Charlotte Delbo's Auschwitz and After

Charlotte Delbo’s Auschwitz and After is an emotional and dark autobiographical memoir of a woman and her experiences living though the Holocaust. Working with the French resistance against the German occupation of France, Delbo was caught, arrested, and sent to the concentration camp Auschwitz. Although Delbo was not Jewish, the “Final Solution” was not limited to undesirable ethnic minorities alone. Groups like homosexuals, criminals, the mentally ill, communists, and political prisoners like Delbo, were all targeted by the Nazi secret police – the Gestapo. Using various literary devices like poetry, character sketches, and short stories, Delbo captures the dynamic nature of the Holocaust experience. She paints a vivid portrait of the gruesome and abominable conditions prisoners were forced to endure, while contemporaneously delineating her relationships in the camps. These friendships forged under such terrible conditions, empowered Delbo to endure the death and carnage around her. Transferred to Ravensbruck and eventually freed, the final part of this trilogy explains Delbo’s struggle to acclimate herself to normal life in the wake of history’s most murderous episodes.

The three books presented in Auschwitz and After depict Delbo’s mental and physical state as time progressed. The first book, “None of Us Will Return” is a dramatic and vivid representation of her imprisonment. She discusses the fragile relationship between life and death in the camp, and how the living and working conditions were brutal and dehumanizing. One by one, her friends and acquaintances were executed leaving her to wonder when she would be next. Yet, in midst of all of the morbid and melancholy prose, Delbo outlines those few instances when something positive gave her the will to continue. For example, there is a section where Delbo discusses how thirst was a major problem among the inmates. While on a job, she was about pass out from dehydration. Thanks to her comrades, she procured some water and drank it without being noticed by the SS. If Delbo had collapsed or had been caught, she likely would have been gassed. Delbo finds good, no matter how small it may be, in many instances of her day to day routine in Auschwitz. Each sketch, story, or poem in this section, since it is not organized in any chronological fashion, creates a sense of chaos. It is quite possible that Delbo did this intentionally in an effort to, if in some small way, recreate the chaos of her life at that time.

The second and third books, “Useless Knowledge” and “The Measure of Our Days” respectively, describe Delbo’s transfer to Ravensbruck, her eventual release, and the reconstruction of her life. “Useless Knowledge” refers to the recurring theme of the dread and horror brought forth from living in the camps. These experiences and perspectives forged from living under such harsh conditions, as Delbo insinuates, would not be suitable for the civilized world and are thus “useless.” However, this book begins to show a change in her morale. Leaving Auschwitz for the work camp Ravensbruck meant survival for her and her comrades. For once, there was a glimmer of hope. Shortly after their arrival, rumors of liberation spread throughout the camp. When one of her roommates in the barracks became deathly ill, she asked when they would gain their freedom. Since Delbo’s life revolved around the twenty-third of various months (met her husband, husband’s execution, and arrival at Auschwitz), she told the woman that they would be freed on April 23rd. Surprisingly, this prophecy came true and the women were released to the Swedish Red Cross.

While most Holocaust memoirs tend to stop at the liberation of the camps, Delbo indicates that her struggle did not end at the gates of Ravensbruck. She struggled to readjust and fit into the post-Holocaust world. Additionally, one of the major themes of Auschwitz and After is memory – how does one remember the myriad of complex and gruesome experiences? Does one want to recall? How does one discuss these details with others? In describing the lives of her fellow survivors suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder, she paints the picture of her own life and how it was enormously difficult to adjust to normal life. One of the most heart-wrenching examples of this is the survivor guilt experienced by Delbo and her comrades. Their lives were so bad in the camps, that they could not fathom how they could still be alive. Delbo writes that there were many others that were so much stronger than she, who were pointlessly murdered. The emotional rollercoaster of being imprisoned amongst death and dying to being freed was tortuous in itself. Their situation was not freedom, for they were still prisoners of their memories.

In summary, Charlotte Delbo’s Auschwitz and After is a vividly somber look at the Holocaust and its negative everlasting effects on the survivors. Using poetry, short stories, and character sketches, Delbo presents a rich and dynamic narrative on the complexities of one of history’s most horrific periods. Using her friendships forged in the living Hell in order to survive, Delbo outlined the few good moments during her stay in Auschwitz and Ravensbruck as pillars of hope in an otherwise hopeless environment. While Delbo wondered how best to depict the atrocities of the Holocaust, she has apparently done so with Auschwitz and After as both an history and a literary masterpiece.

Cover Photo: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Auschwitz_and_After_cover.jpg

(This is a copy of a precis I wrote last semester for Dr. Joanne Schneider's WMST 350 "Women's Autobiographies and Memoirs Since 1870." Reproduction is prohibited without consent.)