The Mythisation of the Holocaust
Rybak, K. (2019). Dzieciństwo w labiryncie getta. Recepcja mitu labiryntu w polskiej literaturze dziecięcej o Zagładzie. Wydawnictwa UW.
Abstract
The author of this review article critically discusses the book Dzieciństwo w labiryncie getta. Recepcja mitu labiryntu w polskiej literaturze dziecięcej o Zagładzie [Childhood in the Labyrinth of the Ghetto: Reception of the Labyrinth Myth in Polish Children’s Literature about the Holocaust] by Krzysztof Rybak (2019). She examines the monograph in the context of, inter alia, the research already conducted in the field, literary works, architecture, memorials, the Holocaust victims’, survivors’, and witnesses’ testimonies, as well as in relation to the possible symbolic links of the Shoah and the antiquity. The paper’s conclusion is that children’s literature can hardly prevent the mythisation of the Holocaust, but Rybak’s book proves beyond doubt the perseverance of myth. The banalisation, simplification, and trivialisation of the Shoah, as well as the issues of appropriateness and memory, are also important concepts that frame the author’s reflections presented in this paper.
Keywords
classical reception studies; Holocaust; Krzysztof Rybak; labyrinth; myth; Polish children’s literature
References
Alighieri, D. (2003). The divine comedy: The Inferno, the Purgatorio, and the Paradiso (J. Ciardi, Trans.). New American Library. (Original work published 1472).
American Academy in Rome. (2021, February 2). David Nirenberg & Avinoam Shalem – on ghettoes: medieval, modern, and metaphorical. Retrieved July 8, 2021, from https://aarome.org/events/calendar/david-nirenberg-avinoam-shalem-ghettoes-medieval-modern-metaphorical.
Benjamin, W. (1986). A Berlin chronicle. In Reflections: Essays, aphorisms, autobiographical writings (E. Jephcott, Trans., P. Demetz, Ed. & Intro., pp. 3–60). Shocken. (Original work published 1932).
Benjamin, W. (2014). The fall of Herculaneum and Pompeii. In Radio Benjamin (J. Lutes, Trans., L. Rosenthal, Ed., pp. 152–157). Verso. (Original work broadcasted 1931).
Białoszewski, M. (2015). A memoir of the Warsaw Uprising (M. G. Levine, Trans.). New York Review Books. (Original work published 1970).
Brenner, R. (2014). The ethics of witnessing: The Holocaust in Polish writers’ diaries from Warsaw, 1939–1945. Northwestern University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv43vsp2.
Buryła, S. (2016). Wokół Zagłady. Szkice o literaturze Holokaustu. TAiWPN Universitas.
Canin, M. (2018). Przez ruiny i zgliszcza. Podróż po stu zgładzonych gminach żydowskich w Polsce (M. Adamczyk-Garbowska, Trans.). Nisza. (Original work published 1952).
Combrzyńska-Nogala, D. (2012). Bezsenność Jutki. Literatura.
Czapiga, M. (2013). Labirynt: inicjacja, podróż i zbłądzenie. Figura ludzkiego losu w kulturze europejskiej. Wydawnictwo UWr.
del Toro, G. (Director). (2006). El laberinto del fauno [Pan’s labyrinth] [Motion picture]. Picturehouse & Warner Bros.
Edelman, A. (2017, November 29). Wnuczki. Zeszyty Literackie. Retrieved February 14, 2021, from https://www.zeszytyliterackie.pl/aleksander-edelman-wnuczki/?cli_action=1625766220.757.
Edelman, M. (2004, August 6). The ghetto fights. Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing at the University of Pennsylvania. Retrieved January 31, 2021, from https://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/Holocaust/warsaw-uprising.html. (Original work published 1945).
[Efrat, Z., & Kowalsky, M.]. (n.d.). Ghetto Fighters’ House Museum. Efrat-Kowalsky Architects. Retrieved July 8, 2021, from http://www.efrat-kowalsky.co.il/project/2006-ghetto-fighters-museum/.
Evans, A. (1921–1935). The Palace of Minos: A comparative account of the successive stages of the early Cretan civilization as illustrated by the discoveries at Knossos (vols. 1–6). Macmillan.
Franklin, R. (2018, July 16). How should children’s books deal with the Holocaust. New Yorker. Retrieved January 31, 2021, from https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/07/23/how-should-childrens-books-deal-with-the-holocaust.
Haverkamp, A. (1995). The Jewish quarters in German towns during the late Middle Ages. In R. Po-Chia Hsia & H. Lehmann (Eds.), In and out of the Ghetto: Jewish-Gentile relations in late medieval and early modern Germany (pp. 13–28). Cambridge University Press.
Hawthorne, N. (1853). The Minotaur. In Tanglewood tales for boys and girls: Being a second wonder book (pp. 19–70). Ticknor, Reed, and Fields.
Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs. (1998, August 25). Encounters – Yad Layeled Museum. Retrieved July 8, 2021, from https://mfa.gov.il/mfa/abouttheministry/publications/pages/encounters-%20yad%20layeled%20museum.aspx.
Kahn, J. (2019, January 7). Ghetto Gastro opens Labyrinth 1.1, their new HQ in the Bronx. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved January 21, 2021, from https://www.wsj.com/articles/ghetto-gastro-opens-labyrinth-1-1-their-new-hq-in-the-bronx-11546877031.
