Memories

"To attempt to represent Auschwitz in language - to reduce the degradation, death and stench to a concept - drowns out the screams...it is therefore necessary that the Holocaust remains immemorial - that it remains that which cannot be remembered - but also that which cannot be forgotten.  Thus, any art attempting to represent the Holocaust should continue to haunt us with its inability to represent the unrepresentative, to say the unsayable.  It should continue to haunt us with the feeling that there is something Other than representation."

Today in class we discussed this quote by Jim Powell.  He says that it is impossible to represent the all the horrors of the Holocaust through writing, which is true.  History textbooks, for example, only state the statistics and a synopsis of the Holocaust.  One chapter in a textbook isn't nearly enough to accurately represent this tragic event.  They choose to write about the big picture instead of specific details which "drowns of the screams."  However, it is hard for the authors of the history books to get personal stories because many of the survivors don't like to talk about everything they witnessed; it's "unsayable."  Many try to forget everything that has happened to them and the best way to do that is by not talking about.  Yet, if everyone forgets about the Holocaust, an event just like it can happen again.  History repeats itself unless the world learns from the past and prevents it from happening in the future.  It is a constant battle between remember and forgetting, but neither one ever wins.  People can forget about it for a while but eventually something will bring back the memories, such as a picture or an article.  These works of art are "haunt[ing]" because parts of it may be true, but the creators are leaving out some terrible details which is very frightening to think about.