t. The variable emotions and feelings surrounding an event makes memory completely subjective. ‘The Children’s Ark’ written by Caroline Baum is an article accounting a daughters (Caroline Baum) discovery and investigation into her fathers childhood experiences during the Holocaust. Throughout this article the subjective characteristics of memory are evident. Within the text there is a strong use and interaction between both memory and history, as Baum tells of her father’s journey from Jewish oppression to freedom. Baum discovers that memory alone is insufficient as its’ characteristics lend it to subjectivity. At the times when Baums’ fathers’ memories lapsed she relied on history to tell what her father was unable to recall. Towards the end of the article Baum comments on the aging of the kinder and the results this was having on their memories; ‘…Suddenly, as the kinder grew older and more frail, their memories more unreliable, there was a realisation that if it was not told now, this story could never be told…’ As people age it is a fact that their memory deteriorates and becomes overall less reliable. Such an element of memory adds to its completely subjective nature. Due to this subjectivity, throughout the text history is often used to confirm and fill in the ambiguous memories expressed.‘The Fiftieth Gate’ by Mark Baker, is a true story, where he uses history and memory to explore and reconstruct his parent’s experiences during the Holocaust. He discovers the subjectivity of memory and thus repeatedly recognises and speaks about the limitations and weaknesses with the use of it. When he asks his father to recall the weather conditions on the day of his liquidation, he finds that his fathers’ memories contradict the records. Bakers father recalls the time as being winter and very cold, but the records record his time of liquidation as being ...
