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Last Waltz in Vienna
On February 26, 1938, 17-year-old Georg Klaar took his girlfriend Lisl to his first ball at the Konzerthaus. His family was proudly Austrian; they were also Jewish, and two weeks later came the German Anschluss. This incredibly affecting account of Nazi brutality towards the Jews includes a previously unpublished post-war letter from the author’s uncle to a friend who had escaped to Scotland. This moving epistle passes on the news of those who had survived and the many who had been arrested, deported, murdered, or left to die in concentration camps, and those who had been orphaned or lost their partners or children. It forms a devastating epilogue to what has been hailed as a classic of holocaust literature.
322 pages, Paperback
First published September 17, 1981
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August 20, 2022
I stumbled upon Last Waltz in Vienna: The Rise & Destruction of a Family, 1842-1942 by George Clare at my local library & noting that it was enthusiastically recommended by Arthur Koestler, Graham Greene, John Le Carré & former British P.M. Harold Macmillan, decided to check the book out.
Alas, there are many tales of death & devastation, as well as a few detailing survival against long odds written by Jews forced to endure the perils of Nazi Germany but this very autobiographical work is excellent. So many years after WWII & the Holocaust, the world still grapples with an effort to comprehend how an advanced civilization seemingly lost its conscience in the 1930s & allowed the Nazis to prevail & so many innocent people to perish.
A particular point of interest on my part was that the family profiled in this book lived in Vienna & seemingly were so successfully integrated into the cultural fabric of that illustrious city, taking for granted that the rise of Hitler represented a temporary European aberration but most certainly not an Austrian one.
Beyond that, Kurt von Schuschnigg was the chancellor of Austria in the late 1930s, a well-educated, cultured & reasonable leader who valued human rights & who surely would not allow Austria to be drawn into the downward spiral that saw individual liberties gradually eroded in neighboring Germany.
Indeed, in spite of warning signs, life was good in Vienna & a young 17 year old Georg Klaar (who became George Clare only well after his narrow escape to England) was preparing for college, dealing with his first serious relationship with a girl & concentrating on the transition from boyhood.
My additional interest in Austria stems in part because some of my ancestors also left the country for various reasons, one fleeing to America to avoid reenlistment in the Kaiser's Army. But more than that because I was fortunate enough to take 3 courses in Foreign Relations & International Law taught by Prof. Kurt von Schuschnigg, the former Chancellor of Austria and after the war a university professor.
He was genteel with old-world mannerisms & a very devoted Catholic but not one to openly discuss his experiences leading up to the Anschluss or annexation of Austria in 1938, his time during WWII in various concentration camps & particularly not his traumatic encounter with Adolf Hitler at Berchtesgaden, not even when I visited him in the small Austrian village at Mutters-bei-Innsbruck after his retirement.
After reading multiple accounts, including the one in this book, of Austria's failure to follow through with a scheduled plebiscite certifying the nation's desire to remain separate from Hitler's Germany, I continue to feel that Schuschnigg considered that this would cause an almost immediate invasion & tremendous bloodshed at the hands of Hitler's army, already apparently poised near the border. This remains a controversial decision but no one will ever know precisely or even approximately what per cent of Austrians actually longed for a union with Germany under the mantra, Ein Reich, Ein Land, Ein Fuhrer.
As a youth, the author admitted to having felt so much the assimilated German that he found the marching soldiers of the Wehrmacht "dashing", rather like overgrown Boy Scouts. Later however, the more mature Georg Klaar narrowly escapes to England, while his parents & many others within the family perish, something not officially discovered until well after the end of the war.
In spite of this reminder of man's inhumanity to those who are perceived as different I enjoyed reading George Clare's account of his family history, sad though the ending was for a large component of the family. As always, there are no complete or definitive answers that might allow mankind to avoid such horror in the future. However, Clare does try to summon a response:
Last Waltz in Vienna is not a particularly uplifting book but a book I am pleased to have stumbled upon. Each one of us must continue to watch & listen, to be somehow alert to prejudice & intolerance. We may not have conclusive answers as to how to prevent such inhumanity on such a global scale but I think that we can attempt to monitor the warning signs & to attempt to react, just as to the festering volcano George Clare speaks of.
