Peretz Markish on the Holocaust in 1942 and in 1947

Abstract

The paper focuses on two Holocaust writings by Peretz Markish: the play An Eye for an Eye (1942) and the magnum opus The March of Generations. The play was later reworked into the first parts of the novel that was written in 1947 and published posthumously in 1966. Two incomplete copies of the play are available at the Russian State Archive of Literature and Arts. From the original Yiddish text, only a few episodes survived, each of them in 2–3 versions. The Russian translation by M.Shambadal is opening episodes and the last page. The article attempts to reconstruct the play’s plot, to analyze its motif structure against the backdrop of Markish’s other Holocaust-related plays, and to trace the transformations it underwent when incorporated into the first part of the novel. Both works also provide us with some historical insights telling what the JAFC members knew about the Holocaust as early as in 1942, and suggesting the hand of the Soviet censorship.