Didi-Hubermann Images in Spite of All

Images

.

inSpite

of

All

GEORGES

DIDI-HUBERMAN

Translated

by

SHANE

B.

LILLIS

THE

UNIVERSITYOF

CHICAGO

PRESS

Chicago

(Jr

London

FOUR

PHOTOGRAPHS

FROM

AUSCHWITZ

GeorgesDidi-Hubermanisprofessor

at

l'Ecoledes

haute

etudes

en

sciencessociales

in

Paris.

He

is

theauthor

of

morethanthirtybooksonthe

history

andtheory

of

images,including

Fra

Angelico:Dissemblance

andFiguration,

alsopublished

bythe

University

of

ChicagoPress.

CONTENTS

Originallypublishedas

Images

malgre

tout

©

LesEditionsdeMinuit,2003Shane

B.

Lillisrecentlyreceivedhis

PhDin

Frenchliteraturefrom

the

University

of

California,Berkeley.

@

Thepaper

used

in

this

publication

meets

the

minimumrequirements

of

the

AmericanNational

Standard

forInformation

Sciences-

Permanence

of

Paperfor

Printed

LibraryMaterials,

ANSI

Z3948-1992.

List

of

Illustrations

[ix]

Translator's

Note

[xi]Bibliographical

Note

to

the

FrenchEdition[xiii]

PARTI.IMAGES

IN

SPITE

OF

ALL

[1]

FourPieces

of

FilmSnatchedfromHell

(J]

Toknow,we

must

imagineforourselves.Auschwitz,August

1944:

fourimages

z'n

spz'te

of

all,

inspite

of

the

risks,

in

spite

of

our

inability

to

know

how

tolook

at

them

today.The

Sonderkommando

atwork.Survival

and

impulse

to

resist:emittingsignals

to

the

outside.Thephotographicimageappearsfrom

the

foldbetween

theimminent

obliteration

of

thewitness

andthe

unrepresentability

of

the

testimony:

to

snatchanimagefrom

that

real.Organization

of

the

clandestinephoto-taking.Firstsequence:from

the

gaschamber

of

crematorium

V,

images

of

the

incinerationpits.Secondsequence:

intheopen

air,in

the

trees

at

Birkenau,image

of

a"convoy"

of

undressedwomen.Therolloffi.lm,hidden

in

atube

of

toothpaste,makes

itinto

thehands

of

thePolishResistance,in

order

tobe

"sentfurther:'

AgainstAllUnimaginable

[19]

The

photographsfromAugust

1944

address

the

unimaginable

and

refuteit.Firstperiod

of

the

unimaginable:

the

"FinalSolution"

as

ageneralized"disimagination"machine.Toobliterate

the

victims'psyche,theirlanguage,theirbeing,theirremains,

the

tools

of

theirobliteration,

and

even

the

archives,

the

memory

of

thisobliteration."Reasoninhistory"alwaysrefuted

by

singularexceptions:

the

archives

of

the

Shoaharemade

of

theseexceptions.Photography'sparticularability

to

bereproducedand

to

transmit

in

spite

of

all:

the

absoluteprohibition

of

photographing

the

campscoexists

with

theactivity

of

twophotographylaboratories

at

Auschwitz.Secondperiod

of

theunimaginable:

if

Auschwitz

is

unthinkable,

then

wemustrethink

the

bases

of

our

allthropology(HannahArendt).

If

Auschwitz

is

unsayable,

I2

345

ISBN-

I

3:

978-0-226-14816-8(cloth)

ISBN-lO:

0-226-14816-5(cloth)

1716

15

14

13

12

11

10

09

08

The

University

of

ChicagoPress,Chicago606

37

The

University

of

ChicagoPress,Ltd.,

London

This

edition

©

2008

by

The

University

of

Chicago

All

rightsreserved.Published2008

PrintedintheUnited

States

of

AmericaLibrary

of

CongressCataloging-in-Publication

Data

Didi-Huberman,Georges.[Imagesmalgre

tout.

English

J

Images

in

spite

of

all:four

photographs

fromAuschwitz/GedrgesDidi

Huberman;

translated

by

Shane

B.

Lillis.

p.

em.Includesindex.

ISBN-13:

978-0-226-14816-8(cloth:alk.paper)

ISBN-lO:

0-226-14816-5(cloth:

all!:.

paper)

1.

Holocaust,Jewish(1939-1945)-Historiography.

2.

World

War,

1939

1945

-Photography.

3.

Historiography

and

photography.

I.

Title.D804·348.D53132008940·53'18072-dc22

member

of

the

Sonderkommando

wouldquashanydenials,anysubsequentcavilswithrespect

to

the

massacre

of

the

EuropeanJ

e w s ~ l

<"Conceivingandorganizing

the

squadswasNationalSocialism'smostdemoniccrime:'writesPrimoLevi."One

is

stunned

by

thisparoxysm

of

perfidyand

of

hate:

it

mustbe

the

Jews

who

put

the

Jews

inthe

ovens;

it

must

be

shown

that

the

Jews[

...

]

bow

to

anyhumiliation,even

to

destroyingthemselves."2Thefirst

Sonderkommando

at

Auschwitzwascreated

on

July

4,

1942,during

the

"selection"

of

aconvoy

of

SlovakianJewsfor

the

gaschamber.Twelvesquadssucceededeach

other

from

that

date;eachwaseliminated

attheend

of

afewmonths,and"asitsinitiation,thenextsquad

burntthe

corpses

of

itspredecessors:'3Part

of

the

horrorforthese

men

was

that

theirentireexistence,including

the

ineluctablegassing

of

the

squad,was

to

bekeptin

absolutesecrecy.Themembers

of

the

Sonderkommando

couldthereforehave

no

contactwhatsoeverwith

the

otherprisoners,andevenlesswith

whatever"

outsideworld"there'was,

not

even

withthe

"nonini-<tiated"

SS,

those

who

wereignorant

of

the

exactfunctioning

of

<

the

gaschambersand

the

crematoria.

4

When

sick,theseprisoners,

"-

keptin

solitaryconfinement,weredeniedadmission

to

the

camphospital.Theywereheld

in

totalsubservienceand

mindlessness

theywere

not

denied

alcohol-in

their

workatthe

crematoria.

What

exactlywastheirwork?

It

mustbe

repeated:

to

handle

the

death

of

their

fellows

bythe

thousands.Towitnessall

the

lastmoments.To

be

forced

to

lie

to

the

veryend.

(A

member

of

the

Sonderkommando

whohad

attempted

to

warn

the

victims

of

theirfatewas

thrown

alive

intothe

crematoriumfire,andhisfellowswereforced

to

attendthe

execution).5Torecognizeone's

own

and

to

saynothing.Towatchmen,women,andchildren

enterthe

gaschamber.Tolisten

to

the

cries,

the

banging,

thedeath

throes.Towait.Then,

to

receiveallatonce

the

"indescribablehumanheap"

-a

"column

of

basalt"made

of

human

flesh,

of

their

flesh,

our

ownflesh

-that

collapsedwhen

the

doorswereopened.Todrag

the

bodiesone

by

one,

to

undress

them

(until

the

Nazis

thought

of

the

changingroom).Tohoseawayall

of

the

accumu

lated

blood,

body

fluids,andpus.Toextractgold

teeth

for

the

spoils

of

the

Reich.

To

put

the

bodies

inthe

furnaces

of

the

cre-matoria.Tomaintainthisinhumanroutine.Tofeedcoal

to

the

fires.Toextract

the

humanashesfrom

that

"formless,incandescent

and

whitish

matter

whichflowed

in

rivulets[and]

took

on

agrayish

tint

when

it

cooled:'Togrind

the

bones,

the

finalresistance

of

the

wretchedbodies

to

their

industrialdestruction.Topile

it

allup,

to

throw

it

intoaneighboringriver

or

use

it

as

fillfor

the

roadbeingconstructednear

the

camp.Towalk

on

150

squaremeters

of

humanhair,whichfifteenprisonersarebusycarding

on

largetables.Tooccasionallyrepaint

the

changingroom;

to

erect

hedges-for

camouflage;

to

digsupplementaryincinerationpitsforexceptionalgassings.Toclean,

to

repairthegiantovens

of

the

crematoria.Tostartovereachday,constantlythreatened

bythe

55.Tosurvive

in

thismannerfor

an

indeterminatetime,

drunk,

workingdayandnight,"runninglike

the

possessed

inorder

to

finishmorequickly:'6"Theyhadnohumanfigure.Theywereravaged,madfaces:'saidtheprisonerswhowereable

to

seethem.

7

Theysurvived,however,for

the

timeleft

to

them,

inthe

ignominy

of

thejob.Toaprisoner

who

askedhim

how

hecouldstand

work

of

that

kind,amember

of

the

squadreplied:

"Of

course,Icould

throw

myself

ontothe

electricalwires,likesomany

of

myfriends,

but

Iwant

to

live[

...

].

In

our

work,

if

you

don't

go

madthe

first

day,

you

get

used

to

it:'8Inamanner

of

speaking.Yetsome

whothought

themselves"used

to

it"simply

threw

themselves

intothe

fire.

If

this

kind

of

survivalsurpassesanymoraljudgment

(as

PrimoLeviwrote)

9

or

anytragicconflict

(as

GiorgioAgambencommented)

,10

thenwhat

could

the

verb

toresist

mean

in

suchconstraints?Torevolt?

That

wasadignifiedway

of

committingsuicide,

of

anticipatingapromisedelimination.At

theend

of

1942,afirstprojectedrebellionfailed.Then,

in

thegreatmutiny

of

Oc

tober

1944-when,

at

least,crematoriumIVwassetablaze

and

destroyed

-not

one

of

the450membersimplicatedsurvived,

of

whom"only"

300

weredue

tobe

gassedsooninanycase.

ll

At

the

core

of

thisfundamentaldespair,

the

"impulse

to

resist"probablyabandonedthem,condemned

as

theywere

to

die,leaving

themto

concentraterather

on

sz'gnalsto

be

emitted

beyond

the

borders

of

the

camp:"We,

the

prisoners

of

the

Sonderkommando,

4

[

IMAGES

IN

SPITE

OFALL

FOUR

PIECES

OF

FILM

SNATCHEDFROM

Hell]

5

6

[

IMAGES

IN

SPITE

OFALL

FOUR

PIECES

OF

FILMSNATCHEDFROM

HELL]

7

kept

thinking

abouthow

wemightmake

known

tothe

world

the

details

of

thegruesomecrimeswhichwereperpetuatedhere:'12

So

inApril

1944,

FilipMiillerpatientlygatheredsome

documents-

aplan

of

crematoriaIVand

V,

a

noteon

theiroperation,alist

of

the

Nazis

onduty

as

well

as

aZyklonB

label-

andpassed

them

along

to

two

prisoners

who

wereattemptingescape.

13

Suchanattempt,

as

all

of

the

Sonderkommando

knew,washopeless.Thisis

why

theysometimesconfided

their

testimonies

tothe

earth.Digsundertakenaround

the

borders

of

the

Auschwitzcrematoriahavesince

brought

to

light-often

longafter

the

Liberation

-the

devastating,barelylegiblewritings

of

theseslaves

of

death.

