In the years immediately after the end of
World War II, little Holocaust literature was pro-
duced. Many Jewish survivors of the Holocaust
were intent on rebuilding their lives, by establish-
ing careers, marrying and having children—by
recreating what had been destroyed by the
Nazis. As the events receded into the past and
the population of survivors aged, many began
writing memoirs, and these memoirs became a
way for Holocaust survivors to bear witness.
Poetry about the Holocaust is different, however.
The role of Holocaust poetry is not clearly
defined, nor perhaps is it clearly definable. Hol-
ocaust poetry can be, as Susan Gubar suggests in
her bookPoetry after Auschwitz, ‘‘a therapeutic
response to the catastrophe.’’ Holocaust poetry
can also function as a warning or as a way to
teach through verse. This last point is the argu-
ment that Sir Philip Sidney makes in his lengthy
prose workThe Defence of Poesy,inwhichhe
claims that the role of literature in a civilized
society is to educate and to inspire those who
read to ethical and virtuous actions. Sidney’s
argument for poetry’s purpose is one that can be
used to help understand poetry written about the
Holocaust.
When Holocaust literature is published, the
expectation is that readers will buy it. Whether
the output is a memoir, fiction, a screenplay, or
poetry, the selling of the Holocaust has become a
business. There are now a number of excellent
documentaries about the Holocaust, and even
fictional accounts, whether novels or films,
have become somewhat commonplace. Still,
there remains an expectation that using the Hol-
ocaust will result in a product that educates but
does not exploit. The expectation that writing
about the Holocaust will result in a treatment
that dignifies and honors the victims depends a
great deal on perception. For example, in aNew
York Timesreview of the 1978 NBC miniseries
Holocaust, the Auschwitz survivor and Nobel
Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel objects to the
use of the Holocaust to promote spectacle and
to the blending of the facts of the Holocaust with
the fiction of television. In his review, Wiesel
asserts that ‘‘the Holocaust is unique, not just
another event.’’ The screenwriter who wrote this
miniseries no doubt felt that he was honoring theWHAT
DO I READ
NEXT? The Collected Poems, 1952–1990was pub-
lished in 1991 and contains more than 660
pages of Yevtushenko’s vast collection of
poetry.
Yevtushenko’s Fatal Half Measures: The
Culture of Democracy in the Soviet Union
(1991) is a collection of essays, speeches,
and articles that the author has written on
a variety of subjects, including the unequal
status of Soviet women, racism, and anti-
Semitism.
The Cambridge Introduction to Russian
Poetry(2004), by Michael Wachtel, is a dis-
cussion of the last three centuries of Russian
poetry. Included is information about con-
cepts and the different styles of poetry most
often used by Russian poets, such as love
poetry and patriotic verse.
Lawrence Langer’sArt from the Ashes: A Hol-
ocaust Anthology(1995) contains a large selec-
tion of Holocaust poetryaswellasexcerpts
from memoirs, diaries, and short fiction.
Nelly Sachs’s collection of poetry The
Seeker, and Other Poems(1970) focuses on
different aspects of the Holocaust and
includes several poems that deal with death.
Anti-Semitism: A History(2002), by Dan
Cohn-Sherbok, provides a 3,000-year his-
tory of anti-Semitism and explores why
anti-Semitism has played such an important
role in history.YEVTUSHENKO DID NOT EXPERIENCE
THE HOLOCAUST. HE IS NOT JEWISH, AND ‘BABII YAR’
IS NOT THE POETRY OF EXPERIENCE. NEVERTHELESS,
YEVTUSHENKO’S POETRY CAPTURES THE TRUTH
OF THAT EXPERIENCE.’’Babii Yar