Rosa | Themes

Rosa Themes

The Holocaust

"Rosa" gives a dramatic example of how the Holocaust not only took the lives of the millions of Jews who died in concentration camps, but also emotionally crippled millions of others who survived. While Rosa and Stella survived the camp physically, both are disabled emotionally, though they deal with it in very different ways. Rosa refuses to move on; Stella refuses to look back. Rosa tells Persky that Stella "wants to wipe out memory."

Conflict in approaches to dealing with the Holocaust has given rise to an important debate in the years since World War II (1939—1945). An extremist movement calling its members "Holocaust revisionists" claims that the annihilation of Jews in Nazi concentration camps either never happened at all or was vastly exaggerated. Denounced by historians, these "revisionists" have nonetheless made themselves heard, attempting, like Stella, to "wipe out memory."

Alienation

Rosa lives in almost complete isolation, partly...
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