Auschwitz e Depois

Auschwitz, et après #1-3

by Charlotte Delbo

Como continuar a viver se o corpo recorda os golpes, a fome, a sede, o medo e o desprezo? Charlotte Delbo continuou e com essa(s) memória(s) escreveu livros exigentes e líricos, belos e acutilantes, como os três que compõem Auschwitz e Depois.

Nenhum de Nós Há-de Voltar, Um Conhecimento Inútil e Medida dos Nossos Dias são os respectivos nomes e partilham entre si a sensibilidade dessa mulher, resistente, presa política, sobrevivente, e todos expõem imagens estilhaçadas e tenebrosas de Auschwitz bem como o poder que o horror tem de desalinhar biografias que nunca souberam como atar o nó com quem eram antes da guerra.

Se Nenhum de Nós Há-de Voltar, só editado em 1965, quase vinte anos depois de ser escrito enquanto Charlotte recuperava na Suíça, se foca no quotidiano do campo numa perspectiva pessoal do que foi visto, sentido e suportado, o segundo volume Um Conhecimento Inútil, publicado em 1970, colmata espaços não descritos desta jornada infernal (Ravensbrück; os SS que se tornam progressivamente humanos; o primeiro encontro com civis) bem como dá espaço a uma nova inquietação: o que fazer quando voltarmos? Da verificação do que foi feito, ou possível fazer, desses destinos que sofreram o indizível nasce o último livro da trilogia, Medida dos Nossos Dias.

Ao longo das últimas décadas, traduzida e editada, Charlotte Delbo foi encontrando o seu espaço no mundo livresco fora de França. Cada vez são mais os leitores que aceitam o apelo de Charlotte: olhar para tentar ver.

Genres: Holocaust, History, Nonfiction, Memoir, World War II, Poetry, Biography

470 pages, Paperback

First published April 26, 1995

About the author

Charlotte Delbo was a French writer chiefly known for her haunting memoirs of her time as a prisoner in Auschwitz, where she was sent for her activities as a member of the French resistance.
Born in Vigneux-sur-Seine, Essonne near Paris, Delbo gravitated toward theater and politics in her youth, joining the French Young Communist Women's League in 1932. She met and married George Dudach two years later. Later in the decade she went to work for producer Louis Jouvet and was with his company in Buenos Aires when Wehrmacht forces invaded and occupied France in 1940.
She could have waited to return when Philippe Pétain, leader of the collaborationist Vichy regime, established special courts in 1941 to deal with members of the resistance. One sentenced a friend of hers, a young architect named Andre Woog, to death. "I can't stand being safe while others are guillotined", she told Jouvet. "I won't be able to look anyone in the eye."
Accordingly she returned to Paris and Dudach, who was already active in the resistance as the assigned courier for the internationally famous poet Louis Aragon. The couple spent much of that winter printing and distributing pamphlets and other anti-Nazi Germany reading material. They became part of the group around communist philosopher Georges Politzer, and took an active role in publishing the underground journal Lettres Françaises.
On March 2, 1942, police followed a careless courier to their apartment, and arrested George and Charlotte. The courier was able to escape from a back window.
Her memoir uses unconventional, almost experimental, narrative techniques to not only convey the experience of Auschwitz but how she and her fellow survivors coped in the years afterwards.

Reviews

[Weltschmerz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Navikavala sam se na užase ove knjige dok se nisam srodila s njima kao što su se logorašice navikavale na užase preživljenog, ali normalizovati užas je u redu onda kada nemaš drugog izbora, a nije kada ga posmatraš. Knjiga sadrži pesmu o uzaludnosti žrtve i patnje koja je što se više vremenaki udaljavamo od Drugog svetskog rata sve tužnija i sve aktuelnija. Da knjige stvarno imaju takvu moć, ova bi bila jedna od onih koje će spasiti ko zna koliko života. U našoj stvarnosti pak možemo samo da čuvamo od zaborava ono što su imali da kažu ljudi koji su preživeli, iako deluje da su pričali uzalud. Jedini preostali optimizam je onaj vezan za daleku bolju budućnost, bez nas, u kojoj će sve ponovo imati smisla, pa i patnja i žrtva za viši cilj.

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is easily one of the most moving and influential books I have had the privilege to read. After living through the truly horrific experience of imprisonment in Auschwitz, Charlotte Delbo has managed to turn her pain into art. It is a combination of prose, poetry, vignettes, and prose-poems. At first, the formatting and structure may strike the reader as jarring, but even this has its purpose. It is intentionally done in this way to convey the shreds of memory that exist after the rupture of trauma. By refusing the "comfort" of familiarity to her readers, the author induces an almost vicarious experience of her disorientation.

