How have texts studied in this elective challenged your ways
of thinking about ‘History and Memory’?
Make detailed to your prescribed text and at least ONE other related text
of your own choosing.
“That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of
all the lessons that history has to teach.” Perhaps in recognising man’s failure to take
heed of his fellow man, Aldous Huxley was recognising that humans lack the
capability to learn vicariously. For in history, through its emphasis on the superficial
analysis of documents and archival data, the experience of individuals are lost. This
highlights the variations of the past, for moments in time may encompass both
suffering and triumph. Mark Baker’s The Fiftieth Gate, set against the backdrop of the
Holocaust, uses history as a vehicle to verify his parents’ memories. Confronted by
Genia’s unique past, however, Baker must relinquish his rudimentary need for factual
verification, and accept the legitimacy of personal memory. The Smithsonian
Institution’s website, September 11: Bearing Witness to History and Roman
Polanski’s documentary Pianist: A Story of Survival, also explore the intimate
connection between history and memory. Two accounts of the past, however, are
rarely alike, manipulated by the biases of personal experience. Therefore, history is
not an objective analysis of the past, rather a representation of individual and
collective memory.
The past is not finite, as The Fiftieth Gate highlights, it is a world marked by shifting
perceptions and contrasting moments of suffering and triumph. As a testimony to the
importance of memory on subsequent existence, Baker achieves a coalescence of past
and present. Though wrought with a duality of roles, as the son of Holocaust victims,
and an historian, Baker feels compelled to side with a chosen medium. With history
affecting his life from an early age, quantifying and validating his parents’ past
became his obsession. In imbuing the text with the clinical, impersonal tone of
statistics and archival data “In 1657, founded by Bishop Boguslaw…” Baker creates a
rift in the relationship with his parents. Genia and Yossl, dismissive of his project,
mock his obsession “fecks, fecks.” However, as the process continues, a
transformation begins whereby Baker changes course, “I knew then I had to wrap
myself in the details of her story, if only immunise myself against the thing that lay
there…” becoming more participatory.
In testament to the fluidity of truth and of history, The Smithsonian Institution’s
website and Polanski’s film, Pianist: A Story of Survival, reveals truths through the
coalescence of individual accounts. Melding the personal testimonies of Szpliman,
Polanski and his family, “one thing that is burned in my mind is the arm band with the
star of David,” with archival images and historical data about the Warsaw Ghetto, the
composer recreates and validates truths from the perspective of Holocaust victims.
The interplay of history and memory is shown as black and white footage which
melds into a scene from The Pianist, through an explosion which coexists in both
shots. More overt with its connection to the individual, September 11: Bearing
Witness to History, has victims recount their stories, presenting their own sentimental
artefact. Penny Elgas is one such victim who presents, an “airplane fragment in a
patriotic box,” with an accompanying rationale. Her intimate account reveals the
fallibility of memory, “Apparently, I made several cups of tea that I don’t remember
making because later that day I found four sopping teabags lined up on my kitchen
counter,” but her personal testimony also gives the text veracity and authenticity,
which could not be achieved through historical data. Serving as both history and
memory, these artefacts physically manifest the experiences of individuals. While
memory is often fragile, short term and highly subjective, it epitomises the depth of
understanding that emotion adds to history. The Smithsonian Institution’s website, as
Baker comes to recognise as a necessity, accentuates the perspective of individuals.
The human dimension of memory manifests the notion that the past encompasses
more than archival data and statistics.
Authenticity and verifiable details make history a more reliable narrative of human
experience. Though access to the truth is more tangible when it is gleaned through the
memories of personal experience , rather than sifted through historical data and
artefacts. Baker achieves a melding of the two so that research verifies and bears out
the verbal histories of those who were there. Though Polanski is sceptical of these
notions “I mean there is no ultimate truth in it because nobody can really… you can’t
explain it in anyway so the truth is very difficult to get at. But whatever the truth is in
you of that subject and one, you have to be true to that truth,” realising that ‘truth is
idiosyncratic to the individual, formed by their personal memories and experiences.
However, in realising that ‘truth’ cannot represent a cohesive entity, he attempts to
present his own perspective and experience as closely as possible “…You can’t start
glamourising it, you can’t start to soften it, you have to tell it as you believe it is.” He
also tries to incorporate history and not be manipulated by his own memories and
emotions which can distort events. “It was going to be very flat, it was going to be
realistic.” Much like Genia and Yossl, Polanski’s memories have become distorted by
time; “We had sometimes very funny or heated discussions where I was always trying
to prove that there was some kind of discrepancy.” He is adamant in his own
representation of history, which has become irrevocably flawed through his emotions
which have coloured his world view.
Personal memories enable a means with which to enshrine the lessons of the past for
the present generation. Confirmed through Baker’s journey into the “gates of the
heart,” the study of history facilitates a more comprehensive understanding of the
nature of human existence; highlighting a growth in personal knowledge and moral
development. Metaphorically, the fiftieth gate is “where light hovers inside the
darkness. Inside the broken heart,” and only upon reaching this stage can one attain
the “highest knowledge of God,” or an enhanced self awareness and acceptance.
Mirrored in September 11: Bearing Witness to History, is the growth of knowledge
and moral development through the journey into the past. In revealing that the “tour is
now complete and the exhibition is permanently closed…” the composer suggests that
the victims have reached their ‘fiftieth gate’. This is reflected in the use of a white
background, which symbolises the light and coincides with Mark’s closing phrase
“…it always begins in blackness, until the first light illuminates a hidden fragment of
memory…”
The melding of history and memory attempts to gain an accurate representation of
truth. Based on the senses, the memory is fragmented, thus history serves to forge
reality with individual experience. Therefore, the perceived dry, academia of history
and the emotive memory, form a relationship to imbue the text with a believable, yet
engaging representation of the past.