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The Language of Silence: West German Literature and the Holocaust
by Ernestine Schlant

There are many silences in postwar West German literature: Auschwitz, the Holocaust, denunciations and the involvement of families; what they said, avoided saying, and couldn't say. Ernestine Schlant has discovered that these topics are not mentioned.

Professor Schlant sketches a telling and resonant picture, as she takes a painstaking and thoughtful path through the postwar fiction of what was not so long ago West Germany.

This book is not a rehash of what you already know about the extermination of Jews, in Germany and throughout Europe. It's not a study which tries to describe everything that happened, and why.

The Language of Silence holds many surprises. For one thing, the silence of the title is not a single silence, but many different kinds of silence, ranging from the simple withholding of information with which we are all so familiar, to a deep seated inability of an entire generation of postwar writers to write about Jews as individuals.

Then there are the surprising (to me at least) revelations regarding the extent of Nazi involvement in postwar West Germany. Quite extensive.

And of course the fact that it is a book of literary criticism which I could read and even finish turned out to be quite surprising!

For me, though, the biggest surprise of all turns out to be how little in my life I have confronted the central fact of the Holocaust and how poorly equipped I am to think about it or deal with it, in spite of its obvious importance historically and in the lives of anyone involved in World War II, a central and shaping event in my parents' generation.

Finally, I was surprised at how Ernestine Schlant's portrayal of the conflict between generations in Germany illuminated events in my own life and education. This resonance gave me many occasions for reflection as I read this book, and I am sure also amplified the effect in my current life of things which remain unspoken.

This book is about families, and as hard as it is to read, it is deeply worthwhile.

I highly recommend you keep quiet for a while, steal on over to www.amazon.com, and for just a little while learn to understand the meaning of The Language of Silence: West German Literature and the Holocaust by Ernestine Schlant

Reviewed September 18 1999