A Specter Haunting Holocaust Studies: The Muselmann

Abstract:Attention to the figure of the Muselmann in Holocaust studies is finally picking up steam, in what is a long overdue conversation. Recent studies of the concept and phenomenon are challenging long-held assumptions about to whom and what the term Muselmann refers, what it meant in the Nazi concentration camps, and what it means now. This essay responds to two pieces published here, "Did Jews Die as Muslims at Auschwitz? Spectres of the Muselmann," by Kathrin Wittler, and "Witnessing the Ghost, Letting the Ghost Witness," by Alexander Williams. Raising key questions about the term Muselmann, these essays together illustrate the ongoing problems it poses for Holocaust studies. While Wittler provides a historical excavation of the Orientalist and colonialist associations that cleave to the word Muselmann, one desperately needed in Holocaust studies, Williams approaches the subject theoretically, in effort to make the term perform sweeping conceptual work. Explaining "spectral" figures in Holocaust testimony remains fruitful, but doing so through inherited definitions of Muselmänner, based on a few iconic survivor testimonies, simplifies the ethical implications of the phenomenon, and perpetuates its problematic semantic history. I therefore argue that scholars would do well to use the term carefully and critically, lest we perpetuate these problems. Other recent studies on the topic that look at a wider variety of survivor perspectives prove the Muselmann to be an incoherent category and raise new ethical questions about concentration camp prisoner agency. As such work shows, it is time to demystify the specter haunting Holocaust studies.