Rue Ordener, Rue Labat

by Sarah Kofman, Ann Smock (Translator)

Rue Ordener, Rue Labat is a moving memoir by the distinguished French philosopher Sarah Kofman. It opens with the horrifying moment in July 1942 when the author’s father, the rabbi of a small synagogue, was dragged by police from the family home on Rue Ordener in Paris, then transported to Auschwitz—“the place,” writes Kofman, “where no eternal rest would or could ever be granted.” It ends in the mid-1950s, when Kofman enrolled at the Sorbonne. The book is as eloquent as it is forthright. Kofman recalls her father and family in the years before the war, then turns to the terrors and confusions of her own childhood in Paris during the German occupation. Not long after her father’s disappearance, Kofman and her mother took refuge in the apartment of a Christian woman on Rue Labat, where they remained until the Liberation. This bold woman, whom Kofman called Mémé, undoubtedly saved the young girl and her mother from the death camps. But Kofman’s close attachment to Mémé also resulted in a rupture between mother and child that was never to be fully healed. This slender volume is distinguished by the author’s clear prose, the carefully recounted horrors of her childhood, and the uncommon poise that came to her only with the passage of many years.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Holocaust, World War II, History, France, War

88 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Sarah Kofmans philosophical works currently available in English are: The Childhood of Art (1988), The Enigma of Woman: Woman in Freud's Writings (1985), Freud and Fiction (1991), and Nietzsche and Metaphor (Stanford, 1994).

Reviews

[C.S. Ennen · Rating 4 out of 5]

My professor: "you only need the first five pages or so for tuesday"
Me: *reads the whole ~80 page book in less than 24 hours*

[lily · Rating 2 out of 5]

for french class

[Ricky Lomas]

very short, veeeeery spare novel of the author’s time as a Jew in Paris during World War 2

I don’t really wanna critique a novel too much about a clearly awful traumatic experience, but there isn’t a ton here in the text. there are certainly interesting questions to be raised with her experience, but she poses almost none of them. this felt like a cathartic experience for the writer rather than reader

I think it’ll be interesting to discuss in class with all the historical context but this one was more for her than for us (which is ok!)

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

O livro é um belo relato autobiográfico, sobre uma criança judia em fuga durante os anos de nazismo na França. Mas saber que a autora se suicida pouco tempo após escrevê-lo leva a leitura e sua interpretação para outro caminho, muito mais profundo. Muito bom.

[Paula Cruz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Como os problemas da infância reverberam na nossa vida, né.

Eu tenho QUESTÕES com livros/quadrinhos autobiográficos por n motivos, sendo um dos maiores o seguinte: por que contar uma história que às vezes só interessa e diz respeito a nós mesmos? É uma questão polêmica, mas que surgiu em mim após ler inúmeras histórias de homens héteros brancos tristes que têm obras aclamadas por motivos que considero forçados. Ainda assim, considero essa pergunta válida. Quando uma autobiografia é literatura?

Depois de ler essa história da Sarah Kofman essa pergunta se fortalece, porque vai além de uma narração sobre a própria vida, e passa por questões tão grandes e tão importantes que chega a ser doloroso. Nazismo, período de guerras, antisemitismo, religião. É autobiográfico, mas que história de vida, né?

Tentar entender o antisemitismo no autoflagelo infantil durante a fase adulta é um mergulho profundo, embora esse livro seja curto e seco. A todo instante ela se questiona se foi realmente salva e se ela não se perdeu da própria origem durante a época que foi "salva" pela avó católica. As mazelas de uma geração que cresceu durante esse período obscuro da Europa são sem precedentes mesmo.

Apesar desse peso todo, esse é um ótimo livro, e que considero fundamental para entender as consequências do nazismo num olhar individual e subjetivo. Rapaz, que história!

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not a big fan of this memoir. It doesn't speak to me in any profound way. The only thing I got out of reading this book is that the author must have had a traumatizing experience during her time of hiding during the Holocaust, and the experience must have had something to do with sexual abuse. I believe she lived with a pedophile. This reading of the text is supported by the fact that in the memoir, Kofman uses such phrases as, "I didn't understand what was going on at the time" and, "something didn't feel right." Even Kofman's own mother took the woman to court on the accusation that she had "taken advantage" of the child. Yet, throughout it all, Kofman remains loyal to the abuser and actually prefers her to her own mother. However, something about her time spent with this woman must have troubled her because in her preface to the memoir, she states how she feels like every fiction work (this is her first non-fiction work)has been leading her to this point of writing her memoir. However, soon after the publication of this text, Kofman committed suicide. This sounds like she had been repressing traumatic experiences and that the writing of the book, although a catharsis in some regards, pushed her over the edge because it forced her to confront her own past.

