The Holocaust’s Impact on Yiddish Literature and Language: A Massacre of
Language and Culture
Emily Winckler
43419100
Professor Karwowska
July 13 2014
Because of the ever-changing borders of Europe during the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries, most of the world’s Jews lived in eastern and central Europe at
the time of the Holocaust. Due to their lack of stable land or citizenship rights, Jews
forged a strong Jewish culture rather than national identities, and the area became
the center of the world’s Jewish population and cultural hub pre- nineteen thirty
nine. This Jewish, or Yiddish, culture flourished in eastern and central Europe and
gave birth to the Yiddish language. Before 1939, Yiddish was the language that gave
a voice to and defined Ashkenazi Jewish life and culture not only in this area, but
also abroad, permeating outwards through literature and correspondence between
Jews. Regrettably, today the language is nearly wiped out of common memory and
usage. In this paper, I will argue that this degradation is a direct result of the
Holocaust. Not only because of the death of Yiddish speakers, but because of postHolocaust emigration waves, assimilation, and attitudes towards the language and
Judaism that existed after the Holocaust.
The Yiddish language was thriving before the Holocaust. Not only in terms of
culture and its being spoken, but also its literary tradition and predominance.
Functioning as the center of the language’s world, Poland – and specifically Warsaw
– was home to many celebrated writers publishing primarily in Yiddish. In the
1930’s, there were a total of 16, 147,0001 Jews living throughout the world. Of those
Jews, a total of 9, 372,000 Jews were living in Europe, a staggering 58%.2 With
roughly 350,000 Jews in Warsaw alone, Poland was undoubtedly the center of
Jewish life at the time. These Jews, being Ashkenazi, spoke Yiddish. Their influence
1
2
Friesel, E. Atlas of Modern Jewish History
Friesel, E. Atlas of Modern Jewish History
on European Jews and those abroad was significant, resulting in Yiddish being
“either the first or the second language of about two-thirds of the Jewish people”3 in
the world. The interwar period was a particularly fruitful time for Yiddish literature,
coinciding with Poland’s independence. When Poland’s borders were re-drawn out
at Versailles, a large part of the area known as the ‘Pale of settlement,’ (an area in
which Russia had required Jews to live) became Polish.4 This brought many Jews
and Yiddish-speakers into Polish borders and deepened the Yiddish influence on the
state. Just before this interwar period, a writer by the name of Yitskhok Leyb Perets
had brought significance to Yiddish writing into the heart of Warsaw’s culture.5 In
fact, the Nobel Prize Winner Isaac Singer began writing in Warsaw’s Yiddish
literature circle. In this legacy, The Association of Jewish Writers and Journalists
was set up in Warsaw, existing from 1916 until Poland fell to the Nazis in 1939.6
Even at this time when there were nearly 300,000 Yiddish speakers in the heart of
Warsaw, Yiddish literature was met with criticism, especially from Polish writers
who saw it as secondary or foolish.7 Unlike other minority groups, Jews did not have
a ‘country,’ at this time, and Yiddish gave them a voice despite this. This cultural
factor brought Jews together, another important impact Yiddish had on Europe and
Yiddish speakers.
With the Holocaust came a stark shift in the history of Yiddish. By targeting
European Jewry, the Nazis indirectly targeted the Yiddish language. The goal of the
Friesel, E. Atlas of Modern Jewish History, page 64.
May 9th Karolina Szymaniak.
5 May 9th, Karolina Szymaniak.
6 May 9th Karolina Szymaniak.
7 May 9th Karolina Szymaniak.
3
4
Holocaust was to rid Europe of Jews and Jewish culture, of which Yiddish was,
ultimately, the main component. We may wish to say that the Nazis were not
successful in their attempt, however, the impact that the Holocaust had on the
Yiddish language suggests otherwise. The largest difference can be seen through
examination of before and after the Holocaust, but degradation of the language,
literature, and culture began the moment the Nazi regime began their program of
mass murder and extermination in Europe. Although speaking Yiddish was allowed
in concentration camps,8 and was often an asset to prisoners due to its close relation
to German, allowing them to better understand orders, the language was
nonetheless subjugated in areas of occupation and throughout Europe. Not only
would Yiddish give one away as being Jewish, but speaking and or writing in Yiddish
may have been considered second-rate or dangerous, even an act of resistance, to
the Nazi regime during a time that communication was being so tightly censured
and regulated. This contributes to not only a loss of the language enforced directly
from the outside in, but and even more dangerous phenomenon of inward
degradation. This self-inflicted ridding of language and literature due to its cultural
implications marked the beginning of a dangerous trend for the Yiddish language.
