Between retrospective and contemporaneous writing, many diaries and other forms of literature have come from the victims and survivors of the Holocaust. These different styles of writing have enabled us to learn more about this period in history from multiple perspectives. I believe the excerpts from Moshe Flinker and Dawid Sierakowiak’s diaries are equally great examples of contemporaneous writing from the Holocaust for high schoolers to read during your two-week unit. First of all, contemporaneous writing is very different from retrospective writing. When reflecting on an event, people use retrospective writing. On the other hand, contemporaneous writing always occurs during the time the event was happening. Writers are often faced with
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Moshe was born in 1926 at The Hague located in the Netherlands (Simkin). He was a brilliant student who knew eight different languages. In 1942 his entire family, including his mother, father, one brother, and five sisters fled to the city of Brussels in Belgium. The family thought they would stand a better chance at surviving there. After being in Brussels for a while, the family eventually became afraid to leave their apartment but remained stable. The seclusion from friends and neighbors started to affect Moshe. This prompted him to begin writing a diary at the age of sixteen. Even though he spoke primarily Dutch, Moshe chose to write his diary in Hebrew to honor his fellow Jews (Patterson). The Flinker’s were all arrested by the Gestapo on April 7, 1944, the eve of Passover, and sent to Auschwitz. There, Moshe and his parents were murdered. All of Moshe’s siblings managed to survive, and it was when they returned to their apartment that they discovered Moshe’s diary …show more content…
At the beginning of his diary in 1939, Dawid, like Moshe, discusses one of the themes of contemporaneous writing: news of the war. At first Dawid seems to think it is all fun and games; he shrugs at the hysteria. This reaction could be due to one of the limitations of writing: lacking the knowledge of the bigger picture. However, the next day he seems to have a more serious reaction. He explained how the first big air raid on Lódź occurred and how he hid in a stairwell with other people. They were convinced they were about to be bombed but thankfully were not. Like Moshe’s diary, Dawid’s also contains several contemporaneous characteristics. First, we see Dawid objectively reporting daily and weekly events such as the weather and projects he is working on in school. As he is describing these events and others, he is also describing the impact they have on himself and his family. Because of this documentation, the diary lacks overall flow. Also seen in Moshe’s diary, we quickly jump from one though to another which is another characteristic of contemporaneous
Moshe was born in 1926 at The Hague located in the Netherlands (Simkin). He was a brilliant student who knew eight different languages. In 1942 his entire family, including his mother, father, one brother, and five sisters fled to the city of Brussels in Belgium. The family thought they would stand a better chance at surviving there. After being in Brussels for a while, the family eventually became afraid to leave their apartment but remained stable. The seclusion from friends and neighbors started to affect Moshe. This prompted him to begin writing a diary at the age of sixteen. Even though he spoke primarily Dutch, Moshe chose to write his diary in Hebrew to honor his fellow Jews (Patterson). The Flinker’s were all arrested by the Gestapo on April 7, 1944, the eve of Passover, and sent to Auschwitz. There, Moshe and his parents were murdered. All of Moshe’s siblings managed to survive, and it was when they returned to their apartment that they discovered Moshe’s diary …show more content…
At the beginning of his diary in 1939, Dawid, like Moshe, discusses one of the themes of contemporaneous writing: news of the war. At first Dawid seems to think it is all fun and games; he shrugs at the hysteria. This reaction could be due to one of the limitations of writing: lacking the knowledge of the bigger picture. However, the next day he seems to have a more serious reaction. He explained how the first big air raid on Lódź occurred and how he hid in a stairwell with other people. They were convinced they were about to be bombed but thankfully were not. Like Moshe’s diary, Dawid’s also contains several contemporaneous characteristics. First, we see Dawid objectively reporting daily and weekly events such as the weather and projects he is working on in school. As he is describing these events and others, he is also describing the impact they have on himself and his family. Because of this documentation, the diary lacks overall flow. Also seen in Moshe’s diary, we quickly jump from one though to another which is another characteristic of contemporaneous