Representations of the Holocaust

            The Holocaust is a very touchy subject for many people in many countries. Because of the survivors, we are able to learn from the past and gain a better understanding of what occurred during this infamous period of time. In particular, I’ve become intrigued with Michael Kraus, Holocaust survivor, and have explored many aspects in respect to him and his experiences. Not only has his diary been a revelation to many people, explaining what happened to him during the Nazi regime, but his drawings that accompany his writing depict the Holocaust in an eye-opening manner, as well. Not only have I had the privilege to look at Michael Kraus’s diary complete with illustrations, but I have also had the chance to listen to him speak about his experiences in regards to the Holocaust and even had the opportunity to ask him questions. I will be examining Michael Kraus: the author, the artist, and the man.

            Michael Kraus was born on June 28^th, 1930 in Nachod, Czechoslovakia, near Germany. When he was in his young teens, Kraus was sent off to a number of concentration camps and was separated from his family. He had no idea what happened to his mother, and much of his determination to survive stemmed from his desire to see her again; he knew she would be disappointed if she survived and he did not. Michael Kraus was known as a Birkenau boy, of which there were 89. “On July 6, 1944, he was among 89 boys ages 14 to 16 chosen by the infamous Nazi Dr. Joseph Mengele from a "family camp" at Auschwitz-Birkenau to march to a neighboring men's camp to become slave laborers. Those remaining in the family camp were sent to the gas chambers,” (Gelbwasser). A little more than half of the Birkenau boys survived the Holocaust. After the end of World War II, Kraus was released, and at about age 16 he decided to begin to rewrite his diary. He maintained that at this point in his life he was immature, and as he grew older he had a very different attitude towards the perpetrators of the Holocaust.

            Michael Kraus’s diary was very interesting to read. He did not write in a story-like manner, but instead, he simply told the facts. It was not a suspenseful or scary tale. He wrote exactly what he could remember of the events that took place. In the preface, Kraus explains what happened to his original diary, and he informs the readers that there is no way to describe in words what actually happened. He maintains, “I don’t intend to write in great detail. In this diary I only want to describe the worst days under the rule of Hitler” (Kraus 1). Here, we already know what to expect of the reading. It is understood that the diary was written in order to remember important events. Kraus’s original plan was to go back and fill in the details, but he never had the time to do so. The diary covers the time span between December 1942 and June 1945. Kraus’s journey begins at Terezin. From there, he was sent to a children’s home in the Hannover barracks. Then, he was sent on a transport to Birkenau. There, he worked as a messenger for Dr. Mengele.  While there, his mother was transported to Stutthof and his father was tortured to death by the Nazis. In his diary, Kraus describes executions, saunas, and air raids. From Birkenau, he was sent on a death march to Mauthausen. Mauthausen “contains the worst days of my life…It describes the worst conditions in which can exist a human being, if we can call him that” (Kraus 11), states Kraus. Mauthausen contains branch-camps, of which, Kraus went to five. He started off at the Second camp, and then went to Melk, followed by the Third camp, “Tent-camp” or Zeltlager, and finally, Gunskirchen. After his stay at various camps in Mauthausen, Kraus, again, went on a death march. Finally, on May 7^th, 1945, the liberating armies drove out the SS men. After this happened, Kraus, along with fellow prisoners, walked on, looking for help. Once free, however, Kraus and other survivors did not have it very easy. Most were extremely sick and had to stay in the hospital. Kraus was among those, and stayed there for a long time. In June of 1945, under the protection of the American army, Kraus stayed at a camp in Linz for a couple of days, and then went on to Melk, Wiener Neustadt, and Bratislava. Next, in Prague, Kraus and some friends tried to find out about relatives of theirs, but no one seemed to know anything. Kraus’s diary ends by being taken to a convalescent home in Prague.

            Something that I have noticed throughout my studies of the Holocaust, is that in interpretations of it, one horrible thing after the other happens and no one pauses to think about it. For example, in the film Downfall , a man blows himself up, and his entire family, and there isn’t even a mourning period. Things like this continue to happen throughout the story, but because these types of events were so common during the Holocaust, no event in specific really sticks out in the minds of those who experienced it. Likewise, in Michael Kraus’s diary, he tells stories of people being gassed and killed on the death marches, but he continues telling his story without much reflection of these events. This is an important quality that depictions of the Holocaust share because it puts the people of today in the same mind frame as the people who suffered during the war. People then did not have time to sit and think about how horrible each individual event was; they would have gone mad. Instead, they took it as if it were just a normal part of their lives.

