The Pessimists Were Right (Abel J. Herzberg's Belsen Diary, March 5, 1945)

Abel J. Herzberg

March5, 1945 [Bergen-Belsen]

Sleepless nights, filled filled with the central problem:  life or death, and when will it end?  Filled, filled with the central nationalproblems, the place of Judaism in the world. Religion, the concept of God. Constantly reaching back to the One eternal God – its meaning and howmankind deludes itself with having vanquished God.  Will we manage with materialism?  We cannot ignore what has happened, but whatreally matters is that we should stay alive! I have so much to say still.

     Thedying continues.  One thing:  the pessimists were right.  Pessimists, optimists, they say nothing aboutthe war.  They all talk aboutthemselves.  For lack of facts, no onehas any insights.  At most Ahnung (a notion) of therelative strengths.  And I knew thatGermany was powerful.

         Everythingis getting less, forty grams of butter a week instead of sixty.  Half a piece of sausage, et cetera. 

     Starving,starving.  Starving.

 

NOTE:

 

Abel Herzberg was a lawyer and a writer (in 1974 he received theDutch prize for literature); his excellent education and writing abilityaccount for the high quality of this diary, which is very insightful,thought-provoking, and analytical. Herzberg's diary is valuable because itprovides a descriptive account of daily life in Bergen-Belsen from 11 August1944 (when he began the diary) to 26 April 1945. He secretly maintained thisdiary during his internment in the concentration camp. This fact distinguisheshis book from those of other diarists who wrote their histories after theirliberation. Herzberg's work possesses a sense of immediacy that the otherdiaries (excellent as they are) do not contain. Herzberg writes about actionsas they happen! For instance, this Bergen-Belsen prisoner writes about a suddengeneral roll call, and he, along with other inmates, ponders about the situation.Some speculate about a transport; others hope for an extra ration of cheese;optimists predict that the war has ended. But few answers are to be found.Herzberg learns that the roll call has occurred because a prisoner has beensentenced to four weeks in the bunker for stealing shoes from the warehouse.The confusion of the prisoners is illuminating, for it manifests the lack ofinformation in the camps, how the Nazis skillfully empowered themselves andsimultaneously weakened the Jews by keeping them ignorant regarding what washappening.

Abel J. Herzberg. Between Two Streams: A Diary from Bergen-Belsen. London and New York: I. B. Tauris, 1997. xi + 221 pp.$24.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-1-86064-121-3. 

Reviewed by Eric Sterling (Auburn University at Montgomery)

Published on H-Judaic (July, 1999)

 

Aerial view of Bergen-Belsen