"As soon as the sword was sheathed, the book was opened again"

Abstract

This paper deals with the question, whether reading could be forgotten by skilled readers deprived from reading during a long period. Forty questionnaires and interviews of Israeli Holocaust survivors - who actually were cut off from all reading activities during their imprison - were analyzed and summarized.

A number of interesting facts came up: There was hardly any desire or possibility to read in KZ-Camps, nevertheless a strong strive for a high cultural level was felt in order to keep the minds sane, such as 'reading as if' in many variations: Reading by heart, citing poems, discussing philosophic questions, imagining recipes, etc. were reported as a means to conserve the taste of reading. But, reading Camp-orders or an occasional piece of paper was not considered reading (only books or newspapers), while writing even a tiny single note was considered writing.

The first reading-experience after liberation was "strange," but only in a few cases was real difficulty encountered in going back to reading, in no case was reading forgotten. General sadness was expressed about the lost years of reading.

After release: free newspaper reading was not only expressed as "back to literature," but served as a means to the acquisition of the new language (Hebrew). Only very few cases indicated reading encouragement or ambitious book-education of the second generation.