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68 Foau 0" Germa" SltidilS 

Rethinking Resistance: 
Children in the Holocaust 

and in Ilse Aichinger's Die griJj1ere Iloffiuwg 

Emily Sepp 

T he Holocaust is o ne o f the mos t [cagic and moraUy significant 
eventS o f the rwentieLh century. acting as a SOrt o f watershed 

of conscience. In the years since, the civilized world - from scholars 
[Q artists to philosophers - has been obsessed with trying to ex plain 
it, to comprehend it, and to come 10 terms with 1I S horro r and its 
impucations for civilization and humanity. T he calculated murder o f 
millions o f innocents is a carastrophe so unfathomable thal statisrjcs 

and images, now almost cliche, can often o bscure the human face 

o f this tragedy. Perhaps one of the most poignant ways of looking 
at (hac human face is to consider the Iiolocaus t dlro ugh the eye:s 
of its children - a vantage poim [har enables the modern thinker 
to approach reality with a childlike: criticism dlar rejects arbitrary 
norms (thar is, externally-imposed standards and mode:s o f thInking 
dictated by forces Ollte r than conscience) at the same time as l[ 

allows for a re-conceptualization of what constitu tes the notions o f 
resistance and hope. 

One of [he most heartbre:a king aspecrs o f the Holocaust 

experience was the tragic lack o f effec dve physical resistance [Q the 
diabo lical deeds o f the Nazis. Amo ng the man y complex issues 
faced by scholars o f the Holocaust an: nm only [he questions o f 
why the pcrpeuators so calculati ngly committed such a monstrous 
crime: and why so relatively few bystanders defended the rightS of 
their fellow human beings, but also the haunting question of why so 
few victims effective ly fought their victimization. Physical (iocludlllg 
armed) resisL1.ncc, by virtue of its immediatc visl biliry, appears ro 
post-Holocaust rcaders ro be [he most appropriate response ro (he 
violence of the I-I olocaust, and certainly (he mOSI psychologically 

satisfying to the wounded sense o f justice and thirst for rcdempnon. 
White: there are indeed a few o lltstanding and well-docllmented 



70 fiKuJ 01/ German Sllldiu 

examples of heroic aCts of Jewish resistance vncluding the Warsaw 
GhCHQ Uprising, the organized escapes from the death camps at 
Treblinka and Soblbor and the destruction of me c rematOria at 
Auschwirz-Birkenau by the Sonderkommando). the Nazi apparatus 
severely restricted bo th the means by which such resiSl:wce could be 
undertaken and its ultimate effectiveness in halting the Jews' evenrual 

fate. 
In light of imminent physical doom, me only resistance left to 

many Jews was to cling stubbornly to life as long as possib le, which, 
in dle face of an enemy unshakably com mined 10 their desuuction, 
was a defiant stance in and o f itself. In the Warsaw Chello, Rabbi 
Isaac Nissenbaum rtponedly uttered the foUowing words, which 
provide historical perspective and shed new light o n me goal of 
resistance to the Nazis: 

Now is the time for the sanctification of ufe 
(leiddu!h ha-hayitll) and not for the Sanctification of 
the Name (leiddUlh ha-shem) duough death_ O nce! 
when our enemies demanded our soul, the Jew 
martyred his body for kiddush ha-shem.' Today 
when the enemy demands me body, It IS the jew's 
obligacion to defend himself, to preserve his lifc_ 
(qrd. in Dau;dowicz 216) 

George Eisen, who focuses specificaUy on children's resistance 
10 his study, Childrm alld Play in the Holocolllf: CORm Amof{g the 
Shadowl (1988), poinrs Out that in me [jght of the Holocaust and its 
unprecedented ho rror, the definition o f what constitutes resistance, 
defiance and opposition (like the definition of so mallY nOrmative 
concepts that the obscenity of the Holocaust has forced human 
philosophy to reevaluate) is highly problematic. The human spim 
is capable of forms of resistance (Q evil that uanscend normative 
expectations: 

One would like to see a powerful resisrnnce against 
an evil of such magnitude as the Holocaust; o nc 
wishes for heroic figures who m.nd with avenging 
SWOrds in thel[ hands and fallen enemies suewn at 

Rethinking ReSistance 

[heir- feet. But whereas this has been rhe customary 
image of heroic resistance through lusIory, this 
picture _ connoting "armed resistanc~" - presents 
only one of many options of human rel-ction to 
ann ihilation. It resuicts ou r undersl3nding of a 
wide range of acuons that can occu r In opposing 
one's physical and mental oppression or demise. 
The essence of OppOSlUon, which includes 
resistance, defiance, and protest, encompasses mo re 
than armed action. The definition must include 
a wealth of human responses, especiaUy when 
the means of and ability 10 respond are seve rely 
limited. A simple commen t of the survivor Genia 
Silkes exemplifies well the problem o f specifically 
defining resistance. An educator and ant: of the 
heroines of the WIl.tsaW Gheuo, she observed thaI 
"to live one mOre day IS resistance. Amidst the 
dysenlery and t}1lhus, the starvation, is resistance. 
To teach and to learn is resistance." (Eisen 83) 

71 

Children in the Holocaust used these responses, more than 
physical resistance, to defy sublugauon and deny their Opp[~ssors' 
toral viclory. As opposed [0 stones of armed upnsing, which are 
generally more satisfying to th~ human thirst for vengeance that 
an atrocity of this magnitude provokes, the accounts of children 
resisting Ihrough play and fantasy, through creativity and Imagination, 
even through laughter and hope - bmh disappoim and exceed our 
expectations. Rather than providing an illuslvc (a nd, III view of the 
ultimate senselessness and pervasive evil o f the Holocaust, pro fane) 
sense o f resolution, stories of children's affirmauon of life III the 
shadow o f deadl resonate willl a poignant d issonance that works 
against trivializacion and condemns eVil in a voice that can only be 
described as a dea fening whisper: 

[AJ child's action offers a much morc delicate 
heroism because It spnngs from inequali ty, 
pow~lessness, and Innocence and demonslnues 
the strength [hat on be denvc:d from tivlllg by 



72 FoouJ on German Siudi" 

ideals mat contradict the executioner's intended 
design. (Eisen 86) 

The Ausman write r lise Aichingcr, herself classified as a 
MiNh/ing (a person of "mixed race'1 under Nazi rule in her native 
Vienna, portrays these forms of rl!sisUnce by children in her only 
novel, Dze gr5jtrt Hojfmlnl/ Aiellinger's own wamme existence, 
so poignandy reflected in her novel, contains its share of danger 
(having to protect her Jewish mOlhe r, who was no longer exempt 
from deporration once lise reached the age of ~.\'enty-one) and 
defiance (participating actively In several secret resistance groups 
for young people). 10 the courSe of her clandestine activities, 
Aichinger became familiar with the pamphlets circulated by tbe 
f..·[unich youth resistance movement Die weij/e Rlue and its leaders, 
brother and sister Hans and Sophie Scholl. lise Aidungc=r found a 
source of suength in the words of Sophie Scholl, a young woman 
ncar her own age whose group consunned perhaps the most visible 
resistance movement in Nazi Germany - and whose )'oung life was 
ended by beheading when she and orner leaders of the group were 
caught. Aichingcr later commemed on [he bope that Soph ie Scholl's 
courage engendered in her - the hope thar fo rms the hean of what 
she larer defined in her novel as Ditgriifore Hoffmmg - it is less a hope 
of tangible success against the monstrous Nazi regime than it is a 
hope of moral victory: 

[I]ch weill, daR von ihnen cine unuberbietbare 
Hoffnung auf mich uberspr:l.ng. Diese Hoffnung 
ha rte, obwohl sie es uns magtich machte, in dieser 
Zeit weiterwieben, doch nidus mic der Hoffnung 
auf Oberleben w run. (Aichi.nger qtd. in Kaiser 
19) 

lise Aichinger was, In fact, fascinated both by Soplue Scholl's 
example of girlhood resistance and by the potential of youth in 
general to deal with adversity, even death, with a courage that adults 
often lack: "\Vhenever J look at children or adolescents, J \vonder: 

How wouldyou manage (Q cope wllh a death scmcnce, passed either 
by the political powers or by physicians? How will yOIl manage to 

Rethinking Resistance 73 

grow old?" (Aichi nger qtd. in Bridges 70). The half-Jewish heroine, 
E llen, and the Jewish children of Aidunger's Die griif!tre Hofflll1ll!. 
cope with this Holocaust reality duough play, through falltasy and 
through their very tenacity, forcing adult reacle l"s to redunk the 
tr2ditional concept of what consunues resistance in the face of 
a horror to wh.ich traditional modes of 1'3l1onal dunking hold no 

saosfYlOg answers. 

