Coming to terms with Nazism in Austria

January 23, 2025 by Anne Sarzin
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Book review by Dr Anne Sarzin

When a group of young students arrive in the fictional Austrian town of Darkenbloom, where they begin to restore a Jewish cemetery—much more than old tombstones is revealed.

As the cemetery gates are flung open for the first time since the 1930s, the townsfolk are uneasy and resentful, mobilising to repel this undesirable scrutiny of their Nazi past and its disturbing impact on the peaceful harmony and cohesion of their town. Not all of them, however, fall into this category. There is an honourable cadre of residents, past and present, who are unafraid as they monitor the discomfiting truths that inevitably emerge. In this dichotomy of interests between opposing forces that almost mimics a medieval morality play of good versus evil, there are those aligned with Nazism and there are those who oxygenate these dark secrets of war as a necessary prelude to acknowledging the sins of the grandfathers, fathers and sons, the latter including committed members of Hitler-Jugend (Youth).

The resulting tension at the core of this intriguing novel by Jewish author Eva Menasse ensures its grip on the reader, as well as its remarkable and timely relevance to contemporary history, Unlike Western Germany that has confronted, evaluated and processed the iniquities of the Second World War, Austria for so long has disavowed its well-documented embrace of the March 1938 Anschluss and Austria’s enthusiastic commitment to Hitler and Nazi policies. The country has viewed itself as the innocent victim of invasion by its powerful and dominant German neighbour.

Author Eva Menasse successfully negotiates this minefield of contested ideologies, and spins a remarkable saga that draws strength and interest from history, criminology, medicine, architecture, botany and forensic science. One’s interest never flags. Fortunately, she is a brilliant storyteller who gives life to a cast of characters that steps from the page into our contemporary world, bearing witness to racist hatred and propaganda that formerly seethed through this little town, inflicting pain and disrupting lives. When a Jewish survivor returns unrecognised, his probing investigation of the past adds to the pain, disquiet and resentment of the townsfolk. Time has not healed many of their wounds, although time’s progress through the decades has successfully assuaged the guilt of many who now prefer to dissemble, to cloak themselves in civic respectability.

This novel is multifaceted and defies easy definition, as it is a melange of genres—partly thriller, social documentary, historical fiction and folklore—that Menasse combines effortlessly and effectively. Above all else, one must commend her for her courage in writing a novel that also serves as a form of truth-telling that proves cathartic for some but not for all. Menasse quotes a proverb that provides the raison d’etre of her novel and its aspirational goal,  ‘The Austrians are a people who confidently look forward to the past’.

The historical timeline looks back to the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, with references to the Second World War, and the advance of the Red Army of the Soviet Union across the eastern border, as well as the occupation under the Allies. Menasse also focuses on the November 1956 Hungarian Revolution when Hungarians fled across the border to Austria; and the May 1989 dismantling of the border fence between Austria and Hungary. Especially relevant is the so-called ‘Pan-European Picnic’,  when hundreds of East Germans holidaying in Hungary crossed the border into Austria and travelled on to West Germany. All this history, however, constitutes the compelling background of an engrossing story skillfully told.

Eva Menasse, born in 1970 in Vienna to a Jewish father and a Catholic mother, has lived in Berlin for the past twenty years. Her books have been translated into numerous languages. She is the recipient of many prestigious accolades, including the Heinrich Boll Prize, the Jonathan Swift prize, the Austrian book Prize and the Ludwig Borne Prize. She is viewed as one of Austria’s pre-eminent writers. The translator, Charlotte Collins, studied English literature at Cambridge University, and has won prizes for translation.

Darkenbloom

Author: Eva Menasse

Translator: Charlotte Collins

Publisher: Scribe, Brunswick, Victoria

January 2025

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