H.G. Adler: Zeugenschaft als Engagement

Abstract

The concentration camp survivor H.G. Adler from Prague presented his testimony in different forms: in documentary and literary works as well as in essays, articles, lectures, and radio broadcasts. In the late forties, he chose—despite severe material difficulties—to dedicate his life to the memory of the victims of Nazi persecution and was among the first German-speaking authors to write about the Holocaust. Especially his first documentary book about Theresienstadt had an important impact on the development of Holocaust memory in the Federal Republic of Germany. His ambitious novels Eine Reise (1962), Panorama (1968) and Die unsichtbare Wand (1989) did not find a publisher for many years and, when published, did not attract the attention they deserved. Besides the representation of the camps and persecutions, one of the themes of these novels is the difficulty of the survivors to make themselves heard. Adler also participated in the International Auschwitz Committee and contributed to the preparation of the Auschwitz Trials. One of his main concerns was to develop an ethics of remembering. (RV-K; in German)