ABSTRACT
Adorno once made the dogmatic assertion that no poetry can be written after Auschwitz. Later, he admitted that his judgment was too rash. One cannot write about Auschwitz from the position of the spectator. The Holocaust was not a tragic spectacle, nor was it a metaphysical occurrence, nor was it a historical event. Auschwitz remains beyond the reach of tragedy, beyond metaphysical philosophy, and beyond the epic narrative. Four kinds of silence envelop the Holocaust: the silence of senselessness, the silence of horror, the silence of shame, and the silence of guilt. First comes the silence of guilt. The victims of the Holocaust died in silence because the world was guilty of its own voicelessness. The second silence is the silence of shame. It is the silence that comes after. Almost everywhere, but first and foremost among the Jews themselves, the Holocaust was the theme to be avoided.
