them, in the two following steps we will first clarify the term ‘Ghetto’ with two short videos that will provide information on …
Welcome to the 2nd Week
Welcome to the second week of our course on Holocaust Poetry. As indicated at the end of the first week, we proceed to poetry written during and after the Holocaust …
Concluding Assignment – What is Holocaust Poetry?
Returning to Adorno, the famous Jewish-German sociologist, who with the passage of time, said the following: “Perennial suffering has as much right to expression as the tortured have to scream… …