ABSTRACT
The most enduring works dating from the upsurge in the publication of French-language testimonies have been Jorge Semprun's autobiographical novel Le Grand Voyage and Charlotte Delbo's trilogy of memoirs Auschwitz et Apres. A key commonality between the works is their focus on the experience of deportation and arrival at the camps, and their use of travel metaphors to convey these experiences. Charlotte Delbo's account of arrival, departure, and return from the extermination camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau and the concentration camp at Ravensbruck in Auschwitz et Apres will be contrasted with the journey to the concentration camp at Buchenwald and the memory of it in Semprun's Le Grand Voyage. The four main time frames are the narrator's life prior to his deportation, the long voyage and the arrival at the camp, the period immediately following his liberation, and an ambiguous present time of writing.