*The first photo image is of author George Clare, while the 2nd is a March 1938 Time Magazine cover of Kurt von Schuschnigg, Chancellor of Austria prior to the Nazi annexation & the 3rd image is of a Jewish-owned cafe in Vienna after Kristallnacht in Nov. 1938.
Alas, there are many tales of death & devastation, as well as a few detailing survival against long odds written by Jews forced to endure the perils of Nazi Germany but this very autobiographical work is excellent. So many years after WWII & the Holocaust, the world still grapples with an effort to comprehend how an advanced civilization seemingly lost its conscience in the 1930s & allowed the Nazis to prevail & so many innocent people to perish.
A particular point of interest on my part was that the family profiled in this book lived in Vienna & seemingly were so successfully integrated into the cultural fabric of that illustrious city, taking for granted that the rise of Hitler represented a temporary European aberration but most certainly not an Austrian one.
Beyond that, Kurt von Schuschnigg was the chancellor of Austria in the late 1930s, a well-educated, cultured & reasonable leader who valued human rights & who surely would not allow Austria to be drawn into the downward spiral that saw individual liberties gradually eroded in neighboring Germany.
Indeed, in spite of warning signs, life was good in Vienna & a young 17 year old Georg Klaar (who became George Clare only well after his narrow escape to England) was preparing for college, dealing with his first serious relationship with a girl & concentrating on the transition from boyhood.
We were the Klaars, already belonging to the worldly Jews with Western European education & culture. We wore fine clothes, had access to titles & dignities, possessed influence & wealth. But full equality, still eluded us. It not only eluded those who like us had retained our Jewish faith, however spuriously we practiced it, but even those who had gone the full way & converted.According to the author, this bitter but often below the surface conflict affected every Jew in Austria, as it still affects most every Jew living outside of Israel. Clare then goes on to present 3 different approaches to the prejudice that Jews in 1930s Austria were faced with, Karl Kraus (entrepreneur), Moritz Benedikt (publishing baron) & Theodor Herzl, with the last man sensing that the only alternative was Zionism & emigration to Palestine. However, prior to this period in history, George Clare provides the reader with an historical account of his illustrious family and an account of his own coming of age.
We knew that the others, the Goyim, however polite or even servile, did not really differentiate between the caftaned Yiddish speaker with the long wobbling side-curls & the smoothly shaved elegant Klaars who frequented the Viennese coffee-houses.
My additional interest in Austria stems in part because some of my ancestors also left the country for various reasons, one fleeing to America to avoid reenlistment in the Kaiser's Army. But more than that because I was fortunate enough to take 3 courses in Foreign Relations & International Law taught by Prof. Kurt von Schuschnigg, the former Chancellor of Austria and after the war a university professor.
He was genteel with old-world mannerisms & a very devoted Catholic but not one to openly discuss his experiences leading up to the Anschluss or annexation of Austria in 1938, his time during WWII in various concentration camps & particularly not his traumatic encounter with Adolf Hitler at Berchtesgaden, not even when I visited him in the small Austrian village at Mutters-bei-Innsbruck after his retirement.
After reading multiple accounts, including the one in this book, of Austria's failure to follow through with a scheduled plebiscite certifying the nation's desire to remain separate from Hitler's Germany, I continue to feel that Schuschnigg considered that this would cause an almost immediate invasion & tremendous bloodshed at the hands of Hitler's army, already apparently poised near the border. This remains a controversial decision but no one will ever know precisely or even approximately what per cent of Austrians actually longed for a union with Germany under the mantra, Ein Reich, Ein Land, Ein Fuhrer.
