Metzler Lexikon der deutsch-jüdischen Literatur

Secondary Guilt Syndrome May Have Led Nazi-persecuted Jewish Writers to Suicide

“…Walter Benjamin escaped to Spain, Stefan Zweig to Brazil, Klara Blum to China, and Karl Wolfkehl to New Zealand). For some, suffering took the form of a “crisis of exile” ( Exilkreisen ), a term that was coined by Klaus Mann and led to “ Kreisenliteratur .”3,7 Yet another author from this second group raised the question, “How much home does a person need”?5…”

“…Was his suicide a sign of unrecognized and untreated depression, which eventually with age and deteriorating health led him to take “the last path to freedom”?5 Appropriately, his grave in Vienna is marked by a simple, unpolished rock, inscribed with his name, year of birth and death, and “Auschwitz Nr 172364” (Figure 1). …”

“…The encyclopedia of post-Enlightenment, the Metzler Lexicon of German-Jewish writers, records a total of 268 Jewish writers (of whom 43 were women) 5. Interestingly, this Lexicon enumerates only 13 Jewish writers in the eighteenth century (including 1 woman), 45 writers in the nineteenth century (with 8 women), and no fewer than 210 in the 20th century (36 of whom were women).…”

“…Perhaps the most intellectual of writers who survived the Holocaust, Jean Amery (whose perspective was supported later by the intellectual Primo Levi), defined an intellectual’s qualities: “one was not merely educated, but had an aesthetic consciousness, with humanistic and philosophical views cultivated in many spheres.”4 Such intellectuality proved to be a disadvantage in the Nazi camps 5. Looking back, Amery believed that post-Holocaust writing needed to theorize more on that “universe” which he had survived.…”

History and Narrative – Galicia during World War One in the Light of German-Jewish Literature and Journalism

“…Concerning possible definitions of the term "Jewish literature", cf. Kilcher 2000, V-XX, Kilcher 2012, VI-XXVII, and Kilcher 2009. On a systems theory approach cf.…”