What do you think?
Rate this book
Jacobowsky und der Oberst:
Book by Werfel, Franz
- GenresGerman LiteratureDrama
162 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1944
1 person is currently reading
26 people want to read
About the author
Franz Werfel
274 books160 followersCzech-born poet, playwright, and novelist, whose central themes were religious faith, heroism, and human brotherhood. Franz Werfel's best-known works include The Forty Days of Musa Dagh (1933), a classic historical novel that portrays Armenian resistance to the Turks, and The Song of Bernadette (1941). The latter book had its start when Werfel, a Jew escaping the Nazis, found solace in the pilgrimage town of Lourdes, where St. Bernadette had had visions of the Virgin. Werfel made a promise to "sing the song" of the saint if he ever reached the United States. He died in California in 1945.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 7, 2018
More and More I Love this Jacobowsky
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
More and More I Love This Jacobowksy, December 24, 2010
This review is from: Jacobowsky and the Colonel (Hardcover)
The above duplicate review is also mine, however I must have mischecked the "Are you over 13" button. As such I can't edit it and it does not appear in my list of reviews.
I was looking for another book The Forty Days of Musa Dagh by Werfel when I spotted this item. "Me and the Colonel " starring Danny Kaye and Kurt Jurgens is one of my favorite black and white comedies. The movie itself is unfortunately unavailable for sale, apparently due to estate issues however it is possible to view it for now on youtube. The play, produced in 1944 during WWII, is just as wonderful.
I am simply in love with the optimistic pathos of the lead character, the Jewish refugee S. L. Jacobowsky. Like him I have always believed the situation may be serious but not hopeless and that life always presents at the very least two possibilities.
The book begins with a background description of the origin of the play. There had been rumors of Werfel's death in Nazi held Europe, however he turned up in America, filled with stories both of his escape and that of others. One of these stories became this play.
The English version, interpreted by writer S. N. Berman (who also worked with another refugee playwright Ferenc Molnár, also a favorite of mine), follows the same cadences of the movie though does not match the details entirely. Many of the signature lines of the movie are in the play, with the exception of Jacobowsky's "in the synagogue of my heart there will always burn a candle for you" which I missed. The Colonel's "cathedral of my heart" line is, Jacobovsky repeats this using "cathedral".
It is 1940. The voice of the French President on the radio announces that the situation is serious but not hopeless. The Germans are about to enter Paris. S. L. Yacobowsky, a character seemingly based on Werfel himself, is in flight - once again he has become a refugee. He has acquired a car (the bargaining for the car is funnier and sharper in the play) but cannot drive. Aristocratic Colonel Stjerbinksy, is a man of love, action and honor and just a little bit stupid and old fashioned (Jacobowsky remarks that he has "the finest mind of the fifteenth century. Unfortunately I live in the twentieth") is in Paris too. Having lost most of his battalion, he is given a mission to carry a secret list of underground Polish agents to members of the provisional government in London, but has no transportation.
The show opens in a small family owned apartment hotel where both are staying. Stjerbinksy expropriates Yacobovsky's car and has his aid Szabuniewicz, a Sancho Panza like character, issue the first of a series of promissory notes.
Both the movie and the play have the same cadences but there are differences. The Colonel's antisemitism is more pronounced in the movie, but it's still there. In the movie the Colonel tries to take the car without Jacobowsky, in the play he is not quite as uncouth. The movie changes Colonel's last name to Prokoszny, Marianne in the play becomes Suzanne in the movie, and in the play the Colonel and Marianne are not yet married - and Marianne confides to Jacobovsky that unless the Colonel becomes more like him they never will. In the movie Jacobowsky reads, in the play he reveals that his is reading Spinoza's Ethics. When told that this does not suit the times he replies "I don't agree. The Nazis are the anachronism, not the ethics". And the Polish town that both comes from is nondescript in the play becomes the comic "Horridenka" in the movie.
However instead of heading south south-west to his rendezvous Stjerbinsky heads north north-west towards the German lines for a romantic interlude with his French girlfriend , Jacobowsky reluctantly in tow. Stjerbinski is represents the old aristocratic Junker mentality (the Junkers were Prussian aristocracy, but Prussia did include parts of Poland), rigid, religious (he prays before starting out in the car), and reluctantly being drawn into the 20th century, ie: he is calvary, but remarks that the Polish calvary is not motorized; he can drive straight, but claims he cannot navigate curves. Marianne in turn symbolizes France, lovable, frivolous with with a great heart and able to make great sacrifices.