14

Bottles

castinto

theearth,

as

it

were,except

that

the

writersdid

not

alwayshavebottlesinwhich

to

preservetheirmessage.Atbest,a

tin

bowl.

1s

Thesewritingsarehauntedbytwocomplementaryconstraints.First,there

is

the

ineluctableobliteration

of

the

witnesshimself:"The

SS

oftentellus

that

they

won'tlet

asinglewitnesssurvive:'But

then

there

was

the

fear

thatthe

testimonyitself

would

be

obliterated,even

if

it

weretransmitted

tothe

outside;for

did

itnot

riskbeingincomprehensible,beingconsideredsenseless,unimaginable?

"What

exactlyhappened,"

as

ZalmenLewentalconfided

tothe

scrap

of

paper

that

hewaspreparing

to

buryin

the

ground,"no

other

humanbeingcanimagine:'16

[]

It

is

in

the

foldbetweenthesetwo

impossibilities-the

imminent

obliteration

of

the

witness,

the

certainunrepresentability

of

the

testimony-that

the

photographic

imagesuddenlyappeared.Onesummerdayin

1944,

the

members

of

the

Sonderkommando

felt

the

perilousneed

to

snatchsomephotographsfrom

their

infernal

workthat

would

bearwitness

tothe

specific

horrorand

extent

of

the

massacre.

The

need

to

snatchsomephotographsfrom

the

real.

Moreover,sinceanimage

is

made

to

belooked

at

by

others,

to

snatchfromhuman

thought

ingeneral,

thought

from"outside;'something

imaginable

that

no

oneuntil

then

had

evenconceived

as

possible-and

this

is

alreadysayingalot,since

the

whole

thing

wasplannedbeforebeing

put

into

practice.

It

is

troubling

that

adesire

to

snatchan

image

shouldmaterializeat

the

mostindescribablemoment,

as

it

isoftencharacterized,

of

themassacre

of

theJews:themoment

when

thosewhoassisted,stupefied,

hadroom

leftforneither

thoughtnor

imagination.Time,space,gaze,thought,

pathos-everything

wasobfuscatedby

the

machinelikeenormity

of

the

violenceproduced.In

the

summer

of

1944

camethe"tidalwave"

of

HungarianJews:

435,000

of

them

were

deported

to

Auschwitz

between

May

15

andJuly

8.

17

JeanClaudePressac(whosescientificscrupulousnessgenerallyavoidsanyadjectives

or

anyempatheticphrases)

wrote

that

thiswas

the

"most

demented

episodeofBirkenau,"carried

out

essentially

in

crematoria

n,

Ill,

and

V.

1S

In

asingleday,

24,000

HungarianJewswereexterminated.Toward

theend

of

the

summer,

there

wasashortage

of

Zyklon

B.

So

"theunfitfrom

the

convoys[i.e.,

the

victimsselectedforimmediatedeath]werecastdirectly

into

the

burning

pits

of

crematoriumVand

of

bunker

2:'19

inother

words,

burned

alive.

As

for

the

gypsies,

they

began

to

be

gassed

en

massefromAugust

1.

As

usual,

the

members

of

the

Sonderkommando

postedat

the

crematoria

had

to

prepare

the

entireinfrastructure

of

thisnightmare.FilipMiillerremembers

how

theyproceeded

to

"overhaul

the

crematoria":Cracksinthebrickwork

of

theovenswerefilledwithaspecialfireproofclaypaste;thecast-irondoorswerepaintedblackandthedoorhingesoiled[

...

].

Newgrateswerefittedinthegenerators,while

the

sixchimneysunderwentathoroughinspectionandrepair,

as

did

the

electricfans.Thewalls

of

thefourchangingroomsandtheeightgaschambersweregivenafreshcoat

of

paint.Quiteobviouslyalltheseeffortswereintended

toput

theplaces

of

exterminationintopeakcondition

to

guaranteesmoothandcontinuousoperation:'20Aboveall,

on

the

orders

of

Hauptscharftihrer

Otto

Moll-

aparticularlyfearedand

hated

SS

officer

whohadtaken

personalcharge

of

the

liquidation

of

the

Sonderkommando

from

1942

on

21

-five

incinerationpitswere

tobedug

in

the

open

air,

behindcrematorium

v.

FilipMUllerhasdescribed

in

detail

the

technicalexperi-

8

[

IMAGES

IN

SPITE

OFALL

FOUR

PIECES

OF

FILMSNATCHEDFROM

HELL]

9

mentation

and

themanagement

of

the

siteled

by

Moll:from

theconception

of

gutters

to

collect

the

fat,

to

theconcrete

slab

on

which

the

"workers"

would

have

to

pulverize

the

bonesmixedwith

the

human

ashes;22

to

the

elevated

hedgerowsforming

ascreen

to

makeall

of

thisinvisiblefrom

the

exterior(fig.

1).

It

issignificant

that,

apart

fromfar-offaerialviews,

not

one

singleview

exists

of

crematorium

V

-situated

in

acopse

of

birch

trees,

from

whichBirkenaugetsits

name-that

is

not

obscured

by

some

plant

barrier

23

(fig.

2).

To

snatch

animage

from

that

hell?

It

seemed

doubly

impossible.

It

wasimpossible

by

default,since

the

detail

of

the

installa

tions

wasconcealed,sometimes

underground.

Butalso,

outside

of

theirworkunderthestrictcontrol

of

the

55,members

of

the

Sonderkommando

were

carefullyconfined

in

a"subterranean

and

isolatedcell:'24

It

wasimpossible

by

excess,since

the

vision

of

thismonstrous,complexchainseemed

to

exceedany

attempt

to

docu

ment

it.FilipMiiller

wrote

that

"incomparison

withwhat[Otto

Moll]

had

imagined

andwhathehadbegun

to

undertake,Dante'sHellwasonlychild'splay"

:25

As

it

began

to

grow

light,

the

firewas

lit

in

two

of

the

pits

in

which

about

2,500

dead

bodieslaypiled

oneon

top

of

theother.Twohourslaterall

that

could

be

discernedin

the

white-hotflameswerecountlesscharred

and

scorchedshapes[

...

].Whilein

the

crematoriumovens,once

the

corpseswerethoroughlyalight,

it

waspossible

to

maintainalasting

red

heat

withthe

help

of

fans,

inthe

pits

the

firewould

burn

as

long

as

the

aircouldcirculatefreelyin

between

the

bodies.

As

the

heap

of

bodiessettled,

no

airwasable

togetin

fromoutside.This

meant

that

westokers

had

constantly

topour

oil

or

wood

alcohol

on

theburning

corpses,inaddition

to

humanfat,largequantities

of

whichhad·collectedandwasboilingin

thetwo

collectingpans

on

eitherside

of

the

pit.Thesizzlingfatwasscooped

out

with

buckets

on

alongcurved

rod

andpoured

allover

thepit

causingflames

to

leap

up

amidmuchcrackling

and

hissing.Densesmoke

and

fumesroseincessantly.

The

airreeked

of

oil,fat,benzole

and

burnt

flesh.

Duringthe

day-shift

there

were,

on

average,

140

prisonersworkingin

andround

crematoriaIV

and

V.

Sometwenty-fivebearerswereemployedinclearing

the

gaschamber

and

removing

the

corpses

to

the

pits[

...

J.

The

SS

guards

on

theirwatch-towersbeyond

the

barbed

wirewhichencircled

the

areaaround

the

pits[

...

]werebadlyupset

by

theghoulishspectacle[

...

].

Under

the

ever-increasing

heat

afew

of

the

deadbegan

to

stir,writhing

as

thoughwith

someunbearablepain,arms

and

legsstraininginslowmotion,

and

eventheirbodiesstraightening

up

alittle[

...

].

Eventually

the

firebecamesofierce

that

the

corpseswereenvelopedbyflames.Blisterswhichhadformed

on

theirskin

burst

onebyone.

Almost

everycorpsewascovered

with

blackscorchmarks

and

glistened

as

ifit

hadbeen

greased.

The

searing

heat

had

burstopen

their

bellies:

there

was

the

violenthissing

and

sputtering

of

frying

in

great

heat[

...

].

Theprocess

of

incineration

took

five

to

sixhours.

What

wasleftbarelyfilleda

third

of

the

pit.Theshinywhitish-graysurfacewasstrewn

with

countlessskulls[

..

.].

As

soon

as

the

ashes

had

cooled

down

alittle,

wooden

metal-coveredboardswere

thrownintothe

pit.Prisoners

of

the

ashteamclimbed

down

andbegan

to

shovel

out

the

still

hot

ashes.Although

their

mittens

and

beretsgave

them

somemake-shiftprotection,

hot

ashes

kept

blowing

downon

them,especially

when

it

waswindy,causingseverefacialburns

and

eyeinjuries,sometimesevenblindness,so

that

afterashorttimetheywereissuedwithprotectivegoggles.Once

the

pitshadbeenemptiedand

the

ashestaken

to

the

ashdepot,theywerepiled

up

in

man-high

heaps.26

[

]

Tosnatchanimagefromthat,

in

spite

of

that?

Yes.

Whatever

the

cost,form

had

to

be

given

to

thisunimaginablereality.

The

possibilitiesforescape

or

of

revoltweresolimited

at

Auschwitz

that

the

mere

sending

of

animage

or

of

information

-a

plan,numbers,

names-was

of

theutmost

urgency,

one

of

the

lastgestures

ofhu-

10

[

IMAGESIN

SPITE

OF

ALLFOUR

PIECES

OF

FILM

SNATCHEDFROM

HELL]

11

manity.Someprisoners

had

managed

to

listen

to

the

BBC

inthe

officestheywerecleaning.Othersmanaged

to

sendcallsforhelp."Theisolation

of

the

outsideworldwas

part

of

thepsychologicalpressureexercised

onthe

prisoners,"wroteHermannLangbein.

' ~ o n g

the

efforts

to

defendoneselffrom

the

psychicterrorism,therewereobviouslythose

that

sought

to

break

the

isolation.For

the

morale

of

the

prisoners,thislastfactorincreased

in

importanceyear

by

year

as

the

militarysituationunfolded:'27

On

theirside,theleaders

of

the

PolishResistancewere

in

1944

demandingphotographs.According

to

awitness'saccountcollected

by

Langbein,acivilianworkermanaged

to

smuggleinacameraand

Figure

1.

Anonymous(German).

Hedge

forcamouflage

at

crematoriumV

of

Auschwitz,

1943-1944.

Oswiecim,Auschwitz-BirkenauState

Museum

(negativeno.860).

get

it

intothe

hands

of

themembers

of

the

Sonderkommando.

28

Thecameraprobablycontainedonlyasmallpiece

of

blankfilm.For

the

shooting,acollectivelookouthad

to

beorganized.The

roof

of

crematoriumVwasdeliberatelydamagedso

that

certainsquadmembersweresentby

the

SS

to

repairit.From

up

there,DavidSzmulewskicouldbe

on

watch:heobserved

those-nota

bly

the

guardsinnearbyobservation

posts-who

werechargedwithoverseeing

thework

of

the

Sonderkommando.

