Semel, Nava. And the Rat Laughed. Translated by Miriam Schlesinger. Hybrid Publishers, 2012.
ARTICLE REF.
- Ofer, Dalia. “The Past That Does Not Pass: Israelis and Holocaust Memory.” Israel Studies, vol. 14, no. 1, 2009, pp. 1–35. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/30245842.
Written in 2002 by a second-generation daughter of a survivor -who was born in Israel, this story tells the story of a five-year-old girl is given by her parents to a farm family in the belief that she will be shielded from the Nazis. She is kept in an underground pit. Their grown son brutally and relentlessly abuses her. She befriends a rat, sharing her meager scraps of food.
More than sixty years later, she speaks of her captivity, for the first time, to her granddaughter, who needs the text for a school project. But her testimony rambles and, just as she had misunderstood her parents' abandonment of her, the granddaughter jumps to the wrong conclusion, casting the farmers as ‘righteous gentiles’. The woman finally tells the girl a fable about a rat: Rat asked God to be able to laugh, like people. God relented, telling the rat that when he heard laughter, he would laugh. (The Legend)
Ten years later, poetry that may or may not have been written by the old woman is discovered on the internet. These poems are the highlight of the book; the imagery is simple, stark, and compelling. (The Poems)
In the next section, ninety years into the future, the material has morphed into major entertainment—theme parks and video games. This digression seems not to belong, but it provides distance, perspective, a kind of wistfulness, and ultimately, redemption. (The Dream)
Finally, there are notes from the incredibly compassionate priest who rescues, nurtures, and gently guides the little girl back to humanity. (The Diary)
Ella Sharif, (daughter of Baruch Milch, the author of the diary Can Heaven Be Void ), initiated an innovative musical piece on the Holocaust. She and Nava Semel translated Semel's book, And the Rat Laughed, into a libretto for Cameri Opera with the musical composition written by Ella. The opera directed by Oded Kotler opened in April 2005.48 This production, too, was received enthusiastically by packed crowds wherever it played in Israel.49
It tells the story of survival and suffering of a little girl whose parents handed her over to a Ukrainian peasant family in order to save her. The story was written and put to music by two second generation women, and is narrated by a 6o-year-old grandmother to her granddaughter. The opera is about the encounter between survivors and the "third generation".50. (Ofer Page 21)