Res is tance T hro ug h Play 

The concept of childhood play in the Holocaust seems almost 
blasphemolls at first glance; many feel "a gr:weyard is no place for 
elllen ainment" (Eisen 55). The barren landscape o f the Shoab IS 
undemably hostile to merriment; mature reasoning and documen ted 
evidence shrink \11 revulsion from the notion of play 10 the midst 
of ubiquitous dea th, unable to reconCile the playground with 
the gas chambers of Auschwitz. Yet, the vast malevolence of 
the Holocaust also dwarfs aduhs' attempts to reduct: I[ to logical 
systems of rationai1ty and belief. An attempt must be made to see 
children's reactions nOt from the traditional adult perspective - the 
sentimentality and symbolism o f which ap pea rs to be hol low at best, 
in the light of the irrevocable damage the Holocaust has wrought on 
the structure of moral rationalism· but from the vantage point of 
the chtldren themselves. lise Alclunger, 111 compelling the readers 
of Die griif1trt HojJnllllg to view the mghullarish UOlverse of the 
Shoah through the eyes of children, affords them Ihe oppo rrunity LO 

assume precisely mat stance. 
In conmst to adults' forms of 'play,' chIldren's pia)' functions, 

in many respects, as a tQol with which they come 10 terms with 
reality, tacher man changing or even U"anscenJlllg it (Eisen 109). 
Children's play dunng the I lolocaust rarely dIsplayed the hedonistic, 
escapIst and frivo lous qualities that commonly characterrzed mat of 
adults; rather, children used the act of play to make some son of 
Sense of their surroundings - an ability most adults bcked. Bernd 
Zabel, in an artide for me Ntllt DtUIIlhe Htjie, agrees: "Doell im 
Unterschied zu den verfolgten Erwachsenen, che alles tun, urn dicses 
BewuBtsein abzusclllme1n, Riehen [die Kinderl die ReaJnat nicht, 
sondern nehmt n sie in ihl" Spi.el hinein" ('ltd. in B:lrtSch and Meltzer 



Fiuwon GmtJan StudilJ 

178). 
The children of the I iolocaust, Like the children in Die grcijlen 

HoJfnung. faced adversiry and d e:l.(h as :I. part of their: daily realiry, and 
mis is reflected in the content of the games that children played. In 
the world of the Shoah, misery and death became the overwhelming 
reaiiry, and while the children continued to play, the.ir games 
necessarily reRected Inescapable realiry, which became the 'normal' 
way of life for children who had never known anything else. The 
constant sorrows - including hunger, separation from family, raids, 
d eporrations and dealh - were assimilated into children's play. As 
Ajchinger poims out in Die griiJ1tn Hoffnurzg, "was mi t uns gespielt 
wird, verwandelt sich nur llluer Schmerzen in das, was wi..: spiclcn" 
(146). This observation is Strongly confirmed by stories of child rcn's 
games in the death camp of Auschwitz·Birkenau, where {he ever­
present symbols of death became pan of (he children's play. While 
the children of the Lodz ghetro fashioned toys from cigarette boxes 

and scraps of wood, the lifeless limbs and wispy hair of the corpses 
were the objects of children's play in Auschwitz (Eisen 90) . A nurse 
In one of the children's blocks of BlCkenau reported: 

They played "Lageraeltester" and "Blodi.aeiresrer," 
"RoU CaU," shouting "Caps om" They took on 
the roles of the Sick who fainted during roll call 
and were beaten for L[, or they played "Doctor" - a 
doctor who ,-..,ould takellway food rations from the 
sick and refuse (hem all help if they had nothing 
to bribe him wII.h ... Once they even played "Gas 
Chamber." They made a hole in the ground and 
threw in Stones one after the other. Those were 
supposed to be people put in the cremalOria, and 
d\ey imitated tbeir screams. They wanted me to 
show them how lO set up the chimney. (gtd. in 
Eisen 80, 81) 

The adult mind is repulsed and shocked by the image of 
innocent children enacting such gruesome scenes in their play, as if 

thIS were normal. As Gabriel Motola affirms: 
[TJhose [children) most vulnerable socially, not 

Rethinking Resistance 

to mention p hysically, were exposed 10 and had 
embedded in their memories a world inconceivable 
in even their worst nightmare. I ... ) ITlhe adult 
reader unlike the child victim, has a moral center 
which' assesses and assigns blame, whICh demands 

justice as it laments LIS absence, which recoils from 
the unspeakable horror that lhe [children viewed] as 
normal. (Motola 222, 224) 

75 

As adultS struggle to comprehend human catastrophes ILke the 
J lolocaust, they oftcn overlook 0 1" even dismiss rhe child's 'othcr' 
ways of dealing with the trauma with wluch aduln; attempted to cope 
th rough logical, religious or phtlosophical means. Tndeed, aduhs may 

gain unique insight into the tragedy of the Holocaust by allo~t\ng 
themselves to 're~v1ew' children's responses.. Ruth Kluger, wmlllg 
from her own Holocaust expenence, agrees: 

Kmdem, rue Pogromcn und andcren Katastrophen 
emkommen sind, hat man oft untersagt, diese 
Erfahrungen zu verarbelten und sic dazu angehalten, 
sich wie "narmate" Kinder zu benehmen. Man tUI 
das zum Besten der Kinder, die nicht tiber "diese 
Dinge" sprechen sollen. Die verarbeiten ihre 
Traumata o ft in erfundcncn Spiden, die SLt! vor de.n 
Erwachsenen gehei01halten. (KH.iger 109, 110) 

From the adult's perspecuve, Ihe child LS a viral symbol of 
humamry and innoccnce that must be preserved as a son of 
psychological rcfuge from phenomena such as [he Holocaust and 
from [he consequent devasLalion of the moral landscape. Yel, 
child ren in rhe Holocaust witnessed eve ryd\lng that adults wit nessed 
(Eisen 116); rather than senwl1cnralizmg [he Holocaust, rheir 
perceptions illuminate the depths of its perver~ity and injustice. 
Even as the children's games reflect the eVils th:OI[ defined ghena and 
camp existence, they provide poignant conrrast (Q Ihe environment 
in wh ich they l.ived and died. 

For EUen and her Jewish friends in Die I.rOjfere HoJJnuflg, as 
well as for childrcn of the Shoah Ln general, these "KindcDplele ... 



76 FO(JU 011 G~rman Studiu 

stellen ... ein paradigmatiscbes Verhalten Un Umgang mit dec 
eigenen Vecfolgung dar" (Rosenberger 121). Through such games 
that enacted the atrocities that were being committed agains( them, 
children learned to accammodau: memseives [0 dlC insanity and 
horror in which their everyday lives were immersed. Play, as Eisen 
argues, came to provide a reflective mirror of aU the "sorrows, 
dramas and absurdities of me children's brief existence" (17) . 

However, games also afforded a chance for children to take 
back their childhood, subverting, even for a moment, thei,[ own 
victimization. Eisen emphasizes lhat children did not merely copy 
the acts of violence they witnessed; rather, "they imposed on reality 
their own constructions and interpretations" (Eisen 114). In the 
Lodz ghetto, at the height of the children's deponations in 1942, 
children were seen LO play 'deportation,' with differem children 
acting in the roles of the Germans, the anguished parents and the 
frightened children. A defiant nine-year-old boy is said to have 

stepped out and prmes led his assigned role: ''1 don't want to be a 
German because the Germans take away lirde children fcom their 
mOthers ... and rhey ktll rhem! [ ... ) J don'rwaflt to be a German and I 
don't want to catch children!" (qtd. in Eisen 88). The children were, 
in essence, performing a dress rehearsal for a uagedy they inevitably 
faced; yet, being cognizant of their face, one of the orga nizers of 
one of the'se games look on the role o f "protector," empowering 
himself and the other children through their game as they never 
would be empowered in reality:- "The Germans will come to take 
you away, I won't Icc them, and you'U have to cry" (Eisen 88). 

Aichingec powerfully illu sWttes this appropriation of suffering 
through play in the sixth chapter of Die griij1ere Hoffnung, enticled 
" Das groBe Spiel." Their discovery and deportation imminent, 
the Jewish children enact a Chrisunas play that recounts not the 
traditional story of !\"[ary, Joseph and rbe infant Jesus in flight from 
King Herod, but superimposes it OntO the children's own plight. 
The rwo stories - the Biblical, in which Joseph, Mary and Jesus 
found refuge (the 'great hope? in Egypt, and the children's own 
realiry, from which mere was no lo nger any escape - mingle in the 
children's play; "Vor Agyprcn wirtl gekampft!" ''Dann eben nach 

Polen." "Und dec Konig dec Juden?" "Fahrr mit" (126). 
This Christmas play, while presented by the traditional figures, 

Rethinking Resistance 77 

also includes roles for peace, war and the world. Though in reality 
rhe world is tom by Wllf and me children sense that clleir physical 
lives will end brutally and premaulrely, they envision an airernate 
reality in their little drama. EUen, in the role of the wodd, must 
choose between 'war' and the figure of the Ch risr child (symbolic 
here not only of moral u1{egriry, but also o f rhe outcast minority). 
Ellen's decision determines "the \X'orld's" fate l (and, consequently, 
thar of the people who inhabit her); she thus assumes through play 
the power to transform the wodd into a betTer one than she or: the 
other ch ildren will ever know: 

