Constellations of Absence: The Silence of God in Auschwitz (Paul Celan, Hans Jonas, Samuel Bak)

Abstract

Th e present article aims at analyzing the topos of Hester Panim (‘the concealed face of God’) in the light the poignant works by Paul Celan, Samuel Bak and
Hans Jonas. To do so, we have chosen three particular works which stem from different discourses (the poetic, the artistic, and the philosophical): Celan’s Psalm, Bak’s in a Different Light, and Jonas’ Der Gottesbegriff nach Auschwitz. Special emphasis is placed on the notions of memory and forgetfulness and on the ways in which this dichotomy plays itself out in the three examined works.