Die Opferung Isaaks

Summary.

This paper was first presented at a psychoanalytic meeting held in Jerusalem on Psychoanalysis and Art. In his youth in Nazi-Germany, the author had personal experience with the growing antisemitism that culminated in the ”Holocaust of Jews”, aimed at the elimination of all Jews in pursuit of an ”idea.” This ”idea” leads easily to the whole spectrum of self-destruction in a world-wide nuclear war. The sacrifice by fathers of their own children, prototypically illustrated in the legend of the ”Sacrifice of Isaac”, is a subject that has fascinated artists throughout history. In the course of this presentation the author demonstrated this in a series of slides, which unfortunately could not be reproduced here. However, the editor, Dr. Carl Nedelmann has described them most vividly and clearly, beginning with a 4000-years-old Egyptian relief that shows children being thrown from the walls of a beleaguered town, while along the battlements citizens raise their arms pleading to the gods to accept this sacrifice and to deliver them from the enemy. Many depictions of the ”Sacrifice of Isaac” by great Renaissance artists are shown, some of them sadistic, some others rather masochistic, followed by slides demonstrating the deeply torn sculptural and pictorial creations of modern Israeli artists. The last slide shows the all-humanity devouring beast of a potential nuclear Holocaust. Apocalyptic religions with their belief that the ”good” people will be saved and only the ”bad” will perish, may well increase the danger of a total destruction of humanity through a total nuclear war.

Zusammenfassung.

Der Aufsatz wurde zuerst auf einer Tagung in Jerusalem unter dem Titel „Psychoanalyse und Kunst” vorgetragen. Der Autor hat in seiner Jugend in Deutschland den anwachsenden Antisemitismus und den Beginn der nationalsozialistischen Herrschaft persönlich erfahren. Der Antisemitismus kulminierte im „Holocaust der Juden”, der in der Verfolgung einer „Idee” auf die Vernichtung aller Juden zielte. Diese „Idee” führt leicht zu dem Spektrum der Selbstdestruktion der Humanität im Omnicid eines nuklearen Krieges.