The aim of the article is to indicate a recurring motif in the writings devoted to Nazi concentration camps. In many of the accounts of male and female internees the camp was described as a place “where birds did not sing”. As a territory over which there spun an empty silent sky. “A Birdless Sky”. The author of the study, utilising various sources, attempted to study the phenomenon from different perspectives. The results of scientific ornithological studies conducted by Günther Niethammer, a scientist and an SS guard at KL Auschwitz proved a rather unexpected point of reference for the voices of the internees. The presented article refers to the increasingly lively contemporary research into the topics of Lager and Holocaust literatures. Ecocriticism and environmentalism have been some of the more significant inspirations of the proposed discussion. By introducing a post-anthropocentric perspective, the author was able to expand the historical field to include non-human beings (animals, plants, landscapes).
The main purpose of this article is to draw attention to one of the motifs which appear regularly in literature concerning the Nazi concentration camps. In many memoirs of ex-convicts the concentration camp is represented as a place „where birds did not sing” – an area domed by an empty, silent sky, „a sky without birds”. The author of this paper examines this phenomenon from many perspectives, drawing on various types of sources. The voices of the imprisoned are surprisingly juxtaposed with ornithological research conducted by Günther Niethammer, a scientist and, simultaneously, one of the SS guards in the Auschwitz concentration camp. This article is part of ever-growing contemporary research on the topoi of concentration camp literature and Holocaust literature. Ecocriticism and environmentalism constitute an important inspiration for his text, and a post-anthropocentric perspective allows the author to extend the scope of historicity to include the non-human beings, such as animals, plants and the landscape.
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