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FrancoAngeli Journals

Connections

No. 2 (2022)

Comments on: “Dawn”, Wiesel’s transformation of a victim into a killer

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3280/gruoa2-2022oa19803
Submitted
marzo 20, 2025
Published
2025-04-04

Abstract

In this paper, the author makes a critical comment on the transition from victim to executioner of Elisha, a Jewish concentration camp survivor who, once liberated, joins a rebel group. Friedman questions the emotional transition that the protagonist experiences when he receives the order to execute a prisoner, in retaliation and revenge for the execution of an insurgent Jew. The author uses this event as a stimulus to examine the concept of the matrix, in particular his view of the “Soldier’s Matrix”.

References

  1. Buber M. (1937). I and Thou. Translated by Kaufmann W., New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1970.
  2. Friedman R. (2015). A Soldier’s Matrix: A Group Analytic View of Societies in War. Group Analysis, 48, 3: 239-257. DOI: 10.1177/0533316415588253.
  3. Oppenheimer J. (2012). “The Act of Killing”. Documentario basato sul genocidio indonesiano del 1965. Dogwoof Pictures. Indonesia, UK.
  4. Wiesel E. (1972, 1985, 2008). The Night Trilogy: Night; Dawn; Day. New York: Hill and Wang.

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