As a youth, the author admitted to having felt so much the assimilated German that he found the marching soldiers of the Wehrmacht "dashing", rather like overgrown Boy Scouts. Later however, the more mature Georg Klaar narrowly escapes to England, while his parents & many others within the family perish, something not officially discovered until well after the end of the war.
In spite of this reminder of man's inhumanity to those who are perceived as different I enjoyed reading George Clare's account of his family history, sad though the ending was for a large component of the family. As always, there are no complete or definitive answers that might allow mankind to avoid such horror in the future. However, Clare does try to summon a response:
Why did my parents , why did Ernst & Stella Klaar & the millions who like them, were destroyed like vermin, have to die? Who is responsible? The simplistic answer is more than obvious: because of Adolf Hitler. Although true, this is a hollow truth, one without content, just as Hitler himself was a hollow vessel filled not with his own but with other men's ideas.George Clare concludes with the suggestion that his parents had to die because they were Jews, because they belonged to the people who gave the world Jesus & a code of ethics which the world has never been able to live up to. And lastly, he includes a quote from Voltaire: "History never repeats itself, man always does."
Hitler was merely the terrible executor of other men's hatreds, which he made his own. He was like the crater of a volcano through which the seething, searing masses of molten earth, so long contained in the darkness below, finally burst into the open.
Last Waltz in Vienna is not a particularly uplifting book but a book I am pleased to have stumbled upon. Each one of us must continue to watch & listen, to be somehow alert to prejudice & intolerance. We may not have conclusive answers as to how to prevent such inhumanity on such a global scale but I think that we can attempt to monitor the warning signs & to attempt to react, just as to the festering volcano George Clare speaks of.
*The first photo image is of author George Clare, while the 2nd is a March 1938 Time Magazine cover of Kurt von Schuschnigg, Chancellor of Austria prior to the Nazi annexation & the 3rd image is of a Jewish-owned cafe in Vienna after Kristallnacht in Nov. 1938.
February 7, 2015
This is a first hand account of the fate of a family of Jewish bankers in Vienna. I found in it all that I finally despaired of finding in "The Hare With Amber Eyes". We are engaged by the author's passionate but critical approach, his high intelligence, understanding of the social and political conditions and, not least, his brilliant writing. I have the sequel "Berlin Days" but I must try to get hold of "Last Waltz in Vienna" - it's a few years since I read it and it's a book to re-read. (less)
February 2, 2023
Upon closing this book, I feel shattered. It is the story of one ordinary family of Austrian Jews destroyed by the Nazis. George Clare (né Georg Klaar) tells the story of his youth in Vienna, through the Anschluss (he was about 17) and his family’s escape from Austria. Clare lands in Ireland but his parents go to France where despite the help of many people, they are finally arrested, deported to Auschwitz and murdered.
It is a familiar story, but what makes this particular one worth reading is beautiful writing, candid self-awareness, and vivid detail. I found the political story, leading up to the Nazi takeover, particularly powerful in its portrait of quisling Austrian officials, factions, and the background noise of delusions like “it won’t be that bad”, “he doesn’t really mean it” (and let that be a lesson to us right this minute!!). By the shocking and heartbreaking end of Clare’s story, I am — once more, having covered this ground before — speechless, shattered, numb. No, not numb, because I believe there is so much to know here, reasons to return, understandings that are required to be repeated like a catechism if you are to call yourself a human being. George Clare’s Last Waltz in Vienna is a profound and worthy read.
It is a familiar story, but what makes this particular one worth reading is beautiful writing, candid self-awareness, and vivid detail. I found the political story, leading up to the Nazi takeover, particularly powerful in its portrait of quisling Austrian officials, factions, and the background noise of delusions like “it won’t be that bad”, “he doesn’t really mean it” (and let that be a lesson to us right this minute!!). By the shocking and heartbreaking end of Clare’s story, I am — once more, having covered this ground before — speechless, shattered, numb. No, not numb, because I believe there is so much to know here, reasons to return, understandings that are required to be repeated like a catechism if you are to call yourself a human being. George Clare’s Last Waltz in Vienna is a profound and worthy read.
