Subjectivity against the boundary experience in testimonies of muselmann survivors

This article is an attempt to present the issue of subjectivity in the testimonies of Muselmann survivors which were assembled in a medical study by Polish doctors Zdzisław Ryn and Stanisław Kłodziński. The Muselmann, who was a prisoner of concentration camps during World War II, exhibited extreme apathy as well as physical weakness and emaciation.
The testimonies of Muselmänner are analysed and compared with Giorgio Agamben’s philosophical thought of witness status. The main aim of the article is to supplement Agamben’s conception by proposing an additional view of Muselmänner’s subjectivity.

This article is an attempt to present the issue of subjectivity in the testimonies of Muselmann survivors which were assembled in a medical study by Polish doctors Zdzisław Ryn and Stanisław Kłodziński. The Muselmann, who was a prisoner of concentration camps during World War II, exhibited extreme apathy as well as physical weakness and emaciation.
The testimonies of Muselmänner are analysed and compared with Giorgio Agamben’s philosophical thought of witness status. The main aim of the article is to supplement Agamben’s conception by proposing an additional view of Muselmänner’s subjectivity.