A Deep Dive into Charlotte Delbo's 'Who Will Carry the Word'

This essay provides an in-depth analysis of Charlotte Delbo's drama, 'Who Will Carry the Word,' focusing on its autobiographical nature and portrayal of the Holocaust. The essay examines the play's depiction of the horrors of Auschwitz-Birkenau, drawing on Delbo's personal experiences as a member of the French Resistance. It explores themes of survival, the importance of bearing witness, and the emotional toll on the women in the concentration camps. The essay also discusses the historical context of the play, including the rise of Nazi Germany, the establishment of concentration camps, and the systematic extermination of Jews and other groups. The analysis highlights the play's raw and honest portrayal of the atrocities, the strength and solidarity of the characters, and the lasting impact of trauma and memory. The essay references scholarly articles to support its claims and provides insights into the play's significance as a historical and artistic work.

Running head: WHO WILL CARRY THE WORD
WHO WILL CARRY THE WORD
Name of the Student:
Name of the University
Author Note:

1WHO WILL CARRY THE WORD
The essay discusses various aspects of the drama Who Will Carry the Word by French
writer Charlotte Delbo. It is an autobiographical presentation of the dramatist written in 1966.
It was a less popular drama with great intensity and heart wrenching impact. The play depicts
the absolute weakness and deprivation of mankind but simultaneously demonstrates kindness
and strength of same mankind (Wachsmann 310). The drama portrays the situation where
personal becomes political and nobody can escape such fact.
The playwright Charlotte Delbo has recorded a true account abased on her life
experience in 1943. she was sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1942 as part of the French
Resistance against Nazi Germany. She was a part of the group of female convicts and
demonstrates their struggle for surviving the horrific and unimaginable circumstances.
Among 229, only 49 women survived and this play asks who will survive finally among them
to carry the word.
The truth of the dream is brutal as well as painful. The script proves that only the
person can record such incidents who has first-hand experience of such torture (Chalmers
185). The paly attempts and describes the aspects of terrible life in the German concentration
camp. She makes the audience realise the special responsibility of mankind that is kindness.
They must not forget the trauma as well as horror in the concentration camp. They must owe
a debt to the suffers collectively.
The play focuses on the unspoken violence in the prison where women are kept. The
guards are also present but like shadow. Like Greek drama, their actions are never seen but
felt or spoken. There are no chorus but these women serve as chorus. They know one
another’s’ pain and bear witness to every events. From the very beginning Claire requests
Francoise not to commit suicide because there must be someone who survive to represent and
tell this horrifying experience. this play carries subtle morbidity that never actually show that

2WHO WILL CARRY THE WORD
the women are dead. It emphasises more on describing the emotional toll hoe the cold,
exhausting and long days gradually engulfed them. The paly records a sort of interpretive
dance at one point of time often miming beatings, as well as gassings. Each woman told some
piece of their own stories, one more heart-breaking than the other. the youngest girl was
talking that she was afraid of dream of home and her family as she would never be able to
meet them again. Every day the women used die of cold, exhaustion and starvation. Some of
them were desperate to throw themselves onto electrified fences, but the guards used to pick
them off with the rifles.
Despite the fact the history of torture in the German concentration camp is well
known from the records of many courageous survivors but this play never leaves opportunity
to shock the audience through its portrayal of incidents (Coelho 104). The characters are raw
and exposed to the torture in different forms but they portray ample strength, courage as well
as solidarity though do not even know one other's names. The play explores the true facts of
their lives in prison. They often deal with hunger, humiliation, death of family members.
They see the babies being smothered in petrol then set alight (Peleg et al. 441). They
visualize rats chewing body parts of their families and mates who are so crippled with illness
that lost ability to move. They miraculously combat on such unimaginable condition and
survive.
This play would have nothing if not authentic. The dramatist Charlotte Delbo
survived the extermination camp. She came back to her native France in the year 1945 and
raised the past from its ashes in order to carry the word (Nawijn, Jeroen, and Marie‐Christin
225). There is no doubt about the drama’s sincerity. It is disturbing but passionate and honest.
The play is set in the context of second world war and Hitler’s monopoly in the
world’s polity. According to the holocaust scholars, after Hitler became chancellor, his party

3WHO WILL CARRY THE WORD
was given full control over police. This power distribution resulted in building concentration
camps across Germany (Willis 261). It used to imprison and torture the political opponents as
well as union organizers. The research found there were initially more than 45,000 prisoners.
The Nazi Germany visualized the industrial-scale mass murder of the Jews in ghettos by gas
chambers (Zheng 27). During the world war II, Nazi concentration and extermination camps
were built and spread through the continent. In these camps, many prisoners used to die due
to intense maltreatment, disease, hunger, and overwork. Some of them were executed for
being unfit as labour. The Prisoners were taken in brutal conditions, for which many died
before they reached the final destination. They used to be confined for days or weeks, with no
food and water. As the play displays the Concentration camps were not particularly designed
for a systematic extermination (Scott 335). Therefore, many of their inmates were perished
because of such harsh conditions or finally were executed.
On the social context the play reveals the atrocities that these women felt when they
were prisoners in the camp. It also demonstrates the brutal purpose behind the camp. First the
characters were suffering as the result of opposing Hitler’s government as Nazi Germany
believed in torturing whoever threat their existence (Nawijn, Jeroen, and Marie‐Christin 225).
Second, knowledge of the life in a concentration camp was permitted to be leaked out when
any prisoner was released. These memories were used to create threat in the mind of the
people. This fear of torturous death in such camps was adequate for a lot of Germans to
willingly show their loyalty to the chancellor Hitler. Therefore for these Nazi leaders, these
concentration camps used to serve the dual purpose for controlling majority of population.
Crossing the line imposed by the Nazi government used to mean death.

4WHO WILL CARRY THE WORD
Therefore, it can be concluded that the drama by Charlotte Delbo reveals the brutality
of the concentration camps where people were not considered to be human. The history of
genocide is recorded in this heart wrenching drama.
References:
Chalmers, Beverley. "Jewish women's sexual behaviour and sexualized abuse during the Nazi
era." The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality 24.2 (2015): 184-196.
Coelho, Rui Pina. "Irresistible Wound: the representation of violence in post-Second World
War drama." Théâtre: esthétique et pouvoir (2016): 101-113.
Nawijn, Jeroen, and Marie‐Christin Fricke. "Visitor emotions and behavioral intentions: The
case of concentration camp memorial Neuengamme." International Journal of Tourism
Research 17.3 (2015): 221-228.
Peleg, Miri, Rachel Lev-Wiesel, and Dani Yaniv. "Reconstruction of self-identity of
Holocaust child survivors who participated in “Testimony Theater”." Psychological Trauma:
Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy 6.4 (2014): 411.
Scott, Jo. "‘Affective encounters’: live intermedial spaces in sites of trauma." Research in
Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance 21.3 (2016): 332-336.
Wachsmann, Nikolaus. "The Nazi concentration camps in international context: comparisons
and connections." Rewriting German History. Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2015. 306-325.
Willis, Emma. "Visions and revisions: Performance, memory, trauma [Book
Review]." Australasian Drama Studies 66 (2015): 261.

5WHO WILL CARRY THE WORD
Zheng, Chunhui, et al. "Exploring sub-dimensions of intrapersonal constraints to visiting
“dark tourism” sites: A comparison of participants and non-participants." Asia Pacific
Journal of Tourism Research 22.1 (2017): 21-33.