Hidden

atthebottom

of

abucket,

the

camera

gotintothe

hands

of

aGreekJewcalledAlex,stillunidentifiedtoday,forwedo

not

knowhisfamilyname.

He

waspositioned

onthe

lowerlevel,infront

of

the

incinerationpits,wherehewassupposed

to

work

withthe

other

members

of

thesquad.Theterribleparadox

of

this

darkroom

was

that

inorder

to

remove

the

camerafrom

the

bucket,adjust

the

viewfinder,bring

it

close

to

hisface,andtakeafirstsequence

of

images(figs.

3-4),

Figure

2.

Anonymous(German).

Crematorium

V

of

Auschwitz,

1943-

1

944.

Oswiecim,Auschwitz-BirkenauState

Museum

(negativeno.

20995/508).

16

[

IMAGES

IN

SPITE

OF

ALL

F O ~ R

PIECES

OF

FILMSNATCHEDFROM

HELL]

17

tures

out

of

the

crematorium.

He

hugs

the

wall.Twice

he

turns

to

the

right.

He

findshimself

thenontheother

side

of

the

building,

to

the

south,

and

advancesinthe

open

air

toward

the

birchtrees.Theretoo,

the

hellcontinues:a"convoy"

of

women,alreadyundressed,getsready

to

enter

the

gaschamber.The

SS

areabout.

It

is

simply

not

possible

to

take

out

the

camera,evenlesspossible

to

aimit.

The"unknown

photographer"takes

two

snapshots,furtively,

without

looking,perhapsevenwhilewalking(figs.

5-6).

On

one

of

the

twoimages-visibly

deprived

of

orthogonality,

or

"correct"

orientation-we

canseein

the

farleft

corner

awhole

group

of

womenwho

seem

to

be

walking

or

awaiting

their

turn.Nearer,three

other

women

areheadedin

the

opposite

d i r e c t i o n ~

Theimage

is

veryblurred.Wecansee,however,a

member

of

the

Sonderkommando

in

profile,recognizable

by

hiscap.

At

the

very

bottom,tothe

right,wecanmake

outthe

chimney

of

the

crematorium.

The

other

image

is

practicallyabstract:wecanjustmake

out

the

top

of

the

birchtrees.Facingsouth,

the

photographer

has

the

light

in

hiseyes.Theimage

is

dazzledby

the

sun,itsrayscut

ting

through

the

boughs.Alex

then

returns

to

the

crematorium,probably

tothenorth

side.Hastily

he

returns

the

camera

to

DavidSzmulewski,

who

hasstayed

uponthe

roof,

on

the

lookout

forpotentialmovements

bythe

SS.

The

entireoperationwillhavetakennomore

than

fifteen

to

twentyminutes.Szmulewski

would

replace

the

camera

inthebottom

of

hisbucket.

31

Thepiece

of

film

would

beremovedfrom

the

camera,

brought

back

to

the

centralcamp,andeventuallyextricatedfromAuschwitz

in

a

tube

of

toothpasteinwhichHelenaDanton,anemployee

of

the

SS

canteen,willhave

hidden

it.

32

Alittlelater,

on

September

4,1944,

it

wouldreach

the

PolishResistanceinKrakow,accompaniedbya

note

written

bytwo

politicalprisoners,JosefCyrankiewicz

and

StanislawKlodzinski:Urgent.Send

two

metalrolls

of

filmfor

6x9

as

fast

as

possible.Havepossibility

of

takingphotos.Sendingyouphotos

of

Birkenaushowingprisonerssent

to

gaschambers.One

photo

showsone

of

the

stakes

at

whichbodieswereburnedwhen

the

crematoriumcould

not

manage

toburn

all

the

bodies.Thebodiesintheforegroundarewaiting

to

bethrownintothefire.Anotherpictureshowsone

of

theplaces

in

theforestwherepeopleundressbefore"showering"

-as

theyweretold-andthengo

to

thegaschambers.Sendfilmroll

as

fast

as

youcan.Sendtheenclosedphotos

to

Tell-we

think

enlargements

of

thephotoscanbesentfurther.

33

wouldfollowPrimoLevi

to

hisnightmares.Tosuffer,

to

survive,

to

tell,and

thennot

to

bebelievedbecause

it

is

unimaginable.

4

It

isas

though

afundamentalinjusticecontinued

to

follow

the

survivorsalltheway

to

theirvocation

of

beingwitnesses.Numerousresearchershavecarried

out

detailedanalyses

of

the

machinery

of

disimagination

that

made

it

possibleforan

SS

officer

to

say:

"Therewillperhaps

be

suspicion,discussion,research

by

historians,

but

therewill

beno

certainties,becausewewilldestroy

the

evidencetogether

with

you.Andeven

if

some

proof

shouldremainandsome

of

yousurvive,peoplewillsay

that

the

eventsyoudescribeare

too

monstrous

to

bebelieved:'sThe"FinalSolution,"

as

weknow,was

kept

inabsolute

secrecy-

silenceandsmotheredinformation.

6

But

as

the

details

of

the

exterminationbegan

to

fil-

ter

through,"almostfromthebeginning

of

the

massacres;'7silenceneededareciprocaldiscourse.

It

involvedrhetoric,lying,anentirestrategy

of

words

that

HannahArendtdefinedin

1942

as

the"eloquence

of

the

devi1:'8

ThefourphotographssnatchedfromAuschwitzbymembers

of

the

Sonderkommando

werealso,therefore,four

refUtations

snatchedfromaworld

thatthe

Nazis

wanted

to

obfuscate,

to

leavewordlessandimageless.Analyses

of

the

concentrationcamphave

long

converged

onthe

fact

thatthe

campswerelaboratories,experimentalmachinesfora

generalobliteration.

It

was

the

obliteration

of

the

psyche

and

the

disintegration

of

the

sociallink,

as

BrunoBettelheim'sanalysisshowed

as

early

as

1943,

when

hewasjust

out

fromeighteenmonths

in

BuchenwaldandDachau:"TheconcentrationcampwastheGestapo'slaboratoryforsubjecting[

...

]free

men

[

...

]

to

the

process

of

disintegrationfromtheirposition

as

autonomousindividuals."9

In

1950,

HannahArendtspoke

of

the

camps

as

"laboratories

of

anexperience

of

totaldomination[

...

J,

thisobjectivebeingattainableonlyin

the

extremecircumstances

of

ahell

of

humanmaking:'l0

It

wasalsoahellmade

by

humansfor

the

obHterat£on

of

the

lan-

guage

of

theirvictims."It

is

anobviousassertion

that

whereviolence

is

inflicted

on

man;'writesPrimoLevi,"itisalsoinflicted

on

language:'llThere

is

thesilenceimposed

by

isolationitself.There

is

the

jargon

of

the

camp

and

itseffects

of

terror.

12

There

is

the

perversemisappropriation

of

the

Germanlanguageandtherefore

of

Germanculture.

13

Finally,

there

is

the

lie,

the

perpetuallie

inthe

words

utteredbythe

Nazis.Consider

the

innocence

of

the

expression

Schutzstaffel,

whichisabbreviated

as

S5

anddenotes"protection:'"sheltering,""safeguarding"

(Schutz).

Consider

the

neutrality

of

theadjective

sonder-which

means"separated,""sin

gular,"

"special"even"strange"

or

"bizarre"

-in

expressionssuch

as

Sonderbehandlung,

"specialtreatment"(inreality,

putting

to

death

bygas);

Sonderbau;

"specialbuilding"(inreality,

the

camp'sbrothelreservedfor

the

"privileged");and,

of

course,

Sonderkommando.

When,

in

the

midst

of

this

coded

language,an55membercallssomething

what

it

really

is-for

example,

when

the

Auschwitzadministration,inamessage

on

March

2,1943,

letsslip

the

expression

Gaskammer,

"gas

chamber"

-one

must

consider

that

agenu-inelapse.

14

What

thewordsseek

to

obfuscateis

of

course

the

obliteration

of

human

beings,

theveryprogram

of

thisvast"laboratory:'Tomurderwas

not

nearlyenough,because

the

dead

wereneversufficiently"obliterated"in

the

eyes

of

the

"FinalSolution:'Wellbeyond

the

privation

of

agrave(thegreatestinsult

to

the

deadinantiquity),

the

Nazisconcentrated,rationally

or

irrationally,

on

"leaving

no

singletrace,"and

on

obliterating

every

remnant.

..

Whichexplains

the

insanity

ofAktion

1005,

when

the

SS

hadthe

hundreds

of

thousands

of

cadaversburiedin

common

gravesexhumed(byfuturevictims

of

course),

inorderto

cremate

themandto

disperse

or

reintertheirashes

inthe

countryside.

15

The

end

of

the

"FinalSolution"

-in

allsenses

of

theword

"end":itsaim,itslaststage,

but

alsoits

interruptionbythe

militarydefeat

of

the

Nazis-called

foranewenterprise,whichwasthe

obliteration

of

thetools

of

theobl£teration.

Thus,crematoriumVwasdestroyedinJanuary

1945

by

the

SS

itself.

No

less

than

nineexplosivechargeswereneeded,

one

of

which,beingverypowerful,wasplacedin

the

fireproofovens.

16

Yet

another

attempt

to

makeAuschwitzunimaginable.After

the

Liberation,youcouldfindyourself

inthe

veryplacefromwhich

the

fourphotographs

20

[

IMAGES

IN

SPHE

OFALL

AGAINST

ALL

UNIMAGINABLE]

21

Figure

8.

Anonymous(Russian).Ruins

of

crematorium

Vof

Auschwitz,

1945

1946.Oswiecim,Auschwitz-BirkenauStateMuseum(negativeno.908).

weresnatchedafewmonthsearlier,andsee

nothing

but

ruins,devastatedsites,

or

"non-places"1?

(fig.

8).

FilipMuller,moreover,specified

that

upto

itsdestruction,crematoriumVcontinued"burning

the

corpses

of

prisonerswho

had

diedin

the

mainandauxiliarycamps"while-thegassing

of

the

Jews

had

alreadybeeninterrupted.Members

of

the

Sonderkom-mando

then

had

to

burn,

under

strictsurveillance,all"prisoners'documents,cardindexes,

death

certificates,

and

scores

of

other

documents.

IS"

It

waswith

the

tools

of

obliteration

that

archz'ves

thememory

of

the

oblz'teration-had

to

be

obliterated.

