Transcript (German and Austrian Literature Series) by Heimrad Bäcker

Transcript (German and Austrian Literature Series) Reviews

• 
  Paul Dembina

  I find it difficult at the best of times to come up with any sort of review of a book - especially the good ones
  
  Let's just say that Backer has taken the raw material of reams of documentation and archival material relating to the Nazi Final Solution and conjured up a kind of concrete poem of the harrowing details.
• 
  Courtney Ferriter

  ** 5 stars **
  
  This volume took my breath away with its intensity. It should be read by everyone.
  
  Bäcker assembles quotations from the Holocaust, creating a partial transcript (hence the title) of what occurred. Included are quotations from SS/Nazi documents, the diaries and testimonies of the perpetrators, and letters and testimony of witnesses and victims. Each page of this volume is connected to a source, which is listed in a bibliography at the end. As noted in the afterword to the volume, "at every stage, the reader is aware that there is something else to read and something more to learn. The Shoah is transformed from something that readers thought they already understood into something that they have yet to grasp" (151-152).
• 
  Dane Cobain

  This is basically found poetry that’s based on some of the documents that the Nazis created and stored during the holocaust. It’s made all the more poignant by the fact that the author was a member of the Hitler Youth, although I can only assume from the message here that he regrets it.
  
  Overall, I love stuff like this, even though I know that it’s kind of dark and morbid. I think it’s a great example of how much power words can have and I think that Backer’s created an important document here. I’m just glad that I heard about it through some BookTube friends and thought to give it a look.
  
  Would I recommend it? I mean, not if you don’t like dark subjects or poetry. Otherwise, absolutely, hell yeah, and of course. I’m even going to keep this for my permanent collection.
• 
  Marc Nash

  Astounding
• 
  Ian

  Backer confronts the Holcaust through its own terms and in its own language. Using documentary sources, his "methodical gibberish" replicates the Nazis' deadly gibberish. This is a work to which others operating in the documentary vein might aspire.
• 
  Debra

  A "document" that uses "the techniques of concrete and visual poetry" to present "quotations from the Holocaust's planners, perpetrators, and victims." The notes and bibliography are very helpful. Not something to which I could ever assign a star rating (!) Read it twice in one evening, and I'm sure I will read it again, and share it with others. Makes me think of the Hannah Arendt phrase "the banality of evil" as the bureaucratic and often euphemistic language of genocide is on display here for all to see. Thanks to Marc Nash of Booktube for the recommendation.
• 
  Lindsey

  In this text, the use of concrete poetry coupled with images created through repetition and omission shows the bleak and devastating reality of the Holocaust. Through linking pages to an index which are then linked to a bibliography, it shows that though the actions of the Third Reich are speakable, the information is endless.
• 
  İlker Şaguj

  Türkçeye Tutanak adıyla çevrildi, yeni baskısı Dünyadan Çıkış Yayınları'ndan yapıldı. Bir acıyı, toplumsal bir olayı üzerine yazarak anlatmak yerine doğrudan belgelerle tanık gösterilmesinin daha etkili olacağı fikriyle şairin hazırladığı bu kitap Nazi belgelerini, kayıtlarını, gazetelerini, mektupları, notları didik didik ederek hazırlanmış, somut şiirin en önemli örneklerinden biri.
• 
  Holly Raymond

  I read this on the train after seeing a sobering and disheartening talk on conceptualism, without realizing that, yeah, I was going to be reading two found poetry books about the fucking Holocaust in one night. I think I woke up hungover JUST ON BAD FEELINGS.
• 
  Rosamund

  It is challenging to write about this book. Bäcker takes his words from reports, lists, court transcripts, regulations. The fragments he uses, the order in which he places them, the space around them, is what makes this poetry. The impact is devastating.
• 
  Ginny

  Describing this book is something I've been thinking on for a week or two. This is essentially a true accounting of various parts of the Holocaust, and in a stark brutal honesty way since it is transcripts of letters, memos, SOP, records, etc from members of Hitler's regime, or notes from victims. It was so so hard to read-especially death counts. But I also felt it was a very important read.
• 
  Rae

  Concrete poetry. Textual remains. Context. Translated. Disturbing.
  
  "a methodical gibberish that replicates a deadly gibberish"
• 
  Leif

  I would say that words cannot express... but, as transcript ably demonstrates, words can and do express. My only defense is that the words transcript presents are themselves solely capable of representing themselves; or, as the note in the afterward cites from Backer, these words become a code, a "methodical gibberish that replicates a deadly gibberish" (149).
  
  Make of it what you will.
• 
  Susan

  Incredibly powerful. The selection of words and depictions of the actions that occurred is beyond moving. A must read.
• 
  Emily Wilkerson

  Actually read this one in English about a month before it was assigned to me in German, so I've read the original and the translation.
• 
  Amy Bernhard

  So hard to read. Chilling. But so important.