The beauty of her writing often lies in its simplicity; in the way that she is able to convey a sea of emotion with even a single, understated line. Of course, I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge that this is a translation from the original French. Having read both the original text and this recent translation, I can confidently say that the translator is true to Delbo's words and maintains the form of the text very well.

At times, this books can be difficult to read, but not for the reasons that one might think. Delbo is not explicit in detail, nor gruesome in describing the horrors of the camp. Instead, she attempts to recreate the emotions of the experiences, the trauma of the event itself through her writing. She says in her introduction that a simple litany of the tragedy will do nothing to enlighten the reader, but rather that "il faut donner à voir" (loosely: they must be made to see).

Charlotte Delbo's Auschwitz and After well deserves a place on every bookshelf, not only for what it can teach us about a tragic event of our modern past, but for its striking insight into the very nature of memory and human experience.

[Peter Landau · Rating 5 out of 5]

AUSCHWITZ AND AFTER, a trilogy of memoirs by Charlotte Delbo, a French resistance fighter who lost her husband to a firing squad and spent the war in concentration camps, is not an easy read. It shouldn’t be. Her straight-forward, often poetic, reflections on her and her co-captives’ internment is like a description she writes of the people in cattle cars being delivered to the camps: they expect the worse and find the incomprehensible. The details are what stay with me. How the constant thirst, the lack of saliva, makes it impossible to talk. The cold. Carrying the dead back from a work detail for no other reason than to retain a shred of humanity.

The first two books are on time in the camps, and it’s impossible to read, then the last book, which is made up her fellow prisoners’ lives after the camps, is impossibly heartbreaking. The introduction speaks of Delbo in comparison to the author of another famous trilogy of Hell, Dante, and how he comes from a Christian perspective of sin to redemption and finally transcendence. It rings false to Delbo. How can someone transcend Auschwitz? She rejects the bogus template for the more truthful idea to endure.

Also in the introduction is a moment after the war, a ceremony where the French government pays tribute to those who died in the camps. While reading the names of the dead from the podium some clerical mistake adds her name to that list, and Delbo raises her hand to interrupt, “No, sir, I’m present.” Yes, she was and is, as long as we continue to read her testament.

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whew. I had to stop, several times, and put this book aside and finished it much later than I thought I would. Not only is the subject powerful, but Delbo's writing takes away your breath and makes you ache. I thought about giving this book four stars just because it's so emotionally difficult to read, but I don't want anyone to be dissuaded from attempting it by a lower rating. Auschwitz and After should be on everyones "to read" list.

[anna ✨ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Key words from this book: hope(lessness), guilt, cold, why?.

I am almost afraid to rate/review this, because how can you rate/review a book about this topic? Who am I to say whether or not I liked the way someone wrote about their trauma/experiences?
This book was heart-breaking, but in a way I have never read before. The writing style seemed detached and not as emotional as other Holocaust literature I've read which I think is interesting. It also communicates what Delbo makes clear: "You cannot understand" (p. 127). How can we ever know what it was like? How can we ever know if we do not speak the same language as survivors (and I not only mean Holocaust survivors, but every kind of survivors)?
"There are people who say, "I'm thirsty." They step into a café and order a beer." (p. 145)
But even though the writing style read detached and non-emotional, the details of Delbo's memories make it tragic nonetheless - one poem that broke me was Prayer to the Living to Forgive Them for Being Alive, a couple of sentences of which: "I beg you / do something / learn a dance step / something to justify your existence / something that gives you the right / to be dressed in your skin in your body hair / learn to walk and to laugh / because it would be too senseless / after all / for so many to have died / while you live / doing nothing with your life." (p. 230)
The third part of the book speaks so much about how the survivors believe that everything must have changed, the hope to be free again - to start their lives again and, upon their return, the realization that nothing at all has changed, that there is still war, that there always will be war, etc. It is heartbreaking but very important but very depressing.
I could go on for ages and ages about this book and I think I will have to come back to the many sentences, stories and poems I have marked to fully process this. I think this is a very important part of Holocaust literature precisely because it is not that emotive, because it does not attempt to be able to convey you things you have to know ("I do think. I think people should know. They've got to know. Why would we have made this great effort to return if it's all for nothing, if we remain silent, if we don't say what it was like?" / "What good does it do to say it?" (p.344)).
I would recommend it if you're interested in Holocaust literature or cultural memory, but be aware that this book is extremely, extremely depressing - also sad, but mostly depressing (as it should).

