Ecologies of Witnessing

Abstract

This book reassesses contemporary Holocaust testimony, focusing on the power of language and place to shape personal narrative. Oral histories of Lithuanian Jews serve as the textual base for this exploration. Comparing the remembrances of Holocaust victims who remained in Lithuania with those who resettled in Israel and North America after World War II, the analysis reveals meaningful differences based on where they chose to live out their postwar lives and whether their language of testimony was Yiddish, English, or Hebrew. The differences between their testimonies relate to notions of love, justice, community—and how the Holocaust did violence to these aspects of the self. The argument illuminates the multiple places that the Holocaust can fill in Jewish historical memory. Beyond the particular Jewish case, the book raises fundamental questions about how people draw from their linguistic and physical environments in order to understand their own suffering. The analysis challenges the assumption of a universal vocabulary for describing and healing human pain.

The signature of the disaster: Witness‐ness in death camp and tsunami survivor testimony

“…Witnessing has returned to prominence, from survivor testimonies of #MeToo (Gilmore, 2019) and digital witnessing of racialised police violence (Richardson, 2020) to social media testimony of asylum seekers held in spaces of exception (Rae et al, 2018), critical witnessing of COVID‐19 (Browne et al, 2020), and the "geological self‐witnessing" of the so‐called Anthropocene (Yusoff, 2016, p. 5). Meanwhile, an interdisciplinary body of literature has theorised the complexities of the act and genre of witnessing (e.g Givoni, 2016; Pollin‐Galay, 2018; Trezise, 2014), which belie the seemingly straightforward representational logic of bringing something absent back to presence: as if witnessing were no more than memory retrieval. The inadequacy of conceptualising witnessing through a representational framework has been laid bare by longstanding interdisciplinary efforts to engage with the testimony of those who have undergone traumatic experiences, particularly Holocaust survivors (LaCapra, 2014).…”

“…Anthropocene (Yusoff, 2016, p. 5). Meanwhile, an interdisciplinary body of literature has theorised the complexities of the act and genre of witnessing (e.g Givoni, 2016;Pollin-Galay, 2018;Trezise, 2014), which belie the seemingly straightforward representational logic of bringing something absent back to presence: as if witnessing were no more than memory retrieval. The inadequacy of conceptualising witnessing through a representational framework has been laid bare by longstanding interdisciplinary efforts to engage with the testimony of those who have undergone traumatic experiences, particularly Holocaust survivors (LaCapra, 2014).…”

The Historian and the Source: Some Contemporary Problems in Holocaust Historiography

“…H Pollin-Galay, 2018.. kaip metodologinis proveržis, tačiau vieną etiudą, susijusį su Lietuvos žydų suvokimu, norėčiau pakomentuoti.…”