Obraz Boga w dziennikach i pamiętnikach dzieci Holocaustu
The image of God in the memorials and diaries of children of the Holocaust

Summary/Abstract: On the basis of diaries and memoires of children of the Holocaust (Rywka Lipszyc, Renia Knoll, Helga Weissova, Dawid Sierakowiak, Dawid Rubinowicz, Maryla, and Rutka Lask ier), Justyna Szewczyk outlines the image of God that emerges in the minds of the protagonists. Using the methodology of the linguistic image of the world, she analyzes this image based on a number of categories: God as seen in tradition and in everyday life; God as seen through feel ings, through human identity, fate, suffering, and fatherhood. Of great importance in extrapolat ing the image of God found in diaries and memoirs is personalization. Personalization manifests itself, for example, in replacing God’s central position, during religious holidays and festivals, with human problems; in transferring God’s traditional competencies to the worst enemies; and in describing God in terms which are familiar to children (spatial ones and those related to the senses). In the analyzed texts, God also acquires a historical coloring: as the creator of tradition and the performer of great miracles in the past, but also as an entity whose presence is no longer experienced today. Some personal accounts testify to a psychological manner of perceiving God, as when the protagonist transfers to God tasks not fulfilled by his or her earthly father.

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