Die Welt streckte die Arme aus dem Tu ch nach dem 
Kind aus. "feh habc mich entschieden, fur dich!" 
Der Krieg rill den Helm vom Kopf. "Wie freu ich 
mich, icb bin der Frieden!" Jubelnd warf er den 
Soldarenmantel wruck in die Finsrernis. (148) 

The irony of Jewish child ren performing a Chrisunas 
play poignantly conveys their subconscious need to belong in a 
vehemently anti-Jewish world, even as its strangeness contributes 
to the sucrealistic tone of Aichinger's novel. The need for normalcy 
that is evident in the Jewish children's play Implies their urge to adopt 
a tradition other than their own - both (subconsciously) to anempr 
ro belong in a society that had cast them out and (0 show the moral 
bankruptcy o f that sociery, which held to the Christian tradition 
while simuhaneously condoning and perpetrating heinous crimes 

against humanity. Thus, the children not only highlight the uagedy 
of their situation, but they also subverc the StO[y of the Christ-child, 
depicting him as a J ewish refugee and, like lhemselves, a victim of 
hatred and persecution. Aichinger's blurring of the distinctions 
between the Je\!,1.sh and Christian uaditions - evident not only in 
this scene, but also in numerous othe rs lhroughout the novel4 

- not 
only reflects her own background as a A/ischling, but also underscores 
similarities between tile twO religions in a time and place in which clle 
differences were exploi ted for diabolical purposes. 

While the child ren cling to some vestige of childhood normalcy 

in performing a C1uisrmas play, their drama is pervaded by the fear 
that has interrupted their young lives. Just after their play takes 



78 

this happy turn, (he children open the door to the rnan from next 
door, who has come to betray them to rhe secret police. The man 
is Intrigued by and pulled inco lheir play: "Er spielte im Namen alice 
unhohgen Konige. cine gcoGe Stllffimc Rolle" (152). Though he 
rcmporarily forgers his sinister purpose for bdng with the children 
(154), he finally remains faithfW to his 'Herod/Judas' role In real life 

and, in drawing the cunain on their play, sets the stage for the liMI 
act of the children's physical lives. 

In addicion [0 considering the content of children's play, it 
is also important to address the issue of place. Because Jewish 
children did nor have access (Q parks and playgrounds. tbey played 
in the only space allotted to them - which was often in the streets 
or in other places that were never designed for or even conducive 
to recreation. For example, Vienna's jiidis(he KJdtJlJgl!millde opened 
the Jewish cemetery to the young, not oniy to enlist their help in 
tending the community garden planted tbere to supplement meager 
rations, but also (Q gIVe them a place to meet and to recreate. Ruth 
Kluger remembers playing in this very Je\\;sh cemetery herself: "Die 
judische Kultusgemeinde stelhe uns, den letzten judischen Kindem 
in Wien, Lese- und Freizeitsraume zur Verfiigung, und der jiidische 
Friedhof war unser Park und Spielplatz" (Kliiger 88). Elisabeth 
Welt Trahan recaUs: 

Gate Pour [of Vienna's Cenrral Cemelery) became 
our home in the counrry, our summer resort. ] t 
was green, had uees and, right by the entrance,long 
before llle first row of graves, there was a wide 
open space fo r sunbathing and baU playing. And no 
wamings or interventions o f any kind: Gate Four 
exrended its welcome {Q aU Jews, living and dead. 
At First, picnicking, singing, playing cards, games 
or volleybaU on a cemetery felt weird [ ... J. Then it 
occurred [0 me [har the dead could hardly object to 
our presence. If anything, lhey might welcome Ihe 
company of the living. An unanticipated feeling of 
solidarity and of belonging rose up inside me, and 

I began [0 fed at home on the cemetery. (Trahan 
128) 

Rethinkmg ResiSlance 79 

In her !lrst published work, the short S[Qry "Dos t,jerle Tol' 
(1945), which formed the basis for the third chapter of Die l,riijm 
HoJfmlnl" tilled ''Oas heilige Land," lise Aichinger describes the 
on ly playground thal remained to Vienna's Jewish children in a 
more philosophical \\'2y. Aichinger's shorl story IIlviles ,he reader 
to converse with the children who play in thaI graveyard, forsaken 
by the rest of the world. In answer to the 'reader's' question (as 
articulated by the narramr), " ... habt Ihr denn gar keine Angst vor 
den TOlen?" a young boy gives a reply lh-ar condemns the hatred and 
the indifference of the living: "Die Totell run uns Illchts" (Alchingcr, 
"Tor" 272, my emphasis). 

Amid the gravestones of the dead, Jewish children found a sort 
of refuge from the living. When Aichinger expands on this notion 
in Die griijm HoffilUfI& she emphasizs the relationship between the 
dead and the living; while the Nazis declare Jewish ancestry 'wrong' 
and use it as cause for persecution, the children of Ole griijen 

Hojfmmg find thallheir depaned ancestors, in a figur.luve sense, hold 
the key to their identity. In the midst of this unsettling proximity to 
dearh, both as they pia}' among the graves of lhe dead and as they 
themselves live daily in death's widemng shadow, IS precisely the 
place In which lhe children find freedom, hope and a sense of self, 
despite their circumstances. The children not only play VenJuktn 
wuh each orner amid lhe neglected gravcSlones, but they also play 
'hide and seek' Witll the dead, to whom lhelr own fale is bound: 

"Unscre GroBdte.rn si.nd verachilich, unsere 
GroBeitern biirgen nicht fiir uns." "Sit: weigern 
sich." "Sic si nd von wdther gekOl11mcn und 
sind wcit wcggt:gangen." "Sie sind gchelzl wie 
wir." "Sie sind unruhig." [ ... 1 "Sie liegen nich[ 
stiU unter den Steinen!" "l'l'lall besch impft sid" 
"Man haBt sid" "l'.fan verfolgt sie1" "Es sieht 
aus, als ob unsere TOlen nicht tat waren," sagle 
Leon. Ole Kinder packten sich an den Ilanden. 
1m Kreis sprangen sie urn das frcmde Grab. "Jetzi 
haben wie's. jel2t haben wi.r's, <he Toten :..tnd nicht 

tOt!" I ... J "Unsere Toren Sind nicht IOL" "Sie 
haben sich nur vecsteckl." "Sie spiden mit uns 



80 MJ on Germon Sllidiu 

Verstecken!" ''\'(lir wollen sie suchen gehen," sagce 
Leon. (55,56) 

Children found place for play where it seemed play could not 
exist. Historical accoums coo rum that the environment of disease. 
squalor and fear was far from conducive to childhood games. Even 
before the ghettos were sealed off from the outside world, Jews were 
forbidden to enter public parks; afterward, such :ueas were almost 
always outside the gheno walls. As one mother in the Warsaw 
ghetto complained: ',\'(Iith intentional foresight, not one park, nOI 

one playground or public garden was included in Ihe area (chosen 
fo r the gheno)" (qld. in Eisen 20). Tndeed, parks within Ihe territory 
earmarked for the ghetto were either closed off or eliminated from 
the ghetto. Private yards in the ghetto were used to grow vegetables 
to supplement the meager ghetto diet, or were rented out by theu: 
enterprising owners [0 [hose who could pay.5 

The official chronicle of (he Lodz gheno records lha t In 1942 
an amusement park v,'2S set up JUSt beyond the outer fence of the 
gheno, taunting me gheno children wim the proximity of 'normal' 
life: 

The m:lin armcDon, the only one visible, is a 

suspension- rype merry-go--around. Every day 
the children of the gheno make a pilgnlT!age to 
this corner and gaze longingly at the activities on 
the other side of the fence. It is mostly chlldren 
tOO on the other side, who arc romping abou[ 
and climbing into the small hanging boats of the 
merry-go-around. A radio amplifie r broadcasts 
phonograp h music. The ghetto children have 
never seen a carousel and have seldom heard 
music. They listen and peer at a cu rious, alien 
world, where children live in a SOrt of never-never 
land. A merry-go-around, almOSt wimin reach, 
only the barbed wire keeps them away. Children 
are children on either side of me barbed wire - and 
yet they are nO( the same. (qtd. in Eisen 32) 

Rethinking ReSistance 81 

The Jewish children of Die groj/trt E-IOffllllllg have a vcry 
similar experience. They spend their clays on the Kai, close to an 
amusement park, yet they ate forbidden to enloy the carousel. That 
carousel becomes an object of the c1uldren's fantasies of freedom 

and normalcy: 

"GehSI du em Sriick weiter gegen die Berge. zu, so 
kommst du an das Ringelspiel mit dcn fhegenden 
Schaukeln." «Die fliegenden Schaukeln sind schon, 
da packl man skh und laBI skh wieder los." "Und 
dan n fliegt man weil auseinander!" "Man macht 
die Augen z.u'" "Und wenn man G luck hat, dann 
rellen die Kenen. Die l\lusik ist modern und dcr 
Schw\lIlg rekht bis Manhattan, sagl der l\ fann in 
de r SchieBbudc. Wenn die Ke tten reiBcll! Aber 
wer hat schon dieses GlUck?" (36) 

