Stateless people: memory paths in Sob céus estranhos, of Ilse Losa

Abstract

We propose in the present study to analyze issues related to expatriate memory. The thread that leads our discussion is centered on the work Sob céus estranhos (1962), by Ilse Losa, which relates the testimony of Jewish survivors of the Second World War massacre. Literature has demarcated issues that elucidate and document specific moments and spaces in history, with significant participation in the process of rescue of memories, as it happened with works by authors who experienced tragedies, persecutions, and massacres. Bringing to light reflections about the past, whether through fiction, testimony, or historiography, enables a reorganization of society and, above all, memory. It means taking possession of a memory as it emerges in threatening moments, such as the mass extermination of the Jews at a certain historical moment. The problem, in particular, was compounded by anti-Semitism, which then triggered the forced diasporas and the difficulties in finding territories that could serve as refuge. These facts led the Jews to move away from their homelands. They left for unknown lands, even without knowing, beforehand, about the possibilities of survival in this other world. The characters in Ilse Losa's work found themselves on a plane that was alien to their lived reality; the conditions of survival were on the opposite side of the land that expelled them; that is, they went as the situation of the moment suited them. In this new world, the expatriate survives mainly through memories of a past in which they belonged to a homeland.