            Because Kraus’s drawings accompany his diary, the depictions follow the timeline of the Holocaust and they are able to tell a story. The series allows the artist to show different aspects of the Holocaust, including the journey, tattoos, different camps, crematoriums, etc. This series of drawings is able to show the Holocaust in its entirety in the view of a 14-year-old boy. Kraus drew what he actually saw with his own eyes. For him, the Holocaust was more real than most can ever know, and I think that can be seen in his illustrations.

One thing that I always associate with the Holocaust is the infamous tattoos that each victim was scarred with upon arrival in a camp. Each person was given a number upon his or her inner forearm. In one of Michael Kraus’s drawings he shows his own arm, branded with his number. In another similar drawing, there are people standing united, all with numbers on their arms. I think it’s important that Kraus included this in his sequence of drawings since it is an initiation of sorts into the persecution of the Holocaust.

Another picture I found very interesting in his collection of drawings was one that said, “Welcome to Buchenwald!” and displayed a picture of a smoking chimney. This shows Kraus’s strong association between the crematorium and Buchenwald—to him, they were one and the same. The smoke coming out of the chimney suggests that the Nazis are burning bodies of people who were just like Kraus. The smoke refers to the mourning of those who were killed, and also the fear of being the next one to be killed. There is a similarity between this image and the one in Paul Celan’s Todesfuge . This image shows that you never knew when it would be your time, and sadly, most people didn’t even care whether they lived or died. However, Kraus was driven to survive. He was determined to survive for his mother. Therefore, I also believe that the smoke in the chimney represents relief for Kraus, that one more day, or one more lit chimney, had gone by, and he had survived it. At least this is how I interpreted this particular drawing.

I was very surprised and impressed by one of his latter drawings. A very impressive map of his journey from camp to camp was drawn. It was impressive that such a young boy was so skilled at drawing maps. Not to mention, he knew exactly where each camp was located and how far away it was from every other camp. This map shows the long and difficult journey of those who were victims of the Holocaust. Many people did not make it so far or to so many different places. It’s important to know how far one has come and what one has been through because it shows human’s immense capacity to withstand pain and suffering, and it also shows that one can overcome these obstacles. This map, although in appearance it may just be a map, also shows hope for those who have overcome.

The only critique I have of his drawings is that whenever I think of the Holocaust, I think of those who died because of it. Kraus’s drawings aren’t as graphic as other art works depicting the Holocaust. I believe that he achieves the harshness of the Holocaust and the implications it has, but I think that he lacks some of the graphic, disturbing truths of the Holocaust. He does not portray the dead in his drawings. Victims of the Holocaust were killed in the most brutal ways: gas chambers, starvation, malnutrition, beatings, etc. These atrocities were not shown in his drawings. Instead, he leaves these details to his written diary. He was just a boy when he experienced the Holocaust and drew these pictures. Obviously, a young boy would not want to display or confront such horrors visually. Michael Kraus’s drawings of the Holocaust show others a lot about what occurred in that time period. Through his experiences, he was able to allow others to imagine what it was like for him. He tells a story which others cannot tell. These illustrations allow Kraus to make his diary more vivid.

When Michael Kraus came to speak at Wheaton College, MA, I learned a lot more about him and gained a better understanding of his experiences. As previously mentioned, Kraus thought that at the time he wrote his diary he was immature because “the pain was still very raw.” He maintained that he had to learn to forget what had happened in order to lose the vengeance that he initially sought. Memory is selective, and therefore, all survivors remember slightly different aspects of the Holocaust. Also, memory fades with time, and Kraus could not remember many of the details he reread decades after he wrote his diary.

He spoke to our class about different film depictions of the Holocaust. There exist films with footage of the Holocaust, and also films that fall under the category of historical fiction. Kraus thought that the movie Schindler’s List was reasonably well done. He also spoke about Holocaust Remembrance day, when there was a reunion of the veterans of the division that fought in Austria for the liberation of Auschwitz. Kraus did not particularly like the liberation of Auschwitz because the crematorium was blown up and there was a death march to Germany in which many perished.

After liberation, Kraus moved back to the town where he was born. Less than a dozen of 400-500 Jews returned to the town afterwards. He was lucky enough not to experience any anti-Semitism after the war. “There was very little reason for [it],” stated Kraus. Kraus believes that it was mere luck that allowed him to survive the Holocaust. As previously mentioned, Kraus was a Birkenau boy. We learned from him that about 20 of those boys remain alive today. One Birkenau boy became a rabbi after the war. His father as well as his grandfather were both rabbis, and he followed in their footsteps, despite the horrible things that happened to him because of his Jewish roots. Today, Michael Kraus is agnostic, while his wife, Ilana, is a Jewish Israeli. Judaism is a part of their lives even though Kraus does not personally connect with the faith. An important fact to note is that when asked if he ever felt unlucky to have survived the Holocaust, Kraus said ‘no.’ This shows how much Kraus appreciates life and all that has been given to him, in spite of the misfortune he experienced early in life. Many people wished for death during the Holocaust, but Kraus was never among them.

