THE GENRE OF CONCENTRATION CAMP LITERATURE AND THE HOLOCAUST

Abstract

The article is devoted to the genre of concentration camp literature and the role of the Holocaust in it. The role of such literature as a useful method of revealing the testimonies and experiences of Holocaust survivors is shown. Thus, this topic has acquired a certain status in literature. Today there are a huge number of different texts that cover the Holocaust in many ways, covering almost all literary genres. The article analyzes concentration camp literature as a genre. In particular, the role of the Holocaust as an event that became the basis for the creation of the genre of concentration camp literature is analyzed. In literary criticism, this genre is often applied to literature that deals with the topic of German Nazi camps, in particular concentration and death camps, and refers to the events of the Holocaust. Such texts are outstanding and unique in the way they treat the Holocaust, how they reached human hearts and minds, and how others began to further explore the events of those horrific times after their publication. The article determines that in order to truly present concentration camp literature as a literary monument, it is also important to evaluate the defining features of those who survived the terrible events of the Holocaust. Many of them tried to use the art of writing to overcome all the horrors they saw, and most of all, what they had to endure physically and psychologically in the concentration and death camps, or Jewish ghettos, and what they suffered and continue to suffer from to this day. It is investigated that on the example of the work of some representatives of this genre we can consider that such literature is historical material. The author explores the uniqueness of concentration camp literature as an independent genre.