Undoubtedly, however, the largest and most direct impact that the Holocaust
had on Yiddish was, of course, the sheer extermination of its speakers. Of the 6
million Jews murdered at the hands of the Nazi regime, the vast majority were
Central and Eastern European Ashkenazi Jews who spoke Yiddish. With their deaths
came the death of their mother tongue, culture, and literary tradition. In addition, it
8
Dr. Piotr Setkiewicz. Personal interview, May 15th 2014.
was not only Jews from this region that were speaking Yiddish. For example, Gryka
Israel Mayer, imported to KL Auschwitz from Paris, France, was registered as
speaking “Jidisch” in 19429 along with other members of the same transport. The
Nazis were massacring Yiddish speakers from all areas of Europe. This created a
linguistic drought that spanned much further than the borders of Poland. In fact, the
entire Pan-European influence of Yiddish culture was impacted in every region by
the Holocaust. By wiping out the current Yiddish speakers of Europe, the Nazis also
effectively disabled the chances of the Jewish generations that would come next to
properly experience and learn Yiddish language and tradition. By exterminating the
European Jewry extant at the time, the National Socialists managed to impact Jewish
culture into present day and, arguably, forever.
The wealth of literature that was flowing out of Poland into the Yiddish
cultural world pre-Holocaust helped bring the language to these far-reaching areas
of Europe, but was ultimately silenced by the exterminations. Literature written in
Yiddish was still being produced during the Holocaust, but mostly in secret.
Emanuel Ringelblum’s Oyneg Shabes Archive that documented the lives of Jews in
the Warsaw Ghetto,10 deportations, and the fate of Polish Jews continued to print
cultural and academic literature in secret until the deportation of writers and the
liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto in 1943. Letters from within the camps were also
produced in Yiddish, such as those written by Lejb Langfus, Zalman Gradowski, and
Gryka Isreal Mayer registration from KL Auschwitz, supplied by Dr. Plosa,
Auschwitz Birkenau State Museum, Archives.
10 Yad Vashem Website, Dr. Havi Ben-Sasson
9
Zalman Lewenthal.11 These letters documented the Prisoners’ lives inside KL
Auschwitz and provided contact with the outside world. Although existing, these
works produced by the writers of the Oyneg Shabes Archive and prisoners of
Auschwitz were functioning in a very different way and for a far more solemn
purpose than that of Yiddish literature pre-Holocaust. Earlier expressions of Yiddish
literature celebrated Jewish life and culture, a vibrant community that was growing
and developing. The examples of Yiddish literature during the Holocaust exhibit the
exact opposite, as they function to preserve the dying culture, language, and peoples
as they perished in the millions across Europe.
Peace did not come for Yiddish speakers after the end of the Second World War
and the eastern European German occupation. In fact, in the years after the
Holocaust, the Yiddish language and its literature continued to be destroyed at a
similar pace as Jews began to emigrate out of the region. Elias Schulman was
extremely correct when he suggested that, “the Holocaust … shook Yiddish [culture]
to its foundations.”12 In the wake of the Holocaust, European Jewry were not only
left to rebuild their homes, but every aspect of their lives down to their language
and culture. For many, this task was impossible, “life among the debris of the
Yiddish civilization had too little to offer.”13 Thus, three distinct waves of emigration
from Poland and other eastern European states followed the Holocaust. To forget
the claustrophobic memory of the Holocaust, “most Yiddish emigrants chose to
leave Europe behind … and set sail for new and more promising worlds … the vast
Letters provided by Dr. Plose, Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum, Archives.
