The Muselmann and the Necrotopography of a Ghetto

ABSTRACT This article revises the status, function, linguistic origin, and experiential meaning of the emaciated figure of the Muselmann through a reading of Holocaust diaries, archival photography, as well as the post-Holocaust literature; the reading establishes certain similarities between the Muselmann and other victims of Nazi genocide. It reconstructs necrotopography as a common denominator of diverse Holocaust hostile spaces of confinement, in which dead bodies constitute the terrain’s main features. The article purports that death in the necrotopograhic spaces was caused by starvation and exploitation as well as by solitude and isolation. For a contemporary reader/viewer, necrotopography represents the return of the Holocaust affect in its most visceral way.