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A Critical Companion to Jorge Semprún“Don’t leave me, pal”: Witnessing Death in Semprun’s Buchenwald Narratives

A Critical Companion to Jorge Semprún: “Don’t leave me, pal”: Witnessing Death in Semprun’s... [Considering the omnipresence of death in the Nazi camps, it is unsurprising that death and dying have become a predominant theme in survivors’ memoirs. “Der Tode… ein Meister aus Deutschland” (Death … a master from Germany)1 takes the center stage in Jorge Semprún’s inquiry into the nature of radical evil as it manifested itself in Buchenwald and, as the protagonist of his narratives is to discover, also in the parallel kingdom of Stalin’s Gulags. What sets Semprún’s reflection apart from a plethora of thanatographic accounts that emerged from the camps is that, for the narrators of his récits, death appears to be an intimate, even serene presence, a companion, a “pal” whom they approach with openness and compassion, rather than with fear and dread.2] http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png

A Critical Companion to Jorge Semprún“Don’t leave me, pal”: Witnessing Death in Semprun’s Buchenwald Narratives

Part of the Studies in European Culture and History Book Series
Editors: Ferrán, Ofelia; Herrmann, Gina
Glowacka, Dorota
Springer Journals — Oct 28, 2015
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15 pages

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Publisher
Palgrave Macmillan US
Copyright
© Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Nature America Inc. 2014
ISBN
978-1-349-45859-2
Pages
91 –106
DOI
10.1057/9781137439710_5
Publisher site
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Abstract

[Considering the omnipresence of death in the Nazi camps, it is unsurprising that death and dying have become a predominant theme in survivors’ memoirs. “Der Tode… ein Meister aus Deutschland” (Death … a master from Germany)1 takes the center stage in Jorge Semprún’s inquiry into the nature of radical evil as it manifested itself in Buchenwald and, as the protagonist of his narratives is to discover, also in the parallel kingdom of Stalin’s Gulags. What sets Semprún’s reflection apart from a plethora of thanatographic accounts that emerged from the camps is that, for the narrators of his récits, death appears to be an intimate, even serene presence, a companion, a “pal” whom they approach with openness and compassion, rather than with fear and dread.2]

Published: Oct 28, 2015

Keywords: Political Prisoner; Gulag System; Radical Evil; Ethical Meaning; Levinasian Ethic

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