It

wasaway

of

keeping

the

obliterationforever

in

its

unimaginable

condition.There

is

aperfectcoherencebetweenGoebbe1s'sdiscourse,analyzed

in

1942

by

HannahArendtaccording

to

itscentralmotif,"Noonewill

say

Kaddish"19-in

other

words,wewillmurderyou

without

remainsand

without

memory-and

thesystematicdestruction

of

the

archives

of

the

destructionby

the

5S

itself

attheend

of

the

war.Indeed"theforgetting

of

the

extermination

is

part

of

the

extermination."20TheNazisno

doubt

believedtheyweremaking

the

Jewsinvisible,andmakingtheirverydestructioninvisible.They

took

suchpainsinthisendeavor

that

many

of

23

GAINSTALL

UNIMAGINABLE]

[

)

theirvictimsbelieved

it

too,andmanypeoplestilldo

today.21

But"reason

in

history"

is

alwayssubjected

tothe

refutation-howeverminor,howeverdispersed,howeverunconscious,orhoweverdesperate

it

be-of

particularfacts

that

remainmostprecious

to

memory,itsimaginablepossibility.Thearchives

of

the

Shoahdefine

what

iscertainlyanincomplete,fragmentary

territory-

but

aterritory

that

hassurvived

and

trulyexists.

22

Photography,fromthisangle,showsaparticular

ability-illus

trated

by

certainwell-

or

lesser-knownexamples

23

-to

curb

the

fiercestwill

to

obliterate.

It

is

technicallyveryeasy

to

takeaphotograph.

It

can

be

doneforsomanydifferentreasons,

goodor

bad,public

or

private,admitted

or

concealed,

as

the

activeextension

of

violence

orinprotest

againstit,

and

soon.Asimplepiece

of

film-so

small

that

it

canbehiddenina

tube

oftoothpaste-is

capable

of

engenderinganunlimitednumber

of

prints,

of

generationsandenlargements

in

everyformat.Photographyworks

handin

glovewithimageandmemoryandthereforepossessestheirnotable

epidemicpower.

24

Forthisreason,photographywas

as

difficult

to

eradicate

in

Auschwitz

as

wasmemoryin

the

bodies

of

the

prisoners.

Whatdo

wemeanwhenwerefer

to

"Reason

in

history"?

It

is

the

statesecretdecreed

at

the

placewhere

the

massexterminationoccured.

It

is

the

absoluteprohibition

of

photographing

the

Einsatzgruppen's

enormousacts

of

abusein

1941.

25

It

is

the

notices

put

uponthe

wallsandfences

aroundthe

camps:

"Fotografierenverboten!

No

entry!Youwillbe

shotwithoutprior

warning!"26

It

is

the

circularsentaround

by

RudolfHoss,thecommander

at

Auschwitz,datedFebruary

2,1943:

"Iwouldlike

topointout

onceagain

that

takingphotographs

withinthe

camplimitsisforbidden.Iwill

be

verystrict

in

treatingthosewhorefuse

to

obeythis

order."27

But

to

prohibitwas

to

want

to

stopanepidemic

of

images

that

hadalreadybegunand

that

could

not

stop.Itsmovementseems

as

sovereign

as

that

of

anunconsciousdesire.Theruse

of

the

image

[

IMAGES

IN

SPITE

OF

ALL

2

[

IMAGES

IN

SPITE

OF

ALL

versusreason

in

history:

photographs

circulated

everywhere

those

images

insp#e

of

all-

for

the

best

and

the

worstreasons.Theybeganwith

the

ghastlyshots

of

the

massacrescommitted

bythe

Einsatzgruppen,

photographsgenerallytaken

bythe

murderersthemselves.

28

RudolfHoss

did

not

hesitateeither,inspite

of

his

own

circular,

to

present

Otto

Thierack,

the

minister

of

justice,

with

analbum

of

photographstaken

at

Auschwitz.

29

On

the

onehand,thisuse

of

photographyverged

on

apornography

of

killing.

Onthe

otherhand,

the

Naziadministrationwassoanchoredinitshabits

of

recording-with

itspride,itsbureaucratic

narcissismthat

it

tendedto

registerand

photograph

everything

that

wasdonein

the

camp,even

thoughthe

gassing

of

theJewsremaineda"statesecret."Two

photography

laboratories,

no

less,were

in

operation

at

Auschwitz.

It

seemsastonishinginsuchaplace.However,everythingcanbeexpectedfromacapital

as

complex

as

Auschwitz,even

if

it

wasthecapital

of

the

executionandobliteration

ofhu

manbeings

bythe

millions.In

the

firstlaboratory,attached

to

the

"identificationservice"

(Erkennungsdienst)

,

ten

to

twelveprisonersworkedpermanentlyunder

the

directionofSSofficersBernhardtWalterandErnstHofmann,suggestinganintenseproduction

of

imageshere.Theseconsistedmainly

of

descriptiveportraits

of

politicalprisoners.Photos

of

executions,

of

peoplebeingtortured,

or

of

charredbodieswereshot

and

developed

by

SS

membersthemselves.Thesecondlaboratory,whichwassmaller,was

the"

office

of

constructions"

(Zentralbauleitung).

Opened

attheend

of

1941

or

the

beginning

of

1942,

it

wasdirected

bythe

SS

officerDietrichKamann,who

put

togetheranentirephotographicarchive

on

the

campinstallations.

30

Nor

mustweforget

the

whole"medical"ico

nographyof

the

monstrousexperimentsbyJosefMengeleandhisassociates

on

thewomen,men,andchildren

of

Auschwitz.

31

Toward

theend

of

the

war,while

the

Naziswereburningthearchivesenmasse,theprisonerswhoservedthem

as

slavesfor

that

taskavailedthemselves

of

the

generalconfusion

to

save-to

divert,

hide:,

disperse-as

manyimages

as

theycould.Today,aroundfortythousandphotographs

of

thisdocumentation

of

Auschwitz

AGAINST

ALL

UNIMAGINABLE]

remain,despiteitssystematicdestruction.Theirsurvivalsaysmuch

about

theprobablesizeand

horror

of

the

iconography

that

filled

the

fileswhenthecampwas

in

operation.

32

[

]

Asingle

lookat

this

remnant

of

images,

or

erraticcorpus

of

images

in

spz"te

of

all,

is

enough

to

sense

that

Auschwitzcannolonger

be

spoken

of

in

thoseabsolute

terms-generally

wellintentioned,apparentlyphilosophical,

but

actuallylazy33-"unsayable"

and

"unimaginable."Thefourphotographstaken

in

August

1944

bythe

members

of

the

Sonderkommando

address

the

unimaginable

with

which'theShoah

is

sooftencredited

today-and

thisis

the

secondperiod

of

the

unimaginable:tragically,

the

Shoahrefutesit.Auschwitzhasbeencalled

unthinkable.

ButHannahArendthasshown

that

it

ispreciselywhere

thought

falters

that

we

ought

to

persist

inour

thought

or,rather,give

it

anew

turn.

So,

if

wesay

that

Auschwitzexceedsanyexistingjuridicalthought,anynotion

of

fault

or

of

justice,

then

politicalscienceandlaw

mustbe

re

thought

entirely.34And

if

webelieve

that

Auschwitzexceedsallexistingpoliticalthought,evenanthropology,

then

we

must

re

think

the

veryfoundations

of

the

humansciences

as

such.

35

The

historian'srole

is,

of

course,crucial

to

thistask.Historianscannotandmust

not

"accept

that

the

problemposed

bythe

genocide

of

the

Jewsbeneglected

by

relegating

it

to

theunthinkable.[Thegenocide]was

thought.

it

wasthereforethinkable:'36Thisisalso

the

directiontaken

by

PrimoLevi

in

hiscriticism

of

the

speculationson

the

"incommunicability"

of

theconcentrationcamptestimony.37Theveryexistenceand

the

possibility

of

such

testimony-its

enunciation

inspite

of

all-refute

thegrand

idea,

the

closednotion,

of

an

unsayable

Auschwitz.

It

is

to

the

verycore

of

speech

that

testimonyinvitesus,compellingus

to

work

there.

It

isharshwork,since

what

it

concerns

is

adescription

of

death

at

work,

with

the

inarticulatecriesand

the

silences

that

areimplied.

38

Tospeak

of

Auschwitzinterms

of

the

unsayable,

is

not

to

bringoneselfcloser

to

Auschwitz.

Onthe

contrary,

it

is

to

relegate

[

IMAGESINSPITE

OF

ALL

Auschwitz

to

aregion

that

GiorgioAgambenhasverywelldefined

in

terms

of

mysticaladoration,even

of

unknowingrepetition

of

theNazi

arcanum

itself

39

Wemust

dowiththe

image

what

wealreadydomoreeasily(Foucaulthashelpedushere)

with

language.For

in

eachtestimonialproduction.

in

eachact

of

memory.language

and

imageareabsolutely

bound

to

oneanother,neverceasing

to

exchangetheirreciprocallacunae.

An

imageoftenappearswherea

word

seems

to

fail;

awordoftenappearswhere

the

imaginationseems

to

fail.

The"truth"

of

Auschwitz,

if

thisexpressionhasanymeaning,

is

neithermore

nor

less

unimaginable

than

it

isunsayable.

40

If

thehorror

of

the

campsdefiesimagination,

then

each

image

snatchedfromsuchanexperiencebecomesall

the

morenecessary.

If

the

terror

of

the

campsfunctions

as

anenterprise

of

generalizedobliteration,

then

each

apparition

-

howeverfragmentary,howeverdifficult

tolookat

and

to

interpret-in

whichasinglecog

of

thisenterprise

is

visuallysuggested

to

usbecomesall

the

morenecessaryYThediscourse

of

the

unimaginablehastwodifferentandrigorouslysymmetricalmodes.

The

oneproceedsfrom

an

aestheticism

that

oftenfails

to

recognizehistory

in

itsconcretesingularities.The

other

proceedsfroma

historicism

that

oftenfails

to

recognize

the

image

in

itsformalspecificities.Examplesabound.

In

particular,wewill

notethat

certain

important

works

of

arthavecaused

their

commentators

to

givemisleadinggeneralizations

on

the

"invisibility"

of

the

genocide.Thus.

the

formalchoices

of

Shoah.

the

film

by

ClaudeLanzmann,haveserved

as

alibisforawholediscourse

(as

moral

as

it

wasaesthetic)

onthe

unrepresentable,

the

unfigurable,

the

invisible,

the

unimaginable,andso

on:"2

Yettheseformalchoiceswerespecificandthereforerelative:theylaydownnorule.Avoiding

the

use

of

evenasingle"documentfrom

the

period:'

the

film

Shoah

precludesanyperemptoryjudgment

on

the

status

of

photographicarchivesingenera1.

43

What

it

offersinstead

is

animpressive

sequence-over

ten

hours-of

visualandsoundimages,

of

filmedfaces,words,andplaces,allcomposedaccording

to

formalchoices

and

anextremeengagement

withthe

question

of

the

ftgurable.

44

AGAINST

ALL

UNIMAGINABLE]

Inturn,

both

the

Dachau-Projekt

of

J

ochenGerzandhisinvisible

Monument

against

Racism

in

Sarrebriickgaverise

to

numerouscommentaries

onthe

Shoah

in

general:"TheShoahwasandremains

without

images:'writesGerardWajcman;

it

is

evensome

thingboth

"withoutvisibletrace

and

unimaginable";"theinvisible

and

unthinkableobjectparexcellence";

the

"production

of

anUnrepresentable";an"absolutedisaster

that

absolutelycannot

be

lookedat";a"destruction

with

no

ruins";"beyondimaginationand

onthe

side

of

memory";therefore"athingunlookedat"

-to

the

extent

that

the"absence

of

anyimage

of

the

gaschambers"45

is

impressed

upon

us.

