When Night Fell
An Anthology of Holocaust Short Stories
Both survivors of the Holocaust and those who were not there agree that it is impossible to tell what happened as the Nazi Final Solution was put into effect. No writing can adequately imagine the concentration camps, ghettos, and death camps. And that is precisely why writers must tell-and retell-what happened there.
In When Night Fell: An Anthology of Holocaust Short Stories, Linda Schermer Raphael and Marc Lee Raphael have collected twenty-six short stories that tell of the human toll of the Holocaust on those who survived its horrors, as well as later generations touched by its memory. The stories are framed by discussion of the current debate about who owns the Holocaust and who is entitled to speak about it.
Some of the stories included here are by internationally acclaimed authors. Others may be new to many readers. When Night Fell is a fitting memorial to this genocidal horror, putting eloquent voice to human endurance that is-almost-beyond words.
This important anthology sheds much light on the aesthetic and moral role of writers in representing the Shoah. By including both survivors and non-witnessing authors in their study, the Raphaels emphasize the universal and ongoing nature of this crucial issue.
The Raphaels have gathered for us--teachers, students, readers--a collection of short stories built on silence: from the unspeakable events of the Holocaust through the profound silence of history to the decorous silence of racism and probity. 'The story [of the Holocaust] is never-ending,' says the introduction. Without this book we'd know less than we must know to stay alive.
Linda Schermer Raphael and Mark Lee Raphael . . . again raise the question of whether art can somehow encompass barbarity...
This important anthology sheds much light on the aesthetic and moral role of writers in representing the Shoah. By including both survivors and non-witnessing authors in their study, the Raphaels emphasize the universal and ongoing nature of this crucial issue.
The Raphaels have gathered for us--teachers, students, readers--a collection of short stories built on silence: from the unspeakable events of the Holocaust through the profound silence of history to the decorous silence of racism and probity. 'The story [of the Holocaust] is never-ending,' says the introduction. Without this book we'd know less than we must know to stay alive.
Linda Schermer Raphael and Mark Lee Raphael . . . again raise the question of whether art can somehow encompass barbarity...
Linda Schermer Raphael teaches English at George Washington University. Her writings have focused on nineteenth- and twentieth-century literature, narrative theory, and moral skepticism in fiction.
Marc Lee Raphael is Nathan and Sophia Gumenick Professor of Judaic Studies and Professor of Religion at the College of William and Mary. He is the author of Profiles in American Judaism: The Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, and Reconstructionist Traditions in Historical Perspective.
Preface
Introduction
The Night
My Father's Deaths
Bertha
Kitty
"Heil, Hitler!"
A Plaque on Via Mazzini
Artists in the Ghetto
Berele in the Ghetto
Bread
Children of the Lodz Ghetto
The Last Journey
The Boxing Match
The Death of Tsaritsa
The Season of the Dead
My Quarrel with Hersh Rasseyner
Uncle Aron
The Road of No Return
The Lemon
Stephen and Anne
Old Words-New Meanings
The Teacher
A Ghetto Dog
The Ban
Liberator
My Mother's War
Conrad in the Ghetto
Glossary
Further Reading
Copyrights and Permissions
