Far to Go by Alison Pick

Far to Go by Alison Pick

Published:  2010 by House of Anansi Press/Harper Collins Canada

Source:  Purchased

  This novel begins with a prophetic sentence:  "I wish this were a happy story."  Given that much of the narrative is set in Czechoslovakia at the time of Nazi occupation just before the beginning of World War II, one can immediately assume what type of unhappy story this will be; but it is more than that.

  The novel interweaves the narrative mentioned above - the story of Pavel and Anneliese Bauer, a prosperous Jewish couple who waver on sending their young son, Pepik, on a Kindertransport, and Pepik's nanny, Marta - with that of an unnamed narrator.  This narrator is a professor of Holocaust studies at a university in Canada and her area of interest is the children who were evacuated from Eastern Europe to England in the Kindertransports; she is obviously a lonely person and through her story we start to see the connection between this and her area of specialty.  She has a particular interest in the Bauer family, and she has kept a detailed file of their archived correspondence. 

 

  Marta is the focus of the historical narrative, and she is an interesting character.  Working for the Bauers after fleeing an apparently abusive home life, she finds comfort with them, and even though she questions the logic of her loyalty once persecution of the Jews begins, she realizes that the Bauers are the closest thing to a family she has known.  Pepik adores her - as she does him - and Pavel and Anneliese treat her as more than just a servant. 

  As the first sentence indicates, this novel is not a happy story.  That said, Alison Pick writes it so well that it is a pleasure to read - not only for the language she uses, and the interweaving narratives with copies of some letters from the archive; but for the mystery she creates, so even though you have an idea of the outcome, there are lingering questions throughout the novel that keep you reading. 

Highly recommended.

 

  

The Envoy by Alex Kershaw

The Envoy:  The Epic Rescue of the Last Jews of Europe in the Desperate Closing Months of World War II, by Alex Kershaw

Published:  2010 by Da Capo Press

Source:  borrowed from the library

  In  high school history class, I did a book report on a biography of Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat who is credited with saving thousands of Hungarian Jews from the Holocaust.  His is a fascinating story, not only for his heroic efforts in saving lives but also for the mystery surrounding his disappearance into the Soviet Union almost immediately upon the Soviets' liberation of Hungary.

 The Envoy is an account of the fate of Hungarian Jews towards the end of World War II.  Up until mid-1944, Jews in Hungary were relatively safe from the Nazis; however with Germany increasingly on the losing side of battles, Adolf Eichmann - the architect of the Holocaust - was brought in to begin liquidating the last large cohort of Jewish people in Europe.  While other countries looked on passively, Raoul Wallenberg took it upon himself and his nation to save as many Jews as he could by providing them with Schutzpasses - documents conferring Swedish citizenship upon the bearer and therefore protection from transport to the concentration camps.  His work was certainly not done completely on his own, but Wallenberg himself risked his own safety on numerous occasions to ensure the protection of the vulnerable. 

  Once Hungary has been liberated by the Soviet troops, the fates of both Wallenberg and his adversary Eichmann are tracked.  Eichmann's escape from Europe, subsequent capture by Israeli agents and his trial are well documented and is described briefly in this book; it is Wallenberg's fate, however that is still the cause of speculation.  Taken into the Soviet Union after the liberation, it appears that he was considered a German spy (having in his papers several phone numbers for Eichmann, whom he contacted in his efforts to rescue Jews) and was imprisoned; officially the Soviet Union said that he died of a heart attack in prison in 1947 but his family refused to believe this and despite no assistance from the Swedish government to act on behalf of their own missing diplomat, they have tried learning his true fate for over sixty years.

  Along with profiles of several Jews Wallenberg saved, this book provides insight into both sides of the Holocaust that isn't normally seen in one place.  The efforts to kill Jews are placed alongside efforts to save them, and the courage of those needing to be rescued and the rescuers themselves has greater emphasis when viewed next to the evil that worked against them.