Vienna Farewell: September 1937¿June 1938

by David Jordan

On March 12, 1938, the German Army marched into Austria, greeted enthusiastically by much of the population, making the country part of Nazi Germany. Overnight, 200,000 Austrian Jews were turned from citizens into hated and hunted outsiders, unprotected by law or custom. Jacob Abels is one of them; a young Jewish man in beautiful Vienna, immersed in the youthful world of friendships and new love. Suddenly, his familiar and beguiling city is a place of danger and fear. Vienna Farewell is the story of people-Gentiles and Jews, Nazis and anti-Nazis, rich and poor, young and old-lives and fates intertwined, trying in many different ways to make their personal adjustments to this new historical reality; some by attempting to escape abroad, others by resigned and hopeless waiting for the improbable return of better days, and others-Nazis and their allies-by taking brutal advantage of their newly won powers. David Jordan, drawing on his personal experiences, describes the actions and motivations of his contemporaries with the clarity of the inside observer who "knows his Viennese." Part history, part novel, Vienna Farewell shines a revealing light on a place in a time of darkness.

Paperback

First published August 1, 2007

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Reviews

[Tema Merback · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is another book about Vienna that I read for my research for my next novel. However, this book is entirely about a Jewish family. It is a short novel based on the author's own experiences as a Jew prior to WWII in Vienna. It details the noose that wound ever tighter around the lives of the hapless Jews who were trapped in Vienna when the Nazis came. It focuses on a young man, a student and his family and their struggles to remain innocuous and invisible as the forces of hatred encircle them and alter their world forever.