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Birkenau (Concentration camp)

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World War, 1939-1945 --- 2ème guerre mondiale --- Personal narratives, Polish --- Récits personnels polonais --- Birkenau (Concentration camp)

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"Born in Hungary in 1927, Magda Hollander-Lafon was among the 437,000 Jews deported from Hungary between May and July 1944. Magda, her mother, and her younger sister survived a three-day deportation to Auschwitz-Birkenau; there, she was considered fit for work and so spared, while her mother and sister were sent straight to their deaths. Hollander-Lafon recalls an experience she had in Birkenau: "A dying woman gestured to me: as she opened her hand to reveal four scraps of moldy bread, she said to me in a barely audible voice, 'Take it. You are young. You must live to be a witness to what is happening here. You must tell people so that this never happens again in the world.' I took those four scraps of bread and ate them in front of her. In her look I read both kindness and release. I was very young and did not understand what this act meant, or the responsibility that it represented." Years later, the memory of that woman's act came to the fore, and Magda Hollander-Lafon could be silent no longer. In her words, she wrote her book not to obey the duty of remembering but in loyalty to the memory of those women and men who disappeared before her eyes. Her story is not a simple memoir or chronology of events. Instead, through a series of short chapters, she invites us to reflect on what she has endured. Often centered on one person or place, the scenes of brutality and horror she describes are intermixed with reflections of a more meditative cast. Four Scraps of Bread is both historical and deeply evocative, melancholic, and at times poetic in nature. Following the text is a "Historical Note" with a chronology of the author's life that complements her kaleidoscopic style. After liberation and a period in transit camps, she arrived in Belgium, where she remained. Eventually, she chose to be baptized a Christian and pursued a career as a child psychologist. The author records a journey through extreme suffering and loss that led to radiant personal growth and a life of meaning. As she states: "Today I do not feel like a victim of the Holocaust but a witness reconciled with myself." Her ability to confront her experiences and free herself from her trauma allowed her to embrace a life of hope and peace. Her account is, finally, an exhortation to us all to discover life-giving joy"--

Holocaust survivors --- Jews --- Jewish children in the Holocaust --- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) --- Hollander-Lafon, Magda. --- Birkenau (Concentration camp)

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Jews --- Sonderkommandos --- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) --- Gas chambers --- Juifs --- Kommandos spéciaux --- Holocauste, 1939-1945 --- Chambre à gaz (Exécution capitale) --- Biography --- Biography. --- Biographies --- Biographies --- Récits personnels --- Venezia, Shlomo, --- Interviews. --- Birkenau (Concentration camp) --- Auschwitz (Concentration camp)

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Entre 1942 et novembre 1944, l'Allemagne nazie assassine dans les chambres à gaz d'Auschwitz-Birkenau plus d'un million de personnes, des Juifs européens dans leur immense majorité. Un Sonderkommando (unité spéciale), constitué de détenus juifs qui se relaient jour et nuit, est contraint d'extraire les cadavres des chambres à gaz, de les brûler dans les crématoires et de disperser les cendres. Quelques hommes ont transcrit ces ténèbres et ont enfoui leurs manuscrits dans le sol de Birkenau. Cinq de ces textes ont été retrouvés après la guerre. Aucun de leurs auteurs n'a survécu, les équipes étant liquidées et remplacées à intervalles réguliers. Ce sont trois de ces manuscrits, dans une nouvelle traduction du yiddish pour partie inédite en français, qui sont présentés ici. La terreur, qui est la règle à Birkenau, est la toile de fond de cette histoire. C'est d'elle dont parlent tous les manuscrits retrouvés. Du silence, de l'absence d'évasion, de ce monde à l'envers où le meurtre est devenu la norme et l'impératif moral d'un peuple saisi d'une angoisse obsidionale. S'y ajoutent les dépositions, lors du procès de Cracovie en 1946, de trois rescapés des Sonderkommandos, témoignages qui confirment, entre autres, l'intensité du massacre des Juifs de Hongrie au printemps 1944, les documents d'histoire, les photos de déportations, les archives allemandes. Témoignages qui racontent la panique de la chambre à gaz, des victimes mortes asphyxiées, piétinées avant même que n'opère le gaz, dans des scènes à proprement parler inimaginables. Mais qui évoquent aussi la jouissance prise à humilier et à martyriser autrui, le sadisme sans limites, puisque tout était permis contre un peuple placé hors humanité.

Sonderkommandos --- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) --- Kommandos spéciaux --- Holocauste, 1939-1945 --- Personal narratives. --- Récits personnels --- Birkenau (Concentration camp) --- Auschwitz (Concentration camp) --- World War, 1939-1945 --- Atrocities --- 2nd World War - German Concentration Camps - Shoah --- Personal narratives --- Kommandos spéciaux --- Récits personnels --- Guerre mondiale (1939-1945) --- Camps de concentration --- Chambres à gaz --- Konzentrationslager Birkenau --- Sonderkommandos - Poland --- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) - Poland - Personal narratives --- World War, 1939-1945 - Atrocities - Poland