Introduction
History, as well as memory, is the bearer of experience. The past often contains such events that can be compared with nightmares. Human memory usually chooses to forget them but in most cases it is hardly possible. The same goes with history, there are a lot of events, whose ugliness history seems to be unable to bear, but it has to. So, both, memory and history suffer from evil deeds that occur because of human cruelty. These nightmares that occurred in reality found their embodiment in literature and works of art because neither human memory nor history could cope with such burden alone. One of such awful atrocities against humanity was the Holocaust, the nightmare that became reality for thousands of people during World War II. The Holocaust left its brand on the whole subsequent history of humanity as well as on the memory of its victims. Thousands of people were put to death; they lost their lives because of the Nazis’ hatred. Still, many people survived and they paid for the Holocaust with their memory, the memory that was infected with enormous grief forever. Carl Friedman and Anne Michaels write about people “infected” by the Holocaust and the way the authors render their response to grief and sorrow of this awful man-made catastrophe deserves special consideration.
Both literary works have characters that are direct witnesses and victims of the Holocaust and the representatives of the second generation, the children of those victims. Their attitude to the awful atrocity is different, it is natural. Its analysis promises interesting results. Thus, let us consider the attitude to grief, pain and horror of those who witnessed them: the survivors of concentration camps, people who faced death, who remembered the face of Grim Reaper.
The father’s attitude to grief and pain
Carl Friedman presents a somewhat mystical character of the father, a survivor of a concentration camp. It is necessary to mention that the character of the man and the narrator’s character are autobiographical to some extent. This contributes to the impressiveness of both characters. So, the character of the father is the Holocaust incarnate. The presence of grief is evident in every word of the man, in every story, in every deed of his. It appears that he has survived the Holocaust only physically, while he is still its prisoner spiritually. It is his memory of the nightmare that keeps him imprisoned, he appears in the camp again and again by the volition of his memory that is eager to play painful tricks with him. He was alone in the concentration camp. He cannot be alone any more. The grief is too much for him, he has to share it with his family, his children and his wife are the only people who can rescue his soul from concentration camp, gas chambers, and tortures.
The father finds relief for his pain in the stories he tells his children. The stories become the resurrection of the Holocaust, every word carries endless pain of memory, loneliness, and fear. The Holocaust finds the way to penetrate into a fairy-tale about Little Red Riding Hood who is going to visit her grandmother who is “in the hospital with typhus” and who encounters “a vicious dog [that] jumps out of the Hunderzwinger” (Friedman 34). In fact, all stories of the father starts with the words about his staying in the concentration camp instead of the words “once upon a time”, which are common for usual fairy-tales. There can be no usual fairy-tales in a family that knows what the Holocaust is; this is what Friedman wants to say.
Jacob’s attitude to grief
If the father finds the way to share his grief through the stories he narrates to his children, Jacob Beer, the protagonist of “Fugitive Pieces”, chooses a similar way to share his experience, he becomes a professional poet and translator. Thus, both characters prove that the memory of the Holocaust is too much for one person to bear. It must be shared with people, this is why “war can turn even an ordinary man into a poet”, says Michaels (68). Jacob needs many people to share his inspiration and pain with, for the father from “Nightfather” his children are enough. Jacob Beer is the bearer of different kind of pain if compared with Nightfather. His pain is not physical, it is not in tortures and hunger; it is the grief of a great loss. He lost his parents and his elder sister Bella, the one he adorer, the one that was “inside” him (Michaels 14). The horror that haunts him is not the image of tragedy; it is the sound of death of his parents and his guilty conscience caused by his escape without his sister. His pain of the Holocaust is embodied in the ghost of Bella, her constant presence near him. Jacob’s soul cannot find rest; he cannot find a place where he would feel at home, he is entangled in the past. It is only love that eventually helps Jacob to find peace.
The tragedy of the Holocaust-survivors is so awful that it makes flesh creep, but the tragedy of the second generation is horrible as well. The characters that are not witnesses but victims of the Holocaust are described in both literary works. In “Nightfather”, it is the narrator and her brothers; in “Fugitive Pieces” it is Ben, Alex, Michaela and Jacob too.
The narrator of “Nightfather” remains nameless during the whole book, the girl represents the whole generation, this is why she does not need name. The girl and her brothers have never been in a concentration camp but this does not mean that they have normal life. Their tragedy is as awful as their father’s one. They have to live in two worlds, the present real world, and the world of the Holocaust that enters their life with their father’s return. They cannot understand it because a childish mind is unable to figure out such horror. This is why sometimes they misinterpret father’s pain as love, when Max accuses his father that “stupid camp” is all he loves (Friedman 115). Children define “the camp” as the disease, such as, for instance, measles. They think their father differs from them because he used to have “camp”. In fact, their comparison of camp and disease is eloquent; it is the best one to be used. The children are also infected by the camp, at least by the symptoms of the camp. It is painful, and they try to cope with it with the help of opposite measures. Sometimes they refuse to hear the stories because they are real. Sometimes they accept them and try to live with this reality, like in the episode when Max puts his feet in the refrigerator to feel them freeze (Friedman 114). This experience is very painful because it is their experience and strange experience at the same time. The only thing that helps the family is their love and support that sets Papa and the whole family free.
Love is the thing that rescues Jacob Beer as well. However, his way to freedom is thorny as well. Alex appears not powerful enough to set him free from the past, she is unable to bear the pain, she simply wants to snatch Jacob from the past, it is impossible. Michaela manages to rescue him just as the children rescue their father in “Nightfather”. Besides, Ben, the protagonists of the second part of the book, makes use of Jacob’s painful past to set himself free. He gets to know the past that is common for his parents and Jacob. He understands that it is necessary for him to as it relieves his own pain.
Conclusion
Drawing a conclusion, it is possible to say that the Holocaust, as presented in both works, is a terrible tragedy. It ruined peoples’ lives, took away souls, left endless pain instead. Both authors state that the only way to put an end to this awful pain is to use endless love of near and dear people. They can and should share it with the victims of the Holocaust. History and painful memory are too much for one lonely person; it should be shared with the next generation. This is the common idea of “Nightfather” and “Fugitive Pieces”.
Works Cited
Friedman, Carl. Nightfather. Trans. Arnold and Erica Pomerans. New York: Persea, 1994.
Michaels, Anne. Fugitive Pieces. USA: Vintage, 1998.