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Dvadsiateho februára 1933 pozve Hermann Göring, predseda Reichstagu, do svojho zámku dvadsaťštyri najbohatších nemeckých priemyselných magnátov, lebo nacistická strána súrne potrebuje finančné prostriedky na kampaň pred blížiacimi sa voľbami, ktoré chce a potrebuje za každú cenu vyhrať. Pozvaní hostia netušia, aký je hlavný dôvod netradičného stretnutia a čo (a kto okrem Göringa) ich za múrmi zámku čaká. Takto francúzsky spisovateľ Éric Vuillard uvádza čitateľa do pútavého rozprávania o dramatickom období nástupu fašistov k moci, o ich nekalých praktikách pri presadzovaní svojich zámerov, ktoré vyústia do násilného pripojenia Rakúska k Nemecku a získania nadvlády nad česko-moravskou časťou Československa. Éric Vuillard za tento román dostal prestížnu Goncourtovu cenu.
112 pages, Hardcover
First published May 3, 2017
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About the author
Éric Vuillard
23 books328 followersBorn in Lyons in 1968, Éric Vuillard is a French author and film director. His books include Conquistadors (winner of the Ignatius J. Reilly prize 2010), and La Bataille de l'occident and Congo, for both of which he was awarded the 2012 Franz-Hessel prize and the 2013 Valery-Larbaud prize. Sorrow of the Earth is the first of his titles to be translated into English.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,535 reviews
June 5, 2022
L’EVITABILE INEVITABILE
Charlie Chaplin/Hynkel (Hitler) e Jack Oakie/Napaloni (Mussolini) in “Il grande dittatore” del 1940.
La storia è nota, i fatti si conoscono.
Ma basandosi su un minuzioso e affascinante lavoro di documentazione, Vuillard la racconta senza inventare nulla, innesta la letteratura negli episodi storici, e ci fa vedere il film che conosciamo come se fosse nuovo, più approfondito.
Sa gettare luce su aspetti meno noti, trascurati, ribaltarli, mostrarli da nuova prospettiva, interpretarli come nessuno ha fatto prima.
E così, senza entrare nell’orrore, si può ugualmente raccontare l’orrore: restando fuori dai lager e dalle camere a gas, Vuillard racconta il nazismo e la sua mostruosità affidandosi a ironia leggera e solida documentazione storica (fotografie, cinegiornali, memorie di alcuni protagonisti, gli archivi del processo di Norimberga)
Chiamiamolo, se vogliamo, storytelling.
”Il grande dittatore” fu il primo film sonoro di Chaplin, che lo finanziò interamente da solo, e si rivelò il suo maggior successo al botteghino.
Vigliaccheria, tornaconto, supponenza, compromesso: sembrano questi gli elementi fondanti di come le élite dell’epoca si approcciarono al nazismo. Da una parte considerato, e trattato, con rispetto perché baluardo al comunismo (salvo poi scontrarsi col patto Molotov-Ribbentrop, macabra ironia della storia), dall’altro visto come fenomeno di parvenu da disprezzare con la giusta condiscendenza (Lord Halifax scambia Hitler per un domestico, ingannato dalle sue scarpe non immacolate e pantaloni non impeccabili).
Ma Dachau esiste dal 1933, a partire dal 1934 i malati di mente furono sterilizzati (e duecentomila uccisi) [il fenomeno si diffuse a suo modo anche nel fascismo: per esempio, l’unica società scientifica a legittimare le leggi razziale del 1938 fu quella psichiatrica), nel luglio del 1937 a Monaco di Baviera Goebbels organizza una vergognosa mostra sulla razza (“Entartete Kunst”, ovvero, l’arte degenerata).
L’ingegnere Ferdinand Porsche illustra ad Adolf Hitler e ad altri gerarchi nazisti il progetto della Volkswagen.
Nella settimana che seguì l’Anschluss, l’annessione dell’Austria (12 marzo 1938), 1700 ebrei si suicidarono nella sola Vienna. La compagnia del gas austriaca non voleva più avere clienti ebrei perché parecchi di loro finivano col non pagare la bolletta!
I grandi gruppi industriali tedeschi, quei marchi che conosciamo così bene (Krupp-Thyssen, Siemens, Opel, BASF, Daimler, Agfa, Bayer, Allianz, Telefunken, le nostre automobili, le nostre lavatrici, i nostri detersivi…) finanziarono il partito nazista consentendogli di arrivare al potere, impadronirsene e mantenerlo, utilizzarono gli internati dei campi di concentramento come manodopera gratuita, trattandoli come schiavi, sfruttandoli spesso fino alla morte, e poi furono i protagonisti della rinascita tedesca degli anni Cinquanta riempiendo dei loro prodotti le nostre case.