Also, last addition: what I mean with non-emotional, is that she does not go into detail about the horrors, does not make it a spectacle or a heroic tale, as many other books I have read - she tells it like it happened, how she perceived it. I cannot convey to you what I mean with this, but it's such a great book. Omg.

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

Charlotte Delbo tells in such painstaking detail and with a deep well of emotion her life, as sorted into her time at Auschwitz and after. She concludes that there is no before. Her examinations on memory and the impact of survival are, in my opinion, absolutely crucial for any sort of understanding of the Holocaust. I am devastated and moved by her account. There were times I had to pause because her words snagged on my heart and brought tears to my eyes. Her ability to tell a story both so personal and so largely devastating is incredible. She has managed to make art out of pain that no one who wasn't there can even begin to understand, through prose in her own perspective, vignettes of the characters and people in her story of trying to begin to live again, and poems.

[Meri · Rating 4 out of 5]

The poems in this book are so painful to read, but also life-affirming at the same time (can't explain it better than that). The first read destroyed me, I'll admit, but I was steeped in a Holocaust Lit class so my atmosphere was heavy. Later, on subsequent re-reads, it became easier. Her poems are accessible, in terms of rhyme and meter, and her themes, while obviously not joyful, are important for us to read and remember. Buy this book, put it on a shelf and read a poem once in a while. Delbo deserves to be read, and it's our responsibility to carry her memories and images into the future.

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredibly powerful writing from a French political prisoner, interned in Auschwitz. It is refreshing to read an account of the female experience of the camps, especially in such a beautiful combination of poetry and prose. The attention devoted to life after liberation and Delbo's return to France makes this something of a landmark; this work should be hailed alongside that of Wiesel and Levi as the epitome of Holocaust testimony.

[Memphis · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars.

“Hold fast, hold fast, you fool. It wasn’t the first time I issued orders to my heart. Up to now, however, it had been to urge it to continue beating.”

[Heather Dune Macadam · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you’ve loved Caroline Moorhead’s Train in Winter, this is one step closer to Delbot, who kept her compatriots going with poverty and theatre, despite the horrors around them. A tough book. A real book. If you prefer reading Holocaust fiction with happy endings, give Delbot the respect of reading the real deal.

[Alexander Weber · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 / 5. Maybe higher. This needs to become standard holocaust reading. Up there with Levi, Frank, Frankl, and Wiesel. Maybe more of a stepping stone after those authors though, as the structure and experimental nature of the writing makes it harder to read. Plus one requires a good grasp of the history and situation, as Delbo doesn't really give you much of that.
I found so many things to like about this sad, sad, sad book. Her attempts at communicating the horror, her struggle with memory, and her struggle along with her comrades of reintegrating with society.
How funny, so few talk about the reintegration part. You would think, once you're out, life would be great again. I remember reading Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivor accounts and how later in life society would ostracize them because of the victims' scars and the desire for society to forget the whole thing... How strange. And how terrible.
That theme, the idea that society just wants to forget, and how that whole idea of forgetting is so horrendous to anyone who experienced it... is so intense.
In the end, I absolutely loved this book, even if it left me terribly sad most days I read it. But, you know, how could it not? And for those who wish not to read it, because they don't want to be saddened... well, that's sad too: you're denying the victims their need to bear witness to these events, and hopefully keep us all in mind of a) how good we have it; and b) never let these things happen again...

[Chelsea Ervin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredibly depressing and very very good. I find that many Holocaust books retroactively frame and apply a certain structure to the whole experience--not on purpose, I think, but for the sake of trying to explain what happened to people who weren't there. Delbo is good at recreating the experience and emotion of the Holocaust without ascribing a sensible plot that wasn't there in reality. It was crazy and it was awful and in many ways it did not end with the war. In fact, in many ways Delbo did not actually survive Auschwitz, and perhaps no survivor did. Very powerful book.

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is one of those good books that you find difficult to say how good it is.

Delbo was imprisoned in Auschwitz (and Ravensbruck) because of her involvement with the French Resistance (her husband was killed). This was written long after the events and is a blend of poetry and memory.

It is readable and wonderful and heartbreaking. They really should reach this in school,to be honest.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even though I've barely started the first volume of the trilogy, I can tell that the combined narratives will be one of the most powerful Holocaust texts I've ever read.

Delbo's mix of dramatization, poetry, reflection, autobiography, flashback, vignette, and play-like acts is impressive.

The last volume is the most moving, as it gives the accounts of Delbo's comrades' return "home."

