Story of a Diaspora

If the injunction against representing God began with Moses' receipt of the Ten Commandments, the one against representing evil had to await Hitler's monstrosity. Of those who favor the latter, Elie Wiesel and Theodor Adorno stand among the most scrupulous and authoritative: theirs, respectively, "The truth of Auschwitz remains hidden in the ashes. Only those who lived it in their flesh and their minds can possibly transform their experience into knowledge. . . . No one who has not experienced the event will ever be able to understand it"; and "After the Holocaust to write a poem is barbaric. . . . Through aesthetic principles or stylization. . . [Auschwitz] is transfigured and stripped of some of its horrors. . ."