Existential despair rhetoric shifted the burden of Auschwitz from perpetrators onto victims.

Evidence

Hofstätter thinks it hardly possible that a single individual could take upon himself the horror of Auschwitz'. It is the victims of Auschwitz who had to take its horror on themselves, not those who, to their own disgrace and that of their nation, prefer not to believe in it. The question of guilt’ was `laden with despair’ for the victims, not for the survivors, and it is no small achievement to have blurred this distinction with the existential category of despair, which is not for nothing a popular one. But in the house of the hangman one should not mention the noose; one might be suspected of harbouring resentment. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2045

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The inversion whereby the existential complaint about ‘can anyone bear Auschwitz’ redirected horror from perpetrators to victims, plus the aphoristic image ‘in the house of the hangman one should not mention the noose’, is among the most potent moments in the book.
• XREF: Connects to Adorno’s critique of existentialism generally and the dialectic of enlightenment’s account of how language/feeling are weaponized against victims. — connects to: Existentialist ‘choice’ rhetoric can become a form of torment toward the suffering — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre: The Riddle of…, 561; Racial burden shifts onto survivors and witnesses after deaths. — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race: Reflections on…, 80

Broader Connections

• Racial burden shifts onto survivors and witnesses after deaths. #corroborates (0.85) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 80
• Existentialist ‘choice’ rhetoric can become a form of torment toward the suffering #exemplifies (0.82) — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 561