Louis Soutter: Trois têtes tropiques, 1936. Di Soutter Vuillard scrive: “Alla fine, verso il 1937, non riuscendo più a tenere in mano una penna o un pennello a causa dell’artrosi deformante, e quasi cieco, cominciò a dipingere con le dita intingendole direttamente nell’inchiostro. Aveva quasi settant’anni. Fu il periodo in cui realizzò le sue opere più belle… Sembrerebbe che Soutter, chiuso nel proprio delirio, forse senza saperlo filmi con le dita la lenta agonia del mondo che lo circonda… Una grande danza macabra.
Lasciare che succeda è una colpa, non intervenire equivale a un delitto (quello che dovrebbero capire all’ONU), non voler sentire o vedere, fingere di non sapere è rimozione, falsa coscienza.
Semplice, potente, sconcertante, Vuillard mi ha conquistato. (È talmente nelle mie corde che sarei tentato per il massimo dei voti.)
Berlino Counterpart.
Charlie Chaplin/Hynkel (Hitler) e Jack Oakie/Napaloni (Mussolini) in “Il grande dittatore” del 1940.
La storia è nota, i fatti si conoscono.
Ma basandosi su un minuzioso e affascinante lavoro di documentazione, Vuillard la racconta senza inventare nulla, innesta la letteratura negli episodi storici, e ci fa vedere il film che conosciamo come se fosse nuovo, più approfondito.
Sa gettare luce su aspetti meno noti, trascurati, ribaltarli, mostrarli da nuova prospettiva, interpretarli come nessuno ha fatto prima.
E così, senza entrare nell’orrore, si può ugualmente raccontare l’orrore: restando fuori dai lager e dalle camere a gas, Vuillard racconta il nazismo e la sua mostruosità affidandosi a ironia leggera e solida documentazione storica (fotografie, cinegiornali, memorie di alcuni protagonisti, gli archivi del processo di Norimberga)
Chiamiamolo, se vogliamo, storytelling.
”Il grande dittatore” fu il primo film sonoro di Chaplin, che lo finanziò interamente da solo, e si rivelò il suo maggior successo al botteghino.
Vigliaccheria, tornaconto, supponenza, compromesso: sembrano questi gli elementi fondanti di come le élite dell’epoca si approcciarono al nazismo. Da una parte considerato, e trattato, con rispetto perché baluardo al comunismo (salvo poi scontrarsi col patto Molotov-Ribbentrop, macabra ironia della storia), dall’altro visto come fenomeno di parvenu da disprezzare con la giusta condiscendenza (Lord Halifax scambia Hitler per un domestico, ingannato dalle sue scarpe non immacolate e pantaloni non impeccabili).
Ma Dachau esiste dal 1933, a partire dal 1934 i malati di mente furono sterilizzati (e duecentomila uccisi) [il fenomeno si diffuse a suo modo anche nel fascismo: per esempio, l’unica società scientifica a legittimare le leggi razziale del 1938 fu quella psichiatrica), nel luglio del 1937 a Monaco di Baviera Goebbels organizza una vergognosa mostra sulla razza (“Entartete Kunst”, ovvero, l’arte degenerata).
L’ingegnere Ferdinand Porsche illustra ad Adolf Hitler e ad altri gerarchi nazisti il progetto della Volkswagen.
Nella settimana che seguì l’Anschluss, l’annessione dell’Austria (12 marzo 1938), 1700 ebrei si suicidarono nella sola Vienna. La compagnia del gas austriaca non voleva più avere clienti ebrei perché parecchi di loro finivano col non pagare la bolletta!
I grandi gruppi industriali tedeschi, quei marchi che conosciamo così bene (Krupp-Thyssen, Siemens, Opel, BASF, Daimler, Agfa, Bayer, Allianz, Telefunken, le nostre automobili, le nostre lavatrici, i nostri detersivi…) finanziarono il partito nazista consentendogli di arrivare al potere, impadronirsene e mantenerlo, utilizzarono gli internati dei campi di concentramento come manodopera gratuita, trattandoli come schiavi, sfruttandoli spesso fino alla morte, e poi furono i protagonisti della rinascita tedesca degli anni Cinquanta riempiendo dei loro prodotti le nostre case.
Louis Soutter: Trois têtes tropiques, 1936. Di Soutter Vuillard scrive: “Alla fine, verso il 1937, non riuscendo più a tenere in mano una penna o un pennello a causa dell’artrosi deformante, e quasi cieco, cominciò a dipingere con le dita intingendole direttamente nell’inchiostro. Aveva quasi settant’anni. Fu il periodo in cui realizzò le sue opere più belle… Sembrerebbe che Soutter, chiuso nel proprio delirio, forse senza saperlo filmi con le dita la lenta agonia del mondo che lo circonda… Una grande danza macabra.
Lasciare che succeda è una colpa, non intervenire equivale a un delitto (quello che dovrebbero capire all’ONU), non voler sentire o vedere, fingere di non sapere è rimozione, falsa coscienza.
Semplice, potente, sconcertante, Vuillard mi ha conquistato. (È talmente nelle mie corde che sarei tentato per il massimo dei voti.)
