Témoignages de l'après-Auschwitz dans la littérature juive française d'aujourd'hui: Enfants de survivantset survivants-enfants (review)

This collection of essays charts relatively new territory within the fields of Holocaust/ Shoah/trauma studies in a French-language context, and makes for poignant reading. As the subtitle indicates, it examines the writings of two cognate but discrete demographics: the children of Jewish survivors of the Nazi-instigated Judaeocide, and child survivors of that same genocide. The first section comprises four 'primary' texts, two by well-established authors (Raczymow and Wajsbrot), two by non-career writers (Lecadet and Oler). The second section comprises 'secondary' texts devoted to commentary on publications by child survivors, most of whom were 'enfants cachés' under the Vichy regime: Cohen, Perec, Federman (who wrote in English but was of French origin), Kofman, Burko-Falcman, Meschonic, Vargaftig and Goscinny. The third and final section scrutinizes the literature of the second and third generations, viz. the children and grandchildren of Jewish survivors (inter alia, Wajcman, Cormann, and Modiano). The volume has many strengths and very few weaknesses. The main weakness is the lack of an index, presumably the fault of the publisher rather than the editor. Second, the presentation of Orner in the introduction as belonging to the second generation is disputable. Since she was born in 1937 and herself experienced the war as an 'enfant caché' in Belgium, she might more fittingly have been positioned within the 1.5 generation (Suleiman's term) or the liminal generation (Jaron's term). Third, the presumption that Aaron is Jewish is inaccurate (as established by the author in a telephone conversation with me in 2007). While this fact technically renders the chapter on Aaron inappropriate to the volume, and while her gentile status does significantly alter the ethical stakes involved in her ostensibly Jewish testimonial novel Le Non de Klara (2002), Obergöker's study thereof is nevertheless rich and thought-provoking. He reminds us that, as most real survivors of the Shoah are now either dead or approaching death, 'le devoir de mémoire' will be increasingly opened up to the realm of fictional secondary witnesses and to (meta)critical discourses on the catastrophe largely unknown to the originary witnesses. The qualities of this volume, far outweighing its minor flaws, are the qualitative depth of the contributors' studies, coupled with the generic and authorial breadth of the collective product's coverage. The volume's generic span embraces new literary works, one ethnographic chapter, and critical analysis of prose, poetry, theatre and 'bande dessinée'. Some of the authors considered enjoy canonical status, whereas others are, unjustly, less celebrated, and here given deserved attention. Most of the essays are entirely new, while Suleiman's penetrating piece, 'Expérimentation littéraire et traumatisme d'enfance: Perec et Federman' appears for the first time in French translation. Schulte Nordholt has harnessed a wealth of talents in a volume whose subject matter —the victimization and/or suffering of children —is highly affectively charged in any ethnico-cultural context, but whose treatment in this particular context is exemplary. Whilst compassion for the child subjects is evident, it neither shades into mawkishness nor blunts the edge of critical textual analysis.