Reflections of Jews hidden as children, memoirs of concentration-camp survivors, films that explore the residual effects of the Holocaust—the stories are shared in different ways but all have the power to compel audiences to consider past, present, and future.
For Assistant Professor of French Audrey Brunetaux it was the work of memoirist Charlotte Delbo—sent to Auschwitz as a captured member of the French Resistance—that inspired a scholarly career focused on French film and literature related to the Holocaust.
“I had a very emotional reaction to that text,” Brunetaux said. “I wanted to know why.” She went on to study Delbo’s work in graduate school. “The way she writes is very powerful and provokes the readers. I wanted to look at text and films that do that.”
Brunetaux shared this reading and viewing list of Holocaust literature, starting with Delbo:
Texts:
Auschwitz and After, Charlotte Delbo
Maus I and II: A Survivor’s Tale, Art Spiegelman
Rue Ordener, Rue Labat, Sarah Kofman
This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen, Tadeusz Borowski
Night, Elie Wiesel
The Long Voyage, Jorge Semprun
Films:
Goodbye, Children, Louis Malle
The Birch-Tree Meadow, Marceline Loridan-Ivens
Shoah, Claude Lanzmann
The Pianist, Roman Polanski
The Pawnbroker, Sidney Lumet