Berlino Counterpart.
October 19, 2018
On March 12th, 1933 the wealthy heads of German industry gather to pledge their support and money to Adolp Hitler. Greed, pure greed but without them and most importantly the money the pledged, the Holocaust would never have happened, Hitler wouldn't have come to be the Fuhrer.
Chilling, but the ironies continue. The saying, however, it goes, the one that supposed that without the horse, the kingdom would have been lost, can be used here. If just one thing had been different, one powerful person in Austira, England etc. had spoken up, refused Hitler's threats and manipulations, so many would have been saved. As we know, this did not happen.
Many of these industries are still in existence, used Jewish labor from the camps, disposable people, and became even richer.
" They are called BASF, Bayer, Agfa, Opel, IG Farben, Siemens, Allianz. By these names we shall know them. In fact, we know them very well. They are here beside us, among us. They are our cars, our washing machines, our household appliances, our clock radios, our homeowners insurance, our watch batteries. They are here, there and everywhere in all sorts of guises. Our daily life is theirs. They care for us, clothe us, light our way, carry us over the world's highways, rock us to sleep. And the twenty four gentlemen present at the palace of the President of the Reichstag the February 20 are none other than their proxies, the clergy of major industry; they are the high priests of Ptah. And there they stand, affectless, like twenty four calculating machines at the gates of Hell."
A very powerful book , an ironic and horrifying look at the beginning of the Holocaust and the events that led up to it, made it possible.
Chilling, but the ironies continue. The saying, however, it goes, the one that supposed that without the horse, the kingdom would have been lost, can be used here. If just one thing had been different, one powerful person in Austira, England etc. had spoken up, refused Hitler's threats and manipulations, so many would have been saved. As we know, this did not happen.
Many of these industries are still in existence, used Jewish labor from the camps, disposable people, and became even richer.
" They are called BASF, Bayer, Agfa, Opel, IG Farben, Siemens, Allianz. By these names we shall know them. In fact, we know them very well. They are here beside us, among us. They are our cars, our washing machines, our household appliances, our clock radios, our homeowners insurance, our watch batteries. They are here, there and everywhere in all sorts of guises. Our daily life is theirs. They care for us, clothe us, light our way, carry us over the world's highways, rock us to sleep. And the twenty four gentlemen present at the palace of the President of the Reichstag the February 20 are none other than their proxies, the clergy of major industry; they are the high priests of Ptah. And there they stand, affectless, like twenty four calculating machines at the gates of Hell."
A very powerful book , an ironic and horrifying look at the beginning of the Holocaust and the events that led up to it, made it possible.
June 17, 2019
The Order of the Day is a concise novel that challenges perceptions of history and time; it's driven by black comedy through which Vuillard demonstrates that history is written to fit an agenda, and that agenda is not always to tell the truth.
The Nazi takeover of Austria was not as clean as the media (the Nazi media) told the world at the time. Underneath the warm welcoming the Nazi’s received when they entered the country, was years of political scheming, assassinations and manipulations. Eric Vuillard engages with this; he engages with the idea that history is written by the victor. And at this moment in time, the Nazis were completely victorious, and they said nothing about their systematic conquest.
The British did nothing. Their policy of appeasement helped Hitler’s power growth go unchecked. And it’s easy to criticise this, the novel here is full of sarcasm. Britain’s policy was clearly the wrong choice, but we must remember that we are looking back with historical bias. Hitler was a monster, but the extent of his evil was yet to be revealed. Chamberlain sought peace above all else, and when he signed the Munich agreement (in effect sacrificing Czechoslovakia to the Nazi rule), he thought he was doing the right thing. He believed Hitler’s promises. He trusted in Hitler’s honour. He thought his politicking would stop Hitler’s ambition. We know today that he was a fool to do so, and not to mention heartless, but we know the outcome: hapless Chamberlain did not know what was to come.
I really liked aspects of the novel, and it did make me think about such historical leaders and their blunders. It made me think how different the world could have been if a few key political figures had taken a different action when confronted with Hitler. But, at the root of things, I don’t think this novel does anything new. It is basically a brief and slick re-telling of the start of the second world war with a sarcastic and politically engaged commentary. And the author has clearly done his research; he draws on journals within the narrative, a lot of work has gone into this book. The prose is artsy and very well written; it is engaging and the narrative pushes forward eloquently, but I can’t help but feel that there is something missing.
This is a very small amount of writing, and part of me wishes it continued to narrate the rest of Nazi Germany’s rise and fall. I feel like we have been given just a brief glimpse of one of the key moments in such a rise, but there are also many other significant glimpses that could have been narrated to give a detailed account. I would gladly have read a full novel told like this.
Certainly, it’s better to walk away from a book wishing for more than less, but I feel like this was a bit of a wasted opportunity. More content was needed for this to achieve its ambitions. It also engages with the idea that major business owners drive much of the political agenda, but, again, more of this was needed to illustrate exactly how far this goes.