[Rochelle Jewel Shapiro · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is written in brilliant, spare prose and poetry. You will never forget it. It's nothing like you've ever read before. Even if you've read a thousand Holocaust books or never wanted to read one at all, you must read this.

[JoJo · Rating 5 out of 5]

A hauntingly beautiful memoir. Her prose and poetry invoke feelings that many other survivors have failed to evoke. A true insight into the experiences of the Holocaust as well as the survivors guilt felt afterwards. Cutting and deeply felt.

[Kitzel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chilling first person testimony of the horrors of Auschwitz and After. Difficult to describe this work with words like 'beautiful', 'accessible' and 'empathising', because it is simultaneously incredibly horrible, alien, and opaque. Definitely worth reading, but it will not be easy.

[Ayca Adenli · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maalesef hiç sevemedim, ya çevirisinden yada aynı şeyleri tekrar tekrar okumaktan… Bence çeviride sıkıntı olabilir ben bu hikayenin duygu tarafını daha çok merak ediyorum çünkü yaşanan olayların aynı tonda anlatılması bir fark yaratmıyor maalesef… çeviri gerçekten kötüydü

[Betsy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maggie used this book for many samples and prompts in the survivor writing workshop at USHMM. Really some of the best written memoir out there, in my opinion.

[Emma Rategan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heartbreaking. I wrote my undergraduate honors thesis primarily upon this book.

[Lise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Denne beretning fra Auschwitz og hjemkomsten derfra gjorde stort indtryk!
Jeg har læst Imre Kertész, som også skriver om at være i samme lejr, og også andre fortællinger om, hvordan mennekser har overlevet og oplevet en frygtelig tid i koncentrationslejr.
Men denne beretning er anderledes, fordi forfatteren forsøger at formidle sine egne oplevelser til os på en måde, så vi måske i glimt kan fatte lidt af, hvordan det har været. (Dog aldrig helt, tror jeg). Delbo gør det ved at blande digte ind i teksten og ved at skrive om små detaljer på en måde, så de står helt skarpt. Det er ikke et referat som forsøger at være så sandt som muligt. Det er snarere et kunstværk, som trænger sig på og trænger sig ind i bevidstheden ved hjælp af de billeder, gentagelser og eksempler, som trækkes frem.
Det er svært at forklare!
Bogen er delt i tre dele, som tidligere er udgivet som hver sin bog. Den første del skrev Charlotte Delbo kort tid efter sin hjemkomst. Denne del blev først udgivet i 1965, fordi Delbo ikke mente, at læserne kunne kapere, og tage oplevelserne ind, før der var gået mere end 20 år efter krigens slutning. Og de to andre dele udkom i 1970 og 1971.
Charlotte Delbo, som blev taget til fange, fordi hun var med i den franske modstandsbevægelse, var under opholdet i koncentrationslejren tæt knyttet til en gruppe andre franske kvinder. Hun opsøger - formodentlig i 60'erne og 70'erne - elleve af disse kvinder - elleve som kom levende hjem til Frankrig. Det er hjerteskærende at læse om, at det håb om at vende tilbage, som var med til at holde kvinderne i live - det blev for de fleste ikke til lykke at få opfyldt. Kun nogle få kom sig - de blev aldrig rigtig levende igen.
Det er en fortælling, som løfter en flig til nogle indsigter, som ellers ikke er mulige at få, når man lever et helt almindeligt liv i Danmark. Insigter om fællesskab, venskab, død, vores skrøbelighed og om det umulige i at skulle fortælle og forklare livet i lejrene til nogen, som ikke selv har prøvet at være der. De/vi vil aldrig kunne forstå.

[Katie Greenwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's always difficult reviewing books that pertain to the Holocaust. Part of me doesn't feel qualified and part of me wonders if in some way it's disregarding the author's experience. With that in mind, as I mentioned in my 'review' for Night by Elie Wiesel (here) this will be more a discussion.

Auschwitz and After details the experience of Charlotte Delbo who was a French Resistance fighter that ended up in Auschwitz and a few camps before eventually being liberated. Interestingly, she was not Jewish and yet suffered similar but not exactly the same treatment. Within the book, she herself acknowledges that whilst the POW suffered terribly the Jewish prisoners suffered infinitely more so.

The book is separated into three difficulty sections, during Auschwitz, leaving Auschwitz and entering a different camp and ultimately the experience of those who managed to go home. It's a harrowing, but beautiful read. The chapters are broken into bits of prose, vignettes and poems. It's strange to call a book on this topic beautiful but it truly was.

