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I love an epistolary novel, and this one is a killer. A short, gut-punch of a story, written in 1938, about two friends whose relationship unravels as the Nazis rise to power. There's an abrupt shift in the tone and subject of the letters near the end, but the payoff is swift and mighty. I was taken by the story as whole, and even more so by the afterward which posits the idea of "using a letter as a weapon." Chilling and, unfortunately, timely.

Not the tagged book, but by the same author.

Barbara Yelin spent years talking to Emmie Arbel about her life. This GN shows the whole Emmie Arbel, not just the one who survived the Holocaust. Not just a victim, because Emmie Arbel is no victim. But we see how deep trauma runs, but also that it can be overcome. We have to listen to those voices. We should never forget.

This was a moving biography, told in strong, deep pictures.

A short novella in epistolary form. It's crazy that this was written in the 1930s without hindsight of what actually did transpire. Within this short book, it encapsulates the mood of the time.
#1938

Franzl,a young man from Salzkammergut,leaves his home to become the apprentice of a tobacconist,one of his mother‘s ex lovers.In Vienna he falls in love with a woman who doesn‘t reciprocate his feelings,has conversations with Freud&witnesses how the city changes under Nazi rule which he opposes but can‘t fight.I love how Seethaler writes about the “little” people with warmth,depth&humor without romanticizing working class life or Nazi opposition.

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#Ribbon/Bow

December 28 #WinterGamesDailyPhotoChallenge Ribbons&Bows @StayCurious @Clwojick

This had an enlightening summary of anti-Semitism in Europe up to the mid-20th century, followed by a sociopolitical analysis of the then contemporary (1938) position of Jews globally, increasingly overshadowed by Naziism and the far right, a sadly over-optimistic section on the possibility of peaceful coexistence of Jews and "Arabs" in Palestine, and a sadly prescient warning of what might be in the immediate future if Hitler remained in power.⬇️

"The addition to any country of a body of young, strong, active and industrious immigrants with the probability of a long life before them (as the [Jewish] refugees from Germany and Austria in the main are) is clearly an asset, particularly to a land which, like England, is faced with an imminent fall in population. As workers and consumers, moreover, they must add to its economic activity, rather than compete (as is generally imagined) in... ⬇️

"In the long run, persecution must harm its perpetrators more than it does its victims."

I'm really feeling Golding's compassion & humanity in his examination of anti-Semitism and fascism. I'm up to the section in which, having summarised the history of European anti-Semitism, Golding has turned to the burning issue of '38 Nazi Germany. Interesting to see his use of "Holocaust" to describe the wave of Jewish suicides caused by pre-War oppression.

"In entitling the first chapter of this book "The Gentile Problem," let me state at once that in my view this would have been a more accurate title for the whole book than the one it bears."

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