TIle man in the shooting booth empathizes with the outcast 
children and, since hiS supervisor is away and there IS no one else III 

me park, he allows [he Jewish children (0 ride on the carousel - an 
aCI of defiance both on his pan, III that he protests the chtldren's 
exclUSion and violates the NaZI sntule In order to bling Ihe c1uldren 
a rare moment of joy, and on the pan of (he children, who, if only 
for a moment, fly (0 a world be)'ond the reach of their oppressors: 

Die Kinder fiogen. Sie Ragen gegen das GesetO'. 
ihrer schweren Schuhe und gegen das Gcsctz dec 
geheimen Polizd. Sic Ragen nach dem Gcselz der 
Kra ft aus der t { itlc. Alles Graugrlin bJieb weit 
onter ihnen. Die r arben verschmolzen. Rein lind 
gteU flirne das Licht zum Lob des Unbckannlen. 
Das Bild ergab skh dem Sinn. Tid limen srand 
mit verschrankten Armen der Budcnbesilzer. Er 
schloB die Augen. J n dieser Sekunde ha tte er seine 
SchleBbude gegen die ganze Welt vem.uscht. Ole 
Kinder schnen [ ... J Der Glanz des fernsten Sterns 

haue sie en:eicht (43) 



82 fimt.I M Gmt/an Sludi" 

Only wilh considerable effon on the part of the Jewish 
council& wert playgrounds established in the ghettos. The President 
of the Jewish Council o f the Warsaw Ghetto, Adam Czerniak6w,6 
realized rhe need foc organized youth welfare. Moved by lhe plight 
of rhe ghena youth, Czerniakow records in his diary in 19-12: ''They 
art living skelelOns from the ranks of the sueer beggars ... They 
talked wim me like grown-ups - those eight-year-old citizens. I am 
ashamed to admit it, but I wept as r have nOt wept for a long time" 
(qtd. in E isen 43). 

In addition to mounting a camp:lign to rnse chariry funds 
for the gheno's children, Czerniakow also launched an effort to 
establish parks and playgrounds in the gheno.1 The three playground 
complexes that resulted fcom trus effon not only provided much· 
needed space for the children to play, but they, along with orner 
programs organized [0 feed, clothe, house and educate youlh,a also 
symbolized a collaborative effon and commitment on the part of 

the gheno commuOIl)' to the chddren - an act of faim that the next 
generation would sun;ve. George Eisen argues that this tnvestmcot 
despite me bleakness of their furure WllS, in its own way, a form of 
life·affirming defiance for adults: "Providing play opportunities was 
a conscious escape mechanism through which the adult population 
attempted to transcend in spirit both the physical walls o f the ghetto 
and the memal walls of terror" (Eisen 49). Seeing children at pia)', 
despire rhe Reeting pleasure of it, gave the older gheno residents 
a glimpse of a world beyond the daLly reality over which they had 
no control (Eisen 46), enabling them to envision meir survival as a 
people beyond the Na:t:i nighunare. 

Resis tance T h rough Fantasy 

Fantasy, like play, fulnlled a vital function in the lives of the young in 
the Shoah, providing them bodl with the mellns to cope with reality 
and with access to a world beyond that reality. Younger children 
do nor yet dearly differemiare between famasy and reauty; for 
them, both are equaUy real: "Innere und :luBere Reautiit gehen flir 
sie lOeinander Uber. Traum und Spiel sind ebenso Realitllt wie die 

Re3lir:lt der ElW3chsenen" (Kaiser 25). An examination of children's 
intuiti\'e responses III tile Holocaust reveals [hiS intermingling of raw 

Rethinking Resistance 83 

experience and fan tastic constructs of imagination - a synthesis lhat 
nor only enabled cb ildren to somehow cope with the. horror of thci( 

oppression, but also, in a sense, empowered th em (Q cll:1Uenge it. 
As Rosemary Jackson argues in her study, Fatlla;y: The Ultrafllrt 

of Sub/lltrswn, fantasy is never completely free from the cuhural 
constraints against which it protesrs; indeed, hnu.sy is often the 

product of these constraints (3). The power of fantasy to suhven 
reality lies precisely in its "uneasy positioning 1 ... \ between tillS 
world and the next" (180). Jackson maintains dUll withdrawal into 
a world of fantasy can have me function not merely of an escape 
from tangible circumsrances, but also o f " protest agalllst a /ift.denyilll 
nality" (127, my emphasis) - a phrase that may cerL'linly be applied 

to tile Holocaust. 
As the world around them became more nighunarish with 

e .... e ry passing day, children In the Holocaust often attempted to 
compensate by creallng for themselves a re.alJty outside of thaI 

which could be dictated by me Nazis. In domg so, children could 
access a frame of reference beyond the presem pam, in which they 
could nnd a sense of secucity and normalcy that was mher.vise 
denied tllem. 

Dreams and imaginalion are indeed the mainstay o f childhood 
innocence and o ffer priceless insights intO the human psyche III 

general. However, in a society that denied Individuals an identity 
3nd undenook dleir physical alienation and annihilation based on 
exrernally defined racial critecia, this rellim of the fantastic could 
become an ouuet for the denant expression of a forbidden self, 

especially for child[cn. T hose young people whose child hood was 
interrupted by the Nazi madness were denied the normal process of 
stIf·discovcry during whIch Ihe individual typically develops a moral 
center and an existential anchor. Tn the absence of this possibility, 
children in the Iiolocaust frequencly turned to the realm of the 

inlagination. 
Forced sepa.ration from friends and fanuly was ont o f clle most 

traumatic shocks Ihal (he Shoah forced chIldren [0 absorb. Some 
children invented unaglOary fciends to replace those from \\·hom 
they had been torn when meir families went 11110 hiding or were 

deported; Anne Frank, thirteen years old at the ume she and her 
fa nu ly went into hiding in Amsterdam, addressed her diary enu[es 



84 .films 0'1 Gtr1mm StudieJ 

to "Kirry," creating for herself an outlet for the social interaction she 
lacked in seclusion. As we see in Die griijere Ho/fnung. after Ellen's 
circle of friends is deponed and she is aJone, she often sees their 
faces (particularly dla! of Georg, with whom she had a special bond) 
and converses with them. Though EUen senses her friends have 
been sem [0 their deaths, she continues to relate to them tluough her 

imagination, lInru she is finally united with them in her own death 
(269). White it is not uncommon fOI a child in any time and place to 
have an imaginary playmate, George Eisen describes tIllS creation of 
famas}' as a tQot children commonly used [Q cope with their dismal 
situation: 

It was narurailhac a child wished [Q be surrounded 
by a magic circle, a circle of friends, in which one 
could live another life, a life somewhat unconnected 
wirh Lhe misery of the ghetto. These imagined 
friendships were nor [Q facilirate an escape from 
re:aliry, bur [0 help adjust [a, or assist in rationalizing, 
a completely irrational universe. (Eisen 73) 

Imagination also served to carry children to a world beyond 
the gruesome present over which Lhey had no conuol. Tn dreams 
and in fanrasy, children could impose their own interpretations of 
their universe or even create a new one. In The Third Rzich oj Dream!, 
Charlone Bal1ldt indicates that .dreams were an outler for those 
whose wishes could not be fulfilled in dIe horrific realiry in which 
their conscious lives were imme rsed (Langer, Homcau!/136). Yitshok 
Rudashevski, a young boy in dIe Vilna ghetto, remarked on dIe 
psychological respite thai dreams offered: " I run through the cold 
sad little ghetto street ... to fall asleep as soon as possible, because 
in sleep you dream and have sweeter hopes than when awake" (qed. 
in Eisen 27). 

Dreams were accessible to children not only through sleep, but 
through their use of imagination and famasy in daily life. Through 
make-believe, children managed symbolically to escape their physical 
prison. Gabriele Stilten shows how a typical childhood fantasy took 
on a particular significance in light of the dismal circumstances in 
which she lived as a ten-year-old girl She recalls how she and her 

Rethinking Resistance 85 

younger friend Hans wou ld stand in the archways of the rat-infes~ed 
attics in Theresiens[ad[ "and pretend that we could fly ... The flytng 
fantasy was lovely, though, because if we could fl y, then we could fly 
away" (qtd. in Eisen 73). . 

