Personal and Historical Memories

Personal and Private Memories

Hirsch’s essay is almost directly related to Art Spiegelman’s in Maus. In Maus the main character is trying to write a graphic novel about his father’s experiences during the Holocaust, however he can never truly understand what it was like in those conditions.
Hirsch notices that there are certain photographs that are shown everywhere to represent a particularly harsh event, such as the Holocaust. Photographs of children are predominantly used in order to project a feeling of sadness and hopelessness. To see an innocent child suffering under conditions that adults didn’t survive is heartbreaking, not only for those who were directly effected, but for everyone.
The photographs show a history of a people that follows the next generations of this culture. Even though the photos and writings are personal and can evoke high emotions to certain images, It is still not enough to truly experience what happened. This is the problem of the second-generation, they know that their history was horrible, however they can never experience or truly understand the violence and discrimination felt against their ancestors.