Kali [Gutkowski, K. M.]. (2018). 30 KMH [Song]. On V8T [Album]. Ganja Mafia Label.
Kasper, J. (2016). Der traumatisierte Raum. Insistenz, Inschrift, Montage bei Freud, Levi, Kertész, Sebald und Dante. De Gruyter.
Kimmel, E. A. (1977). Confronting the ovens: The Holocaust and juvenile fiction. The Horn Book Magazine, 53, 84–91.
Korczak, J. (2003). Ghetto diary (J. Bachrach & B. J. Lifton, Trans., B. J. Lifton, Intro.). Yale University Press. (Original work published 1978).
Leociak, P. (2019). Limit experiences: A study of twentieth-century forms of representation (A. Shannon, Trans.). Peter Lang. (Original work published 2009).
Orlev, U. (1980). The lead soldiers: A novel (H. Halkin, Trans.). Taplinger. (Original work published 1956).
Paloff, B. (2017). Can you tell me how to get to the Warsaw Ghetto? Modernism/modernity, 24(3). https://doi.org/10.1353/mod.2017.0054.
Paul, J. (2011). Pompeii, the Holocaust, and the Second World War. In S. Hales & J. Paul (Eds.), Pompeii in the public imagination from its rediscovery to today (pp. 340–355). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199569366.001.0001.
Pew Research Center. (2020, January 22). What Americans know about the Holocaust. Retrieved February 15, 2021, from https://www.pewforum.org/2020/01/22/what-americans-know-about-the-holocaust/.
Pliny the Younger. (1988). The eruption of Vesuvius, August 24th, AD 79. In J. Carey (Ed.), Eyewitness to history (pp. 19–20). Harvard University Press. (Original work written A.D. 79).
Rosenfeld, A. H. (2011). The end of the Holocaust. Indiana University Press.
Roth, C. (1971). Jewish quarter. In Encyclopaedia Judaica (vol. 10). Macmillan.
Rothberg, M. (2019). The implicated subject: Beyond victims and perpetrators. Stanford University Press.
Rybak, K. (2016–2020). Oczami dziecka. Zagłada w polskiej literaturze dziecięcej i młodzieżowej po roku 1989. Retrieved July 9, 2021, from https://oczamidziecka.al.uw.edu.pl/.
Rybak, K. (2019). Dzieciństwo w labiryncie getta. Recepcja mitu labiryntu w polskiej literaturze dziecięcej o Zagładzie. Wydawnictwa UW.
Śreniowski, S. (2005). Z księgi obłędu i ohydy (J. Leociak, Trans.). Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały, 1, 246–250. https://doi.org/10.32927/ZZSiM.159.
Sütterlin, S. (2014, December 19). Literature as nourishment – research on a new spatial understanding of the Holocaust (S. Voigt, Trans.). University of Potsdam. Retrieved January 31, 2021, from https://www.uni-potsdam.de/en/headlines-and-featured-stories/detail/2014-12-19-literature-as-nourishment-research-on-a-new-spatial-understanding-of-the-holocaust.
Todorov, T. (1995). Les Abus de la mémoire. Arléa.
Todorov, T. (2009). Memory as remedy for evil. Journal of International Criminal Justice, 7(3), 447–462. https://doi.org/10.1093/jicj/mqp017.
Tomczok, M. (2017). Czyja dzisiaj jest Zagłada? Retoryka – ideologia – popkultura. Wydawnictwo IBL PAN.
Twain, M. (1911). The innocents abroad. Grosset and Dunlap. (Original work published 1869).
Wisse, R. R. (2020). The dark side of Holocaust education. National Affairs, 48. Retrieved February 2, 2021, from https://www.nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/the-dark-side-of-holocaust-education.
Witasiak, K. (2016). The archetype of the labyrinth in the architecture of holocaust memorials. Czasopismo Techniczne, 8(2A), 253–260. https://doi.org/10.4467/2353737XCT.16.190.5801.
Wójcik-Dudek, M. (2019). Król Korczak w Muzeum Historii Żydów Polskich POLIN. Koncepcje pedagogiczne Janusza Korczaka a muzealne przestrzenie. Nowa Biblioteka, 35(4), 7–27. https://doi.org/10.31261/NB.2019.35.01.
Wójcik-Dudek, M. (2020). W labiryncie biblioteczki Shoah. ArtPapier, 386(2). Retrieved January 15, 2021, from http://artpapier.com/index.php?page=artykul&wydanie=386&artykul=7711&kat=15.
Wołk, M. (2019). Czy lubimy czytać o Szoa? Narracje o Zagładzie, 5, 379–390. https://doi.org/10.31261/NoZ.2019.05.21.
Yolen, J. (2018). Mapping the bones. Philomel.
Ziolkowski, T. (2008). Minos and the moderns: Cretan myth in twentieth-century literature and art. Oxford University Press.
Pomeranian University in Słupsk Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5342-7268
Katarzyna Jerzak – PhD, Professor in the Department of Modern Languages at the Pomeranian University in Słupsk (Poland). Her research interests are literary and artistic representations of exile and peregrination. Contact: katarzyna.jerzak@apsl.edu.pl.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Open Access Policy
All articles presented on the pages of ”Dzieciństwo. Literatura i Kultura” are published in open access under a Creative Commons license - Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). It means that:
- they can be made available and quoted under the condition of explicit and clear indication of the author/authors of the referenced text;
- you cannot use legal or technological means that would limit others in using the text under the terms of the license.
More information: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/