Nazi Perpetrators In Holocaust Narrative

With a mass of accounts from victims and witnesses of the Holocaust in both fiction and nonfiction literature, the representation of a Perpetrator first person perspective is rare. Littell constructs a character that allows this perspective to be fully exploited whilst Binet avoids giving his characters free speech and sticks to a more traditional omniscient narrator. Perpetrator narrative may be uncomfortable to read, however it is arguably required to fully understand Nazi power and give an account of the social and human motives of the time. Historical narrative can create and arouse powerful emotions, and there are many challenges involved in undertaking such a task.
This dissertation will aim to provide a study into the representation of Nazi Perpetrators in Holocaust Narrative. This will be …show more content…
• With many critics condemning the aestheticization of horror, it is imperative to address the requirement of Perpetrator perspective through narrative representation. The fascination of dark human history requires an interpretation and re-creation for the mass interest in Holocaust history.
• Littell’s visually aggressive mechanisms bring these infamous sites to life. Through his Perpetrator the reader is privy to locations not available to the average tourist, he takes us into the barracks and the house of Höss at Auschwitz. Binet’s monologue takes the reader to the museums he visits and leaves the investigator within us needing to see for ourselves the colour of Heydrich’s Mercedes.
Chapter 2 – Creating Evil
• There has been much critical discussion on the compliance of Perpetrators during the Second World War and the implications this holds for an individual’s contribution. I will explore how the narratives represent these ideas and create characters who adhere to an expectation of Nazi