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The second prize went to Santiago Nemirovsky aged 17 from ORT Argentina for his essay "Dilemmas and Questions" (Dilemas y Preguntas) which, through step by step analysis, expresses the keen search of our young Jewish generation for a meaningful understanding of the Holocaust and its outcome. The essay underpins the value of inquiring and its relevance to the problematics of the survivors' dilemmas, through questions which, the author maintains, are the key to the past.The prize was vouchers for books on Jewish subjects totaling $150.
The essay is based around the question of Ma Nishtana Halaila Haze? He says that it is no coincidence that it's in a form of a question and on "once upon a time...". His aim is to rediscover the value of the question and its relevance to the problematics of the survivors' dilemmas.
The Jewish people have always been characterised by formulating questions and he brings various examples from the Bible e.g. why are the good destroyed together with the sinners (Genesis). And questions are used to answer questions. For those Jews who would like to enquire, questions are the key to the past.
Shoa: we are all survivors, although this has a different meaning to each one of us. He asks himself Ma Nishtana Halaila Haze... how is today different for the survivors than 50 years ago. He says that raising some questions can be a risk. Creation itself was a risk which God took risking contamination, murders, corruption, social injustice.
To study the past it is necessary to take a risk. This does not mean that there is an answer to every question. The satisfaction in the possibility that these questions will give us access to events of the past and to elaborate memories.
One risk in approaching the past is that it brings up for the Jew memories of pain, persecution. He is in a very complex situation made worse by the fact that he is a survivor.
Some Jews found our their origin as Jews not by enquiring but by being persecuted by the Nazis. Their identity was imposed on them like a tag.
Identity is generated in our history as people, in our individual history is human beings, and in our social environment and it transforms by different situations which are not evolutionary phases.
What is a dilemma? It is not a conflict. A conflict is a clash between two opposite forces leading to a result. A dilemma has a possible solution, it is always traumatic. It is ended but not resolved, by amputation, by a transformation of the identity it generates. The survivors have a fundamental dilemma. It will not be the same once they experience the dilemma (remember the film Sophie's Choice - she has to chose if to save her son or daughter).
Survivors raise and are faced with questions from others about their experience of the Shoa. To tell, transmit to others personal experiences means not only to tell about the events but much more: the ability to share, to relate to feelings in order to understand. They might not be able to transmit what they went through. Quotes: "Those of us who were there - will never be able to leave, and those who were not - will never be able to enter".
Other ethical dilemmas faced by the survivors: how to save their lives, how to save their identity; save their own life or others'. Situations that cannot even be imagined. They are left out, a void in the memory. The dilemmas they face now are different to those during the war but they might have to face them when they approach the past.
Another aspect of raising the questions is time. Time to formulate, answer and listen.
How is the night that the survivors live today different from the other nights lived 50 years ago if their pain has no place in present society?
II. Observe
We can conclude here that questions are fundamental to transformation and have an important role in approaching the Shoa. Young and old can access this means on different levels of complexity. Raising questions about the dilemmas of the survivors, we also expect some kind of answers.
Quotes: "the Shoa cannot be explained. It is a mistake to try and explain in rational terms something that was completely irrational". This essay does not intend to find the cause for the Holocaust but we must share with our brothers who lived through this tragic experience, know and recognise what happened.
It is not necessarily important to find the answers, but to rethink and complete our history based on the questions which we will go on formulating forever.
Quotes Ellie Wiesel: "Questions are more important than answers, taking into consideration that only questions can be shared."
Translated and summarised by Talia Horev