Challenged by Atrocity: Letting the Holocaust Challenge Our Operative Moral Frameworks
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Authors
Gale, Josie
Date of Issue
2024
Type
Presentation
Language
en_US
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Abstract
Atrocities like the Holocaust force us as a society to confront who we are and how we understand ourselves. Primo Levi's Survival in Auschwitz offers us a narrative of his experience as a prisoner in the Auschwitz concentration camp. His powerful recollection of daily life in the camp raises critical questions about what it means to be human and compels us to challenge some of our long-standing operative moral frameworks. One example of an operative moral framework comes from Augustine of Hippo, whose understanding of the human condition presented in his autobiography Confessions, has long informed our Western imagination. After contemplating Levi’s experience in Auschwitz, I ask: can Augustine’s take on the human condition, his notion of the good, and the role of free will be applied to all moral situations? What about situations where people are physically enslaved and in bondage or victimhood from serious trauma? Is Augustine’s framework still applicable today? Grappling with these questions in light of these two texts, I hope to demonstrate how the extreme evil witnessed and the trauma caused by the Holocaust must challenge our moral imaginations if we hope to learn from these atrocities and build more just societies.
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