Reprezentace šoa v denících: literární analýza deníku Dawida Sierakowiaka a Mary Bergové
Representations of the Shoah in Diaries: A Literary Analysis of the Diaries of Dawid Sierakowiak and Mary Berg

Summary/Abstract: Although diaries are an important type of confession, literary theory practically ignores them entirely. As highlighted by Sue Vice, ‘the diary is viewed as an artless, amateur form which is neither literary nor historical’. Yet diaries written by Holocaust victims, both those who died and survivors, are truly precious testimonies. The most valuable texts are those that were never meant for publication and therefore remained unedited. A fine example is The Diary of Dawid Sierakowiak. Dawid depicted his and his family’s life in the Łódź Ghetto. His diary is a journal intime. Another type of testimony by a H olocaust survivor is The Diary of Mary Berg. Mary wrote a chronicle of the Warsaw Ghetto; her diary is a collective testimony, journal externe. Mary survived (unlike Dawid) and rewrote her diary. The text reveals her narrative strategies. Both texts reflect a child’s point of view in the forced prematurity of the writers, since in wartime they could not have normal childhoods. From the documentary point of view, Dawid’s text is more valuable, for it is authentic and stylization is kept to a minimum. The authenticity of Mary’s diary is weakened by the stylization. Nevertheless, the importance of her diary lies in her successfully accomplishing the task of describing ghetto life. Both diaries are unique testimonies.

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