Schulman, Elias. The Holocaust in Yiddish Literature, page 5.
13 Kriwaczek, Paul. Yiddish Civilization, page 295.
11
12
majority for The United States”14 and Israel. Very little information regarding the
Polish emigrations exists in publicly accessible places as after the Holocaust, Poland
became largely dominated by the Soviet Union and became a communist country
that functioned disjointedly from its people. Although the first two emigration
waves were mostly due to personal wishes of Jews, such as the first emigration
wave in that transpired in the years immediately following the Holocaust, as well as
the second which happened in the early nineteen sixties when Polish borders, which
had previously been sealed, were opened for Jews to emigrate. The third Polish“Jewish” wave of emigration, however, in the late nineteen sixties left many
individuals who did not even identify themselves as Jewish being pushed out of
Poland’s borders due to Antisemitic law and pressure.15
After the Second World War, Polish borders were moved much farther west than
they had been previously, leaving many Poles in newly allocated land, specifically
that of the USSR. Similar emigration waves of Jews continued to eradicate Yiddish
culture from Europe in these areas. The first major wave of emigration came about
in the years that directly followed the Holocaust, similar to that of within Poland.
The second wave of emigration was known as the “Zionist emigration.”16 Taking
place in the 1970’s, this movement of peoples was almost entirely towards Israel
and was spurred by religious Zionist motives. However, not all of these emigration
waves were motivated by choice, similar too to those of Poland. After the Nazis were
pushed out of Poland in the end of World War Two, a second restrictive regime
Kriwaczek, Paul. Yiddish Civilization, page 295
Tour of Jewish Krakow, May 24th 2014.
16 Epstien, Noah. Russian Jews on Three Continents, page 29.
14
15
came into place: communists from the East. Jews in the USSR and occupied soviet
territories such as Poland faced conditions that were not unlike those of the
wartime. The third wave of mass-emigration for Jews took place in the 1990s and,
unlike the two previous emigration waves, was caused by a “’push’ rather than a
‘pull’” force due to the “emergence of a public, virulent, grass-roots AntiSemitism.”17
In addition to the obvious cultural affects these emigrations had on Jews and the
countries they left behind, it also heavily impacted the usage of Yiddish in everyday
life. Acculturation to new countries such as America or areas of Western Europe led
to the loss of Yiddish for many, including those who moved to Israel. In Israel, a ‘new
Hebrew’ became the cultural norm for common usage, largely eliminating the need
for Yiddish. As generations aged, Yiddish was ultimately lost in familial and cultural
memory, due to the assimilation of second and third generation sons and daughters
to their places of birth and the languages that accompany them. For example,
despite the large Jewish community in Vancouver today, there are very, very few
Yiddish speakers. According to Raffi Freedman, a young Jew from Vancouver,
“Yiddish will probably die in forty years. Only [people’s] grandparents speak it, it no
longer has relevance in young Jews’ lives.”18 If it were not for the Holocaust, many of
these people would have remained in eastern Europe, continuing the Yiddish
literary and linguistic culture, and our world demography would be largely different
in terms of the Jewish diaspora, culture, and of course, language.
17
18
Epstein, Noah. Russian Jews on Three Continents, page 30.
Raffi Freedman, 21. Interviewed on July 2nd, 2014.
According to Dr. Adara Goldberg at the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre,
today Yiddish is only practiced in extremely secluded areas of the world where
Yiddish culture continues to be observed. The semantics of the language describe a
particular time and culture, the Yiddish/Jewish culture that existed before the
Holocaust. There are not words in the Yiddish language to describe many things that
exist today; therefore a truly Yiddish speaking community has to abide to these
cultural standards and rules. It is for this reason that so few Yiddish communities
continue to exist in today’s world. In terms of literature, writers producing in
Yiddish post-Holocaust are few and far between. Almost all of these writers produce
their work simultaneously, or primarily, in other languages, but provide a Yiddish
edition. Furthermore, most of the writing done in Yiddish is dedicated to the subject
of the Holocaust. While this use of the language protects the authenticity of the
material, it also suggests that perhaps this is all that there is left to say in Yiddish.
