(Taken from The Wiener Holocaust Library website)
The Wiener Holocaust Library is delighted to host a special event with former director, Ben Barkow, in conversation with Zoe Waxman about his newest publication, Poetry after Auschwitz: Walking in West Cornwall with the Ghost of Great-Aunt Hilde. The event will be moderated by Dr Christine Schmidt, Deputy Director and Head of Research, and introduced by Dr Alessandro Bucci, the Director of Holocaust Centre North.
Poetry after Auschwitz explores the lives of Barkow’s grandparents and their siblings and those of his parents in a series of linked poems. By directly going up against Adorno’s famous dictum that to write poetry after Auschwitz would be barbaric, he probes the limits of representation in the context of the overwhelming need to let the suffering of the victims speak. Implicitly Barkow articulates the haunting and haunted reality of a life lived in the long shadow of the Holocaust.
Ben Barkow worked for 30 years in London’s Wiener Holocaust Library, 20 of them as its Director. This, together with his upbringing as a German boy in 1960s and 70s London – and his family’s silence about their Jewish heritage and sufferings during the Nazi era – underpins this poetic reconstruction of two generations.
This event will be held in person at The Wiener Holocaust Library, or online. Use booking link provided to reserve your place, or visit The Wiener Holocaust Library website for more information.
Poetry After Auschwitz is available for purchase here.