February 19, 2017
From the start you realise that this story is going to have a tragic end and I found it most touching when the author mentioned with regret the fact that he had never been given the chance to relate to his parents as an adult.
But in fact this story is not really about the Klaar family in WWII and he tells very little of his own story. Rather it is a history of his family in Austria, how they were treated as Jews, how they became Austrians and also how they were lulled into a false security and into thinking it would not happen to them.
I was surprised to realise that Jews were such a large proportion of the population with mixed and Aryan classes both at school and in the scouts. I always assumed that Jews were either totally assimilated or ghettoised and forgotten.
He also reiterates just how much was known of the Nazis evils deeds even before the Anschluss and declaration of war and how willfully blind the Allied authorities were to evidence of these events.
A charming and interesting book which is also a chilling reminder of a whole culture that is now lost.
But in fact this story is not really about the Klaar family in WWII and he tells very little of his own story. Rather it is a history of his family in Austria, how they were treated as Jews, how they became Austrians and also how they were lulled into a false security and into thinking it would not happen to them.
I was surprised to realise that Jews were such a large proportion of the population with mixed and Aryan classes both at school and in the scouts. I always assumed that Jews were either totally assimilated or ghettoised and forgotten.
He also reiterates just how much was known of the Nazis evils deeds even before the Anschluss and declaration of war and how willfully blind the Allied authorities were to evidence of these events.
A charming and interesting book which is also a chilling reminder of a whole culture that is now lost.
September 12, 2017
Candidly written, this remains the most moving memoir of a Jewish family-- or indeed, a Jewish individual-- fleeing the Nazis. Read
July 19, 2024
First non fiction book I’ve read, albeit accidentally, and thoroughly enjoyed!!
December 2, 2019
"Last Waltz in Vienna" is a memoir by a Jewish man who was involved with the events leading up to, and involving, World War II in Vienna, Austria.
As much as I wanted to enjoy it, the author's writing style often gave me the feeling that I was being left out. Once in awhile, there were certain moments of warmth that shone through the rest of the text. These were mainly childhood stories about family and everyday experiences that you would expect when growing up. It was here that the author seemed to write most realistically.
However, the other 95% of the book simply never did anything for me. The politics, as viewed by an actual, normal witness of the events, were no doubt as accurate as could find, but strung together clumsily.
I did not enjoy this one.
As much as I wanted to enjoy it, the author's writing style often gave me the feeling that I was being left out. Once in awhile, there were certain moments of warmth that shone through the rest of the text. These were mainly childhood stories about family and everyday experiences that you would expect when growing up. It was here that the author seemed to write most realistically.
However, the other 95% of the book simply never did anything for me. The politics, as viewed by an actual, normal witness of the events, were no doubt as accurate as could find, but strung together clumsily.
I did not enjoy this one.
June 18, 2021
Amazing book! Clare tells the story of the Klaars rise and fall as a Jewish family who came to Vienna in the mid C19th and thrived despite the bubbling anti-semitism.
But their comfortable life came crashing down in the 1930s when the Nazi Anschluss opened the floodgates to the latent antisemitism.
Clare mixes family reminiscences together with the broader history to tell a fascinating story that is hugely touching. Probably the only book I’ve read that made me cry.
But their comfortable life came crashing down in the 1930s when the Nazi Anschluss opened the floodgates to the latent antisemitism.
Clare mixes family reminiscences together with the broader history to tell a fascinating story that is hugely touching. Probably the only book I’ve read that made me cry.
Read
May 1, 2011Thumbed through this, and appeared a bit dull to my dim and impatient eyes. Will have to go back to Schorske. Others may like this. Family memoirs of an Austrian Jew, a long-time newspaper (?) editor on Fleet Street, starting with his great-grandfather, Hermann (b. 1812), and ending with the catastrophes that befell his immediate family after the Anschlüss.