Dothetwo

poor

imagesframedbythedoor

of

the

gaschamber,atcrematorium

V

of

Auschwitz

in

August

1944,

not

suffice

to

refute

that

negativeaesthetic?Furthermore,

how

couldanimageact

of

thatkindbe

prescribed

or

eveninterpreted

by

any

thought,

howeverjust,

onthe

exercise

of

art?

"Thereisalimit

at

which

the

exercise

of

anart,whatever

it

be,becomesaninsult

to

misfortune,"writesMauriceBlanchot.

46

[

]

It

is

highlysignificant

that

Blanchot,athinkerparexcellence

of

negativity

-relentless,

without

synthesis-in

fact

did

not

speak

of

Auschwitz

under

the

absoluteauthority

of

the

unimaginable

orthe

invisible.

Onthe

contrary,

inthe

camps,hewrote,

it

was

the

"invisible[that]wasforever

rendered

visihle:'47

Howshould

wethink

thisparadox?GeorgesBataillecanhelpus,hewhoneverfeared

to

interrogatethesilenceaddressedsparinglybySartre

in

his

Rejlexions

sur

laquest£on

juive

withrespect

to

thegaschambers.

48

Bataille,then-thethinkerparexcellence

of

the

formless-speaks

of

Auschwitzinterms

of

the

similar,

the

fellow

human:

Inbeingaman,there

is

generallyanoppressive,sicklyelement,whichmust

be

overcome.Butthisweightandthisrepugnancewerenever

as

heavy

as

theyhavebecomesinceAuschwitz.Likeyouandme,thoseresponsibleforAuschwitzhadnostrils,amouth,avoice,humanreason,theycould

[

IMAGES

IN

SPITE

OFALL

unite,couldhavechildren.LikethePyramidsortheAcropo

lis,

Auschwitz

is

thefact,thesign

of

man.Theimage

of

man

is

inseparable,henceforth,fromagaschamber

...

49

Toengagehere

the

image

of

man

is

to

make

of

Auschwitzafundamentalproblemhenceforthforanthropology:Auschwitz

is

in-

separable

from

us,

writesBataille.Thereis

no

question,

of

course,

of

confusing

the

victims

with

theirexecutioners.Butthisevidencemustbeconsideredwiththeanthropological

fact-the

fact

aboutthe

human

race,

as

RobertAntelme

wroteinthe

sameyear

5

0-that

it

isa

human

being

who

inflictstorture,disfiguration,

anddeathupon

hisfellow

human

being

[semblable]:

''Weare

not

onlypotentialvictims

of

the

executioners:

the

executionersare

our

fellows

[sembiabIes]

."51

Bataille,

thethinkerpar

excellence

of

the

impossible,wellunderstood

that

we

must

speak

of

the

camps

as

of

the

possible

itself,

the

"possible

of

Auschwitz;'

as

hespecified.

52

Tosaythisdoes

not

amount

to

making

horror

banal.

Onthe

contrary,

it

engageswith

the

concentrationcampexperiencesummarizedbyHermannLangbein:Nosinglecriterion

of

normallifeapplied

to

theexterminationcamps.Auschwitzwasthegaschambers,theselections,theprocessions

of

humanbeingsgoingtodeathlikepuppets,theblackwallanditstrails

of

bloodinthecamp'sroadwaymarkingthepath

of

thevehicleswhichtransportedtheexecutedtothecrematorium,theanonymity

of

deathwhichletnomartyrshine,thebooze-ups

of

theprisonerswiththeirguards.[

...

]InAuschwitz,thespectacle

of

theprisonersdyingfromstarvationwas

as

habitual

as

the

sight

of

thewell-fed

Kapos.

[

...

]

Nothing

was

inconceivableinAuschwitz.Everything

was

possible,literallyeverything.

53

If

Bataille's

thought

is

soclose

to

thisterrible

human

possibility,

it

is

becauseheknewfrom

the

start

how

to

formulate

the

indissolublelinkbetween

the

image(the

production

of

the

similar)

andthe

aggression(thedestruction

of

the

similar).

S4

In

astory

writteninthe

midst

of

the

war,Bataillehadimaginedacruelworldwhere,

he

said,"deathitselfwas

part

of

the

feast."ss

Throughoutthe

stories

AGAINST

ALL

UNIMAGINABLE]

of

Auschwitzsurvivors,weaccess

the

real

of

aninfinitelyworsecruelty,

one

inwhich,Icontend,

it

waspossible

that

the

ftastitself

was

part

of

death:

Oneeveningtowardthe

end

of

February

[1944},

Iwas

on

night-shift.When

our

teamarrived

at

crematorium5afew

hundred

corpseswerelying

inthe

changingroom,

about

to

be

cremated.

Inthe

Kommandofiihrer's

office,whichwasconnectedwith

the

cremationroombyadoor,apartywasinfullswing.

Kommandofiihrer

JohannGorgeshadbeenpromotedfrom

Rottenftibrer

to

Unterscbarftibrer.

[

...

]

Thelongtableinthe

Kommandofiihrer's

officewasspreadwithdelicaciesfromallovertheworld.Thereweretinnedfoods,coldmeats,cheese,olives,sardines,aridotherdainties,alltaken,needless

to

say,

fromdeportees.TherewasalsoPolishvodka

to

washthemdownandamplesupplies

of

cigarettes.Aboutadozen

SS-Unterftihrer

hadcome

to

thecrematoriumtocelebrateGorges'promotion.Theysataroundthetableeatinganddrinking.One

of

themhadbroughthisaccordionandwasplayingfolkand

pop

songswith

the

othersjoiningin.Theytoldeachotherbluejokesand

as

thehouradvanced,themoodgrewincreasinglygenial.[

...

]Fromthecremationchambercamethenoise

of

fanshumming,

Kapos

shoutingandstokersstokingthecorpsesinsidetheovenswiththeirironforks.

56

IN

THE

VERYEYE

OF

HISTORY]

3

1

IN

THEVERYEYE

HISTORY

Toremember,one

must

imagine.FilipMuller,

in

thisnarrative

of

memories,

therefore

allows

the

image

to

appear,overwhelmingus.Weareconstricted

in

adoublebind,

of

simplicity

and

complex-ity:

the

simplicity

of

a

monad,

such

that

the

image

cropsupin

his

text-and

imposes

itselfon

our

reading-immediately,

as

awholefromwhichwecouldremove

no

element,nomatter

how

minimal;

the

complexity

of

a

montage-the

tearingantithesis,in

the

same,uniqueexperience,

of

two

shots

brought

intocontrast

by

every-thinginthem.Thesprawledbodies,stuffingthemselves,

as

against

theburned

bodiesbeingreduced

to

ashes;

the

feasting

of

the

ex-ecutioners

as

againsttheinfernal

work

of

theslaves

as

they"move"theirslaughteredfellowhumans;

the

sonorities

and

melodies

of

the

accordion

as

against

the

mournfulwhirring

of

the

cremato-riumventilators.This

is

so

much

an

image

that

DavidOlere,an-othersurvivor

of

the

Sonderkommando

of

Auschwitz,wouldmakeaprecisedrawing

of

thisscenein

1947,

both

forhis

own

recollectionand

to

allowthose

of

us

who

were

not

there

to

pictureit.

1

No

doubt

wecanspeak

of

thisimageinterms

of

a

deferred

ac-

tion,

but

on

condition

that

wespecify

that

thedeferredactioncanbeformedimmediately,

that

it

canbeanintegral

part

of

the

sud-

den

appearance

of

the

image.

It

instantlytransforms

the

temporalmonad

of

the

eventintoacomplex

montage

of

time.

It

is

as

thoughthe

deferredactionwerecontemporaneous

to

theaction.Hence,withintheurgency

of

witnessingapresent

thatthe

witnessknowsverywellhewill

not

survive,within

the

eventitself,imagessud-denlyappear,inspite

of

all.Iamthinking

of

the

Scrolls

of

Auschwitz

buried

bythemembers

of

the

Sonderkommando

justbefore

their

liquidation:IamthinkingofZalmenGradowskiandhistenaciouslyricism

("See

thissymbolicvision:awhiteearthandablackcovermade

of

thehumanmassadvancing

on

thisimmaculateground").

2

I

am

thinking

ofLeib

Langfus,

who

scribbleshistestimony

as

aseries

of

visualandsoundshotsbrieflydescribedandoffered

as

is,

without

commentary,

without

"thought":

theold

rabbi

who

un-dressesandenters

the

gaschamber

without

fora

moment

ceasing

to

sing;

the

HungarianJews

whowant

to

drink"to

Life!"

withthe

members

of

the

Sonderkommando

in

tears;55Forstplacinghimself

in

front

of

thedoor

to

the

gaschamber

to

touchthe

genitals

of

eachyoungwoman

who

enters

...

3

Faced

with

thesestories,

as

faced

withthe

four

photographs

fromAugust

1944,

weconclude

that

the

imagesuddenlyappearswhere

thought-or

"reflection"

-seems

impossible,

orat

leastwhere

it

appears

to

be

atastandstill:stunned,stupefied.Yet

it

is

justwhereamemory

is

necessary.

As

WalterBenjaminwrote,soonbeforecommittingsuicide,in

1940:

Let

ussuppose

the

movement

of

thought

to

besuddenlystopped

-then

asort

of

shockinreturnwouldbeproducedwithinaconstellationoverchargedwithtension;ashock

that

allowstheimageitsspontaneousorganization,itsconstitu-tion

as

amonad

....

4

HannahArendtwas

to

repeatthisin

herown

manner,

at

thetime

of

the

Auschwitztrial:Lackingthetruth,[we]willhoweverfind

instants

of

truth,

andthoseinstantsareinfactallwehaveavailable

to

us

to

givesomeorder

to

thischaos

of

horror.Theseinstantsarisespon-taneously,likeoasesin

the

desert.Theyareanecdotesandtheyrevealintheirbrevitywhat

it

is

allabout.

5

[

]

This

is

exactly

what

thefourimagestaken

bythe

members

of

the

Sonderkommando

are:"instants

of

truth:'

Asmallthing,therefore:justfourinstants

in

August

1944.

But

it

is

inestimable,because

it

isalmost"all

that

wehaveavailable

to

us[visually]

in

thischaos

of

3

2

[

IMAGES

IN

SPITE

OF

AlL

IN

THE

VERYEYEOF

HISTORY]

33

horror:'And

how

arewe

to

deal

with

allthis?ZalmenGradowskiwrites

thatto

sustain

the

"vision"

of

the

thingshespeaksof,hishypotheticalreadermustdo

as

he

had

to

do:wemust"takeleave"

of

everything.Takeleave

of

our

forefathers

[peres],

of

our

points

of

reference

[reperes],

of

our

world,

of

our

thought."Afterseeingthesecruelimages,"hewrites,"youwillnolongerwant

to

liveinaworldwheresuchignobleactscan

be

perpetrated.Takeleave

of

youreldersandyouracquaintances,forafterseeing

the

abominableacts

of

aso-calledculturedpeople,youwillwant

to

eraseyournamefrom

the

humanfamily:'Yetinorder

to

sustain

the

imagination

of

theseimages,he

then

says,"yourheartmust

turnto

stone[

...