Overall, it’s an engaging read but entirely forgettable because of its lack of substance – 3.25/5*
FBR | Twitter | Facebook | Insta | Academia
The Nazi takeover of Austria was not as clean as the media (the Nazi media) told the world at the time. Underneath the warm welcoming the Nazi’s received when they entered the country, was years of political scheming, assassinations and manipulations. Eric Vuillard engages with this; he engages with the idea that history is written by the victor. And at this moment in time, the Nazis were completely victorious, and they said nothing about their systematic conquest.
The British did nothing. Their policy of appeasement helped Hitler’s power growth go unchecked. And it’s easy to criticise this, the novel here is full of sarcasm. Britain’s policy was clearly the wrong choice, but we must remember that we are looking back with historical bias. Hitler was a monster, but the extent of his evil was yet to be revealed. Chamberlain sought peace above all else, and when he signed the Munich agreement (in effect sacrificing Czechoslovakia to the Nazi rule), he thought he was doing the right thing. He believed Hitler’s promises. He trusted in Hitler’s honour. He thought his politicking would stop Hitler’s ambition. We know today that he was a fool to do so, and not to mention heartless, but we know the outcome: hapless Chamberlain did not know what was to come.
I really liked aspects of the novel, and it did make me think about such historical leaders and their blunders. It made me think how different the world could have been if a few key political figures had taken a different action when confronted with Hitler. But, at the root of things, I don’t think this novel does anything new. It is basically a brief and slick re-telling of the start of the second world war with a sarcastic and politically engaged commentary. And the author has clearly done his research; he draws on journals within the narrative, a lot of work has gone into this book. The prose is artsy and very well written; it is engaging and the narrative pushes forward eloquently, but I can’t help but feel that there is something missing.
This is a very small amount of writing, and part of me wishes it continued to narrate the rest of Nazi Germany’s rise and fall. I feel like we have been given just a brief glimpse of one of the key moments in such a rise, but there are also many other significant glimpses that could have been narrated to give a detailed account. I would gladly have read a full novel told like this.
Certainly, it’s better to walk away from a book wishing for more than less, but I feel like this was a bit of a wasted opportunity. More content was needed for this to achieve its ambitions. It also engages with the idea that major business owners drive much of the political agenda, but, again, more of this was needed to illustrate exactly how far this goes.
Overall, it’s an engaging read but entirely forgettable because of its lack of substance – 3.25/5*
FBR | Twitter | Facebook | Insta | Academia
June 29, 2018
Winner of the Prix Goncourt 2017
I am starting to see a pattern in contemporary French lit: While Didier Eribon and Édouard Louis are turning sociology into literature, Laurent Binet and Éric Vuillard are turning history into literature - and as all science operates with language, this widespread exploration of the permeable border between fact and fiction is truly intriguing. While the idea is not entirely new (think of Golo Mann's Wallenstein: His Life Narrated), the paths these authors choose are different and often fascinating.
And I see what the latest winner of the Prix Goncourt is aiming to do with his "méthode Vuillard", as it is by now called in France: He sheds light on singular historical vignettes - in this case especially Hitler's meeting with the leaders of major industrial complexes who financed him and the talks before the annexation of Austria - in order to say something about history at large.
To highlight the factual basis, Vuillard calls the book a "récit", a "narration", not a "roman" (novel). With few words, he manages to show the base instincts, the evil urges, the conning, the appeasement, the complacency, the vanity, the fanatism and the cowardice that brought about WW II and the holocaust. Often, the singular instances are grotesque, for instance when there's a traffic jam with broken tanks that fail to cross the Austrian border, but that's the whole point here: The grotesque pieces add up to a sum, and this sum looks different than the individual vignettes - the "méthode Vuillard" is all about perspective.
So much for the merit of the book, which I can appreciate, but only from this theoretical perspective - reading it, I was really bored. Pretty much everything that Vuillard describes is well-known, the novelty is only the narrative technique and the montage, and both of these factors didn't qualify as exciting innovations for me. I also didn't enjoy the language which, though effective, felt somehow overblown. From my perspective, this book does not stand a chance against Laurent Binet's HHhH, a historical metafiction about the Nazis that also won the Prix Goncourt - Binet is daring and full of intensity, Vuillard has neither of those qualities.
Don't ask me about this book two months from now, because I am pretty sure I won't remember much of it. Not my kind of book.
I am starting to see a pattern in contemporary French lit: While Didier Eribon and Édouard Louis are turning sociology into literature, Laurent Binet and Éric Vuillard are turning history into literature - and as all science operates with language, this widespread exploration of the permeable border between fact and fiction is truly intriguing. While the idea is not entirely new (think of Golo Mann's Wallenstein: His Life Narrated), the paths these authors choose are different and often fascinating.
And I see what the latest winner of the Prix Goncourt is aiming to do with his "méthode Vuillard", as it is by now called in France: He sheds light on singular historical vignettes - in this case especially Hitler's meeting with the leaders of major industrial complexes who financed him and the talks before the annexation of Austria - in order to say something about history at large.
