Against Redeeming Catastrophe: In Memory of Ruth Klüger

>One reports how in Jerusalem he made the acquaintance of an old Hungarian Jew who was a survivor of Auschwitz, and yet this man cursed the Arabs and held them all in contempt. How can someone who comes from Auschwitz talk like that? the German asks. I get into the act and argue, perhaps more hotly than need be. What did he expect? Auschwitz was no instructional institution…You learned nothing there, and least of all humanity and tolerance. Absolutely nothing good came out of the concentration camps, I hear myself saying, with my voice rising, and [the student] expects catharsis, purgation, the sort of thing you go to the theatre for? They were the most useless, pointless establishments imaginable. That is the one thing to remember about them if you know nothing else. (Still Alive, 65)

An amazing quote -- italics mine. Article is worth the read.

I had never about Ruth Kluger before this article, and I think it is, in general, very hard to come by her viewpoint as a layperson, who is not European and/or Jewish, because the popular media (e.g. movies like Schindler's list) have "primed us for redemption". Overall, I think her opinions, though strong, make a lot of sense and urge one to consider our present treatment of survivors of tragedies, as a society.

This article was the first time I ever encountered the view that it is impertinent to ask the survivors of a tragedy to forgive because people generally want redemption and positivity. It also makes sense to me that as a society, we expect too much from survivors of tragedies; we expect them to be more moral but they have every reason to be less so.

I had family dinner with a man who had tattoo from the camp I mentioned it and he broke a crystal glass I was 19