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Ruth Klüger: "Weiter leben".
158 pages, Paperback
Published July 1, 1996
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October 28, 2015
(I read the German original, titled "Weiter leben: Eine Jugend". The English title is "Still Alive".)
It would be quite an understatement to say that this book is an excellent Holocaust memoir. You might as well describe Goethe's Faust as a captivating story about a sexual relationship gone bad.
"Weiter Leben" goes way beyond any Holocaust memoir I have read. If Primo Levy's "Survival in Auschwitz" goes deep into psychology and philosophy, this book digs even deeper. Yet I still found it easy to read. The psychology and philosophy of this book is smack on your head. It doesn't require the reader to be used to any psychological or philosophical terminology.
Ruth Klueger's sentence structures are a bit unusual, but readable, and her punctuation is, let's say, her own. Don't make the mistake and jump to the conclusion that this book needs more editing. It doesn't. I am positive that Ruth Klueger knows standard grammar and punctuation rules. Early on in this book, you will realize that Ruth Klueger has been born headstrong. Besides, I am rather sure that she has become allergic to rules and regulations. I don't blame her. Imagine having to suffer through all of the Nazis' senseless ordinances harassing Jews and then, of course, all the sadistic and dehumanizing enslavement in the concentration camps -- the senseless, torturing roll-calls, the humiliating nakedness during line-ups for showers, head-shavings, de-lousing, so-called medical examinations, and "selection" (which sorted for slave labor or gas chamber). Ruth Klueger no longer has to strip naked. But she does. Whereas Primo Levi bares his soul, Ruth Klueger strips hers naked.
During the first part of this book, covering Ruth Klueger’s childhood before the various concentration camps, I thought: ‘Oh, my! How can anyone be so negative? This child must have come out of her mother’s womb determined to become depressive and, apart from that, determined to aggravate every family member, relative, and family friend, within reach. Am I even going to like her?’ Yet I did come to like her, not always and in every situation, but certainly for the most part of this book.
Ruth Klueger questions everything. She questions her own thoughts, convictions, excuses, motives, and emotions, and she questions those of her fellow human beings. Nothing that anyone tries to feed her as knowledge, wisdom, or (unproven) fact remains unquestioned. This makes her rather unpopular with most people and occasionally gets her into trouble even with friends.
One might say that Ruth Klueger thinks too much. But does she really? Reading this book, I have, instead, come to the conclusion that most other people think too little.
So, for instance: Is Germany really coming to terms with its past by sending conchies to whitewash fences in Auschwitz?
And what can a human conscience expect from its owner? Is cowardice the norm and the child of a natural instinct for survival? Yet where are the limits of cowardice? When does it become complicity of evil?
Ruth Klueger points out that the luck of the Holocaust survivors does not diminish the dimension of the crime. And she disallows that the survivors are being used as “credits” to be subtracted from the great “debit”. She writes:
“How can I keep you, the reader, from rejoicing with me, now that the gas chambers are no longer threatening me, and I am headed for a happy end of a post-war world that I am sharing with you … … … How can I keep you from breathing a sigh of relief?”
(Please note that the above is my own translation. Since I read the German original, I will refrain from quoting any more passages from the book, as my translation may differ from the English version.)
Needless to say that this book is thought-provoking because you will have guessed this by now. Will it activate everyone’s brain to think? No, it won’t. Some brains are not made for thinking.
Don’t believe it? Just read the praising reviews of “Er ist wieder da” (“Look Who’s Back”), a book that depicts Hitler as a somewhat likable curmudgeon; or better still, read my 1-star review of this book and the following war with commentators who think that Hitler lends himself as a comic figure. Here is the link:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
It would be quite an understatement to say that this book is an excellent Holocaust memoir. You might as well describe Goethe's Faust as a captivating story about a sexual relationship gone bad.
"Weiter Leben" goes way beyond any Holocaust memoir I have read. If Primo Levy's "Survival in Auschwitz" goes deep into psychology and philosophy, this book digs even deeper. Yet I still found it easy to read. The psychology and philosophy of this book is smack on your head. It doesn't require the reader to be used to any psychological or philosophical terminology.
Ruth Klueger's sentence structures are a bit unusual, but readable, and her punctuation is, let's say, her own. Don't make the mistake and jump to the conclusion that this book needs more editing. It doesn't. I am positive that Ruth Klueger knows standard grammar and punctuation rules. Early on in this book, you will realize that Ruth Klueger has been born headstrong. Besides, I am rather sure that she has become allergic to rules and regulations. I don't blame her. Imagine having to suffer through all of the Nazis' senseless ordinances harassing Jews and then, of course, all the sadistic and dehumanizing enslavement in the concentration camps -- the senseless, torturing roll-calls, the humiliating nakedness during line-ups for showers, head-shavings, de-lousing, so-called medical examinations, and "selection" (which sorted for slave labor or gas chamber). Ruth Klueger no longer has to strip naked. But she does. Whereas Primo Levi bares his soul, Ruth Klueger strips hers naked.
During the first part of this book, covering Ruth Klueger’s childhood before the various concentration camps, I thought: ‘Oh, my! How can anyone be so negative? This child must have come out of her mother’s womb determined to become depressive and, apart from that, determined to aggravate every family member, relative, and family friend, within reach. Am I even going to like her?’ Yet I did come to like her, not always and in every situation, but certainly for the most part of this book.
Ruth Klueger questions everything. She questions her own thoughts, convictions, excuses, motives, and emotions, and she questions those of her fellow human beings. Nothing that anyone tries to feed her as knowledge, wisdom, or (unproven) fact remains unquestioned. This makes her rather unpopular with most people and occasionally gets her into trouble even with friends.
One might say that Ruth Klueger thinks too much. But does she really? Reading this book, I have, instead, come to the conclusion that most other people think too little.
So, for instance: Is Germany really coming to terms with its past by sending conchies to whitewash fences in Auschwitz?
And what can a human conscience expect from its owner? Is cowardice the norm and the child of a natural instinct for survival? Yet where are the limits of cowardice? When does it become complicity of evil?
Ruth Klueger points out that the luck of the Holocaust survivors does not diminish the dimension of the crime. And she disallows that the survivors are being used as “credits” to be subtracted from the great “debit”. She writes:
“How can I keep you, the reader, from rejoicing with me, now that the gas chambers are no longer threatening me, and I am headed for a happy end of a post-war world that I am sharing with you … … … How can I keep you from breathing a sigh of relief?”
(Please note that the above is my own translation. Since I read the German original, I will refrain from quoting any more passages from the book, as my translation may differ from the English version.)
Needless to say that this book is thought-provoking because you will have guessed this by now. Will it activate everyone’s brain to think? No, it won’t. Some brains are not made for thinking.
Don’t believe it? Just read the praising reviews of “Er ist wieder da” (“Look Who’s Back”), a book that depicts Hitler as a somewhat likable curmudgeon; or better still, read my 1-star review of this book and the following war with commentators who think that Hitler lends himself as a comic figure. Here is the link:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Displaying 1 of 1 review