To highlight the factual basis, Vuillard calls the book a "récit", a "narration", not a "roman" (novel). With few words, he manages to show the base instincts, the evil urges, the conning, the appeasement, the complacency, the vanity, the fanatism and the cowardice that brought about WW II and the holocaust. Often, the singular instances are grotesque, for instance when there's a traffic jam with broken tanks that fail to cross the Austrian border, but that's the whole point here: The grotesque pieces add up to a sum, and this sum looks different than the individual vignettes - the "méthode Vuillard" is all about perspective.
So much for the merit of the book, which I can appreciate, but only from this theoretical perspective - reading it, I was really bored. Pretty much everything that Vuillard describes is well-known, the novelty is only the narrative technique and the montage, and both of these factors didn't qualify as exciting innovations for me. I also didn't enjoy the language which, though effective, felt somehow overblown. From my perspective, this book does not stand a chance against Laurent Binet's HHhH, a historical metafiction about the Nazis that also won the Prix Goncourt - Binet is daring and full of intensity, Vuillard has neither of those qualities.
Don't ask me about this book two months from now, because I am pretty sure I won't remember much of it. Not my kind of book.
January 22, 2020
Maravilloso (o escalofriante) relato sobre la connivencia de las "grandes" empresas y de sus "grandes" señores para beneficiarse "honradamente" de la guerra haciendo negocios con Hitler.
Lectura obligada para aquellos que deseen poner nombres y apellidos a muchas de esas empresas que, hoy en día, siguen haciendo negocios "legales", pero que, no hace mucho, se aprovechaban de la miseria y la muerte.
Aparte de ser un buen relato, está escrito de manera original y con un ritmo poético.
Wonderful (or chilling) story about the collusion of the "big" companies and their "big" lords to benefit "honestly" from the war doing business with Hitler.
Required reading for those who wish to put names and surnames to many of those companies that, today, continue to do "legal" business, but that, not long time ago, took advantage of misery and death.
Apart from being a good story, it is written in an original way and with a poetic rhythm.
Lectura obligada para aquellos que deseen poner nombres y apellidos a muchas de esas empresas que, hoy en día, siguen haciendo negocios "legales", pero que, no hace mucho, se aprovechaban de la miseria y la muerte.
Aparte de ser un buen relato, está escrito de manera original y con un ritmo poético.
Wonderful (or chilling) story about the collusion of the "big" companies and their "big" lords to benefit "honestly" from the war doing business with Hitler.
Required reading for those who wish to put names and surnames to many of those companies that, today, continue to do "legal" business, but that, not long time ago, took advantage of misery and death.
Apart from being a good story, it is written in an original way and with a poetic rhythm.
July 15, 2024
A short, filmic and claustrophobic account of the slippery slope towards the Anschluss
Éric Vuillard narrates the slippery slope and sliding scales the businessmen of Germany, the chancellor of Austria and prime minister Chamberlain find themselves on in their dealings with the Nazi's on their rise to absolute power.
The scenes Éric Vuillard writes are short and snappy, filmic.
We have a brilliant scene with Ribbentrop (who was a renter with Chamberlain during his tenure as ambassador to England) delaying the British prime minister and foreign minister, making full (ab)use of British politeness.
There are tanks breaking down on their way to Vienna, leading to outburst of rage from the Fuhrer who is looking forward to his filmed triumph into his homeland.
Then there is an offhand comment in a letter, that the gas was cut after the Anschluss from the jews of Vienna, since the largest "users" now no longer pay, with 1.700 suicides after the event, and you realise the gravity of the events on normal people, set in motion by geopolitical movements.
Before and after, history versus the moment it happens, big events and the impact on real people, the ramifications of deeds, the entrenched and guilty nature of privilege and wealth in respect to oppression.
It is a lot The Order of the Day takes on, and this is one of the few books I wanted to be longer and more fleshed out.
Looking forward to take up more modern French novelists.
Dutch quotes:
Van alle rechten die er zijn, is het voldongen feit immers het meest solide?
De grootste rampen komen vaak in kleine stapjes.
...dat tegenover gelijkheid hiërarchie staat en tegenover de vrijheid de gevestigde orde.
Éric Vuillard narrates the slippery slope and sliding scales the businessmen of Germany, the chancellor of Austria and prime minister Chamberlain find themselves on in their dealings with the Nazi's on their rise to absolute power.
The scenes Éric Vuillard writes are short and snappy, filmic.
We have a brilliant scene with Ribbentrop (who was a renter with Chamberlain during his tenure as ambassador to England) delaying the British prime minister and foreign minister, making full (ab)use of British politeness.
There are tanks breaking down on their way to Vienna, leading to outburst of rage from the Fuhrer who is looking forward to his filmed triumph into his homeland.