November 25, 2021
As Clare indicates, his goal is to present a single family's experiences, rather than tackle the immensity of the holocaust, in order to make it more personal and real for the reader. To that end, the first section is more family history than anything, with memories and anecdotes of grandmothers, uncles, aunts, cousins and their lives long before the name of Hitler was even spoken, and as such perhaps not all readers will take to it. But as someone who spends an inordinate amount of time on my own family's genealogy, this section was not just enjoyable, but essential to the work. This is also the section which provides the most details of life in Vienna as it, and the Austrian Empire, was in decline. Despite knowing what is to come, you can sense the love and pleasure that the family experienced in "old Vienna before the war, with its Strauss music, its glamour and easy charm..." (as Graham Greene described it in the memorable opening narration of his screenplay for The Third Man, which just happens to be my all time favorite film).
It is the second section of the book, however, which is the most powerful for me, presenting their lives in the final years before the Anschluss. As Americans, we have culturally received so little information about events in Austria (limited pretty much to The Sound of Music) and other neighbors of Germany at that time, always overshadowed by the American, English and French points of view. It is especially enlightening to see the reactions of the populace - or more usually a failure to react - to so many events whose cumulative effect over time would lead to the collapse of sanity and justice and the turnover of the country to the Nazis. These moments have special resonance as our own grasp on democracy and internal peace is threatened by prejudices, racisms, home-grown militias and violent divisions between groups.
The final third is, of course, the unavoidable denouement that you know is coming, and yet wish somehow did not have to be. For me, Ernst Klaar seems to be the central figure of the book, which is only natural for a son to focus on, especially given the sense that this was still the tail-end of "those happy and balmy days for fathers, when they and their wishes were immediately obeyed, when they were the ostensible focal point of the family's existence and their commands were never ignored." And for all of Ernst's foibles, his son's love, respect and admiration shines through clearly, heightening the inevitable tragedy of his murder as you grow fond of him as well. There is no way to avoid the impact of this book's conclusion, and of course it should not be avoided - that was so much of the initial problem anyway, as Frau von Alvers pleads:
It is the second section of the book, however, which is the most powerful for me, presenting their lives in the final years before the Anschluss. As Americans, we have culturally received so little information about events in Austria (limited pretty much to The Sound of Music) and other neighbors of Germany at that time, always overshadowed by the American, English and French points of view. It is especially enlightening to see the reactions of the populace - or more usually a failure to react - to so many events whose cumulative effect over time would lead to the collapse of sanity and justice and the turnover of the country to the Nazis. These moments have special resonance as our own grasp on democracy and internal peace is threatened by prejudices, racisms, home-grown militias and violent divisions between groups.
The final third is, of course, the unavoidable denouement that you know is coming, and yet wish somehow did not have to be. For me, Ernst Klaar seems to be the central figure of the book, which is only natural for a son to focus on, especially given the sense that this was still the tail-end of "those happy and balmy days for fathers, when they and their wishes were immediately obeyed, when they were the ostensible focal point of the family's existence and their commands were never ignored." And for all of Ernst's foibles, his son's love, respect and admiration shines through clearly, heightening the inevitable tragedy of his murder as you grow fond of him as well. There is no way to avoid the impact of this book's conclusion, and of course it should not be avoided - that was so much of the initial problem anyway, as Frau von Alvers pleads:
I thought all that anti-Jewish propaganda was just rabble-rousing, something for that drunken SA mob. I ignored it and thought it unimportant. I felt certain all that would be forgotten once Hitler came to power ... I pushed that knowledge away from me. It won't be as bad as it sounds, I thought, and that injustice, I persuaded myself, had to be put on the scales and weighed against Hitler's achievements. Nearly six million unemployed were found jobs. Germany was strong and respected again, the same of Versailles was wiped out. Yes, I looked for the good things and was intentionally blind to the bad. I am sorry, Stella, I wanted so much to believe.Arrogant pride masquerading as patriotism, the all-consuming need to appear strong and respected, the hatred of the other by those sensing a loss of their own personal power and economic security - all of those dangers to society, to humanity, are still with us today, along with those who would exploit those impulses to obtain and cling to political power, and as such this book retains its power.