[Bep · Rating 5 out of 5]

Parijs, 14 juli 1942. Rabbijn Bereck Kofman wordt door de Duitsers opgepakt en naar Drancy gedeporteerd. Hij zal later omkomen in Auswitz. Zijn vrouw blijft achter met zes kinderen, onder wie Sarah. In vierentwintig autobiografische schetsen vertelt de Franse filosofe Sarah Kofman over het gruwelijke lot van haar vader en hoe ze na vele omzwervingen met haar moeder onderduikt bij? de dame van de rue Labat?. Ze gaat zich sterk hechten aan haar katholieke onderduikmoeder en raakt steeds meer verwijderd van haar orthodox-joodse moeder. Ze krijgt een andere naam, gaat er anders uitzien, eet anders en spreekt aan het eind van de oorlog geen woord Jiddisj meer. Na de bevrijding wil Sarah liever bij haar nieuwe moeder blijven, maar haar echte moeder eist haar op door middel van een kortgeding. Door de ogenschijnlijk neutrale, directe toon waarop ze schrijft, schemeren pijn, schuld, onvermogen en wanhoop. Sarah Kofman maakte in 1994, kort na voltooiing van Rue Ordener, rue Labat, een einde aan haar leven.

[Charlie Kruse · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book doesn't forgive, and attempts to not forget either. Yet as the horrifying details of a WWII childhood as a Jew unfold, the lack of emotion or sentiment seems sometimes too cold, too sparse with reflection and perhaps too determined in objectivity. Kofman's first auto-biographical piece seems lacking one of her selves; the reflexive one that finds meaning out of the events of life.

Although this may be the point. Perhaps the instinct or desire to interpret, to find the right, to sniff out the wrong, these are the instincts that directly lead to her destitute childhood. One thing that the translator said about this book was that Kofman had an overwhelming urge that she "must speak the unspeakable". And this book shows the difficulty of this, the impossibility of having a universal truth. This is Kofman's truth. And the choice is set to accept or reject it.

[Alex Obrigewitsch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kofman had to write this book, inscribe this memory which she could not forget. Though a memoir of loss, it has less to do with the Holocaust and more to do with a highly personal loss. Kofman's short book, in its baren and deserted prose, exposes the severance from her mother, from her religion, and from a sense of home or groundedness. By her late childhood, she finds herself separated equally from her mother and her surrogate mother figure, seeking in every new place of residence a replacement figure, a different sense of heimlichkeit - but she remains ever unable to secure a hold on any of this, to decide upon the grounding of her life. She remains astray, errant, the entirety of her life - this work evinces the exigency of having to speak this lost life before the life itself becomes wholly lost.

[K's Bognoter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Et meget personligt erindringsværk fra nogle afgørende år som jødisk pige i Frankrig i 1940’erne i skyggen af Holocaust og i splittelse mellem to mødre og to religioner. Og måske noget andet. Slet ikke et dårligt værk, bare lidt … for lidt.
Læs hele min anmeldelse på K’s bognoter: https://bognoter.dk/2024/10/15/sarah-...

[Sarah James Morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

An assigned college book that I've kept for almost 20 years. Minimizing my collection and letting go of it, not because it wasn't good but because I'm making peace with reality: I'd rather read new things than reread "old" favorites.

[David Macpherson · Rating 4 out of 5]

a powerful and disturbing memory of being a young Jewish girl in Brance during world war 2. It is written in a cold manner and that makes the story it tells and the story it hints at more awful and horrific. This is a story that will linger in the mind.

[Maurizio Manco · Rating 3 out of 5]

"I miei tanti libri sono stati forse delle vie traverse obbligatorie per arrivare a raccontare «questo»". (p. 9)

[Meg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hm. Interesting. I found it easy to read, but not comfortable. I felt it was trying to hard to be new and 'edgy', for want of a better term

[Mira · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was so good. I definitely thought it would go in a different direction than it ultimately did. Even so, I didn't want to put this book down.

[Danny Mclaren · Rating 4 out of 5]

This memoir is emotional and close to my heart. It explores the relationship between Kofman's mother and her Jewish faith in ways that are intimate and hurtful and true.

[Alice · Rating 4 out of 5]

A small book full of enormous pain. An unusual holocaust memoir focusing on Kofman’s childhood in Paris. All the more powerful for its concise style.

[Monokl Kitap · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kadın bir filozofun kaleminden gerçek bir yaşam hikâyesi.

[Tiffany]

read for school

[Molly · Rating 4 out of 5]

tfw u finally read the book and realize ur analysis was very wrong…

[Georgia]

read excerpts for class. quite good. i hope to read all of it someday

[Chloe Mattson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely story about a horrible time and a terrible experience.

[Alora · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not what I thought it was going to be. I disagree with many reviewers that her words are cold. If I write a memoir, I want to model it after hers.

[Molly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Got reference to book from When Paris Went Dark. The writer is a French philosopher, Sarah Kofman (translated by Ann Smock). Since I have been reading more than a few books about WW II lately, it was interesting to see how the 'Stockholm Syndrome' like qualities took place between Meme and Sarah, and how she transferred feeling from her own mom to Meme.

[Zoe · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's very hard to critique someone's memoir, but I felt that Kofman did herself justice in this short ode to her childhood and youth. It was an honest account of her true feelings of split loyalties during the Nazi occupation of France and beyond. If only I could have found it in French!

[Annika · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love books that end with out resolving anything, asking the reader to have their own thoughts and feelings. It helped make this a powerful read.

[Sarai · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can’t tell if her relationship with Mémé was supposed to have a weird pedophilic undertone

[Daniel]

elírták a nevem, de:
http://ketezer.hu/2008/09/rue-ordener...