Anna Segher's the Outing of the Dead Schoolgirls

Seghers

Anna Segherss's memoir "The Outing of the Dead Schoolgirls" begins in Mexico, where the author reminisces about a defining incident in her life. Her memory is triggered by two symbols, the first of which is an innkeeper who was "staring motionless at the one thing that presented him with vast, insoluble problems: complete emptiness," (Seghers 614). Then, she hears someone call her by a name she had not heard since she was a schoolgirl. The memory thus triggered, Seghers delves into a traumatic past with courageous detail.

Seghers's narrative style is full of bitterness and tension that are appropriate for rendering the traumatic events described in the story. Repetition is one of the cornerstones of Seghers's writing style, as the author frequently alludes to Marianne's immanent betrayal of Leni: the central event of the story. Yet it is not just Marianne's betrayal of Leni that Seghers talks about. Marianne's betrayal of Leni is like the hub of a series of events that are linked thematically as one by one the people who she thought she could trust turn out to be traitors. The title of the narrative is telling: the term "outing" refers both to the betrayal and to its context.

The memory of the school outing was buried deep within Seghers's unconscious, which is why it does not resurface until many years later when she is living in Mexico. Moreover, the memory emerges as if from a dream state. It was hot, she was feeling weak and tired. A strange house catches her eye, and she attributes a sudden sense of nostalgia to some remnants of "idle curiosity" from her "old wanderlust days," (Seghers 614). She has been wandering for a long time and now knows there is "only one more venture which could spur me on: the journey home," (615). Home, of course, is Mainz and the school at which she met Leni.

Seghers starts as if with the finish, letting the reader know that Leni will be shuttled to the concentration camps, will die there, and was betrayed by Marianne and her Nazi husband. Knowing this adds substantial tension to the tale, because the bulk of it describes the deep friendships between Leni and Marianne. It is thoroughly shocking to hear over and over that her own best friend will basically kill Leni. Repetition drills home the imagery of death.

The two girls, Leni and Marianne, were inseparable until Marianne met Otto Fresnius, who would become a stalwart Nazi. Once Otto joins the Nazi party, so too does Marianne, and wholeheartedly. Every few pages, Seghers reminds the reader that Marianne will ultimately betray her friend, a friend who she had bonded with as if they were sisters. It seems incomprehensible to Seghers as she remembers watching Leni and Marianne in the playground. Leni was "unaware of future enemies today who surrounded her in the garden"(Seghers 629).

Repetition also underscores the confusion the author feels, and which she knows her readers will feel upon encountering the story. By repeating the imagery of betrayal and death over and over, the reality starts to sink in. Trauma is therefore rendered as it is felt in the body: as persistent visceral memories that lay etched deeply in the subconscious. The memories triggered in Mexico arrive at the time during which Seghers is finally able to digest the trauma and communicate it using imagery and diction appropriate for the sensitive themes. The author opts for a direct and straightforward storytelling style. She includes ample details of the people she encounters, perhaps filling in details from the imperfection of hindsight. The reader knows that details are more important from a narrative standpoint and less important from a thematic one; what matters is the horror and trauma being conveyed and not what color her teacher's hair actually was. Descriptions of the people are integral to the telling of the story, and the memory of trauma. Leni is an awkward girl who has to wear her dead brother's hand-me downs. Yet she is described as being the strong one, the one who never buckled under pressure even when the Gestapo drilled her. Leni, unlike Marianne, refused to give up her husband even if it meant her own death.