Both presentations have a scene where the travelers are confronted by the Nazis, led by an SS officer. In the play this is represented by two characters, the Gestapo agent and a lieutenant, blended into Major Von Bergen in the movie. The Gestapo agent speaks with a lisp which might have been comic to 1944 audience, however the movie's portrayal is more effective. It's also truer to the original German version (which I saw in the library) where the direction has him use a educated Saxony accent. Another difference is where the movie has Suzanne assimilate Jacobovsky's "two possibilities" in a dialog with the Gestapo, whereas in the play there is a more satisfying scene where it is the Colonel who sees that there must be two possibilities, only to realize that without the resourceful Jacobovsky he cannot see them both.
Like the movie Stjerbinsky returns to save the now doomed Jacobovsky at the village square who's advice he has come to value and because his sense of honour now demands it. They escape however because the Colonel reasons that the Germans are more interested in following them to shut down the escape route rather arresting them. No nuns are involved as in the movie rather the Colonel metaphorically embraces death by hugging the SS officer and inviting his second to shoot him through his commander. The action winds up at the same poignant scene at the beach where the characters resolve who finally gets to take the two berths on the submarine. Here the play is much more expository and delivers a greater emotional punch. However the movie leverages music to greater effect. In the play Jacobovsky hums classical opera - Carmen's "March of the Toreadores", in the movie there is a musical duel between a Polish march and Danny Kay singing "Anu Banu Artza" in Hebrew; the Colonel later signifies that he misses Jacobovsky by absentmindedly singing his song.
It's a terrific story that I would love to see revived on the stage. The German version seems designed for an English speaking production company - there's a vocabulary list in English and German and more directive detail which would be valuable if your intent was to mount a production.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
More and More I Love This Jacobowksy, December 24, 2010
This review is from: Jacobowsky and the Colonel (Hardcover)
The above duplicate review is also mine, however I must have mischecked the "Are you over 13" button. As such I can't edit it and it does not appear in my list of reviews.
I was looking for another book The Forty Days of Musa Dagh by Werfel when I spotted this item. "Me and the Colonel " starring Danny Kaye and Kurt Jurgens is one of my favorite black and white comedies. The movie itself is unfortunately unavailable for sale, apparently due to estate issues however it is possible to view it for now on youtube. The play, produced in 1944 during WWII, is just as wonderful.
I am simply in love with the optimistic pathos of the lead character, the Jewish refugee S. L. Jacobowsky. Like him I have always believed the situation may be serious but not hopeless and that life always presents at the very least two possibilities.
The book begins with a background description of the origin of the play. There had been rumors of Werfel's death in Nazi held Europe, however he turned up in America, filled with stories both of his escape and that of others. One of these stories became this play.
The English version, interpreted by writer S. N. Berman (who also worked with another refugee playwright Ferenc Molnár, also a favorite of mine), follows the same cadences of the movie though does not match the details entirely. Many of the signature lines of the movie are in the play, with the exception of Jacobowsky's "in the synagogue of my heart there will always burn a candle for you" which I missed. The Colonel's "cathedral of my heart" line is, Jacobovsky repeats this using "cathedral".
It is 1940. The voice of the French President on the radio announces that the situation is serious but not hopeless. The Germans are about to enter Paris. S. L. Yacobowsky, a character seemingly based on Werfel himself, is in flight - once again he has become a refugee. He has acquired a car (the bargaining for the car is funnier and sharper in the play) but cannot drive. Aristocratic Colonel Stjerbinksy, is a man of love, action and honor and just a little bit stupid and old fashioned (Jacobowsky remarks that he has "the finest mind of the fifteenth century. Unfortunately I live in the twentieth") is in Paris too. Having lost most of his battalion, he is given a mission to carry a secret list of underground Polish agents to members of the provisional government in London, but has no transportation.
The show opens in a small family owned apartment hotel where both are staying. Stjerbinksy expropriates Yacobovsky's car and has his aid Szabuniewicz, a Sancho Panza like character, issue the first of a series of promissory notes.
Both the movie and the play have the same cadences but there are differences. The Colonel's antisemitism is more pronounced in the movie, but it's still there. In the movie the Colonel tries to take the car without Jacobowsky, in the play he is not quite as uncouth. The movie changes Colonel's last name to Prokoszny, Marianne in the play becomes Suzanne in the movie, and in the play the Colonel and Marianne are not yet married - and Marianne confides to Jacobovsky that unless the Colonel becomes more like him they never will. In the movie Jacobowsky reads, in the play he reveals that his is reading Spinoza's Ethics. When told that this does not suit the times he replies "I don't agree. The Nazis are the anachronism, not the ethics". And the Polish town that both comes from is nondescript in the play becomes the comic "Horridenka" in the movie.