Then there is an offhand comment in a letter, that the gas was cut after the Anschluss from the jews of Vienna, since the largest "users" now no longer pay, with 1.700 suicides after the event, and you realise the gravity of the events on normal people, set in motion by geopolitical movements.
Before and after, history versus the moment it happens, big events and the impact on real people, the ramifications of deeds, the entrenched and guilty nature of privilege and wealth in respect to oppression.
It is a lot The Order of the Day takes on, and this is one of the few books I wanted to be longer and more fleshed out.
Looking forward to take up more modern French novelists.
Dutch quotes:
Van alle rechten die er zijn, is het voldongen feit immers het meest solide?
De grootste rampen komen vaak in kleine stapjes.
...dat tegenover gelijkheid hiërarchie staat en tegenover de vrijheid de gevestigde orde.
March 28, 2020
Οι πολίτες της καπιταλιστικής Δύσης, είμαστε εξοικειωμένοι με την εξιστόρηση του φασισμού ως μια δυσάρεστη και εν πολλοίς αναπάντεχη παρένθεση στην ιστορία της Γερμανίας και της Ευρώπης. Αντίστοιχα, λιγότερο διάσημη αλλά εξίσου υπαρκτή είναι και η κοινοτοπία που θέλει τον Μεγάλο Πόλεμο που ξέσπασε το 1914, να είναι αποτέλεσμα άστοχων διπλωματικών χειρισμών, ένα ολίσθημα που κανείς δεν ήθελε, ούτε επιδίωκε, και τελικά ένα ατύχημα για το οποίο δεν ευθύνονται τα κράτη (και τα συμφέροντά τους), αλλά μια δράκα ανεύθυνων διπλωματών.
Η αντίληψη που ερμηνεύει τον Δεύτερο Παγκόσμιο Πόλεμο ως μια τομή που θεμελιώνει ιστορικές ασυνέχειες ανάμεσα στις ελίτ πριν και μετά από αυτόν, διαθέτει μια πολύτιμη ψυχολογική και κοινωνική λειτουργία. Είναι ο τρόπος που χρησιμοποίησαν οι ίδιες οι μεταπολεμικές ελίτ τόσο στις ΗΠΑ όσο και στην μετέπειτα Ευρωπαϊκή Ένωση, για να διαγράψουν τα γεγονότα του πρόσφατου παρελθόντος τους και τις αιτίες που τα γέννησαν. Για να απενοχοποιήσουν, να αποκαθάρουν και εντέλει να καταστήσουν κοινωνικά υποφερτό το κατά τα άλλα ανυπόφορο παρελθόν τους. Αυτές ακριβώς είναι οι αντιλήψεις με τις οποίες θέλει να αντιπαρατεθεί εδώ ο Éric Vuillard. Η πρόθεση μετράει, και για μένα μετράει πολύ. 5/5
Η αντίληψη που ερμηνεύει τον Δεύτερο Παγκόσμιο Πόλεμο ως μια τομή που θεμελιώνει ιστορικές ασυνέχειες ανάμεσα στις ελίτ πριν και μετά από αυτόν, διαθέτει μια πολύτιμη ψυχολογική και κοινωνική λειτουργία. Είναι ο τρόπος που χρησιμοποίησαν οι ίδιες οι μεταπολεμικές ελίτ τόσο στις ΗΠΑ όσο και στην μετέπειτα Ευρωπαϊκή Ένωση, για να διαγράψουν τα γεγονότα του πρόσφατου παρελθόντος τους και τις αιτίες που τα γέννησαν. Για να απενοχοποιήσουν, να αποκαθάρουν και εντέλει να καταστήσουν κοινωνικά υποφερτό το κατά τα άλλα ανυπόφορο παρελθόν τους. Αυτές ακριβώς είναι οι αντιλήψεις με τις οποίες θέλει να αντιπαρατεθεί εδώ ο Éric Vuillard. Η πρόθεση μετράει, και για μένα μετράει πολύ. 5/5
April 12, 2021
“Such is the art of narrative: nothing is innocent.”
A little rant here. This novel markets itself as a piece of history, and I think can easily fool many readers. I picked it up on the nonfiction table at a major book retailer, so they fell into the trap too.
It is a novel, but not even really that. More of a historical fiction narrative essay. There are not characters per se, just the occasional insertion of the author’s persona to comment on the events he is describing. Those events are mainly concerning the Anschluss of 1938 that incorporated Austria into Nazi Germany.
THE ORDER OF THE DAY is a short text, and as I read it in a couple of quick sittings I am not all that annoyed by its flaws. I am more annoyed at the vibe of smug self-righteousness I feel coming through the writing. It feels very “look at me, I get what fools those people were.” I wanted a book of nonjudgmental history when I picked it up. When I realized it was a novel, I at least wanted a story. I got neither.
Although at moments I enjoyed the writing, overall this line from Benjamin Welton’s review in the New York Journal of Books says it best, “The Order of the Day is bad history imbued with pop psychology and adorned with purple prose riddled with unnecessary diversions.”