January 15, 2025
The world they thought they were living in
I saw this title in the window of a remaindered bookshop a few days before going to Vienna with my family. I bought it without paying much attention to what it was about, but thinking it would make a nice accompaniment to the trip. It's an excellent, deeply moving story. Beginning with his great-grandfather, who was born when Metternich ruled Austria, Clare deftly charts the progress of his family, delineating their loves, quarrels, quirks and interests, up until the point where he and his parents had to flee Vienna following the Anschluss of 1938. This brings the narrative to a climax, with one of his mother's friends sadly asking "What world did we think we were living in?"
Clare describes Austria's struggle to remain independent from Germany, and the incredible speed at which anti-semitism rose to the surface following the country's capitulation (when, literally, a single day meant the difference between Jewish families being able to escape with most of their possessions and their having to remain, only to be stripped of their jobs and all that they owned). He finds that the abuse of the Jews was - at least initially - adopted much more enthusiastically in Austria than in Germany, although he also describes brave individuals in both countries who refused to go along with the tide. And his account of the end of his parents (who died in Auschwitz) and his uncle (who survived the war, but was irredeemably broken by it) is heartbreaking. Reading this book in Vienna, while walking through the streets mentioned in the narrative, made the events it describes even more vivid, even though it had the effect of turning the friendly, elegant city of the present day into a shadowy backdrop for this sinister tragedy.
Originally reviewed 7 May 2008
I saw this title in the window of a remaindered bookshop a few days before going to Vienna with my family. I bought it without paying much attention to what it was about, but thinking it would make a nice accompaniment to the trip. It's an excellent, deeply moving story. Beginning with his great-grandfather, who was born when Metternich ruled Austria, Clare deftly charts the progress of his family, delineating their loves, quarrels, quirks and interests, up until the point where he and his parents had to flee Vienna following the Anschluss of 1938. This brings the narrative to a climax, with one of his mother's friends sadly asking "What world did we think we were living in?"
Clare describes Austria's struggle to remain independent from Germany, and the incredible speed at which anti-semitism rose to the surface following the country's capitulation (when, literally, a single day meant the difference between Jewish families being able to escape with most of their possessions and their having to remain, only to be stripped of their jobs and all that they owned). He finds that the abuse of the Jews was - at least initially - adopted much more enthusiastically in Austria than in Germany, although he also describes brave individuals in both countries who refused to go along with the tide. And his account of the end of his parents (who died in Auschwitz) and his uncle (who survived the war, but was irredeemably broken by it) is heartbreaking. Reading this book in Vienna, while walking through the streets mentioned in the narrative, made the events it describes even more vivid, even though it had the effect of turning the friendly, elegant city of the present day into a shadowy backdrop for this sinister tragedy.
Originally reviewed 7 May 2008
May 1, 2022
Most of the book was George Clare's memories of growing up in Vienna. Seen through his eyes, Vienna was a magical place to grow up in the early part of the 20th Century. Of course, his memories were no doubt rose-tinted, but he really evoked a sense of the closeness of his family and his portraits of the individual members were captivating.
One thing I've always wondered is why Jewish people didn't move out of danger early, while they still could (although I realise I have the benefit of hindsight, which of course they didn't). His account of how their lives slowly changed slowly so his family (and other people in Austria) adjusted to the changes, until it was too late for many people to save themselves was pretty distressing, particularly as I knew the danger that they were in. This book really spelled out the factors that led to them not seeing the danger they were in, part of which was that the Nazis moved slowly and carefully. Before now, I never really understood how careful the Nazis were to make sure Jewish people didn't escape.
