Appelfeld, Wiesel, and Kosinski: Holocaust literature and memory

¶ … Badenheim resort is the usual resort of the frivolous 20s and 30s, with cafes, casinos, entertainment locations, etc. The middle class Jew that comes here is in no way different from any middle classed individual that wants to relax during the holiday, close to his family and friends, involved in vacation activities, chatting to the other members of the community on holiday, enjoying the parks and leisure activities in the resort.

In this sense, I am not sure that being a Jewish guest in the resort is much differentiated from being a non-minority guest here. Perhaps this is the entire sense of Appelfeld's work: in a year when the Second World War is due to start, in a period when Jewish persecutions are already at a significant level, with ghettos formed across Europe and with serious limitations on Jewish activities, one can still enjoy a quiet holiday as a Jew.

As we know from the book, at a certain point, the Department of Sanitation comes to the resort and every Jew is forced to register with them. The Department of Sanitation is supposed to have a simple objective: inspect cleanliness. However, this is only the obvious meaning. In fact, the Department of Sanitation is directed at racial and ethnical "cleanliness." In this sense, we are to see that the registration of Jews with the Department of Sanitation is, in fact, their registration with an authority that will pursue their fate in the future and, from this point forward, even if they may have been Germans or Austrians for hundred of years, their last name denote their Jewish roots. Registration here symbolically means the star of David on each Jew in the resort.

3. Perhaps, from a symbolic point-of-view and from the perspective she brings on what is to follow, Trudy, Martin the pharmacist's wife, is one of the strongest characters. Of course, she is sick and has different hallucinations, but, as Tom Bowden pointed out in an excellent review on the book, she may be compared to the ancient Cassandra and her hallucinations with supernatural abilities of perceiving the future. In her eyes, the world is "transparent, morbid, full of venom," much as it will be for the next six years of the war and of Jewish persecution.

Her presence in the novel is extremely strong because it is so contrasting with the bucolic atmosphere of the resort. Here we have a peaceful community of people relaxing and Trudy, the ancient Cassandra, speaking of the beatings applied to her daughter by her husband, vivid actions in her hallucinations.

4. In the last sentence of the book, Dr. Pappenheim states as follows: "If the coaches are so dirty it must mean that we have not far to go." This shows that, for many Jews, the question of the Holocaust was simply unbelievable and this idea is pregnant throughout the book. Indeed, for the Austrian visitors of the resort, Jews themselves, but assimilated Austrians for a long time, Holocaust does not apply to them. It may be for the Ostjude, but not for them. We may assert, in this sense, that there is a sort of segregation among the Jewish community as well. Ironically, as we know what was to happen, the last sentence confirms the state of utter denial that this community of visitors has practiced throughout the book.

5. In my opinion, madness is used to prophesize some of the things that will be happening in the novel and the two mad characters, Moche the Beadle and Madame Schaechter are the best examples to back this assertion. Indeed, Moche the Beadle escapes from a concentration camp and tells the villagers about the atrocities he has been witnessing, while they refuse to believe him. Madame Schaechter sees a fire and only soon afterwards, the prisoners arrive at Auschwitz to see themselves the furnaces used to burn the body of the people killed. In both cases, the morbid, terrible prophecies of each "mad" character have come true, which may lead us to believe that their role is much likely that of putting us in guard and letting us know what is about to happen or what will be happening shortly in the future.

6. It is almost impossible to decide whether the most painful episode of the book is related to the Holocaust in general, the mass slaughter that our teenager is forced to witness, the fact that his entire family is killed or that he survives them, having to live with the guilt of having survived them.

However, in my opinion, the most painful thing is the fact that the main character seems to lose his faith in God. Indeed, he follows the usual, human indecision and asks himself what kind of God, good or bad, allows such terrible things to happen and what deed must someone, an individual or an entire race, do to suffer and endure such persecutions.

If we are referring to a strict episode, this may be, at least in my opinion, the moment they see the chimneys once they arrive at Auschwitz. This is not only due to the tragic revelation they are facing, but it is also because Madame Schaechter's prophecy, believed to be madness, has come true.

7. The Nazi soldiers are for the boy representatives of the German race which he may deem superior. Indeed, at one point in the book, he contemplates the German ability to produce guns, weapons and other futuristic, for him, components. In this sense, both in terms of racial superiority and in terms of Jewish guilt for killing Christ, the persecution of the Jews seems natural.