I felt that something had ended for Mankind
“I felt that something had forever ended for me and for mankind,” Różewicz wrote, “something that neither religion nor science nor art had succeeded in protecting"
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In public domain ,courtesy of Wikipedia
In 1949, the German critic Theodor Adorno wrote the famous line ' After Auschwitz it is barbaric to write poetry' . The notion that the catastrophic impact of World War 2 was simply beyond poetry had been considered in such poems as Dylan Thomas' 'Refusal to mourn the death of a child by fire in London'.
"The majesty and burning of the child's death
I shall not murder
The mankind of her going with a grave truth
Nor blaspheme down the stations of her breath
With any further
Elegy of Innocence and Youth. "
It's almost as if Dylan Thomas thought that trying to write poetry about the death of a child in an air raid could not be done, in fact would debase the tragedy. Adorno went one step further using the term 'barbaric' . Yet Polish poet Tadeuzs Rozewicz (1921- 2014) , who lived through the German occupation of Poland took an opposite view -"What I have produced is poetry for the horror stricken . For those abandoned to butchery . For survivors. " The view seems to be that writing holocaust poetry is somehow an act of human empathy, trying to acknowledge the suffering of those who perished or survived, carrying their trauma with them.. German Jewish poet Nelly Sachs, who managed to escape to Sweden and survive the War seemed driven to write about the Holocaust as if she had no other option . Her famous poem 'The Chorus of the Rescued' has the line " The worms of fear still feed upon us", as in being rescued she was committed to feelings of 'survivors guilt' and grief for all those she knew who failed to escape. ; more on Nelly Sachs can be found on a previous post.
To return to Rozewicz it is worth noting that besides being a poet, he was also a playwright, translator of Hungarian poetry, screenwriter and novelist. During World War 2 he served in the Polish Home Army. In his poem 'The survivor' ,Rozewicz hinted that after the holocaust, language had lost the ability to make value judgement "Virtue and crime weigh the same" . Yet from accounts of people who have visited Auschwitz , seeing possessions of prisoners can generate strong response. Can be a pile of shoes, a pair of glasses, knowing that their owners were systematically murdered. Rozewicz seemed to find such feelings in his poem 'Pigtail'
"When all the women in the transport
had their heads shaved
four workmen with brooms made of birch twigs
swept up
and gathered up the hair
Behind clean glass
the stiff hair lies
of those suffocated in gas chambers
there are pins and side combs
in this hair
The hair is not shot through with light
is not parted by the breeze
is not touched by any hand or rain or lips
In huge chests
clouds of dry hair
of those suffocated
and a faded plait
a pigtail with a ribbon
pulled at school
by naughty boys "
The Museum, Auschwitz, 1948
Translated by Adam Czerniawski
Seems that Rozewicz found the language to write about Auschwitz but thought out his time as a poet could never write about beauty.
SOURCES
'Pigtail' is taken from 'Second World War Poems' chosen by Hugh Naughton, Faber and Faber 2004
Opening Quote by Rozewicz from review of his collected works Sobbing Superpower
Quote by Adorno taken from the introduction to 'Holocaust Poetry ' anthology edited by Hilda Schiff
Culture Poland website English language page on Rozewicz is essential reading
Pigtails Poem read in English with animation on You Tube uploaded 2009 by 'Dawid'.
OTHER NOTES
Currently working on Bleak Chesney Wold Charles Dickens/ 'dark' Victoriana bog launched February 2023
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