Don't think I am being critical of Jewish people in Europe in the early 1930's. I always knew there must be something that I was missing about the situation and this book explained what that was.
The ending was very moving. Books have rarely made me cry, but this one was one of exceptions, although that's probably not surprising, given the subject matter. I'll remember this book for a long time.
One thing I've always wondered is why Jewish people didn't move out of danger early, while they still could (although I realise I have the benefit of hindsight, which of course they didn't). His account of how their lives slowly changed slowly so his family (and other people in Austria) adjusted to the changes, until it was too late for many people to save themselves was pretty distressing, particularly as I knew the danger that they were in. This book really spelled out the factors that led to them not seeing the danger they were in, part of which was that the Nazis moved slowly and carefully. Before now, I never really understood how careful the Nazis were to make sure Jewish people didn't escape.
Don't think I am being critical of Jewish people in Europe in the early 1930's. I always knew there must be something that I was missing about the situation and this book explained what that was.
The ending was very moving. Books have rarely made me cry, but this one was one of exceptions, although that's probably not surprising, given the subject matter. I'll remember this book for a long time.
January 16, 2018
I picked this book up in a small bookstore in Chincoteague, Virginia because of its cover description. Not usually included among reading lists regarding the holocaust, this somewhat obscure book was deeply moving and left me wondering why it isn’t better known. George Clare’s descriptions are startlingly human and made it impossible to separate the events happening in the pages from my own family and historical context. Clare’s thoughts and revelations were deeply impactful. I would recommend this book to anyone.
November 29, 2021
I read this book quite a few years ago and it still resonates with me today. The story of an Austrian Jewish family whos life was very good until the annexation of Austria by the Germans. This unleashed the built up anti-semitism many Austrians had I think often stronger than many Germans. There is one poignant passage in the book that's always stayed with me as the author was in his early teens at the time he found the pomp and pageantry the un iforms the whole image of the Naziw captivating and couldn't understand why he wasn't allowed to join
September 18, 2024
A wonderful & sobering autobiographical read...about the final years of the Habsburgs, Austro-Hungary & Vienna, where hundreds of thousands of Jews flourished...like the author & his family. Alas, following the decline of Austrian influence, an Austrian called Adolf Hitler devastated the Jewish population of the German states, hinterlands & lebensraum ...as related by the fine writer who...somehow...managed to survive...having found refuge in Ireland & Britain...though his parents & many other relatives & friends perished in the death camps. A very powerful story.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 10, 2022
It took me several chapters to get into this book but once I had the family names and relationships down, the book picked up interest for me. It felt like a slow moving train at the beginning but inceased speed as the Nazi's gained control in Austria and the Klaar family finally realized the danger they were in. Except for the slowness at the beginning, I felt it was a very well written story - sadly a true story. I would give it 4 1/2 star rating if that was possible.
December 15, 2023
Such a delightful book! George’s family story takes us back into the world of Stefan Zweig and Joseph Roth and the dramatic disintegration of the Austrian empire. His future took him far away from his Vienna roots and in its own way reflected the new future Europe dreamed of in 1945. Some Vienna landmarks will always make me think of his family now - that lost community of educated, eccentric,artistic thinkers and their supporters, who fuelled Austrian life for a time!
April 29, 2023
There are many books about the fate of the jews in the second world war - and so there should be, as there are so many stories to tell. Clare's is a very interesting one, as he places the genocide in the context of a long and proud family history - which makes the suffering he and his family endured all the more painful to read about.
September 6, 2017
powerful, true, evocative , a must read
February 27, 2019
Beautifully written, moving account of the holocaust from the point of view of an extended middle class, Austrian Jewish family. The author narrates the prelude to Hitler’s fateful annexation with great pathos and insight. Never again.
October 20, 2019
In the top 5 books of autobiography set in the 2nd World War. A moving account of love, family, heritage, a feeling for place and the dreaded Anschluss in a beautiful city.
April 10, 2021
Das waren die klaars
August 29, 2023
"History never repeats itself, man always does".
