History : A New Form Of History

In Art Spiegelman’s graphical novel Maus his demonstration of the Holocaust and its recollection in Maus was very emotional, affecting and the most expressing. The approach that the author has taken construes and magnifies the comical shape of telling history. It portrays Spiegelman dialog between himself and his father about his happenings as holocaust and polish jew survivor. Most of the narrative specifically focuses on Spiegelman 's difficult connection with his father, and the nonappearance of his mother who committed suicide when he was 20.In this essay I will be examining the experience of trauma and memory in Maus. Also I will be showing how the pain and trauma of the Holocaust affected Artie and Vladek 's diasporic memories. Trauma usually describes the association with chronological or combined traumatic proceedings to experiences that happen to others. These occasions are internalized circuitously through images, and stories and other recaps and reminders of their family’s occurrences. Spiegelman also investigates and addresses the load and legacy of distressing reminiscence on second-generation survivors. In the narrative Maus discovers and documents this behavior of dual memory. Throughout the story Art talks about the state of affairs in which his father’s reminiscences are expressed. The chronological and personal trauma produced by the Holocaust, and by simplifying the reintegration of the following generation to its past.

Throughout the years curiosity regarding the holocaust has become more evident in the 21st century as people across the globe anxiously learn about the events that took place in Germany during World War II. The importance of this event is not only being taught to Americans and people of the Jewish religion, but it is also being taught in other parts of the world. The popularity of knowledge being obtained regarding the holocaust grows: books, documentaries, and poems. Poems, like that of William Heyen’s “The Trains”, are being introduced to the generations in the 21st century. Heyen pinpoints the curiosity of his audience to make them want to learn about the holocaust

In contemporary society, our knowledge of the past is articulated through the interplay between history and memory, which work to expose the elusive truths of the past, and exemplify the strength of humanity. Richard White, a historian, posits; “History is the enemy of memory...History forges weapons from what memory has forgotten or suppressed.” This definition postulates that there is an inevitable dichotomy between the accretion of factual evidence and the subjectivity of personal experience by shaping the collective past of humanity. However, as indicated by Mark Baker’s memoir, The Fiftieth Gate and Cathy Wilcox’s Cartoon, both of which explore perceptions of the Holocaust through an array of unique and evocative literary

In this paper, I will be outlining the costs and benefits of social and technological fixes, and then I will be assessing the use of social and technological fixes of air pollution through the use of automobiles.

I chose to use a photo and a poem for this task. A key narrative that surrounds the Holocaust is that of remembering. There are museums, memorial sites, novels and numerous other forms of commemorating the Holocaust in order to ensure that as a society we do not forget, through the preservation of this narrative. This is to both show our respect for those who suffered during that time and to ensure it does not happen again. The poem is taken from Elie Wiesel’s novel Night which is set during the Holocaust and follows the experiences of a young man, from his home in a small town to his emancipation by Allied soldiers from a concentration camp (Wiesel, 2006). The image was created by satirist and artist Shahak Shapira by superimposing selfies taken by visitors to the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin with actual photos taken during the Holocaust, to highlight the disrespectful nature ‘selfies’ at a site such as this (Demilked, 2017).

For my summer assignment for AP U.S history I had to read the novel, A People’s History of the United States. This novel is a nonfictional literary work that was written by the American historian, playwright, and social activist named Howard Zinn. In this novel, Zinn attempts to present American history through the viewpoint of the common people rather than the conquerors and the economical and political elite. The chapters that I had to read from this book were chapters 1 through 10. The chapters were very informative and it allowed me to revisit major events in American History. Therefore; prior to reading this novel, the three events that stood out to me were the Arawak Indians that encountered Columbus, the enslavement of African Americans

Miller, like Glowacka, understands that literature, even fiction, transmits ideas and emotions to the reader which are central to comprehending and learning from traumatic experiences. Miller references Susan Suleiman’s argument that the Holocaust is “only available through representation”. Suleiman made this argument in response to Holocaust deniers who claim that fictitious memoirs confirm the inexistence of the Holocaust. However, the point supports the idea that art, including literature, allows the public to experience something like the Holocaust that otherwise would be not be available to experience.

