Klugerlongthree
DOING: in retracing
her experiences and commenting on them, Kluger
re-situates Holocaust discourse—reviewing the historically verifiable
circumstances, but enabling a different range of response.
I. Viktor and Schorschi:
Father: Viktor Klüger
Kluger (who drops the umlaut in
the
believed for many years that he was gassed at
Public Writing can also change personal history: pp.39-40
Brother: Georg
Schorschi = Austrian nickname for George (Georgie)
Deported from
p. 82
Historian uses the example of a transport to
83. but she does not share details
In his 70th year—“buries” her brother in this way—completing her Antigone duty
Intersection of History and personal history
Historical fact and human truth
These are personal memories supplemented and completed by historical research into the transports and chance encounters with others who knew the details
.
II. Memory and Truth:
What do (Holocaust) Monuments, Memorials, and Memorial Museums do?
Mass murders of Jews, Roma, Sinti, Poles, the disabled
Problem of memorializing:
You
are the mayor of a German town who has been given funding for a memorial of
some kind. What do you DO?
1. Decide on your purpose: Possible purposes
---Honor the dead and remember them
---Inform the living: Make this information available
---Teach: Never Again--those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Ergo, those who can learn from history can prevent repetition??
---Inspire humanity in the visitors by showing inhumanity in the proper context
2. Implement your intentions: How? Who will design? What will accomplish your purpose?
What design or sequence of exhibits will DO what you hope to achieve?
settled on Peter Eisenman’s design of 2,700 concrete slabs of varying heights: http://z.about.com/d/architecture/1/7/r/j/berlinmemorial.jpg
Think about how you would do this. Or give examples of a well-done monument, memorial, or memorial museum
Kluger on Museums and Monuments:
pp.63-64
***pp. 66. on using the camp sites for museums
Contrasts with
Hiroshima Children’s Memorial: http://www.miketilly.com/photos/2003_japan_nz_fiji_ny/photos/jp/030918-hiroshima_sadako.jpg
The ugly building: http://travel.aolcdn.com/travdestguide/Hiroshima-japan_01-360a032507.jpg
Theresienstadt as a place where
people still live
III. Kluger’s museum, her monument, her memorial to humanity and
human goodness:
Doing: The good deed
There is one event and one person about which Kluger is absolutely uncritical and utterly appreciative.
The perpetrator is an enigma, her motives incomprehensible, and her identity unknown.
Ruth is 12 and the minimum age is 15.
p.103
p. 105
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jfny1Fs8fJQ
What is she doing here with this epilogue?
“perhaps redeemed” ??