Motyw skrzypiec w świadectwach i reprezentacjach Zagłady
The Motif of Violin in Testimonies and Representations of the Holocaust

Summary/Abstract: The author draws from various sources: diaries, notes, testimonies, documents, and other accounts from the time of the Holocaust, coming from both victims and perpetrators; to novels about the Holocaust and music related to the experience of the Holocaust, tracing the motif of violins in various representations of the Holocaust. The article serves as a reconnaissance, focusing on selected sources, addressing only certain threads, and opening up research avenues for future studies on this topic. The central research question is about the function of cultural symbols (and violins are an integral attribute of Jewish musical culture in its most stereotypical form, in the common and widely popularized sense) in formulating and conveying such a fundamental expe- rience as the Holocaust. It turns out that violins are strongly present in these narratives, both as a tangible object – a musical instrument, and (perhaps primarily) as a theme, metaphor, symbol. The motif of violins operates in the high register, but increasingly, it can be observed in contem- porary narratives belonging to the low-register of literature, descending into the realm of kitsch. The stream of stories about violins and violinists during the Holocaust (and the author limits himself here to selected examples) does not dry up; on the contrary, the wave seems to be rising.

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