For Ellen and the other children in Die griiJ1ere HrffilUl1& theIr 
fantasy world often seems more meaningful and more significant 
than the bleak reality that opposes it. In the third chapter of the 
novel, "Das heilige Land," the children are urgently seeking to cross 
the border into safety JUSt as war has made such a crossing physically 
impossible. In their desperate play in the Jewish cemefery, they form 
a funeral procession behind the coffi n of a dead stranger, somehow 
subconsciously realizing thar death was nOt only [he destination at 
which tlH~ir own physical journey would end, but also tlle poim at 
which their inner selves could finally be validated and their questions 
finally answered: 

Schwcigend standen die Kinder vor der 
aufgeworfenen Brde. Es schien ihnen plotzlich, als 
ware es det: letzte Ausweg, der hier zu Ende ging, 
der letzte \Xleg, urn iiber rue Grenze zu kommen, dec 
lelZte \'Veg, um irgendeinen Nachwei$ Zli erlangen. 
Als die Trager das Gl1Ib zuzuschaufeln begannen, 
wand len sie sich zogernd zum Gehen. (66) 

The children encOtlnrer the dnver of a hearse, who has 
overheard them speak of their longing for refuge in "das hcilige 
Land" - here barh a liceral reference ro Palestine, which s)'mbolized 
the hopes of Jews everywhere for their own homeland, and a 
figurative allusion to the ma rc abstract conceptS of existential and 
spiritual freedom. The d river calls this to lhe children's attention: 

" Das heilige Land is[ zu weit, hOI[ lbr?" Er neigte 
den Kopf riefer w den Kindem. "Es gibt eine 
Grenze ga nz in der Nahe, ganz tinfach, da hiniiber 
zu kommen! Und von don mufit ihr gar nieht 
mehe weiler. Da gibt cs Spiclzeug in I-hille und 
Pulle. da bekomnu ihr allcs wruck." (67) 



86 Focus on Gmnan Sllltiiu 

Still focused on a li teral inrerpretation of [he driver'::; offer (0 

bring them over (he border, the children promise to meet him in 
me cemetery and [0 pay him the sum he demands for his services. 
They depart in a TraJJerkMtiche. a fitting vehicle for a journey thal wiU 
mcviubly end where it began, depOSiting the children bllCk In lhe 
cemetery - an omen signifying their inevitable physical doom. ' n lC 

children suspect [har they arc being dnven in circles and have been 
deceived (which, in the end, is exactly what occurs); yet me dnver 
assures them that he can bring tbem over lhe border. The boundary 
to which he refers, as Ellen and the other children soon discover, 
is nOt one mat divides a moancal dictalorshlp from a democratic 
haven or separates danger from safety In the commonly assumed 
sense. Rather, the driver describes (hIS border as (hat place. "wo die 
Linie zwischen I-timmel lmd E rde Hiuft" (12) - it is the existential 
barrier that holds the spheres of perceived reahty and unseen famasy 
apart '.vithin the human spirit. lise Alchmger's concept of freedom 
and resistance are dearly visible in [his seguence. True freedom, 
according to her philosophy, is dependent not upon external 
circumstances. but nnher upon [he individual's refusal to be defined 
by mem. Meaningful resistance in this sense is not that which takes 
up arms and punishes the perpetrator, but rather that which rebels 
against the shackling of the spirit and the conquest of the soul. 

Fantasy and reality merge in Atchinger's (ale during the 
carriage ride JUSt as they do in the childhood psyche; tluee 
legendary personalities join them on what the children belie\'e is 
their escape. Each of these figures (hat accompany me children in 
this surreal carriage ride imparts a pa rticula r symbolic siglll fic3nce. 
Lieber Augustin9 with his bagpipe, Columbus with his globe and 
King David with his slingshot are voices from legend, from the 
advenrurous past and from religious tradition - figures whose 
fantastic dimensions represent different facets of the children's 
longing. Augustin, who urges the children in the lJichtmmgen: 
"[S]ingl das Lied in der Pestgrube [ ... ]. Nur das Lied, das ihr singt, 
weist euch nach" (78), symbolizes their yearmngs for rhe laughter 
and lightheartedness of the normal childhood that the Nazis stole 
from them. Columbus, the explorer and dreame£, embodies the 
children's unfulfilled longing for place and {heir search for 3 world 
other than that in whIch they are uapped. 'o "Entdeckt die \'('cil von 

Rethinking Resistance 87 

Neuem." Columbus advises, as he inverts their preconceived notions 

of freedom and belonging: 

"Die aber sind, sind immer, und die nicht sind, sind 
nie. Ole aber sind, sind tiberall, und du: IlIChl sind, 
sind niegends. Bleibt und horcht,liebt und leuchtet! 
LaBt euch venduen und badet in Tranen, Tranen 
machen die Augen hell. Du rchdringt den Nebel 
und emdeckt die Welll Scin - das ist cb PaB fU r 

die Ewigkeit!" (18) 

The figure of King David, perhaps, carries special meaning; 
his victory as a small Jewish shepherd boy over an overwhelmingly 
powe rful and ostensibly unbeatable opponent bears su iking parallels 
to the situation dIe Jewish children face against the might of the 
Nazis to control every facet o f their lives and (0 o rder thei r deaths 
at will. David is presentcd by Atchinger not as the powerful ruler 
he became as an adult, but rather as the }'()Ung boy he 'IlJaS when he 
confronted Goliath: "Oa sprang ein Knabe von Lnnen her libel' die 
Mauern. Er trug ein hazes, helles Kleid lind cine Schleuder in der 

Rechten" (75). 
Though David is portrayed as a Messianic figure (as evidellced 

in the scene in which he is being tormented by the non-Jewish 
chudren in (he su:eet; he rakes an old dog Ihal the ch ildren had 
been ruthlessly toctunng and offers it as a sacrifice for their Sins), 
he promises no delivel1l.nce. The boy David offers the wounded, 
broken body of the dog (d1c symbol o f an innocent scapegoa t), nOt 
the flawless firstborn lamb required by the ancient Judaic uadLuon 
and reRected in Chrisuan theology. As there is no fitting sacrifice to 
be made to atone for senseless evil, he offers up that very intqulty for 
wluch the human psyche demands an impossible redemption: "\Vir 
wollen Gou von euren Sunden ein Brandopfer bringen. Kommt 
und schenkt ihm cure Sunden, weil ihr nidus anderes habt" (75).11 

The figure of David IS also an embodiment of the "Otherness" 
that the Jewish children feel and that is used to justify the cruclry 
daily perpetrated ag'3inst them. In confromauon with (he young 
hoodlums in the sueet, David subvertS the words of haln::c1 that 
are being hurled at him. The children thus project their own 



88 Focur on Gtr7IJon Sllidiu 

argument OntO (his figure and find a voice in me construct o f their 
imaginations: 

"Bin ieh cin Frcmder, wei! mcin Haa! schwar.! und 
gekcaust iSl, oder seid ihr Fremde, wei! eure Handc 
kale und hart sind? Wer is( frcmder, ihr Otler leh? 
Oer haBt, is[ fremder, als dec geha!3t wud, lind du: 
Frcmdesten sind, die sich am meisten zu Hau~e 
fUhlen." (76) 

The figure of David reflects the Jewish children's desi.re to stand 
face to face with their oppressors and prove [.hal righl can indeed 
uiumph o\"er might. However, King David admonishes the children: 
"ErscWagr den Goliath in eJlre» Herztfl" (78, my emphasis). By the 
end of the carriage nde, as the dri\"cr admits he has mdeed led rhem 
In circles and leaves the children in me exact ph)'sicallocauon from 

which (heir strange journey 5(2ned, it is clear ro [hem lhal den:ance 
and \'lcmry are battles they must fight and 'win Within themselves, 
regardless of whether they succeed in changing theu physical 
circumstances, Lawrence Langer writes: "[N]olhing changes in the 
midst of desires to alter c:verydling until the wish becomes a more 
vital !1ecessity for existence lhan aCNal evelHs" (Langer, HO/I)(OIfSl 

(52). Th~ugh in reality rhe children ha\'c been cruelly deceived by 
the driver of the hearse, the children's journey brought them to this 
critically important eXlSIential destination. Though in reality war and 
human indtfference had closed national borders and avenues for 
physical escape, the children of Die grojfm Hoffmmg make a crossing 
of another kind, 10 which tlley discQ"er how [0 create a solace for 
themselves even where there is none: 

"Springt ab!" schrie def Kutscher zornig und 
ruuche die schlafenden Kinder. "Spnngt ab, 
springt ab! OberaU sind Pas len, wir sind im 
Kreis gefahren, Schaut, daR ihr weiterkommt!" 
Die Kindcr schlugen die Augen auf unci hoben 
benommen die Kop fe, "Zeit, daR illr aufwachtl" 

sehae der Kmscher, "Alles war vergeblich, AUes is( 
verloren, \Vic kommen nicht mehr uber die Grenzel" 

Rethinking Resistance 

"Wir sind schon daruber," clefen die Kinder, Sic 
sprangen ab lind rannten, ohne sich !loch elOmal 
umzusehen, in das Dunkel zuruck. (80) 

89 

Fantasy and realiry are so intl!nwined in thiS surrealistic 
sequence that Ihey are often indistinguishable from one anomer. 11 
is unclear to the reader whemcr me carriage ride acmally occurred, 
or whether It was a dream consu ucted by children who were living 
a nightmarc. Aichinger here succeeds in posilio!\ing rhe reader to 
lake the perspective of the child, for whom real u)' and the realm 
of imagination are eClually genuine and siglllficant, The figure of 
Columbus articulatcs the significance o f the Imagma ry realm and the 
power It held out to the children in light of their undeniably desperate 
situation: ''Traume sind wachsamer als Taten lind Ereiglllsse, Tciume 
bewachen die Welt vor dem Untergang, Triume, nidus als Triume!" 

