the holocaust in TO THE LIGHTHOUSE

[Becky Lindroos]

Yes - the second definition because this book was published in 1927 and the first meaning  wouldn’t have been in Woolf’s mind at that point even if it is that most common definition now.  I think if she’s written it after 1945 or so she wouldn’t have even used the word.  She wold have said ‘burnt offering to God’ or something.   It never would have caused a jolt in the reader until after that time. 

The word was first used in connection with the German Nazi regime in 1942 - prior to that it had been used by Churchill to describe the Armenian Genocide in 1915 but I don’t think “holocaust” got wide usage until into the 1960s or even ‘70s (a TV miniseries).    

“Holocaust“ comes from the the Greek word holokauston, itself a translation of the Hebrew olah, meaning “completely burnt offering to God,” implying that Jews and other “undesirables” murdered during World War II were a sacrifice to God. 

Becky 

> On Dec 1, 2016, at 9:43 AM, kelber at mindspring.com wrote:
> 
> Neither the writers nor the characters were Jewish, so I doubt the second definition. I think the term is used in its original etymology, as a large, all-consuming fire.
> 
> Laura
> 
> Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE DROID
> 
> 
> Jochen Stremmel <jstremmel at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Given when the line was written (by Donald Ogden Stewart) it's probably the second meaning:
> 
> noun
> 1 destruction or slaughter on a mass scale, especially caused by fire or nuclear war: a nuclear holocaust | the threat of imminent holocaust.
> • (the Holocaust) the mass murder of Jews under the German Nazi regime during the period 1941–45. More than 6 million European Jews, as well as members of other persecuted groups, such as gypsies and homosexuals, were murdered at concentration camps such as Auschwitz.
> 2 historical a Jewish sacrificial offering that is burned completely on an altar.
> 
> and not so jarring.
> 
> 2016-12-01 17:31 GMT+01:00 kelber at mindspring.com <kelber at mindspring.com>:
> It calls to mind The Philadelphia Story (1940 ), where a drunken Jimmy Stewart gushes romantically to Katherine Hepburn that when he looks in her eyes he sees  "... holocausts ...". Always jarring, given when the line was spoken.
> 
> Laura
> 
> 
> 
> Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE DROID
> 
> 
> Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> published in 1927, Ms Woolf has a character who thinks
> dramatically, shall we say, use this word to describe a 
> major disaster that does not happen regarding her husband
> and a situation....."not a holocaust" she says to herself.....
> 
> Where it also does not contain the burning/ burnt offering 
> major meaning of the word long before the historic Holocaust
> but is used as Pynchon does in GR, I believe. (along with the 
> established 'burning' meaning but not directly alluding to the Holocaust, 
> I also think I remember, without looking anything up. )
> 
> 

Becky
https://beckylindroos.wordpress.com




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