During the Holocaust, it was incredibly dangerous to practice Judaism. Jewish people went into hiding. Millions of Jews perished. Nazis sent Jews, old or young, to concentration camps where they suffered tremendously. Many were malnourished and brutally murdered by the Nazis. Eventually, the war ended, and many Jews were physically saved, but, the memories continued to plague the minds of survivors for the rest of their lives. In the short stories, "A Familiar Face," "Something to Hide," "Shoes," and "Hayuta's Engagement Party," the authors use silence as an example of one of the many attitudes in Israeli society surrounding the Holocaust.
"Hayuta's Engagement Party"
One of the attitudes of towards the Holocaust is silence. The protagonist in “Hayuta’s Engagement Party” is Hayuta and she is a second-generation Holocaust survivor. She is planning on getting married to a man called Ran, but her grandfather named Mendel is suffering from PTSD from the Holocaust. Thus, Hayuta does not want to invite him to her engagement party to avoid embarrassment in front of her future in-laws and wants her grandfather to not speak of his troubling experience from the Holocaust at the party. Before the grandfather dies, he feels himself getting triggered to discuss his experiences and stops himself. As a result, he dies. When Liebrecht says, “the lips that were tightly pursed under a layer of sweet frosting, firmly treasuring the words that would now never bring salvation, nor conciliation, nor even a momentary relief” (Liebrecht 425). It shows that the sweet frosting is a symbol for attitude from the second generation of Holocaust survivors. People want to cover their painful memories with sweet frosting or in other words silence.
"Something to Hide"
Like Hayuta in the short story "Hayuta's Engagement Party," Ilana Senesh symbolizes the attitude of silence in her mother character in the short story "Something to Hide." The mother is a second-generation Holocaust survivor and does not want her daughter to know anything about her grandmother. She intends to keep the two apart because the mother believes that silence will keep her daughter away from the pain suffered from the first generation. This is shown when Senesh states "from the day she was born her mother did not allow her to visit her grandmother. Till the day the grandmother died the child did not see her" (Senesh). The mother is firm on keeping the grandmother and her daughter apart even through death.
"Shoes"
Silence is symbolic in the short story "Shoes" by Etgar Keret through the protagonist's mother. The mother buys Adidas for him as a gift, but he notices that they are a German brand. He tries to remind his mother that the shoes originated from Germany, but she does not make the connection until the protagonist makes a false statement saying that his grandfather is from Germany. Keret states, "I tried to give her hint. 'Grandpa was from Poland,' Mom corrected me. For a moment, she became sad, but she got over it in no time" (Keret 662). Keret is using the mother to show that she understands that the Holocaust occurred but chooses to be silent and continues to live her live in the present.
"A Familiar Face"
The attitude of silence as a reminder towards the Holocaust is seen in the short story "A Familiar Face" by Hanoch Bartov. The protagonist goes to Tel Aviv in search of advocate Yarmous. He finds the building that Yarmous resides in and an old man lets the protagonist inside. The old man tells him that he knows the main character from a concentration camp in Cracow, but the protagonist has never been to Cracow. The way he shows silence is shown when Bartov says, "I certainly mumbled something. I can't recall exactly what. I hurriedly broke away from the man who remembered me from a concentration camp in Cracow" (Bartov 36). He does not recognize or say something memorable to him but he just quickly states anything to get out of the situation. He would rather remain silent since these things make him uneasy as he says that it haunts him every time someone says he has a familiar face.
Survivors have withstood the gruesome Holocaust but their memories will forever plague their entire ancestry and should never be forgotten. Silence is one of the many attitudes that the Israeli society has concerning the Holocaust. It is one of the ways Holocaust survivors kept their pain bottled up because they did not believe anyone would sincerely listen to their stories or to prevent their future generation from suffering the pain they endured during the time of war.