]andyoureyemust

be

transformedintoacamera:'6Thefourimagessnatchedfrom

the

Real

of

Auschwitzdemonstrateaparadoxicalcondition:

the

immediacy

of

themonad(theyaresnapshots,

the

impersonal

and

"immediategivens"

of

acertainstate

of

horrorcaptured

bythe

light)and

the

complexity

of

the

intrinsicmontage(theshootingprobablyrequiredacollectiveshot,a"prediction,"?

and

eachsequenceconstructsaspecificresponse

to

the

constraints

of

visibility:

to

snatch

the

imagewhilehidingo'neselfin

the

gaschamber,

to

snatch

the

imagewhilehiding

the

camerainone's

hand

or

clothes).

Truth

(in

the

face

of

this,

it

is

as

though

wewereirrefutably

in

the

eye

of

the

hurricane)and

obscu-

r£ty

(thesmokehides

the

structure

of

thepits,

the

movement

of

thephotographerblursandrendersalmostincomprehensibleall

that

happensin

the

birchtreecopse.).Indeed,

it

is

the

dual

mode

of

allimages

that

sooftentroubleshistorians

andturns

them

awayfromsuch"material."AnnetteWieviorkahasspoken

of

the

mistrust

that

survivors'testimonies,written

or

spoken,arouseamonghistorians:testimoniesare

by

naturesubjectiveandsometimesinaccurate.

8

Theyhaveafragmentaryandlacunaryrelation

tothe

truthto

whichtheybearwitness,

but

theyarenonethelessall

that

wehaveavailable

toknow

and

to

imagineconcentrationcamplifefrom

the

inside.

9

Weowe

the

fourphotographsfromAugust

1944

anequivalentrecognition.eventhoughthehistorian

might

havesomedifficultyingoing

the

whole

way.l0

Why

is

theresuchadifficulty?

It

is

becauseweoftenask

too

much

or

toolittle

of

the

image.Ask

too

much

of

it-

"thewholetruth"for

example-and

wewillquickly

be

disappointed:

the

imagesaremerelystolenshreds,bitsoffilm.Theyaretherefore

inad-

equate:

whatwesee(fourimagesstillandsilent,alimitednumber

of

cadavers,members

of

the

Sonderkommando,

andwomencondemned

to

death)isstilllittle

in

comparison

to

what

we

know

(millionsdead,theroaring

of

the

ovens,theheat

of

the

glowingfires,thevictimssuffering"theextremity

of

misfortune").

11

Theseimagesareeven,

to

acertainextent,

inexact;

or

at

least,

they

aremissing

the

exactnesswhich

would

allowus

to

identifysomeone,

to

understand

the

disposition

of

the

cadavers

inthe

pits,

or

even

to

seehow

the

womenwereforcedby

the

SS

toward

the

gaschamber.Orelseweask

too

little

of

images:

by

immediatelyrelegating

themto

the

sphere

of

the

simulacrum-admittedly

somethingdifficult

in

thepresent

case-we

exclude

them

fromthehistoricalfield

as

such.

By

immediatelyrelegating

them

to

the

sphere

of

the

document-something

easier

and

more

current-we

sever

them

fromtheirphenomenology,fromtheirspecificity,andfromtheirverysubstance.Ineverycase

the

resultwillbeidentical:

the

historianwillcontinue

to

feel

that

"theconcentrationcampsystemcan

not

be

illustrated";

that

"theimages,whatevertheirnature,cannottell

what

happened."12And

that

the

concentrationcampuniversesimplycannotbe"showable"since"thereexists

no'truth'

of

the

image,anymorefor

the

photographic,filmicimage,

than

for

the

painted

or

sculptedone.'tl

3

Andsohistoricismmanufacturesits

own

unimaginable.Thisalso

explains-at

least

in

part-the

inattention

thatthe

fourphotographsfromAugust

1944,

though

well

known

andoftenreproduced,havesuffered.They

did

not

appearuntil

the

Liberationandwerepresented

as

the

"only"existingphotosproving

the

extermination

of

the

Jews.JudgeJanSehn,wholed

the

investigation

in

Polandfor

the

Nurembergtrial,attributed

them

to

DavidSzmulewski.

Yet

both

of

theseassertionswereerroneous:

other

photographsexisted(andmayreappearoneday);Szmulewskihimselfremembered

being

on

the

roof

of

the

gaschamberwhileAlexworked.

14

As

forHermannLangbein,hewouldunite

34

[

IMAGES

IN

SPITE

OFALLIN

THE

VERYEYEOF

HISTORV

]

35

two

testimonies

into

one

to

conclude

that

the

photographsweretaken"fromthe

roof

of

the

crematorium;'15whichamounts,quitesimply,

tonot

havinglooked

at

thesephotographs.

[

]

Therearetwoways

of

"beinginattentive;'so

to

speak,

to

suchimages:

the

firstconsists

in

subjecting

themto

hypertrophy,

in

wanting

to

seeeverything

in

them.

In

short,

it

consists

in

wanting

to

make

them

icons

of

horror.Forthis,

the

originalphotographs

had

to

be

made

presentable.

Inorder

to

achievethis,therewasnohesitation

in

transforming

them

completely.Thus,

the

first

photograph

in

the

outsidesequence

(fig.

5)

underwentawholeseries

of

operations:

the

lowerright-handcornerwasenlargedand

then

madeorthogonal,

in

suchaway

as

to

restore

the

normalconditions

of

a

photo

shot

that

did

not

in

factbenefitfromthoseconditions;then,

it

wasreframed,cropped(therest

of

the

imagediscarded)

(fig.

9).Worse,

the

bodiesand

the

faces

of

the

twowomenin

the

foregroundweretouchedup;afacewascreated,and

the

breastswereevenlifted

16

(figs.

10-11).

Thisabsurd

doctoring-I

don'tknow

who

did

it,

or

what

mighthavebeen

the

doer's

good

inten

tions-reveals

anurgentdesire

to

give

a

face

towhatinthe

imageitselfis

no

morethanmovement,blur,andevent.Whyshouldwebesurprisedthat,in

the

face

of

suchanicon,asurvivormighthavebelievedherecognized

the

lady

of

histhoughts?l?

Theother

wayconsists

in

reducing,desiccating

the

image;

in

seeingin

it

nomore

than

a

document

of

horror.

As

strange

as

that

mightseemina

context-

history-that

normallyrespectsitsresearchmaterial,

the

fourphotographs

of

the

Sonderkommando

haveoftenbeentransformed

with

aview

to

making

them

more

infor-mative

than

theywereintheirinitialstate.This

is

anotherway

of

making

them

"presentable"and

of

makingthem"presentaface:'Inparticular,wenote

that

the

imagesin

the

firstsequence(figs.

3-4)

areregularlycropped.

IS

There

is,

nodoubt,inthisoperationa

desire-both

good

and

unconscious-to

approach

by

isolating"whatthere

is

to

see;'

by

purifying

the

imagingsubstance

of

its

non

documentaryweight.However,

the

cropping

of

thesephotographs

is

amanipulation

that

is

atthe

sametimeformal,historic,ethical,andontological.The

mass

of

black

that

surrounds

the

sight

of

thecadaversand

the

pits,thismasswhere

nothing

is

visible

givesinrealitya

visual

mark

that

is

just

as

valuable

as

all

the

rest

of

the

exposedsurface.

That

masswherenothing

is

visible

is

the

space

of

the

gaschamber:

the

dark

room

intowhichonehad

to

retreat,

to

stepback,in

orderto

givelight

tothework

of

the

Sonderkommando

outside,above

the

pyres.

That

mass

of

blackgivesus

the

situationitself,

the

space

of

possibility,

the

condition

of

existence

of

the

photographsthem-

Figure9.

Cropped

detail

of

fig.

5.

As

reproduced

in

Auschwitz:AHistoryin

Pho-

tographs,

ed.

T.

Swiebocka(Oswiecim,Warsaw,

and

Bloomington:AuschwitzBirkenauMuseum,KsiazkaIWiedza,

and

IndianaUniversityPress,1993),

173·

[

IMAGES

IN

SPITE

OF

ALLIN

THEVERY

EVE

OF

HISTORY]

37

selves.Toerasea"zone

of

shadow"(thevisual

mass)

for

the

sake

of

somelucid"information"(thevisibletestimonial)is,moreover,

to

act

as

though

Alexwereable

to

take

the

photographssafely

out

in

the

open.

It

is

almost

to

insult

the

danger

that

hefaced

and

to

insulthiscunning

as

resistant.

The

cropping

of

thesepictureswas

nodoubt

believed

to

preserve

the

document

(thevisibleresult,

the

distinctinformation).19Butinstead,

their

phenomenologywasremoved,everything

that

made

them

an

event

(a

process,ajob,physicalcontact).Thismass

of

black

is

nothingotherthanthe

mark

of

the

ultimatestatusbywhichtheseimagesshould

be

understood:

their

status

as

visualevent.Tospeakhere

of

the

interplay

of

shadow

and

light

is

notthe

fantasy

of

a"formalist"

art

historian:

it

is

to

name

the

very

structure

of

theseimages.

It

appears

as

the

paradoxicalthreshold

of

aninterior(thechamber

of

death,whichpreserves,

atthat

verymoment,

the

life

of

the

photographer)and

of

anexterior(thegruesomeincineration

of

the

victims

that

havejust

been

gassed).

It

offers

the

equivalent

of

the

wayawitnessmightspeak:

the

pauses,thesilences,and

the

heaviness

of

the

tone.Tosay

of

the

lastphotograph

(fig.

6)

that

it

issimply"without

use"20

-meaning

Figures

10

-11.

Touched-updetail

of

fig.

5.

As

reproduced

in

Mimoire

des

camps:

Pbotographies

des

camps

de

concentration

et

d'

extermination

nazis

(1933

-1999).

ed.C.Cheroux(Paris:Marva!,

2001).

91.

I

f

i

I

"withouthistoricuse"

-is

to

forgetall

thatit

tellsusphenomenologicallyaboutthephotographer:

the

impossibility

of

aiming

the

camera,

the

riskundergone,

the

urgency,thefact

that

hemayhave

been

running,

the

awkwardness,

the

sun

in

hiseyes,andperhapsbreathlessnesstoo.Thisimage

is,

metaphorically,

out

of

breath:

it

is

pure"utterance,"puregesture,

pure

photographicactwith-

Figure

12.

Cropped

detail

of

fig.

4.

As

reproduced

in

Auschwitz:

A

History

in

Photographs.

174.

at

the

threshold

of

their

extermination,

it

seemedimpossible

to

give

thoughtor

imagination

towhat

theywereenduring:"Wearebeyondwords,now,"writesAbrahamLewin.

And

yet-in

spite

of

all-he

writesit.

