BEHIND THE WIRES: GISELLA PERL’S STORY
BEHIND THE WIRES: GISELLA PERL’S STORY

Summary/Abstract: The article takes into discussion Gisella Perl’s account of her experience in Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen. Born in Transylvania and deported by the Hungarian government, as in 1944 Transylvania still belonged to Hungary, following the Dictate of Vienna of 1940, Perl’s memoire written three years after her liberation becomes one of the first woman’s voice that speaks about the destruction of the European Jews. Her story can be said to be part of a Transylvanian trilogy together with Eva Heyman and Ana Novac’s diaries, the three Transylvanian women offering a very different, yet complementary view of the tragedy of Jewish people in the former Romanian province. Their styles differ, yet they are somehow connected through the world tragedy they speak about. Written as a means of confession, of escape or from the position of a spokesperson for those who cannot speak for themselves, Perl’s story becomes an important historical and literary testimony of the darkest hour of human history.

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