Didi-Huberman places the four images taken from Auschwitz between two impossibilities. These two impossibilities derive from the unimaginable and unrepresentable nature of the event that occurred in Auschwitz. This unrepresentability is achieved through the actions of the SS aimed at hiding the extermination of the Jews as a state secret. The system of extermination of the Jews is described by Didi-Huberman as the machine, aimed at destroying the Jews and eliminating any possibility of representing genocide. This was effected through the testimonial annihilation of the Jew and the Sonderkommando. The Sonderkommando are slaves of death according to Didi-Huberman, as they are linked to their aim of contributing to the extermination of the Jews and eliminating their trace of existence. They are slaves to their impending death as "Twelve teams succeeded each other...each was eliminated at the end of a few months, and 'as its initiation, the next team burned the corpses of its predecessors'" (Didi-Huberman, 4 ). Thus, the Jews, including the Sonderkommando, knew that they would be eliminated as witnesses to the fact since their death was stolen from the car. The Jew and the Sonderkommando remain slaves to death since the mission of the SS was to not let a single witness survive. Yet, the Sonderkommando managed to snatch four photos from the hell of Auschwitz that threaten to disprove the two impossibilities claimed by Didi-Huberman in her article Four Film Pieces Torn from Hell. The obliteration of witnesses was accompanied by the "fear that the testimony itself would be erased, even if it were transmitted to the outside" (Didi-Huberman, 6). The testimony of the Sonderkommando according to Didi-Huberman could be senseless, incomprehensible and unimaginable living in the middle of paper. It can be argued that his hellish nature was captured in the photos. This then challenges the second impossibility, as one could imagine the burning of the bodies as it is visually depicted in the photos. Thus, the four photos torn from Auschwitz challenge to refute the two impossibilities that Didi-Huberman outlines in her article, Four Pieces of Film Torn from Hell. Works Cited Nancy, Jean-Luc. "Forbidden representation". The foundation of the image. New York: Fordham UP, 2005. 27-50. Print.Didi-Huberman, Georges. "Four pieces of film torn from hell." Images despite everything: four photographs from Auschwitz. Chicago: University of Chicago, 2008. 3-17. Scribd. Network. December 13, 2013.Didi-Huberman, Georges. "Against all unimaginable." Images despite everything: four photographs from Auschwitz. Chicago: University of Chicago, 2008. 18-29. Scribd. Network. December 13. 2013.
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