Art from the Ashes: A Holocaust Anthology

by Lawrence L. Langer

Even as the movie Schindler's List attracted crowds and awards, it sparked a serious public how could a Hollywood director, someone so far from the Holocaust, capture it on film? Indeed, could anyone capture this staggeringly apocalyptic experience in art? In Art from the Ashes, Lawrence L. Langer shows how, over the last fifty years, artists and writers have tried to come to grips with this monumental horror. Art from the Ashes provides the most far-reaching collection of art, drama, poetry, and prose about the Holocaust ever presented in a single volume. Through the works of men and women, Jews and non-Jews, figures famous and unknown, those who were there and those separated from the ordeal by time and space, this anthology offers a vision of the human reality of the catastrophe. Essays by familiar writers like Primo Levi and Elie Wiesel accompany lesser-known efforts by Yankiel Wiernik and Frantisek Kraus; stories by Tadeusz Borowski and Ida Fink join fiction by neglected authors such as Isaiah Spiegel and Adolf Rudnicki; and extensive selections appear from the work of six poets--the renowned Paul Celan, Nelly Sachs, and Abraham Sutzkever along with the less celebrated Dan Pagis, Jacob Glatstein, and Miklos Radnoti. Each selection (except for self-contained excerpts from ghetto journals and diaries) appears here in its complete form. Langer also includes in their entirety a novel by Aharon Appelfeld, a novella by Pierre Gascar, and Joshua Sobol's controversial drama Ghetto. In addition, this volume features a visual essay in the form of reproductions of twenty works of art created in the Terezin concentration camp--which, as Langer notes, "further enrich and complicate our confrontation with the physical, moral, psychological, and emotional disruptions with which the Holocaust challenges us." The stunning immensity of the Holocaust looms over the twentieth century, overshadowing all our efforts to make sense of it. Art from the Ashes begins to pry open its mysteries, with outstanding selections collected by one of our finest commentators on the era.

Genres: Holocaust, History, Poetry, Nonfiction, Anthologies, World War II, Germany

720 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 19, 1995

Reviews

[Whitney · Rating 4 out of 5]

apparently I'm a sucker for anthologies. Great works done by Holocaust survivors and in response to the Holocaust. Some of it is really emotional, but it's good.

[Lynda · Rating 5 out of 5]

A mix of poetry and prose - most gut-wrenching and touching.

[Eva-Marie Nevarez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finally finished! (I had the page count wrong on almost all of my updates.)
I don't like to admit this, much less to actually do it, but there were parts I skipped here. For me, it had to happen. As much as I devour anything related to the Holocaust some writings mesh with you and some just don't. I'm not a fan of poetry and while I did find a few that really resonated, many more just didn't because of my lack of understanding for poetry.
The 'Painters of Terezin' section was amazing and I can't wait to read more about that im particular. There is also a 'Drama' section, with only one featured, by Joshua Sobol, that I skipped. I didn't even start it - I knew by looking that I couldn't read something in that format.
The fictional stories make up a far larger portion of the book than non-fiction and there is a seperate section titled 'Journals and Diaries' that was amazing, as one would guess.
If you're even partially well-read in the matter of the Holocaust you'll encounter some authors you already know, you'll probably even come across whole stories that you've read. This happened to me three times if I remember correctly.
I can say that every single story in the 'Non-Fiction' and in the 'Journals and Diaries' sections were enlightening for me. Out of the 'Fiction' section there were a few I didn't "like" if I can use that word. For example, Aharon Appelfeld's wasn't the best for me although I was compelled to finish it and Tzili really caught my interest. I'd love to witness some conversations between intelligent people about Jakov Lind's story that was included here. It's not for everyone, I thought it wouldn't be for me, and it turned out that while it was unlike anything I've come across it really had "it". Pierre Gascar's was another, and the last, that I felt wasn't "like the rest." (Can anyone tell I have a hard time finding words if they aren't positive when it comes to this?)
In the end, it probably had something for just about anyone and while I consider it absolutely invaluable, because of it's length, the different arts featured, and the level of the writing, I'd encourage only certain people to go after this. I'm more of a memoir/diary kind of girl I guess. I am happy that I read this and I found an outstanding number of authors and books I hadn't heard of to check out.

[Lulu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this now for class....

1. "Tzili" was so heartbreaking I could not finish it. So I really just did read halfway and then closed it.

2. And don't even get me started with "A Year In Treblinka." I decided to write about that for a paper.

I agree with the comment below... Stuff like this still happens around the world, right now, in the 21st century. It DOES make your life look like a total joke. Not an easy read, as with all Holocaust books.

[Beth Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent collection, some pieces well-known, some much less so. It is marred only by the shrill tone of the introductions (where Nazis are routinely called murderers or animals, which may be true but is not particularly relevant to the job of introducing someone else's artistic take on the subject), but they can be surmounted.

[Jan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I could only read a few portions; this is brutal stuff and horrifying to know it's still going on around the world. It makes your everyday world a total joke.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very much like the selections from Zelkowicz and Wiernik. Not so big on Lewin. Excited to read more.