November 25, 2025
excellent book
March 4, 2015
A wonderful book giving a very personal insight into Viennese life and what it was to be an Austrian Jew before and during the Holocaust. Many characters are vividly depicted, and seem to live on after I finished the book. His writing is fantastic considering English is his second language after German.
I like the way he presents a very matter of fact account of many day to day incidents. He is not a sensation-seeker and he doesn't even seem to hate the Jew haters, although he hated them enough to want to fight against them. He recounts several incidents where people - Jews or Gentiles - show real bravery, kindness, understanding, respect and honour. At the end he warns us not to forget the Holocaust, to prepare us for future genocides which are, alas, a part of human nature, and to recognise that the guilt of the Holocaust does not only rest with the Nazis, but with all the other countries that let it happen (e.g. by not granting Jews exit visas).
The end of the book is particularly poignant.
I like the way he presents a very matter of fact account of many day to day incidents. He is not a sensation-seeker and he doesn't even seem to hate the Jew haters, although he hated them enough to want to fight against them. He recounts several incidents where people - Jews or Gentiles - show real bravery, kindness, understanding, respect and honour. At the end he warns us not to forget the Holocaust, to prepare us for future genocides which are, alas, a part of human nature, and to recognise that the guilt of the Holocaust does not only rest with the Nazis, but with all the other countries that let it happen (e.g. by not granting Jews exit visas).
The end of the book is particularly poignant.
August 4, 2016
A very touching story of Mr. Clare's family in Vienna, Austria. The inter actions of his relatives with his parents. The lovely times they lived in until antisemitism took over and non Jews betrayed them. The many struggles his father went through when the Nazis invaded and took over Vienna. The humiliations their friends and family experienced and degrading things they were forced to do simply because they were Jews. The story made me weep. I was happy Mr. Clare learned about the last days of his parents in France and the local people who tried to protect them to no avail. A devoted wife not wanting to leave her beloved husband and the consequence of that decision. The evil! So many wonderful people destroyed because of hatred of the Jewish people and anyone different from the Aryan Germans.
August 14, 2016
On Saturday, February 26, 1938, 17-year-old Georg Klaar took his girlfriend Lisl to his first ball at the Konzerthaus. His family were proudly Austrian. They were also Jewish. Just two weeks later came the Anschluss. A family had been condemned to death by genocide. This new edition of George Clares incredibly affecting account of Nazi brutality towards the Jews includes a previously unpublished post-war letter from his uncle to a friend who had escaped to Scotland. This moving epistle passes on the news of those who had survived and the many who had been arrested, deported, murdered, or left to die in concentration camps, and those who had been orphaned or lost their partners or children. It forms a devastating epilogue to what has been hailed as a classic of holocaust literatur
February 26, 2013
A lovely well written book which gives an understanding of Austria at the time of the Anschluss and one family's background in the 100 years from 1842 to 1942
Mr Clare evoked a Vienna of "Strauss waltzes and easy charm" that was a pleasure to visit with him.
I read this book immediately after reading My Father's Country by Wibke Bruhns so it was very interesting 'seeing the other side of the coin' so to speak
Mr Clare evoked a Vienna of "Strauss waltzes and easy charm" that was a pleasure to visit with him.
I read this book immediately after reading My Father's Country by Wibke Bruhns so it was very interesting 'seeing the other side of the coin' so to speak
April 19, 2013
An incredibly poignant book with George Clare telling the story of his multi-ethnic family, the Klars. Beautiful memories of life before Vienna was little by little turned over to the Nazis, the rise of Hitler and the inability of Austrians to stop the Aunschluss. His family and their devotion to their son makes the greatest impression on the reader. A book of spirit and grace.
September 24, 2012
A wonderfully written account of a family's struggle to survive Austria's Nazi Anschluss...by knowing the Klaars we know the countless struggles of Jewish families during this awful time. It is heartrending story told in loving prose by a son, George Klaar.
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