Zerstörte Kindheit

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Discusses autobiographical texts in which childhood and the Holocaust are linked in a traumatic way. These literary testimonies were written by authors who were living with their families in Germany or Austria during the Nazi period, and had been persecuted as Jews when they were children. The childhood autobiographies are analyzed not only as a specific form of literary memoirs; the interdisciplinary approach examines historical context, the concrete situation of the children, and the psychological influence of trauma. also presents an introduction to German Jewish autobiography, emphasizing the interplay of history, individual experience, and literary activity. Pp. 152-336 contain analyses of four texts: Jona Oberski's "Kinderjahre" (1978), Cordelia Edvardson's "Gebranntes Kind sucht das Feuer" (1984), Ruth Klüger's "weiter leben: Eine Jugend" (1992), and "Georges-Arthur Goldschmidts autobiographische Erzählungen" (1981-1996).