In Austria, it is mandatory to learn about the Holocaust in schools. They start at age 14, before children are able to drop out of school. Kraus thinks that this is too young an age to begin learning of the atrocities of the Holocaust. In fact, Kraus was very reluctant to talk to his own daughters about his experiences during the Holocaust. Instead, his wife talked to their children about it. After his initial experience with the Holocaust, Kraus said that it took a long time to talk about it. Once he was integrated back into high school, he led a sort of double life. This is because he could only talk about his experience with other survivors. People were very hesitant to talk about it for fear of offending survivors, so on both sides of the spectrum there was silence. Kraus thinks that speaking in lectures, as he did for us, is too emotionally strenuous for him. Therefore, he does not speak publicly very often.

In the documentary, “Pilgrimage into the Past,” Kraus rewalks the death march he went on during the Holocaust along with his family. His children felt that this experience let them down. There was nothing at the site of the death camp and the walk did not meet their expectations. However, through this journey, Kraus discovered that a memory cannot end. You can only learn to understand it. His children wanted a conclusion to the atrocities of the Holocaust, but there was none, and there will never be one. There is no end to the Holocaust. It will always continue on, and this is an important lesson to learn. Michael Kraus has also visited Auschwitz twice since the Holocaust—once with his family. He believes that it is important to selectively preserve the camps.

Kraus feels that it is important to prevent future genocides. Although there are genocides happening today in other countries, he thinks that the people would be deterred if someone tried to preach to them. After the Holocaust, Kraus wanted to excel and do something good with his life. He thinks that he may have failed with his goals of peace and lecturing against genocide because it is very difficult for him to speak of his experiences.

In regards to representations of the Holocaust, Kraus believes that large public monuments have more meaning than artwork. They are more accessible to others. For example, there are ‘stumbling stones’ that are made of brass and raised from the ground outside the homes of victims of the Holocaust throughout Germany. Gunter Demnig, the artist who created these stumbling stones, claims “I called them stumbling stones because it would make people who come across them pause from their everyday lives and remember that an individual killed by the Nazis lived at that address,” (Chapman). This was a monument that Kraus mentioned and believed to be a good representation of the Holocaust.

Holocaust survivors are the most important aspect in remembering the Holocaust. Every survivor has a different story to tell and that’s what makes each and every one important. The Schurtmans told two very different stories from Michael Kraus. Both of them were able to flee from Germany before the war escalated. Although they weren’t victims in the way that Kraus was, they were deeply affected by the Holocaust and suffered loss from it, as did Kraus.

In conclusion, I believe that it is extremely important to learn as much as possible from the survivors of the Holocaust. As time passes, there are fewer survivors that remain who can recount what happened to them during this time. We are one of the last remaining generations that can learn directly from the survivors, and it is important that we do so that we can hopefully pass on their stories. The more we are able to learn about the Holocaust the better we can learn to prevent future genocides. Michael Kraus is the perfect example of a survivor who used his story to benefit others’ learning experiences. His diary is showcased at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C. where hundreds of people a day can look at it. Because of the English translation of his diary, it is accessible to more people. Because of his diary, which includes drawings, many people are able to learn more about the Holocaust, just from one man’s experience. Also, it is on the rare occasion that Michael Kraus speaks publicly that we get to learn even more about the man behind the diary and broaden our understanding of what he went through.
Works Cited

Chapman, Clare. "Munich denies permission for Holocaust memorial 'stumbling stones'" Telegraph.co.uk , January 8, 2004. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/1468393/Munich
-denies-permission-for-Holocaust-memorial-%27stumbling-stones%27.html (accessed May 6, 2008).

Gelbwasser, Michael. "Survivor recounts horrors of Holocaust to Wheaton audience." The Sun Chronicle , April 9, 2008. http://www.thesunchronicle.com/articles/2008/04/09/news/3021630.txt (accessed May 5, 2008).

Kraus, Michael J. Under the German Rule (diary). Translated by Reinhard Mayer. 1-33.

Kraus, Michael J. Guest lecturer. Representations of the Holocaust. Norton, MA. April 7, 2008