Mariangela Chatzistamatiou
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
The presentation explores the transformation of mourning practices among Greek Jews in relation to the Holocaust, focusing on the stark contrast between the impossibility of mourning within the Auschwitz camps and the reemergence of grief, ritual, and remembrance in its aftermath. In the camp environment, where death was constant, anonymous, and dehumanized, traditional forms of mourning were rendered unattainable. The absence of burial rites, the prohibition communal prayer, and the relentless struggle for survival suspended the very capacity to grieve.
Drawing on songs and poems composed by Greek Jews during the Holocaust, the presentation highlights how creative expression within the camps centered primarily on the immediacy of lived experience, hunger, fear, loss, and endurance, rather than on formal lamentation for the dead. Mourning, in its ritual and communal dimensions, was largely deferred.
In contrast, postwar compositions mark a profound shift. Once the conditions of survival no longer suppressed emotional and religious expression, the poems and songs increasingly turned toward lamentation, memorialization, and the ethical imperative to honor the dead. Central to this transition is the restored ability to recite the Kaddish, to name the lost, and to reintegrate mourning into both personal and collective life. These postwar expressions not only commemorate those who perished but also reassert cultural and religious continuity, transforming memory into an act of resilience and moral witness.