LEO BAECK INSTITUTE author Ulrich Alexander Borchowicz died in 1942 at the age of 27.
A novel about the history of the persecution of the Jews in Germany, forgotten for more than 80 years, is now on the British bestseller list.
Written in 1938, Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz’s “The Passenger” tells the story of a Jewish man like the author who tries to escape from the risen Nazi regime.
It was only discovered in 2018, when the author’s niece mentioned the work to an editor.
It has been well received by critics and is now on The Sunday Times’ list of the top 10 best-selling hardcover novels.
The British edition of the novel sold 1,800 copies last week, making it 10th on the list.
It was written a few weeks after the so-called “Kristallnacht”. “Kristallnacht refers to the mass attacks on Jews by the Nazis in Germany and Austria on Nov. 9 and 10, 1938.
The novel tells the story of a Jewish businessman named Otto van Silbermann. He quickly realizes he must flee when he hears Nazi Party storm troopers knocking on his door.
He and his wife stuffed all their money into a suitcase and fled across Germany on one train after another.
Boschowitz himself left Germany three years before the anti-Semitic laws were implemented.
His books were published in the United States in 1939 and in England in 1940, but the response was minimal and they were soon out of print. The author was killed in 1942 when a small boat he was on was hit by a German torpedo, and he died in the incident at the age of 27.
After the loss of the book, it reappeared
During Kristallnacht, many stores, homes and synagogues in Germany were destroyed and nearly 100 Jews were killed.
Boschowitz’s niece first contacted Peter Graf, a German book editor, after she happened to read an interview with the latter about another lost book that he had recovered.
She told Graf the story of her uncle and the book, the original manuscript of which is held in the archives of the National Library in Frankfurt.
Graf told the BBC that he went there and then, the moment he read the manuscript, he already “knew it was an important novel.
He decided to edit and revise the book and then have it published in Germany. This year, it was also translated and published in 20 other languages.
Graf believes that the novel, written more than 80 years ago, has a powerful message for contemporary society.
“If you go to the issue of immigration today, you will see that the willingness of people to help those in need is very low. And the more immigrants there are, the less people want to give help. This pernicious and simplistic pattern has been going on throughout history,” he said.
“After the November pogroms in Germany, almost no country was willing to take in Jews. They were trapped. And those who were presumed to have left their country simply for economic reasons were treated even worse than those who were persecuted in that regard.”
Graf added that the novel is essentially about “the disenfranchisement of otherwise respected and well-situated citizens.” He said, “Anyone who reads about the fate of Otto Silberman will understand a lot about human values and how terrorism and the collective lack of public courage make atrocities against specific groups possible.”
GETTY IMAGESMillions of Jews either fled or were killed during Nazi Germany.
The fate of the author
Boschowitz was a young business apprentice who left Germany in 1935 and moved to Norway with his mother. He then went on to live in France and had lived in Belgium and Luxembourg. The two arrived in England shortly before the outbreak of World War II in 1939.
They were later arrested as enemy aliens. Boschowitz was sent to Australia, where he spent two years in internment camps.
In 1942, Boschowitz was allowed to leave the camp, but the ship taking him back to England was torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat.
“A heart-stopping novel”
Toby Lightig wrote in a Wall Street Journal book review that Passengers “may well be the first literary account” of Kristallnacht “. He described the novel as “both a deeply satisfying novel and a vital historical document.
David Mills of The Sunday Times wrote: “Many of the great novels of World War II have come back to life in recent years, most notably Suite Française and Alone in Berlin. The Passenger, I think, is possibly the best of them all.”
Jonathan Freedland of The Guardian described it as “a gripping novel that plunges the reader headlong into the clouds of Nazi Germany at the dawn of darkness.” He also writes: “It deserved to be read when it was written, and it certainly deserves to be read now.”
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