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qu esti o n of th e fo reigner, o ne sho uld not forge t the phenomeno n of
colonialism and prose lytism . Wh o, in this case, is the strange r? The col–
onizer and the missio nary , ruling and converting? Or the nati ve, centered
in his exoti c refu ge, hi stori ca ll y marginal, fo r whom assimilati on into a
uni fy ing "civili za ti on " is an ali enation , an in comprehensibl e mutilatio n?
The subj ect of foreignness is a complex one. Expl oring it can easily lead
to distorti ons; this is why ultimately one must sea rch for its real meaning
within the experi ence of one's own limited bi ography.
My own biography bea rs a Europea n imprint in a centu ry which has
loaded its hi sto ry with te rrible sufferings . Europe means not only th e
cradl e of W estern democ racy but also the tragic totalitari an experiment
offascism and Communism . I was fi ve years old when , in 1941, I first left
Romania, se nt to dea th by a di ctato r and an ideo logy. In 1986, at the
age of fifty, by an iro ni c symmetry, I left aga in , beca use o f anoth er
dictator, another ideo logy . The Holocaust , totalitari anism , exil e - these
fundamental experi ences of our time - are all intimately related to a
definiti o n of the stranger and of estrangement.
The N ati o nal Soc ialist doc trin e proposed a to talitari an ce ntripetal
model, centered o n the idea o f a pure race and a nati o nalist state as the
embodiment o f th e will to power. It was an idea whi ch found many
advoca tes and adherents, since Nazism came to power thro ugh free elec–
tions and rul ed th rough a rel ati ve coherence o f idea l and fac t. The N a–
tional Socialist state embodi ed th e most vio lent nega ti o n o f and the
most brutal aggress io n aga in st th e strange r.
A
suspec t citi ze n with
"impure" roo ts and dange ro us o pinions, th e strange r became the de–
monic embodiment of evil. The very premises of humanity were suddenly
placed under a dark questi o n mark . Not o nly has the H olocaust entirely
reve rsed the te rms of debate about assimilati o n and th e strange r, it has
also reiterated , w ith gloomy prec isio n , as Saul Bellow well put it , the
old question: to what sho uld one be assimilated? T o what sho uld one be
assimilated, wh en in o ne o f the most civili zed European countries , th e
"final solution" could offer o nly o ne fin al and unique assimilation?
And to what could o ne assimilate oneself if, by a miracle, one had
survived what today is conve nti onally, and even commercially, called the
Holocaust? T o what can th e strange r who has survi ved hell adapt? The
answer to thi s questi o n is amazingly simple in its obviousness : to life, and
nothing but. Th e survivo r readapts to life; looks
to
life with that imper–
tinence of banality whi ch is life itself The return , rebirth , and readapta–
tion to the most elementary acts o f life is at o nce patheti c and mysteri–
ous, both pitiable and grandi ose.
I was des tin ed to be reborn , to grow up and mature in a society
which in a byzantine way combined fascism w ith Stalinism.
