Schlemiels. Animals and the Shoah in Children’s Literature

Abstract

Schlemiels. Animals and the Shoah in Children’s Literature

The author of the article is interestedin R.M. Groński’s book, entitled Szlemiel, whose narrator and protagonist is an English bulldog, living with a Jewish intellectual family in pre‑war
and war Warsaw. Other pieces mentioned in the text – providing a context for this short story, in which the animal motif is dominant – are among others Bezsenność Jutki by D. Combrzyńska‑Nogala, XY by J. Rudniańska, Wojna na Pięknym Brzegu by A.M. Grabowski and Arka czasu… by M. Szczygielski. Firstly, it is shown how narratives aimed at children regain the issue of the fate and experiences of the companion species during World War II, with a special emphasis put on the Shoah: the issue underestimated in both so‑called literary texts for adults, and historical works. After all, Jews in certain regions of the Third Reich were not allowed to keep animals at home; many of them were hidden and then abandoned out of necessity when their owners were moved to ghettoes. Sensitivity and imagination of a child turns out to be a medium that is in particular proximity to emotions and experiences of animals, while their perspective makes it easier for the youngest readers – target audience of the analysed novels – to confront the memory of the Shoah. The important context, somewhat legitimising the narratives the author examines, is the presence of these threads in literature of personal document (for instance in V. Klemperer’s diaries) and memoir prose (for instance in I. Krzywicka’s Mieszane towarzystwo…), which so far has often been overlooked. The methodological basis of the interpretation is É. Baratay’s Point depue animal. Uneautre version de l’histoire, recently published in Polish (Zwierzęcy punkt widzenia. Inna wersja historii). By formulating a thesis that literature for children on the subject of the Holocaust somewhat assert the animals’ fate, the author on the one hand thinks about therestrictions and simplifications these narratives presuppose, and on the other asks whether the inclusion of non‑human subjects breaks the schemes this literature has created.

Key words: children’s literature, Holocaust, animal studies