Found in Translation: Memory and Identity in the Post-Holocaust Yugoslav Jewish Diaspora

• In Event: Behind the Scenes of Jewish Narratives: Yugoslav Peripheries, Hasidic Shadows and Polish Phantasms

Abstract

The aim of this presentation is to compare two Yugoslav Jewish women born before World War II in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, both of whom survived the Holocaust and later emigrated permanently to Israel (though at different times and for different reasons). They are Dina Katan Ben-Zion (1937–2023), born in Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina), and Ženi Lebl (1927–2009), born in Aleksinac (Serbia). Through an analysis of the poetry collection Vremena u nama (2002, The Times in Us) by Katan Ben-Zion, selected and translated into Serbian by Lebl, I will examine how shared experiences are remembered in their poems, which serve as a lens focusing on key constructs of memory for both authors. This exploration sheds light on the poetic transmission of memory and identity in the post-Holocaust Yugoslav Jewish diaspora.

Author

• Katarzyna Taczynska, Inst of Slavic Studies PAS (Poland)