(Here is a link to that review)
https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book...
I don’t regret reading this novella (except it is not really a novella) but the historical inaccuracies (there are a few) and the many many assumptions made (not in service of the story, but rather so the author can be derogatory about the subjects) was just a bridge too far for me.
There are much better histories out there, and certainly better novels, on the same subject.
A little rant here. This novel markets itself as a piece of history, and I think can easily fool many readers. I picked it up on the nonfiction table at a major book retailer, so they fell into the trap too.
It is a novel, but not even really that. More of a historical fiction narrative essay. There are not characters per se, just the occasional insertion of the author’s persona to comment on the events he is describing. Those events are mainly concerning the Anschluss of 1938 that incorporated Austria into Nazi Germany.
THE ORDER OF THE DAY is a short text, and as I read it in a couple of quick sittings I am not all that annoyed by its flaws. I am more annoyed at the vibe of smug self-righteousness I feel coming through the writing. It feels very “look at me, I get what fools those people were.” I wanted a book of nonjudgmental history when I picked it up. When I realized it was a novel, I at least wanted a story. I got neither.
Although at moments I enjoyed the writing, overall this line from Benjamin Welton’s review in the New York Journal of Books says it best, “The Order of the Day is bad history imbued with pop psychology and adorned with purple prose riddled with unnecessary diversions.”
(Here is a link to that review)
https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book...
I don’t regret reading this novella (except it is not really a novella) but the historical inaccuracies (there are a few) and the many many assumptions made (not in service of the story, but rather so the author can be derogatory about the subjects) was just a bridge too far for me.
There are much better histories out there, and certainly better novels, on the same subject.
December 20, 2019
Εξαιρετικές κριτικές συνοδεύουν το βιβλίο αυτό, ο συγγραφέας του κέρδισε το βραβείο Goncourt και κάθε νέα του κυκλοφορία θεωρείται γεγονός. Έχοντας όμως ελάχιστη εμπιστοσύνη στην προώθηση που συνοδεύει τις σύγχρονες κυκλοφορίες (ιδίως από Γαλλία, της οποίας δεκαετίες τώρα ακολουθούμε τυφλά και δουλικά την αδιάφορη πλέον λογοτεχνική παραγωγή και επιλογές) παραμένω επιφυλακτικός.
Αυτό που επιχειρεί ο συγγραφέας στο βιβλίο αυτό είναι να διανθίσει το ιστορικό γεγονός της εποχής του Anschluss με κάποια κινηματογραφικού τύπου στιγμιότυπα, προσπαθώντας να προσδώσει στο αντικειμενικό συμβάν μια πιο υποκειμενική διάσταση – εστιάζοντας στη λεπτομέρεια, στο πώς συγκεκριμένα άτομα βίωσαν μια ακραία κατάσταση (σύμφωνα πάντα με την οπτική και την κοσμοθεωρία του).
Μπορεί εκ πρώτης να ακούγεται ενδιαφέρον το εγχείρημα συγγραφής ιστορίας με λογοτεχνίζον περίβλημα αλλά κατά τη γνώμη μου πάσχει, καθώς δεν κατορθώνει να υπερβεί τους περιορισμούς της έλλειψης ταλέντου που απαιτείται για κάτι τέτοιο. Για να το θέσω ωμά, ο Βιγιάρ δεν είναι σπουδαίος ιστορικός και σίγουρα όχι μεγάλος λογοτέχνης. Είναι αρκετά ικανός στο να προσδώσει αυτό το εμπορικά αξιοποιήσιμο υποκειμενικό ύφος στο ήδη γνωστό ιστορικό συμβάν, αλλά όταν επιχειρεί να προχωρήσει σε αναγωγές και συμπεράσματα αυτά είναι τελικά κοινότοπα, εύπεπτα και διδακτικά.
Το βιβλίο ξεκινά με το αποδεδειγμένο ιστορικό γεγονός πως οι Κρουπ, Ζίμενς, Μπάγερ, Άγκφα, Όπελ κλπ. στήριξαν τον Χίτλερ όταν κατάλαβαν πως βρισκόταν στον προθάλαμο της εξουσίας (με την ίδια ευκολία θα τον ξεφορτώνονταν αν τους δινόταν εναλλακτική λύση), διότι αυτό βόλευε τα συμφέροντά τους. Στη συνέχεια επιχειρείται ένα θεαματικό… ρακόρ, μια σύνδεση με το παρόν και το πώς ο κόσμος μας ακόμη χρησιμοποιεί τα προϊόντα εκείνων των ίδιων επιχειρήσεων που επέζησαν των καταστροφών. Προφανής στόχος του συγγραφέα να τονιστεί η συνέχεια δια μέσου των εποχών, απευθυνόμενος στο θυμικό του αναγνώστη που αναζητά κάποιον υπαίτιο (η δειλή και αυταρχική οικονομική ελίτ που τον στήριξε οικονομικά υπήρξε κατάπτυστη, αλλά και η κρίσιμη μάζα πολιτών που έφερε τον Χίτλερ στην εξουσία μέσω της ψήφου της δεν στερείται ευθυνών), κάποιον στον οποίο να στρέψει τη δίκαιη οργή του (κάτι που γίνεται προφανές και από σχεδόν όλες τις κριτικές που συνοδεύουν το βιβλίο αυτό).