(75). 
EUen uulizes rhis same power of imaginauon as a 1001 of 

resistance in the eighth chap ter of the novel, "Flugc1traum," v,'hich 
]5 characterized by the imposition of fantasy OntO reality. Her 
friends all depo [(ed and her grandmothe r dead, Ellen finds bcrsdf 
alone. The chapter opens with a wish-fulfillment dream (Reiter, 
" Ilolocaust" 90) that is undoubtedly connected to the grief of final 
and irrevocable physical separation from her fr iCLlcls, The image of 
the train calls lip Images of the infamous transpo n s to the East and 
the tragedy of their final desunation: "Ore] Mmmen vor Abfahn 
des Zuges vergaR der Lokomorivfiihrer £las ZleJ der Fahn" (18-1). 
This envisioned reprieve hints at Ellen's deSire to Imagine her fnends 
out o f danger and 10 compel humanity ro resist moral subJugauon. 
She involves herself in the conflict be£\veen the stationmaster, 
who demands thal the train depart as scheduled, and lhe operator 
of [he tram, who represenrs rhe struggle of COil science that Ellen 
attempts to will in a right direction. The engineer's doubts mirror the 
moraliry to winch [he children had been clinging aU along; when the 
stationmaster threatens, " ... cJas kostet Sic den Korfl", the engineer 
fee ls that there were consequences that were sull v,'orse: "als k6nne es 
ruh ig den Korf kosten, wwn es nur nicht das f Icrz kostt te" (186), 

From behind the train on the other side of the tracks, 
Ellen cries out 10 the Lokomotitfiihrtr, pleading wilh him - and , 



90 Nail on Gmt/all S/Udiu 

by extension, with all in the sta tion and with the reader - not to 
become an unwitting accomplice; (0 resist and to heed the dictates 
of conscience which were numbed with such shameful effectiveness 
in those years: "[E)s gtbt Lokomotivfiihrer. die nkht wissen, wohln 
rue Reise gehr! Ein versiegehes Kuven, das ist alles. Gebt eudl 
nicht zufciedenl Fahr nidu, filhr nicht, solang du es nicht weiRd" 
(189). It is an appeal that rhe reader, with me beneht of hindsigh t, 
wishes (0 make in a desperate retrospective ime[[og3lion of a 
confounding and [[oubling past tha t can nm now be changed. It is 
an appeal thai is silenced by fear and blind duty ~ forces which are 
shown to emerge victortous over empathy and conscience in (he 
minds of most of the adui[s ponrayed in Diegriiflere HoJfnUlJg. At the 
command of the staciomnascer ("Steigen Sie jetzr ein lind fahren Sie. 
Und denken Sie nie meh r iJber das Ziel nacho Obrigens, die Sache 
wird ihre Folgen haben" [1891), the engineer numbly climbs imo the 
team, and it speeds away IO "dle fronc" 

A chase ensues, with (he Slaoon police pursuing Ellen. 
Imerestingly, though, a strange transformauon occurs durmg the 
chase, which at times resembles the ch ildren's game of "hide and 
seek" in the cemete ry: 

Lauf, EUen, lauf, einer fUhrt an. Lingst iSI 
ausgezahlt. Der ver folgt wird, fiihn an. Eins, 
zwei, drei, vier, funf. sechs, sieben, du darfst da s 
O pfe r sein. Reill sie mH, reiR sie mit, die Kene der 
Verfolger1 Quer hinliber, Betreten verboten, quer 
hintiber tiber euch selbsL [ ... ) Arme VerfolgeL 
Rein sie mit, dahinter, ins Ziel. (192) 

Ellen allows herself (0 be: caught - in fact, she ca tches her 
pursuer and allows herself to be b rought to rhe police station (198). 
By the aurhority of her ability to uanscend, in both the uteral and 
the figurative sense, [he prison ill which the police attempt to u:ap 
her, Ellen subverts their powe r, confounds their simplistic biases 
and blurs the dlstincoon between ,-icam and oppressor: "Ellen hef, 
sie lief wie e:in versprengter, geschlagener KOnig, blindes Gefolge 
1m Riicken: dlese Armen, die Wle: alit Verfolger zwn Gefolge der 
Verfolglen worden" (191).11 

Redlinkmg Resistance 91 

Ellen feels a strange sympathy for ber wrmenters, because It 

was Ihg who had lost a sense of direction and had exchanged inner 
trUlh for a perverted lie, their humaniry for inhumaniry ("\'(!arum 
habt ihr eure Fliigel gegen Stiefel verll uscht?" (206)). Even as lhe 
police drag me bloodied and terrified Bibi, who had escaped from 
the camp with Georg's help, into the station from her hiding place, 
Ellen tries to convince her to see the perpeuators wilh new eyes. In 
doing so, EIlen ende:avors widl gen tle defiance to rob [hem of some 
of their power to possess their victims' souls. Thl! opprcssors, Ellen 
maintai ns, are, in facr, victims themselves, locked ][1 a prison of their 
own making by hatred and IIldifferencc: 

" (Ajrme Gefangcne. Sic k6n nen sich nich[ finden , 
ihr Todfeilld halt sie besclzl, eingeno ll1men sind sie 
von sich selbsL MH clem Teufel sind si.e Lm Bund, 
aber sie haben keine Ahnung davon, ihrc Flligel 
slOd zerbrochen. ( ... 1 Wlt mussen Ihnen helfen, 
( ... J wir werden sie befreien." (206) 

The police chief who questions Ellen grows increaSingly 
exasperated wilh her use of paN.dox In answenng (Iucstions thai 
strike the aduh reader as rouune In tbal seiling. Alchingcr succeeds 
here no t only in allowing Ellen (0 LlHerrogate her persecmors, 
but also in compelling her readers to examine themselves, to take 
a critical position and to re4view mcantng Ihat is o f len taken for 

granted: 

"Gebort n?" "Ja," sagle Ellen. Emer d t r Manner 
gab ihr eint O lufeige. I ... J "Wie heiRt ell!, wa 
wohnsl du, wie alt bist du lind wa rUIll anrwortestdll 
nicht?" "S ie fragen fal sch," sagle EUen. [ ... ] "Wo 
bist elu zu Hause?" [ ... ] "Wo ich gcwoh nt habe," 
sagle Ellen, "war ich noch nie Zl1 Ibuse." 'Wo 
bist du dann zu Hause?" wiederholte der Po lizisl. 
"Wo Sic zu Hause sind," sagle Elltn. "Abcr wo sind 
wir zu Hause?" schne dec Oberst auRer sich. "Sie 

fragen jetzl ndHlg," sagte Ellen leise. (201,203) 



92 finus (}If German Siudiu 

By the force of her imaginative outlook, Ellen infuses Bibi with 
a new strength to face her fau~; rather than being hauled off to the 
train against her will. Bibi now leads the policeman - a sign that she 
has appropriated hee own suffering. Bibi's young life certainly ended 
a::; bCUlally as It \\'ould have in any case; yet in the position she look 

(Q\wrd dearn, she condemned those who semenced her. 
Ellen is held at the station and is [0 be brought to the seCret 

police U1 the morning. But as she sees onc of the policemen tear 
a page off a wall calendar [0 reveal [hat rhe date is the fifth of 
December, Ellen is filled with cenain hope of a 'miracle' on lhe eve 
of NikolaJu. 1l The magical signil1cance o f this holiday f01: chi1cken 
cannOt be overlooked in conncccion with Ellen's smcy. On a day 
when children believe lheir dreams come true throllgh a personage 
from rhe realm of fantasy and outside the everyday realiry, she sull 
believes that her wish - as improbable as it is - will be granted. 

As NihJlaliI and his procession move waugh the sueets, 
children's song casts a f:lnt2Sy spell over lhe scene in the StaUon, 
overwhdnung the guards, and Ellen escapes through lhe open 
door, eluding the secret police. On tlus one enchanted night, the 
voices of children could triumph over injustice, as in a fairy tale: 
"Leise muR man singen, wenn es Bnster wird, leiser, nocll viel 
leiser, so wie Kinder singen hinter verschlossenen Laden. [ ... ] Die 
Verlautbarungen flusrern nur mehr und verStummen endhch vor 
dem fremden Ued. Was singt es, was singt es? StOnt die Uden 
,uf!" (213). 

"Flugdtraum" is a chapter of Ellen's swry over wluch she 
has considerable control, conversing \vidl her oppressors of her 
own free will, challenging them and holding them caprive with her 
words, and finally escaping their hold on her. However, it is also 
a chapter in which fantasy is given free reign over reality. Scholar 
and Aichinge r biographer G isela Lindemann poses the quesuon of 
whether the story could have evolved as it did in cold reality. Her 
answer leaves the reader no comfort: "[olie Geschichte ... konnte 
nur so geschrieben werden" (Lindemann 63). 

