"To Honor the Dead, To Warn the Living"

     While I was reading The Shawl, by Cynthia Ozick, I was reminded of my time in Salzburg, Austria this last May Term.  I spent May Term in Salzburg with Chaplain John Walsh where we focused on individuals who made a difference during difficult times in European history, i.e. the Holocaust and Soviet Russia.  During our last full week in Salzburg, we took the train to Dachau to visit the first concentration camp.  When our group was visiting the concentration camp, it was very difficult for me because I knew that if I were alive and in Europe during that period, I would have been sent to a concentration camp for being “Jewish by blood” (my father was born and raised Jewish).  This was truly a surreal experience.

Memorial at Dachau Concentration Camp. May, 2014. Personal Picture.

     While reading The Shawl, I imagined the characters running through Dachau with the barracks still intact. The imagery in the story, though disturbing, was very easy for me to picture in my mind.  When Ozick writes, “her knees were tumors on sticks, her elbows chicken bones”, I referred back to the pictures we saw at Dachau (Ozick, p. 2).  The entire story contained strong imagery that allowed the reader to put themselves in the characters’ shoes and try and understand what they were going through.  Another moment of strong imagery was when the narrator explained the “bad wind with pieces of black in it” (Ozick, p. 6).  The pieces of black in the wind that were causing their eyes to tear up were really pieces of ash that came from the crematorium.  The phrase “tear up” can literally mean that the wind was affecting their eyes and drying them out or it can be interpreted as tears of sorrow for the lost men and women who burned in the crematorium.  This is a very powerful image to think about.  The ashes of the men and women who had suffered through the neglect and torture were now becoming a part of the other victims.

     When I first started reading the story, I was not sure of the direction it was going.  I understood quickly that it was pertaining to the Holocaust, but the suggestions of cannibalism were quite confusing.  I am still not aware of the authors intent with the cannibalism, if she literally meant eating the young girl or referring to the desperation victims of the Holocaust were suffering with.  The narrator proclaims, in regards to Rosa, “she was sure that Stella was waiting for Magda to die so she could put her teeth into the little things” (Ozick, p. 5).  Although it was not related to cannibalism, the story takes a turn of events when it states, “Then Stella took the shawl away and made Magda die” (Ozick, p.6).  There seems to be negative feelings towards Stella throughout the story and how Rosa seems to favor Magda more.  Stella did not physically kill Magda, but she did take the shawl away from her, which led her to her death.  Was this part of Stella’s plan? Kill Magda so that she could eat her?  There is no evidence in the story to support the cannibalistic claims, but it is an example of how desperate some had gotten in concentration camps.  Stella was cold, so she took the shawl.  It was about her survival at that moment and no one else.

     Outside of the crematorium and gas chambers at Dachau, there is a memorial to the victims of the Holocaust.  It is a small memorial, but the phrase used is extremely powerful: “to honor the dead to warn the living”.   The concentration camps, including the gas chambers and crematorium, are still standing to honor the millions of lives lost in the Holocaust and to warn us nowadays of the evil in the world.  I believe by writing this book, Cynthia Ozick was honoring the dead and warning the living.  She was honoring them by sharing a story that is very deep and shows images through the language that some may not have seen.  This story can act as a warning by explaining the brutality of the Holocaust without explicitly describing all the terrible things that were done.  The images of skin and bones, the electric fence, the desperation in Stella, the skeptic in Rosa; all of these are direct effects of what was being done in concentration camps.

Memorial outside the gas chamber and crematorium at 

Dachau Concentration Camp. 

May, 2014. Personal picture. 

"To honor the dead, to warn the living"

       This story personally “hit home” for me because of the side of my family who are Jewish.  Thinking about what these people went through is always difficult, but it becomes a little more difficult when you realize that could have been you and your family suffering. While I was reading this story, it helped me go back to Dachau and really develop all the feelings that I had there.  This story, along with millions of other stories about the Holocaust, will remain in my imagination and help me honor those that were lost.