He

evenwrites

that

allaroundhim"everybodywrites,"because,"despoiled

of

everything,onlywordsremain"for

the

condemnedJews.

25

Likewise,FilipMuller:Deathbygaslastedfromten

to

fifteenminutes.Themosthorrendousmomentwastheopening

of

thegaschamber,

that

unbearablevision:people,pressedlikebasalt,compactblocks

of

stone.

How

theycollapsed

out

of

the

gaschamber!SeveraltimesIsawthis.Andthiswasmostdifficult

of

all.Onenever

got

used

to

that.

It

wasimpossible.

Yes.

Onemustimagine.

26

Unbearableandimpossible,yes.But"onemustimagine,"FilipMullerinsistsnontheless.

To

imaginein

spz'te

of

all,

whichcallsforadifficultethics

of

the

image:neither

the

invisibleparexcellence(thelaziness

of

the

aesthete),

nor

theicon

of

horror(thelaziness

of

the

believer),

northe

mere

document

(thelaziness

of

the

learned).Asimpleimage:inadequate

but

necessary,inexact

but

true.True

of

aparadoxical

truth,

of

course.Iwouldsay

that

here

the

image

is

the

eye

ofhistory:

itstenaciousfunction

of

makingvisible.Butalso

thatit

is

in

theeye

ofhistory:

in

averylocalzone,ina

moment

of

visualsuspense,

as

the"

eye"

of

ahurricane(letusremember

that

thiscentralzone

of

the

storm,capable

of

aflatcalm,"containsnonethelessenoughclouds

to

makeitsinterpretationdifficult")

.27

From

the

half-light

of

the

gaschamber,Alex

brought

to

light

the

nervecenter

of

Auschwitz,

that

is

to

say,

the

destruction,in

tended

to

be

without

remnant,

of

the

Jewishpopulations

ofEu

rope.

At

thesametime,

the

imagewasformedbyvirtue

of

stepping

[

IMAGES

IN

SPITE

OFALL

out

aim(therefore

without

orientation,

withnotopor

bottom);

it

givesusaccess

to

the

condition

of

urgencyinwhichfourshredsweresnatchedfrom

the

hell

of

Auschwitz.Indeed,thisurgency

too

is

a

part

of

history.

[

]

It

is

little,

it

is

alot.ThefourphotographsfromAugust

1944,

of

course,

don'ttell"

all

of

thetruth"

(it

would

be

verynaive

to

expectthisfromanything

at

all-

things,words,orimages):theyaretinyextractionsfromsuchacomplexreality,

brief

instants

in

acon

tinuum

that

lasted

five

years,

no

less.Butthey

are

for

us-

for

our

eyes

today-truth

itself,meaningitsvestige,itsmeagershreds:

what

remains,visually,

of

Auschwitz.GiorgioAgamben'sreflections

on

testimonycanilluminate

their

status:they

too

takeplace"in

the

non-place

of

articulation";they

too

findtheir

power

in

the

"powerlessness

to

say"

and

in

aprocess

of

"desubjectivation";they

too

manifestafundamentalscissionwhere

the

"essentialpart"is

atbottomno

more

than

a

lacuna.

21

Agambenwrites

thatthe

"rem

nant

of

Auschwitz"

is

tobethought

of

as

a

limit:

"neither

the

dead,

northe

survivors,

neither

the

drowned,

northe

saved,

but

what

remainsbetweenthem:'22

The

littlepiece

of

film

with

itsfourphotograms

is

alimit

of

thiskind.Theinfra-thinthresholdbetween

the

impossible

by

right

"nobody

canrepresent

to

themselves

whathappenedhere"23

and

the

possible,

the

necessary

defacto:wehave,thanks

to

theseimages,arepresentation

in

spite

of

all,

which,henceforth,imposesitself

as

the

representation

par

excellence,thenecessaryrepresen

tation

of

what

wasa

momentin

August

1944

at

crematoriumV

in

Auschwitz.Avisualthresholddevoted

tothe

double

mode

of

testimony,

as

wereadinZalmenLewental,forexample,

when

heclaims

to

write

the

"story

of

the

truth,"knowingfullwell

that

"it

is

not

yet

all

of

the

truth.

The

truth

ismuchmoretragic,evenmoreatrocious:'24

It

isimpossible

but

necessary,andthereforepossible

in

spite

of

all(that

is,

incompletely).FortheJews

of

the

Warsaw

ghetto

1

t

I

i

f

I

t

I

i

f

. ~

I

j

I

t

IJ

f

IN

THEVERYEYE

OF

HISTORY]

39

SIMILAR,

DISSIMILAR,

SURVIVOR

[

IMAGES

IN

SPITE

OFALL

back:forafewminutes,thismember

of

the

Sonderkommando

setaside

the

ignoblework

thatthe

55

had

ordered

him

to

do.

By

hid-inginorder

to

see,themanmomentarilydelayedthetaskhe

had

set

himself-seizing

aunique

opportunity-

of

putting

togetheraniconography.Theimagewaspossiblebecauseazone

of

calm(butachinglylimited)hadbeensparedforthisactoflooking.

•

,

t

1

j

To

lookat

theseimagestoday

in

terms

of

their

phenomenology

even

if

it

canonly

be

restoredin-

completely-isto

expecthistori-ans

to

undertake

the

kind

of

visualcriticism

that

Ibelieve

they

areseldomaccustomedto.

I

This

work

demandsadoublerhythm,adou-bledimension.Wemust

#ghten

our

point

of

view

of

theimagesandomitnothing

of

allthe"imaging"substance,evengoingsofar

as

to

ques-tionthe

formal

function

of

azoneinwhich"there'snothing

to

see:'

as

wewronglysaywhenfacingsomething

that

seemsempty

ofin

formative

value-

adarkareaattheedge

of

apicture,forexample.Symmetrically,wemust

widenour

point

of

view

to

restore

to

the

images

the

anthropological

element

that

makesthemwork.

If

wepayattention

tothe

words

of

Georges

Bataille-when

hedescribesAuschwitz

as

aquestion

put

tothe

inseparable,

to

the

similar,

to

the"image

of

man"in

general-we

discover

that

withinorbeyondtheirobviouspoliticalmeaning,Alex'sfourpho-tographspresent

us

withadizzyingdrama

of

the

human

image.

Letuslookagain:inthesephotographs,thedissimilar

is

onthe

samelevel

as

the

similar,

as

deathis

on

the

samelevel

as

life.

2

Lookingatthefirstsequence

(figs.

3-4),

wearestruckby

the

coexistence

of

such"human;'everydaygestures,

so

many"our"gestures,in

the

members

of

the

Sonderkommando-

hands

on

hips

of

the

one

who

isthinkingforaninstant,

the

exertionandtorsion

of

thosealready

at

"work"

-with

the

almostformlesscarpetmade

up

of

the

sprawlingcorpses,

as

thoughtheirreduction,,theirdestruc-tion,hasalreadybegun.(Theyhaveprobablyonlybeendeadforafewminutes.)In

the

fleetingview

of

the

womenwaiting

to

begassed

(fig.5),

wehaveretrospectivelyananalogoussentiment:allthesmokethat

[

IMAGES

IN

SPITE

OF

All

1

I

SIMILAR,DISSIMILAR,

SURVIVOR]

43

wearebeginning

to

see-and

that

the

womenthemselves,almostdefinitely,sawover

theroof

of

the

buildingtheywere

aboutto

enter-seems

already

to

invade,

to

destine,

their

human

resemblance.

The

destiny

that

they

knew

or

did

not

want

to

know,

or

of

whichtheycaughtaglimpse,orinanycase

that

they

filt.

3

The

destiny

that

thephotographer

himselfknew

with

certainty.For

him-and

for

our

own

eyestoday,

retrospectively-the

grayish

blur

of

thisimage,evenbeforehe

took

the

photo,resembles

the

ashes

that

thesebeings

in

motion

willsoonbecome.Hereweare

atthe

heart

of

the

anthropologicalmeaning

of

Auschwitz.To

deny

thehumanin

the

victimwas

todoomthe

human

to

somethingdissimilar:

the

emaciated

Muselmann,

heaps

of

disarticulatedcorpses,

the

"basaltcolumns"

of

the

gassed,carpets

of

hair,apile

of

human

ashesused

as

road

fill

...

TosufferAuschwitz,

at

everylevel

of

thisendlessexperience,

meant

suffering

the

fate

that

PrimoLevicalledsimply

the

"demolition

of

aman:'4

In

thisprocess,

the

gazeplayedafundamentalrole:

the

"demolished"

man

wasfirst

of

allamanrenderedapathetic

to

theworldand

to

himself;

that

is,

he

becameincapable

of

empathy

("when

it

rains,onewouldwish

to

be

able

to

cry"),evenincapable

of

despair

("I

am

no

longersufficientlyalive

tobe

capable

of

killingmyself")

5:

Thefeeling

of

our

existencedependsforagood

parton

thegaze

that

theotherscast

upon

us:wecantherebydescribe

as

nonhumantheexperience

of

anyonewhohasknownthedayswhenmanhadbecomeanobjectintheeyes

of

man.[

...

]

If

Iwereabletofullyexplain

the

nature

of

thisgaze[that

of

the

55

directedattheprisoner],

I

wouldatthesametimehaveexplainedtheessence

of

thegreatmadness

of

theThirdReich.

6

Thisexperienceis

beyond

fear.?

It

is

beyonddeath

as

anaccessiblerepresentation.

B

In

man,

it

touchesbeingitself;

in

being,

it

evendestroystime.

9

It

destinesall

human

existence

to

the

status

of

a"mannequin"

that

death

willtransform,eventually,

into

an"ignoble

tumult

of

stiffenedlimbs":intoa"thing,"

as

PrimoLeviputsit.

LO

A

dz'ssimz"larthing.

In

thisexperience,men

-fellows,

closest

friends-are

no

longerable

to

recognizeoneanother.

ll

And

this,writesMauriceBlanchot,

is

brought

aboutbythe

terrifyingpower

of

these

fillowmen

who

are

the

enemies:Whenman,byoppressionandterror,

falls

as

if

outside

of

him

self,

to

aplacewherehelosesallperspective,

all

reference,andalldifference,thusgiven

to

atimewithoutpause

that

heenduresliketheperpetuity

of

anindifferentpresent,

then

hislastrecourse,atthemomentwhenhebecomestheunknownandthestranger,that

is,

destinyforhimself,

is

to

knowhimselfstrucknotbytheelements

but

bymen,andtogivethename

of

mantoeverythingthattoucheshim.-'illlthropomorphism"wouldthusbetheultimateecho

of

truth,wheneverythingceases

to

betrue.

12

In

the

eye

of

the

hurricane,therefore,thequestion

of

anthropomorphismremains.

Whatthe

55

wanted

to

destroyatAuschwitzwas

not

onlylife,

but

also-whether

within

or

beyond,before

or

after

the

executions-the

veryform

of

thehuman,anditsimage

with

it.Insuchacontext,

the

act

of

resistingamounted

to

theact

of

maintaining

thisimage

in

spite

of

all,

even

if

reduced

to

itssimplest"paleontological"expression,

theupright

position,forexample:"Weowe

it

to

ourselves[

...

