Holocaust Child Survivors' Memoirs as Reflected in Appelfeld's The Story of a Life

Abstract

In her article Child Survivors' Memoirs as Reflected in Appelfeld's The Story of a Dana Mihailescu identifies characteristics of child survivors' memoirs in Aharon Appelfeld's writing. Mihailescu addresses the following main question: is the structure of child survivors' memoirs similar to that of Holocaust memoirs written by adult survivors or is there a tendency to focus on certain aspects given the young age some had at the time? Mihailescu argues that unlike regular autobiographies by Holocaust adult survivors, child survivors' memoirs are less constructed around factual events of private and public relevance and that they concentrate instead on deeply-entrenched sensations and the imminence of the death of parents and loss children experienced during World War II. Further, Mihailescu argues that it is important to recognize that in the case of a child survivor turned author like Appelfeld, the act of deferred mourning is inscribed in the technique of memoir construction via the continuous interruption of straightforward chronological organization. Dana Mihailescu, Child Survivors' Memoirs as Reflected in Appelfeld's The Story of a page 2 of 7 CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 17.3 (2015): Thematic Issue Life Writing and the Trauma of War. Ed. Louise O. Vasvari and I-Chun Wang