As reflected both in Aichinger's novel and in the Holocaust 
experience, children ddied [heir circumstances in ways thou 
~'C!re "outside" the traditional concept of resistance. The Shoah 
embodied the antithesis of childhood, yet they were children 

Rethinking Resistance 93 

nonetheless _ their very ex istence was in this sense an impossibility. 
Their survival - however rare - was victory. As historian Martin 

Gilbert Slales: 

To die wllh dtgnity was III L1self courageous. To 
resist the dehumanizing, bru(:lltzing force of e\,ll, 
to refuse 10 be abased to the level of animals, (0 

live through the torment, to ouLiive the tOrmentors, 
these tOO were courageous. Merely to give wuness by 
one's own testimony was, in ,he end, to cOlluibule 
to a moral victory. Simply to survive was a victo ry 
of the human Spirit. (GIlbert 828) 

D espite this 'victory,' testimony of children's existence and 
resistance in the Holocaust provides no solace for humanity; instead, 
It confounds our expectaaons of comfort and a modicum of saving 
grace that will allow us to establtsh some SOrt of cootinullY wuh a 
past we are not \villing (Q completely repudiate. . 

The horrific experience portrayed in Dit!,rOjfm Hoffnlillg-whlCh, 
as Lawrence Langer assens, only adults could fully 'undersrand'- is 
one which the children do not fully comprehend themselves (HO/otOIlJI 
134). Their lives are interrupted by the Iiolocausl, theu: innocence 
a victim of it, and their deaths inexphcably demanded by it; yet 
children attempted to "assert life and \I.'tench some coherence from 
3n existence that has been teduced .. . to {he illogic of nighunare" 

(Langer, Ho/otoliJI 136). 
f.. lost children who e:-:penenced the Shoah never awoke 

from the nightmare to the comforung arms of their mothers; lhe 
power of their imaginations cOlLld not truly mmscend me ghastly 
circumstanceS under which they hved and died. Yet, the children still 
played and dreamed, learned and laughed, even hoped - beyond the 
capacity of adult logic to explain, understand and justify it. Rathe r 
than signifying the frivolity of children's responses to tbe Holocaust, 
perhaps this phenomenon illuminatl:s lhe poverty of aduh logiC and 
the ultimate fuultty of its efforts 10 create a space in which humanity 
may Iwe comfortably \1.'ilh the terrtble knowledge that dlC Holocaust 

brought to lighr. Games, dreams :'1I1d fantasy appear nO( merely as 
a product of hideous circumstances, bm also as a SOrt of rebellion 



94 Fool! on Gmnon Studies 

against them. Children played, laughed and hoped nO[ because they 
had reason (0 do so, but tTOIZdt!ll - in spite o f the fact that such 
reasons did not exist. 

IIsc: Aidunger, In portraying the Holocaust through me eyes of 
children, exhorts humaniry [0 choose rhe discomfort of 'Omerness' 
over the deceptive consolation of accommodating truth to our own 
expectations. "Ditgt'dmrt HoffJ//#li' after [he Holocaust depends nOl 

on humanity's reconciliation of traditional sources and interpretations 
of meaning with a reality lhar ",ill always lie beyond its grasp; thaI. is 
the "grom HoffmlNg' that can no longer be reached. Rather, it is to be 
found in pb.cing oneself in the center of the conflict berween these 
twO irreconcilable forces, defying oversimplification and contenting 
oneself with living and communicating in rhe perpetual paradox [hat 
is the legacy of the Holocaust. Though despair is aU that remains, we 
must refuse it; though understanding is impossible, we must seek it; 
though hope and meaning seem futile, we must pursue them trotztkm. 
Oue concept of the Holocaust must aUow nm only for the jlldmSltrll, 

rhe catlie cars and rhe ashen smoke of the chimneys, but also for 
the playground, the power of imagination and the laughter of 
children where they least seemed to belong. That is the essence of 
[he resistance exhibited by children in (he Holocaust, and It is in (his 
space of perperual conflict between these rwo worlds that humaniry 
must willingly place itself in order to begin to grasp the ponderous 
and m.addening umh of the Shoah. 

Unilltrfiry of Montof/o 

Noces 

I Rabbi Nissenbaum is most likely refe.rrlng here to the religious pusecutions 
of Jews that took place through the to. l.iddle Ages and imo the early modern 
period, mdudlOg dunng the InqUIsition, which demanded that Jews either 
convert to C2tholicism (thus denying their own religion) or be killed. 
1 Aichinger's novel was published In English uanslation in 1964 under the 
title HtroJ~ ChiMnn (see bibliography). 
l Ellen's racial SClrus of MUfhlinl is noteworthy in regard to the decision 
she faces as she pb.ys her role. Her "self" IS racially spin; therefore, she 
is not born imo one role or the other, but must decide for herself, of her 
own will. what her f:ue wtll be. In her OU'n life, she consistently chooses to 
identify WIth her Jewish self and her ourC2srJewish friends. In the role of 

Rethinking Resistance 95 

the world, she makes a similar decision, reAecting Aichinger's message that 

every person faces a simuar choice. 
• In the chapter enoded, "Der Tod der GroRmutter," for example, Ellen 
adopts the Chnsuan u rual when she bapuzes her grandmother follou·lIlg 

the old woman's suicide. 
S Chaim Kaplan records in his Warsaw Ghetto Diary; "Desolate, lonely 
lou, surrounded by high WllUs at the backs of courtyards or planted In 

tbe space between rhe houses of the wall have been rurned mto 'parks.' 
to. lothers 2nd children fin them For space for a baby's cradle they pay 
50 zlo£), a month, and tf any member of the family besides the mother 
accompanies or comes to viSit the child, he must pay an addltlonal 
admission charge. Old people and inwlids who 'Wilt to relax and enJoy 
'the beauues of nature' pay tWO zloty a day. The unemployed young people 
play games there, and fill the guden with gaiety and lightheartedness" 

('ltd. in Eisen 35). 
I Adam Czermak6w, ltke other members of the Jlldenral in the ghettOs, was 
a contro\·crslal figure. Part of Czern~k6w's funcoon as Ch2irman was 
the organizatiOn of the deponations to Treblinh 2nd other death camps, 
though it is not dear exactly how much the Jev.ish Councils knew about 
the true purpose 2nd desonatlon of these t.ransports. In a diabolical twiSt 
on the cnme of rhe Final Solution, the NaZIS used these Jewish Councils 
Qike the Jewish Ghetto Pollee) to implement their orders in exchange for 
special prIVileges (includmg the promise o f exempcioll frolll depor~tion 
for themselves 2nd tbeLt families), though they, like all other Jews III NaZI 
hands, were marked for c\"enrual death after they had outlasted their 
usefulness. SuU, many of the members of the Judmratt sought to use 
theIr poSluon to Improve the lot of the ghe((Q residt:nts 2nd even save 
lives. When in July of 1943 Czerniak6w was ~ot able to secure the safety 
of Warsaw's orphans from depor~oon, he commined suicide. In his 
SUICide note, he wrote; " I am pol,I.'(:[less. My heart trembles in sorrow and 
compassion. I can no longer bear all this. My act will prove to eve.ryone 
what IS lhe nght (hLng {O do" (qtd. In DauidowlCz 301). Chairn Kaplan, 
who was one of Czermak6w's most voc2l ennes, paid hun dIe followlOg 
rnliute; "l ie perperuated his name by his death more than by hIS life" (qtd. 

III Dawidowicz 301). 
1 The Nazi supervisors of the ghettos 2110wed these playgrounds to be 
e5tl1blished and permitted cerram culrun.J acuviaes primarily because 
of the calnung effect they had on the ghetto population. The German 
Kommtssar of \'('arsa\\" HeinZ Auerwald, confirmed this rC2soning in a 
memo: "( ... ) All these measures h2ve produced a certam [assurance 

which IS necessary If Ithe Jews'] economic capacity IS to be exploited for 
OUf purposes" (qtd. in Eisen 40). 