However instead of heading south south-west to his rendezvous Stjerbinsky heads north north-west towards the German lines for a romantic interlude with his French girlfriend , Jacobowsky reluctantly in tow. Stjerbinski is represents the old aristocratic Junker mentality (the Junkers were Prussian aristocracy, but Prussia did include parts of Poland), rigid, religious (he prays before starting out in the car), and reluctantly being drawn into the 20th century, ie: he is calvary, but remarks that the Polish calvary is not motorized; he can drive straight, but claims he cannot navigate curves. Marianne in turn symbolizes France, lovable, frivolous with with a great heart and able to make great sacrifices.
Both presentations have a scene where the travelers are confronted by the Nazis, led by an SS officer. In the play this is represented by two characters, the Gestapo agent and a lieutenant, blended into Major Von Bergen in the movie. The Gestapo agent speaks with a lisp which might have been comic to 1944 audience, however the movie's portrayal is more effective. It's also truer to the original German version (which I saw in the library) where the direction has him use a educated Saxony accent. Another difference is where the movie has Suzanne assimilate Jacobovsky's "two possibilities" in a dialog with the Gestapo, whereas in the play there is a more satisfying scene where it is the Colonel who sees that there must be two possibilities, only to realize that without the resourceful Jacobovsky he cannot see them both.
Like the movie Stjerbinsky returns to save the now doomed Jacobovsky at the village square who's advice he has come to value and because his sense of honour now demands it. They escape however because the Colonel reasons that the Germans are more interested in following them to shut down the escape route rather arresting them. No nuns are involved as in the movie rather the Colonel metaphorically embraces death by hugging the SS officer and inviting his second to shoot him through his commander. The action winds up at the same poignant scene at the beach where the characters resolve who finally gets to take the two berths on the submarine. Here the play is much more expository and delivers a greater emotional punch. However the movie leverages music to greater effect. In the play Jacobovsky hums classical opera - Carmen's "March of the Toreadores", in the movie there is a musical duel between a Polish march and Danny Kay singing "Anu Banu Artza" in Hebrew; the Colonel later signifies that he misses Jacobovsky by absentmindedly singing his song.
It's a terrific story that I would love to see revived on the stage. The German version seems designed for an English speaking production company - there's a vocabulary list in English and German and more directive detail which would be valuable if your intent was to mount a production.
August 31, 2025
I think I would take Werfel to the desert island rather than "Infinite Jest" YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST FOLKS!
This is such a fun little play situated in a serious world of murder and mayhem, fantastic characters, Werfel was just an awesome storyteller.
And YES there is a fab movie starring Curd Jürgens = it is FREE on YouTube (called "Me and the Colonel" from 1958)
Back to the next book now!
This is such a fun little play situated in a serious world of murder and mayhem, fantastic characters, Werfel was just an awesome storyteller.
And YES there is a fab movie starring Curd Jürgens = it is FREE on YouTube (called "Me and the Colonel" from 1958)
Back to the next book now!
May 27, 2019
WW2 roadtrip comedy, lovely
July 6, 2022
Hey! This play actually gave me a tinge of sadness at the end! I think this is one of those rare scripts that would be better as a movie...especially as a 1940s era black and white movie.
The tension of their flight from Paris to the sea and the foolish arguments, the action, the drama and pathos. Quite well done! The more I think about it the more I like it.
Notes: the author was a Czech-born Jew who fled the Nazis, hid in Lourdes (which inspired him to write the famous play-turned-movie "The Song of Bernadette"), and escaped to America. An extra dimension to this play!
The tension of their flight from Paris to the sea and the foolish arguments, the action, the drama and pathos. Quite well done! The more I think about it the more I like it.
Notes: the author was a Czech-born Jew who fled the Nazis, hid in Lourdes (which inspired him to write the famous play-turned-movie "The Song of Bernadette"), and escaped to America. An extra dimension to this play!
March 23, 2025
Het verhaal van een groep mensen, en met name de Poolse officier Stjerbinsky en de joodse Jacobowsky, die uit bezet Frankrijk proberen te vluchten tijdens de 2e wereldoorlog. Onderweg komen ze alles tegen wat bij die tijd en situatie hoort én ook elkaar. Interessant menselijk verhaal en bij vlagen amusant, maar het fascineerde me helaas niet...
August 10, 2015
Perfect dark ironic story in France1940 when people are escaping from the Germans (les Boches) to the West. With very little hope left and suffering also by the French dilettantism. Autor Franz Werfel experienced this himself; same as Feuchtwanger and the Mann family, for example.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews