Abstract
Both Levi and Ka-Tzetnik agree that the Muselmann is not merely an accident or a by-product of the totalitarian state and progress, but proof of the successful implementation of the principle of ‘progress through technology’, taken to a twisted extreme in the context of totalitarianism. That said, it is clear why they believe that the Muselmann is key to understanding the concentration and extermination camps. This chapter will address the respective ways in which Levi and Ka-Tzetnik try to describe the Muselmann’s inner world.
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Notes
- 1.
This is, in fact, the slogan (Vorsprung durch Technik) of the automaker Audi—a company that exploited some 16,500 slave labourers during World War II, while part of its parent company, Auto Union (est. 1932). According to an internal probe launched by Audi, 4500 Auto Union labourers perished at the Flossenbürg concentration camp in Bavaria, where they were interned.
- 2.
For further debate, see Anidjar (2003).
- 3.
Without going into details, I would like to point out the important distinction between the lived body (body-as-subject: Leib) and the dead body (body-as-object: Körper). For further discussion, see Ataria (2016, 2018, 2019a, c, Forthcoming).
- 4.
Although beyond the scope of the present discussion, it is worth noting that this phrase directly echoes Heidegger.
- 5.
Based on various dictionaries.
- 6.
In this sense, the Muselmann is a lacuna at the heart of western culture, since ‘All Western faith and good faith became engaged in this wager on representation’ (Baudrillard 2006, 5).
- 7.
I have followed Rosenthal’s translation here, as it is closer to the original Italian.
- 8.
- 9.
To be precise, at least in some cases, the survivor seeks (is compelled) to become a witness in order to survive.
- 10.
This is probably why many consider the poet Paul Celan the only one to have successfully given voice to the voiceless.
- 11.
The very manner in which the question was asked shows just how judgemental the attitude towards Holocaust survivors was even at this stage. Note also the question repeated over and over again by the prosecutor Gideon Hausner, ‘Why didn’t you resist?’ The question was rhetorical, of course.
- 12.
This may also be termed a loss of grip (Ataria Forthcoming; Arieli and Ataria 2018; Ataria and Horovitz 2020).
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Ataria, Y. (2021). The Voiceless Voice of the Muselmann. In: Primo Levi and Ka-Tzetnik. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-76743-3_4
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