Nicholas Berg in, The Holocaust and the West Geramn Historians: Historical Interpretation and Autobiogrpahical Memory (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2015) argues that memory and history are intertwined, therefore the autobiographical memoirs of West German historians post 1945 have influenced the historiography of the Holocaust post 1945.

The topic of the Holocaust is a broad and gruesome one; maybe it is because of the horrors that happened that people still write about it, to try to understand what happened, and how it did. Regardless, Elie Wiesel explains why he, as a Holocaust survivor, writes within his essay “Why I Write: Making No Become Yes”. He writes that perhaps it is “…in order not to go mad.” or “to touch the bottom of madness.” These two possible reasons are quite different from each other, yet they share a similar topic, this is similarly true about Elie Wiesel’s essay and Harry Weinberg’s short story “A Letter to Harvey Milk” The similarities and differences in these two works shows the varying ways people cope with similar past experience, the impact those memories can have on their lives, and the effect sharing those experiences can have on them.

The memoirs and stories that we have read and discussed in class have described The Holocaust as a life changing event that made both the conquered and conquerors question if there was any faith left in humanity and what were their true motives. Arguably the most horrific event of the twentieth century and even in Earth’s history, The Holocaust devastated most of Central and Eastern Europe. It separated loved ones, most of the time forever. These stories display the courage and hope of ordinary people who just wanted to make it to the next day, by any means necessary.

“Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it”, says Spanish philosopher George Satayana. Remembering the past is important, as it affects all present and future outcomes. The first step to remembering the past is acknowledging the facts and what is true. This is seen in the graphic memoir, Maus and Maus II, written by Art Spiegelman. In this book, Spiegelman writes using his and father’s dialogue, in which his father, Vladek, recounts his experiences of the Holocaust. With the importance of these events in mind, in order to accurately depict these experiences Spiegelman tries his best to gather any documentations, such as his mother’s diaries, sketches and diagrams of the camps back then, and a real life photo of Vladek to

“Differing and personal opinions, reflections and experiences of events can provoke great debate in the way in which history is recorded and interpreted”. History is the apex of evidence that portrays a past event, it’s reliant on facts, attitudes and cultural values and is trusted with being the most objective and reliable way to view events, personalities or situations. Memory however is an individual’s recollection of the past, and it being personal and subjective, is fragile and often biased. The texts “The Fiftieth Gate”, ‘A beautiful life’ and “Maus” all explore the relationship and link between the history and memory of the Holocaust.

Denise Meringolo’s work Museums, Monuments, and National Parks: Toward a New Genealogy of Public History tells a very concise story of what we have come to call “public history.” Public history and other associated efforts such as ecological preservation, categorization, scientific research have in the course of the second half of the nineteenth and the first third of the twentieth to become associated with the ambit of the state and how such information could be used to advance certain initiatives which were associated with an ever more activist or involved federal government in the aftermath of the Civil War and during reconstruction.

It is extremely important to take note that the memoir you are about to portray is one of the most simplistically beautiful and brutal pieces of literature ever written on the Holocaust. It is your job to continue this brave act of defiance, to retell Wladyslaw “Wladek” Szpilman’s story to a wider, more modern audience than ever before. As Wolf Biermann explains in the epilogue, this memoir is so difficult to swallow that the Eastern European audience of 1946 were unable to tolerate such an authentic and unflinching view of the horror they had lived through, causing the memoir to not be published again until fifty years later. However,

Time and time again throughout history, a document comes along to remind us that books matter, especially when written in a historical/literary context, and even more so when the writer himself writes against the wishes of his current political situation. The diary kept by the French writer and critic Jean Guéhenno during the German occupation of France from 1940 to 1944 is a perfect example of one such document. Unlike most French intellectuals of the time, Guéhenno refused to openly publish a single word as long as France remained under the control of Germany, as well as the Vichy government of Marshal Philippe Pétain. Instead he wrote in his diary as an act of resistance, and as a chronicle of his country’s “servitude.”