]

to

standstraightand

notto

drag

our

feet,

notout

of

homage

to

Prussiandiscipline,

but

to

stayalive,so

as

notto

start

dying."13

[

]

Tomaintain

the

imageinspite

of

all:

to

maintain

the

image

of

the

world

outsideand,in

orderto

do

so,

to

snatchfrom

that

hellanactivity

of

knowledge,a

kind

of

curiosity.Toexerciseone'sobservation,

to

takenotesinsecret,

orto

attemptto

memorize

as

manythings

as

possible."To

knowand

to

make

known

is

away

of

remaininghuman,"writesTzvetanTodorovconcerning

the

Scrolls

of

Auschwitz.

14

Tomaintain

intheendthe

image

of

oneself:

in

other

words,"tosafeguardone'sself"

inthe

psychicandsocialmeaning

of

the

term.

15

Finally,

to

maintain

the

image

of

the

dream:

al

though-or

because-the

camp

is

agenuinemachinefor"crushing

souls,"16

itsterrorfunctioncanbesuspendedfromthe

moment

the

SS

officersaccept

the

vital,

if

minimal,sleepingtime

of

the

prisoners.At

that

moment,writesPrimoLevi,"behind

the

halfclosedeyelids,dreamsspring

up

with

violence."l?

It

is

the

very

£mage

of

art

toothat

the

prisonerswillhavewished

to

preserveinspite

of

all,as

ifto

snatchfromhellsomeshreds

of

spirit,culture,

and

survival.

Theword

"hell,"Imight

addin

passing,isitselfa

part

of

that

sphere:weemploy

it

spontaneously

to

speak

of

Auschwitzeven

thoughit

provesentirelyinadequate,displaced,andinexact.Auschwitzwas

not

a

"hell,"

in

the

sense

thatthe

beings

that

enteredhadno

"resurrection"

to

experience(howeverterrible)

but

the

mostsordid

of

deaths.Aboveall,thesebeingswere

not

there

to

undergothelast"judgment"

of

theirsins:

innocent

theyentered,

innocentthey

were

tortured

and

massacred.Hell

is

ajuridicalfictioninventedbyreligiousbelief,whileAuschwitz

is

anantijuridicalrealityinvented

by

apolitico-racialdelirium.

The

image

of

hell,however

£nexact

it

maybe,isnonetheless

part

of

the

truth

of

Auschwitz.

Not

onlywas

it

employed

by

thinkers

who

were

most

attentive

to

the

concentrationcamp

phenom

enon,18

but

also

it

isfound

throughout

the

victims'testimonies.Almostall

of

the

survivorsreferred

to

that

fromwhich

they

came

as

ahell.

19

The"drowned"themselvesinvokedthisimage,

in

each

of

itsculturaldimensions,includingevocations

or

citations

of

Dante

that

emerge

in

the

Scrolls

of

Auschw#z.

Lewentalspoke

of

this"hell"

as

a"picture[

...

]unbearable

to

see:'20

Gradowskineverceased,

throughout

hismanuscript,

to

useforms

taken

more

or

lessdirectlyfrom

the

Divine

Comedy.21

On

awall

of

block

11

at

Auschwitz,incell

8,

aPolishprisonerawaitingexecutionbyfiringsquadcarvedwithhis

own

hands

and

inhis

own

languagethefamousinscriptionoverDante'sgates

of

Hell:

Lasdate

ogni

sper

anza

1/oi

ch'entrate.

22

In

thissense,Dante's

Inferno,

jewel

of

the

westernimagination,appertainsalso

to

the

Real

of

Auschwitz:

it

wasscratched

onthe

verywalls,grafted

ontothe

minds

of

many.

It

preoccupiesPrimoLevi'stestimony

to

thepoint

of

signifyingurgencyitself,

andthe

persistenceoflife,likethis"anachronism,sohuman,sonecessaryand

yet

sounexpected:'23Symmetrically,

it

evenpreoccupies

the

[]

executioner'spen:

when

unable

to

sleep

or

weariedby

thehorror

that

theyorganized,someNaziseven

let

themselves

get

carriedaway

with

theDantesquemetaphor.

2

4-

What

doesthistroublingunanimitysignify?

That

anyrecourse

to

the

image

is

inadequate,incomplete,alwaysatfault?Certainly.Mustwerepeat

then

that

Auschwitz

is

unimaginable?

Certainlynot.Wemustevensay

the

opposite:wemust

say

that

Auschwitz

is

onlyimaginable,

that

wearerestricted

tothe

imageandmusttherefore

attempt

aninternalcritiqueso

as

to

dealwiththisrestriction,

with

this

lacunary

necessity.

If

wewish

to

know

something

of

the

camp'sinterior,

at

some

point

wewillhave

to

pay

tribute

to

the

power

of

images.Andalso

try

to

understandtheirnecessity

throughtheir

veryfunction

of

remainingdeficient.

25

Letustakeafreshlook

at

thefourphotographssnatchedfrom

the

hell

of

August

1944.

Is

the

firstsequence

(figs.

3-4)not

permeated

by

the

deficiency

of

information?Shadowallaround,acurtain

of

trees,smoke:thescale

of

the

massacre,

the

detail

of

the

installations,andthevery

work

of

the

Sonderkommando

prove

to

bepoorly"documented."Atthesametime,whenfacingtheseimageswefacetheoverwhelming

necessity

of

asurvivor'sgesture.He

is

averytemporarysurvivor,forhewillbe

murdered

by

the

SS

afewweekslater.

It

is

thus

thetragic

self-portrait

of

the

"specialsquad"

that

wehavetherebefore

our

eyes.

Let

uslook

at

thesecondsequence

(figs.

5-

6):is

itnot

permeated,evenmorethan

the

first,

by

the

de-

ficiency

of

visibility?At

the

sametime,whenfacingthiswearefacing

the

overwhelming

necessity

of

an

empathetic

gesture,

that

is,

of

akind

of

activesimilarity:amovement

of

the

photographer-and

the

blurring,shaking,

of

theimage-accompanyingthe

move

ment

of

thewomen;

the

urgency

of

photographyaccompanyingtheurgency

of

thelastinstantsoflife.

26

Tosnatchfourimagesfromthehell

of

thepresentamounted,inshort,

onthat

dayinAugust

1944,

to

snatchingfourshreds

of

survivalfromthedestruction.

Of

survival

as

relic

[survivance],

I

would

say,

and

not

of

survivalinlife

[survie].

Becausenobody,infront

of

45

IMILAR,DISSIMILAR,SURVIVOR]

f

I

i

I

[

IMAGES

IN

SPITE

OFALL

44

[

IMAGES

IN

SPITE

OF

All

SIMILAR,

DISSIMILAR,

SURVIVOR]

47

or

behindthatcamera

-except

DavidSzmulewskiandthe

SS

perhaps-survived

thatto

which

the

imagesbearwitness.

So

it

is

the

imagesalone

that

remain

with

us:theyare

the

survivors.

Butfrom

what

time

do

theycome

to

us?

Fromthe

time

of

a

flash:

theycap

tured

afewinstants,afew

human

gestures.Wenotice

that

in

both

sequencesnearlyall

the

facesarelookingdownward,

as

though

concentrating,

beyond

alldramaticexpression,

onthework

of

death.Downward:because

the

earth

is

theirdestiny.

On

theone

hand,

the

humanswillvanish

in

smoke:

Todesfuge;27

on

the

other

hand,theirasheswill

be

crushed,buried,swallowedup.

Into

theseveryashes,allaround

the

crematoria,members

of

the

Sonderkom-mando

willhavemixed

as

many

as

possible

of

their

surviving

things:

bodilythings(hair,teeth),sacredthings(phylacteries),imagethings(photographs),

written

things(the

Scrolls

of

Auschwitz):

Iwrote

that

duringthetimewhenIfoundmyselfinthe

Son-

derkommando.

[

...

]

I

wanted

to

leaveit,

with

many

other

notes,

as

amemoryforthefutureworldinpeace,inorder

that

whathappenedherebeknown.Iburied

it

intheashes,thinking

it

was

thesafestplace,

that

theywouldmostcertainlydig

itup

andfindtraces

of

the

millionswhodied.Butrecentlytheyhavestarted

to

removethetraces

of

theashesalittleeverywhere.Theyordered

them

to

befinelygroundand

to

betransported

to

theVistule

so

thewaterswouldcarry

them

away.

[

...

]My

notebook

and

other

manuscriptswere

to

befoundinthepitssaturatedwithblood,containingbonesandshredsofflesh

not

entirelyburned.Onecouldtellbytheodor.Seeker,digaroundeverywhere,ineverypieceofland.Documents,mineandthose

of

other

persons,areburiedthere,castingaharshlight

on

everything

that

happenedhere.

We,

the

Sonderkommando

workers,distributedthemovertheentireterrain,

as

much

as

wecould,so

that

theworldmightfindpalpabletracesthere

of

themillionsmurdered.Weourselveshavealreadylosthopeoflivinguntiltheliberation.

28

Thetime

of

theflash,

the

time

of

the

earth.Instantandsedimentation.Snatchedfrom

the

present,buriedforalongtime:such

is

therhythm

ofimages-an

adyom

ene.

The

fourphotographsfromAu-

gust

1944

weresnatchedfromavasthell,

then

hiddenin

asimple

tube

of

toothpaste.Snatchedfrom

the

perimeter

of

the

camp,

then

buried

somewhere

in

the

papers

of

the

PolishResistance.

Dugup

onlyafter

the

Liberation.Reburied

underthe

croppingand

retouching

of

historians

who

thought

theyweredoing

good

work.Theircharge

of

invalidation-against

the

Nazienterprise

of

disimagining

themassacre-remains

tragic

in

that

theycame

too

late.

29

FromAugust

1944

to

theend

of

the

hostilities,Americanairplanescontinually

bombed

the

factories

of

Auschwitz

III-

Monowitz,

but

theyleftthecrematoria

to

their

intensefunction

ing

of

"nonmilitary"killing.

30

[

]

Are

they

uselessimages,then?Farfromit.

They

areinfinitelyprecious

to

ustoday.

They

aredemandingtoo,for

they

require

archeological

work.We

must

digagain

in

theireversofragiletemporality."Theauthenticimage

of

the

past;'writesWalterBenjamin,"appearsonly

in

aflash.

An

image

that

springsup,only

to

beeclipsedforeverin

the

very

truththat

merelykeeps

the

researcherwaitingdoes

not

correspond

in

anyway

to

the

concept

of

truth

in

the

subject

of

history.Rather,

it

relies

on

Dante'slines,which

say:

it

isanother,unique

and

irreplaceableimage

of

thepast

that

fades'witheachpresent

that

hasfailed

to

recognizeitself

as

its

aim:'31

No

traceanywhere

of

life,you

say,

pah,

no

difficultythere,imagination

not

deadyet,yes,dead,good,imaginationdeadimagine.

32

(2000-20d1)

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