Perhaps the language can only truly describe the Yiddish culture that existed before
the Holocaust, and to chronicle its death, like the publications of the Oyneg Shabes
Archive and letters from within the camps, is the only true function it serves in
today’s Jewish culture. Also according to Dr. Goldberg, there has been a recent influx
in desire to learn Yiddish around the world, but it is difficult to say whether this
revival will be authentic or far-reaching. In Warsaw the young Jews spoke about
their task of re-creating an authentic Jewish culture, one that of course includes
Yiddish. When asked, they expressed concerns about their own authenticity and the
justice they will be doing their Jewish ancestors, and how practical this revival is in
present day.19 However, the existence of the Yiddish will not be lost entirely if this
trend continues.
The loss of the Yiddish language is important for many reasons. Not only does it
mark a change in Jewish culture, but it also severs epochs of history, and their
peoples, from one another. The myriad of Yiddish literature that once defined
Jewish culture no longer has meaning to its ancestors. Those who do not dedicate
their lives to studying Jewish history and Yiddish language will no longer read life
stories of important eastern and central European Jews in their unadulterated, untranslated states. Within half a century, the entire face of a culture has changed.
Specifically in terms of the Holocaust, the loss of Yiddish is fearsome. Like the
testimonies and letters written by Lejb Langfus, Zalman Gradowski, and Zalman
Lewenthal, many of the primary sources from the Holocaust are produced in
Yiddish. If in the future these texts can only be read by academics that have spent
years learning the language and are no longer accessible to any sort of public,
thousands of Jewish voices will be silenced to their descendants. The importance of
reading testimonies in their original form is worthy of a debate, but due to
connotations held by different languages and un-translatable words, I would argue
that reading primary versions is an experience that cannot be accurately captured
by translations. The loss of Yiddish language in Jewish culture makes the
experiences of the Jews of the Holocaust not only inaccessible, but also harder to
understand and less relatable to those who do not read their language, and
therefore their testimonies.
19
Aleksander Dobrzynski, Moishe House Warsaw.
As Paul Kriwaczek explains in his brilliant publication Yiddish Civilization: The
Rise and Fall of a Forgotten Nation, “the old Poland is gone forever… In the distant
future, Polish people will recount to each other stories about the time, long, long
ago, when Jews lived among [them].”20 The aftermath of the Holocaust followed by
Soviet domination in Poland was the destruction of the Yiddish civilization and
language. Yiddish language is coming dangerously close to extinction. Although
there is interest in rehabilitation of Yiddish language and culture present today, the
language that once flourished worldwide and boasted a rich literary history still
hovers on the edge of disappearance due to the loss of memory caused by history.
During the Holocaust, 6million Jews were massacred, and with them, an entire
language, semantic system, and cultural background. Being the first or second
language of two thirds of the Jewish population during the 1930’s, it is reasonable to
believe that many of the Holocaust testimonies available are written in Yiddish.
Although appropriated versions may exist in other languages, if Yiddish is lost – who
will read these testimonies? Will these survivors’, or victims’, voices be lost entirely?
This is a terrifying reality and explains why Yiddish is not only important to today’s
Jewish population’s connection to their past, but also the commemoration and
remembrance of the Holocaust. Approximately 600,000 people can speak Yiddish
today, as opposed to the roughly seven million of the pre-Holocaust world. Due to
the death of speakers, post-Holocaust emigration waves, and cultural and linguistic
assimilations, the Holocaust led to the brutal degradation of the Yiddish language,
literature, and ultimately, culture.
20
Kriwaczek, Paul. Yiddish Civilization, page 2.
Works Cited
Epstein, Noah, Paul Ritterband, and Yaacov. Russian Jews on Three Continents
Migration and Resettlement. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis, 2013.
Kriwaczek, P. (2006). Yiddish civilisation : the rise and fall of a forgotten nation. New
York: Vintage Books.
Friesel, E. (1990). Atlas of modern Jewish history. New York: Oxford University Press.
Schulman, Elias. The Holocaust in Yiddish Literature. New York: Education
Department of the Workmen's Circle, 1983.