96 Focus on German Studies 

I Among the gnss·roots o~nizarions dedicated ro children's welfare were 
CENTOS (Central Shdu~:r for Children and Orphans), ZOT (Society for 
(he Preservation of Health). YYGA Ocwish Social Self·Aid Society) and 
ZTOS Qewish Society for Social ""dface) (Eisen 36). 
9 Man: Augustin was a bagpipe player who performed his typically bawdy 
songs in Vienna's t:J.verns in me lace seventeenth eenruIy. The Black Death 
sU'uck mat city in 1679, killing almost a sixth of the population beforc It 

had run its course. One night, the habitually drunk Augustin sUlmbled intO 
an open mass grave and slept all night III a heap of corpses. He dunbed 
Out o f the pit the next morning and continued in his usual lifestyle unnl 
his death twenty-five years later. His smry passed into Viennese legend 
through a folk song with which children were widely familiar ("0 du lieber 
f\ugustin / Alles ist hinl'') (paul Hofmann, The Vimnm: Splendor, TU1ilight 
and Exile [New York: Doubleday, 1988] 18,56). The Augustm legend 
bas traditionally signified maintaining an indomitable - even sometimes 
irrational - zeSt for Me that is independem of circumstances. Aichinger's 
choice to utilize this legend in connection with life in the Holocaust casts 
this image in a new light, emphasizUlg tenacity and survival nuher than (he 
traditional hedonistlc representation o f Augustin. 
10 An imeresting footnote to Aichingds use o f me figure of Chriswpher 
Columbus in mis sequence may be added by Simon Wiesemhal, {he 
Holocaust survivor who is renowned for his work in bringing Nazi war 
criminals to Justice. In his book, Sails ~ Hope, Wiesenthal el(plores the 
nonon that Columbus' voyage coinci.ded with me expulsion of the Jews 
from Spain u· the height of me I nquisition. Using Columbus' own Journals 
and other hiswrical documentation as evidence, \Viesenthal argues mat 
Columbus hunself was a convened Jew who may have been utilizing his 
commission as an explorer to bring' Jews out of dangcr. 
" Lawrence Langer comments on the futility of attempting to assign some 
son of redemptive value to the Holocaust. In his essay, "Preempting the 
Holocaust," he warns against selectively "using - and perhaps abusing" 
the "grim details" of the Holocaust to support a relUrn to normalcy that 
the very event of the Holocaust renders impossible. Langer quotes lhe 
histodan Raul Hilberg, in his response to the question of whether there 
\vere any meaning to be derived from the Holocaust. Hilberg sa.id, "1 hope 
not" (qtd. in Langer, Preemptillg xvi). 
11 This reversal of the roles of vicUm and oppressor is also visible in the 
fourth chaprer of this novel, '1m Dienst ciner [rcmden fo.lacht." As the 
children are gathered at their English lesson, they are being watched by 
a group of children from the Hider Youth. (Though Aichinger dOes nOt 
avail herself o f the labe~ it is evident in the daggers the children carry and 
the uniforms they \I,'ear.) As they hear me words of [he old man who is 

Rethinking Resistance 
97 

teaching dle lesson, they begin to dunk beyond dle propaganda with winch 
they have been indoctrinated. They begin [Q feel, to fear and even [Q laugh 
_ human actions mat "arrest" theIr SImplistic presumptions. "\,(lir wollee.n 
sic verhaften," says one of the children in Uniform, "(1)etzt verhaftcn SIC 

uns" (93). .. . . 
11 The feast day of St. Nicholas is the clay on which children uadillonall), 
set out their shoes or stockings for the visiung Nikolaus, hoping he will fiJI 

them with nuts and sweets. 

Works Cired 

Aichinger, lise. "Das vierte Tor." Dit grolm H~/Ung. Ed. Richard 
Reichensperger. Frankfurt/Main: Fischer, 199\. 272-275. . 

Oilgrojert Hoffmmg. Ed. Richard Reichensperger. Frankfun/r-.lam: 

Fischer, 1991. 
Herod's Childrtll. Trans. of Die grojere HOJfllllllg by Cornelia 

Schaeffer. New York: Arheneum,l96·t 
Bartsch, Kurt and Gerhard Melzer, eds. lite Ai(hill.!,lr. Graz: Droschl, 

1993. 
Bridges. Annette. What Migl/o/l Knows: Girlhood Sul:!J·t(tivitJ m Thru Nolltii 

of tIM 1940s. Dlss. U of Oregon, 1999. Ann Arbor: DAlA, 

2000. 
Dawidowic.l, Lucy S. The War Against the J ews: 1933-19~5. New 

York: Bantam, 1986. 
Eisen, George. Chlidrtn alld Play III the Holo((lust: Calllu among tm 

Shadows. Amherst: U Massachusens P, 1988. 
Edclheit, Abraham and Ilenche! Ede!heil, eds. Bibhograpl!J Oil HolocauJ/ 

LiW-alure. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1986. 
Frank, Anne. The Diary of a YoI<'II,!: Girl Eds. OLtO H . Frank and Miriam 

Pressler. Trans. Susan l\Iassorty. New York: Doubleday, 1991. 
Bibliograpf!J Oil Holo(al<';t Lltra/llre. 2nd ed. Boulder, CO: Westview, 

1990. 
Gilbert, Martin. /-loloral<'st: A HiJtory of the Jews of Ellropt durin.!, the S;;c()!ld 

World IVar. New York: Holt, \985. 
Jackson, Rosemary. fimfIJV: The Uteratllrt oj SlIbv!rJioll. New York: 

Memuen, 1981. 
Kaiser, Hedi. "Ilse Ajchinger: Ditgroj!trt HoffoulIg." Erziihlen, Enm/tnl: 

Dtlltsdx Prosa mr Gegellll·art - IlIttrpretahOllm. Ed. Hcrben Kaiser 

and Gerhard Kopf. Frankfurt/ Main: DI~stcrweg. 1992. . 
Karnick, Manfred. " Die grossere Hoffnung: Uber ludisches Schlcksal 

in deutscher Nachkriegsl!terarur." 



98 FOClff 011 German Jflldiu 

Judm ill &r dllltSfhw Lillrafllr: Ew delifJrh-jJradiJChes Symposium. Ed. 

Stephanie Moses and Albrecht Schone. Frankfurt/f'I-\ain: 
Suhrkamp, 1986. 

Kluger, Rum. wiler kben: Eine JlIgmd. Gottingen: \'(Ialtslcin. 1992. 
Langer, Lawrence L Pmmpling the HoIMZJW. New Haven: Yale U P, 

1998. 

~--. TIN HohcollJI Qlld th( Literary [mogilU1u()fJ. London: Yale U P, \975. 
Lindem:lnn, Gisela. fhe Aichinger. t\lilnchen: C.H. Beck, 1988. 

t-.Iowla, Gabriel. "Children of lhe Holocaust." TriQllarlfr!J. IDS 
(1999): 209-32. 

Reichensperger, Richard. Dit Bergllng dtr Opftr in der Sprorht: Obtr lise 
Airhiflgtr - Lbm IIlId IVerk. Frankfurt/l\lain: Fischer, 1991. 

--. "Orte: Zur Biographie cincr Familie." list AiwlII!!'- Kurt Banseh 
and Gerhard Melzer, cds. Graz: Droschl, 1993. 231-247. 

Reiter, Andrea. "The Holocaust as Seen through me Eyes of Children." 
The Ho/(;caust and the Texf: Sf'laJeJ!Jg the Unspeakable. Ed. Andrew 
Leak and George PalZis. New York: f', lad" ... Wlan, 2000. 

Rosenberger, Nicole. "Das Prinzip des Ungdugten: Zum 

geschichtskricischen Potential von rIse Aichingers Roman Die 
griifon Hoffmmg." I17tlmQrtr /kirrage. 46.1 (2000): 121-28. 

Trahan, Elisabeth \,(felt. Walking uilh GhOJts: A jmuh Childhood in 
lWartlme Viuma. New York: Peter Lang, 1998. 

Wiesenthal, Simon. Sails of Ho~: The Sum Allmon of Chmloplxr 
COUlmbUI. Trans.. of Slgt! dtr I-lqjfmlllg by RIchard and Clara 
Winslon. New York: MacMillan, 1973. 

Icebergs in the Caribbean Sea: 
Cuba in Hans Magnus Enzensberger's 

Der UntergoJJg der Titanic 

Stefan H6ppner 

Herr Enzensbcrger hat 51Ch emschlossen, nach Cuba zu gehen 
und don eine btrnkhtliche ZeIt IU vcrbringen. On durflen 
drci Jahre st:1I1_/ ... ] Er will dem cub~nischen Volk \·on Nuttcn 
sein. Er selbSl, in cigener Person, will cmem ganzen Vo~ \'on 
Nutzen scin. Die Verwandlung des Herrn Enzensbergcr In den 
Nutzen des kubanischen Volkes, dargestellt auf offencr Bijhne. 
Keiae Tricks, keine doppdte!l Vorhilnge, keine Schleierl r ... J 

Da geht er hin und veroffemlidH ~ieh in cler New YOlk ReVIew 
of Books. 

Uwe Jo hnson l 

Die Mode, saglcn wir, sei ltnabiu.lich, :iuch III der 
KUllSI, ... und im ilbrigen begrlffen Wlf nicht, was Cuba 
damir zu schllffen hllbe, Cuba sci eme idee Fixe. 

It's all we're skilled in -

Hans Magnus Enzc:nsbcrger 
Dtr U!lflrgallg dtr TflrJlII; 

We will be sllipbuilding, 
With lIll the WIll in me ",,'Orld 
Diving for dear life 
When we could be diving for pearls. 

Elvis Costello) 

T he year is 1968. At the peak o f !.he Vietnam \'(~ar and the sUident 

protesrs in Europe and rhe US, German wnler Hans Magnus 
Enzensberger renounces his fellowship at Wesleran Uruvcrsiry 10 

Connecticut. His main reason is [he war the American government 

is fi ghting in Vietnam: 

Ich halte die KJasse. welche in den vcreinigten 

Staaten von Amerika an cler Henschaf[ ist, lind die 

Regierung, welche die Geschafte dieser Klasse fi.ihn,