The Representation of Shoah: Children Writing the Holocaust

Aim of this diploma thesis is to compare different forms of narrating of the holocaust through Children's eyes. Pure child's narration has much bigger impact on reader than narration of an adult, enriched with metaphors and attributes. In this way child's point of view extends the ethical dimension of holocaust narration. We will examine the discourse of child's narration in three diaries (The Diary of David Sierakowiak, The Diary of Mary Berg, The Beautiful Days of My Youth by Ana Novac), one Fictional diary (The Unloved. From the Diary of Perla S. by Arnošt Lustig) and a novella (Child of the Shadows by Henryk Grynberg). Children's narrators of the holocaust are characterized by psychological maturity, which contrasts with their official age. On the other hand they reveal childishness, while growing up, because of their unfinished childhood. In those books we will examine changing of the narrators discourse and his depiction of space (ghetto, concentration camp, shelter) and persons (family, friend, Nazis). We will also focus on distinct motives that form these books (e.g.: hunger, guilt, comic, Paradise, game)