The first book, None of Us Will Return was the piece I had to read for my course but I ended up finishing the book simply because I was captivated by Delbo's writing.

A truly astounding work.

www.a-novel-idea.co.uk

[Danijela · Rating 5 out of 5]

~ Stajale smo nepomične. Želja da se borimo i da se odupremo, život, sklonili su se u jedan smanjeni deo tela, na samu periferiju srca. ~

~ Nisam ništa mislila. Nisam ništa gledala. Nisam ništa osećala. Bila sam skelet od hladnoće zbog hladnoće koja duva u provalijama između rebara jednog skeleta. ~

~ Žene sterilišu na hirurgiji.
I kakve veze ima? Pošto se niko od njih neće vratiti. Pošto se niko od nas neće vratiti. ~

~ I svaki dan smo gledale kako umire ova ili ona, neka od onih na kraju snaga, koju smo mogle spasti da je oslobođena onog dana. Umirale su od uzbuđenja, od razočaranja. Umrle su zato što su dopustile da im nada kuca u srcu. ~

~ Nisam uspevala da se ponovo naviknem na sebe. Kako da se ponovo naviknem na jedno ja koje se tako dobro odvojilo od sebe da nisam bila sigurna da je ikada postojalo? Moj pređašnji život? Jesam li pre imala neki život? Moj život posle? Jesam li bila živa pa da imam neko posle, da bih saznala šta je posle? Lebdela sam u sadašnjosti bez stvarnosti. ~

~ Reći ćete da se ljudskom biću može uzeti sve osim sposobnosti da misli i zamišlja. Ne znate vi. Od ljudskog bića se može načiniti skelet u kojem grgoće proliv, može mu se oteti vreme za razmišljanje, snaga za razmišljanje. Imaginarno je prvi telesni luksuz koji dobija dovoljno hrane, ima malčice slobodnog vremena, raspolaže onim osnovnim za uobličavanje snova. U Aušvicu se nije sanjalo, buncalo se. ~

[J.Rats · Rating 5 out of 5]

Este libro está escrito por Charlotte Delbo que sobrevivió dos años en diferentes campos de concentración (incluidos Auschwitz y Ravensbrück). En este libro narra su experiencia en los campos, mezclando poemas, prosa y narraciones de sus amigas supervivientes.

No es una historia fácil de leer, porque es real y cuesta imaginarse que todo esto pasara hace menos de un siglo. Me sorprendió como escribe Delbo, ya que no deja de ser una de las escritoras más modernas que he leído en mi vida.

Lo recomiendo muchísimo porque se ha convertido en mi libro favorito ever y porque siempre hay que mantenerse antifascista, sin dejar que se trivialicen ni se blanqueen las actitudes y comportamientos fascistas, totalitarios e ignorantes, que por desgracia seguimos viendo.

No le puedo poner una puntuación porque sería demasiado frívolo, pero queda todo dicho, cuando se convierte en un libro que te cambia la vida y la perspectiva en muchas cosas.

[Paul Voller · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was hard to read this book. I had to keep putting it down in order to take a rest from the reading of the atrocity of Auschwitz. Even through translation from French to English, this consolidated trilogy of work, captures the horror that this group of French women faced during their incarceration and then through their lives after liberation. As François’s put it “To start life over again, what an expression…If there is a thing you can’t do over again, a thing you can’t start over again, it is your life.

[Hannah]

A haunting, but very moving, read. I’ve read works from other survivors but none have moved me as much as this one. The mix of prose and poetry, the vivid imagery of the camps and the final part of the trilogy that explored the survivors lives after Auschwitz combined to make a very reflective and inward exploration of trauma, whilst somehow managing to include many other voices and their experiences.

[Xana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maravilhoso, triste, dilacerante. Já li muitos testemunhos da segunda guerra mundial - neste tocou-me particularmente a descrição do regresso, as dificuldades de retomar uma vida interrompida. A must read.

[Ktatrnnia · Rating 5 out of 5]

truly a work of art. THIS is what should be in the top 3 books of holocaust literature. so beautifully yet painfully written. i was a bit skeptical when aernout said he could smell the camps due to this book,,,, but i get it now...

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recently read *A Train In Winter* and of course had to pair this with it, because Charlotte Delbo was on that train. It feels like an eternity when she describes it, nowhere near as long when the other book does.

This is like reading a scream.

[Guilherme Rodrigues · Rating 4 out of 5]

O posfácio poderia ser um pouco menos panfletário e mais preocupado com coerência de datas e comentários sobre o texto de Charlotte Delbo.