Abstract
At a time where so few survivors remain alive and the extermination of European Jews is leaving the field of direct human experience, the evolving collective memory of the event is reflected in popular culture. There has recently been a rise in the number of graphic novels written on the subject of the Shoah, particularly in France, Germany, and North America. These works, written by second or even third-generation survivors nearly 80 years after the genocide, approach the event from perspectives that not only further Art Spiegelman’s path in that they challenge the so-called limits of Holocaust representations, but also open up new discussions on transgenerational trauma. Focusing on two graphic novels, Michel Kichka’s Deuxième génération: Ce que je n’ai pas dit à mon père (2012) and Jérémie Dres’ Nous n’irons pas à Auschwitz (2011), my aim here is to examine the new aspects of trauma that these texts present, more specifically the reluctance to deal with one’s past, the struggle to bear the weight of the ‘sacred’ memory of Auschwitz, and in some cases the lack of interest of the youth in the Shoah. Both these autobiographical texts narrate the story of men who end up making the conscious decision never to go to Auschwitz after finding out about their ancestors’ history, asserting their desire to not solely be defined by their family tragedy. These issues, which fit in with what Matthew Boswell and Joost Krijnen define as ‘Holocaust impiety’, mark a break with graphic novels from the 1970s and 1980s which, as Gillian Rose writes, ‘mystified’ the event as ‘something we dare not understand’.
Highlights
In their book Third-Generation Holocaust Representation (Aarons and Berger 2017), literary scholarsVictoria Aarons and Alan L
Drawing on the duality that seems to be at the heart of Holocaust literary studies—Holocaust piety and Holocaust impiety—I analyze here two autobiographical works originally published in French: Deuxième génération—Ce que je n’ai pas dit à mon père (Second Generation—The Things I Didn’t Tell My Father) (2012/2016)2 by Belgian-Israeli author Michel Kichka and Nous n’irons pas voir Auschwitz (We Won’t See Auschwitz) (2011/2012)3 by French author Jérémie Dres
Several conclusions can be drawn from the close reading of these two graphic novels
Summary
In their book Third-Generation Holocaust Representation (Aarons and Berger 2017), literary scholars. Berger make an invaluable contribution to the recent reflection on the new complexities of Shoah memory They discuss the extent of the relationship between the central Jewish biblical assertions of redemption—’we are punished for our sins’ (mipenei hataeinu) and ‘suffering is a reproof of love’ (yessurin shel ahavah)—and the representation of the event in third-generation authors’ literary productions Drawing on the duality that seems to be at the heart of Holocaust literary studies—Holocaust piety (as coined per Gillian Rose 1996) and Holocaust impiety (as defined by Matthew Boswell 2012)—I analyze here two autobiographical works originally published in French: Deuxième génération—Ce que je n’ai pas dit à mon père (Second Generation—The Things I Didn’t Tell My Father) (2012/2016) by Belgian-Israeli author Michel Kichka and Nous n’irons pas voir Auschwitz (We Won’t See Auschwitz) (2011/2012) by French author Jérémie Dres.4 Both the authors, respectively the son and grandson of Holocaust survivors, narrate their difficult relationship with their family traumas, struggling to find the desire to listen to perpetual sorrow and refusing to go to Auschwitz. These texts, challenging on the one hand the stigma attached to ‘popular’ literature deemed unfit to deal with such a subject, present readers with a completely different dynamic to that found in the most famous Holocaust graphic novel, Art Spiegelman’s Maus (1986/1991), in which the son dedicates years of his life to listening to his father and passing on his memories
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