Elie Wiesel and a Legacy of (Post-) Witnessing

Abstract

ABSTRACT:This article explores how the relationship between a victim/survivor in a Shoah testimony and the audience (e.g., the listener, reader, or scholar) is shaped by the account, and inquires how the relationships may evolve when there are no survivors left. I argue that survivor testimonies pass the role of witness to the audience, thus intertwining the processes of witnessing (i.e., experienced by a victim or survivor) and post-witnessing (i.e., experienced through testimonies or other first-person accounts)—especially in the case of scholars. This study uses the survivor Elie Wiesel's work as a case study to demonstrate that the role of a witness can become a transferable legacy. To examine this topic, I draw on current post-witnessing theories, Affect Theory, a hermeneutic approach to Wiesel's testimony, and a particularly evocative passage by Primo Levi that depicts gazing on someone which inflicts shame in the one looking.