Παραμένω εσαεί επιφυλακτικός στις αναγωγές και στα εύκολα συμπεράσματα (κυρίως οικονομικίστικης φύσης), ιδίως εκείνα που λαμβάνουν ως δεδομένο αυτό που καλούνται να αποδείξουν ή εστιάζουν στο επιμέρους, αναγάγοντάς το σε καθολικό. Όχι, εκείνοι οι άνθρωποι, σε εκείνες τις εποχές, δεν έχουν την παραμικρή σχέση με τα συμβούλια μετόχων, τα στελέχη και τους ιδιοκτήτες των επιχειρήσεων αυτών της εποχής μας. Έχουμε πολλά να καταλογίσουμε στη συγκαιρινή άπληστη άρχουσα τάξη για λάθη, ατασθαλίες κ.ο.κ., δίχως να της φορτώσουμε και την ενοχή του ναζιστικού παρελθόντος των προγόνων της. Το αυτό προφανώς ισχύει και για το πολιτικό/ οικονομικό σύστημα της εποχής, το οποίο ουδεμία σχέση με εκείνο της σημερινής Γερμανίας και εν γένει της Ευρώπης. Όσο κι αν μας εξοργίζει αυτό, ο καπιταλισμός του μεσοπολέμου, ελάχιστα μοιράζεται (ευτυχώς!) με τον ύστερο καπιταλισμό της εποχής μας.
Βεβαίως, παραμένει αναντίρρητο το γεγονός της ατολμίας και της τυφλότητας των δυτικών χωρών (ιδίως των πρωθυπουργών Αγγλίας και Γαλλίας απέναντι) στον Χίτλερ. Και στην περίπτωση αυτή βέβαια υπήρξαν πολύ συγκεκριμένοι λόγοι που οδήγησαν στην υποχωρητικότητα (π.χ. η Βρετανία είχε χάσει τον ανθό της νεολαίας της, μεταξύ ανώτερων και κατώτερων τάξεων ομού, στον Α’ Π.Π. – ένα τραύμα που δεν ξεπέρασε ποτέ). Όμως, εκ του αποτελέσματος κρίνονται όλα, και το αποτέλεσμα δεν δικαίωσε τις επιλογές τους.
Εντόπισα και κάποιες άλλες ευκολίες, όπως για παράδειγμα την αναφορά στον αυστριακό δικτάτορα Κουρτ φον Σούσνικ, ο οποίος παρέδωσε τη χώρα του στον Χίτλερ. Μας λέει ο Βιγιάρ ότι μετά τον πόλεμο, «αυτός που είπε όχι σε όλες τις πολιτικές ελευθερίες», κλήθηκε να διδάξει πολιτικές επιστήμες στις ΗΠΑ (σε πανεπιστήμιο, για την ακρίβεια). Το… αβίαστο συμπέρασμα εδώ είναι η λογική συνέχεια μεταξύ του ακραίου εθνικισμού και του σύγχρονου καπιταλισμού που με περισσή υποκρισία παραβλέπει το εγκληματικό παρελθόν. Εμμέσως, λοιδορείται και ο «Αμερικανός φίλος» (αγαπημένο Light Motif της εθνικιστικής γαλλικής υπεροψίας).
Πολλά θα μπορούσα να πω εδώ, αντιστρέφοντας, για παράδειγμα, το διάχυτο στο βιβλίο οικονομικίστικο επιχείρημα του ιδίου του Βιγιάρ (όπως το χρησιμοποιεί στην περίπτωση των μεγαλοβιομηχάνων-συνεργατών): Ποιο το οικονομικό όφελος των ΗΠΑ από αυτή τη συναλλαγή; Εν συνεχεία, βάσει ποιας λογικής (συλλογική ευθύνη πάλι;) ο συγγραφέας θεωρεί πως ένα πανεπιστήμιο εκφράζει μια ολόκληρη χώρα; Τέλος, ένας εξίσου «αμερόληπτος» Αμερικανός συγγραφέας, θα αντέτεινε πως εφόσον οι εν υπνώσει Γάλλοι της εποχής είχαν κάνει στο ελάχιστο το χρέος τους απέναντι στους Ναζί, δεν θα χρειαζόταν να στείλουν εκείνοι τα παιδιά τους έναν ωκεανό μακριά για να σκοτωθούν απελευθερώνοντας μια ξένη χώρα. Και ούτω καθεξής…
Στα θετικά το στιγμιότυπο της τραγελαφικής, καίτοι αναίμακτης, εισβολής των γερμανικών τεθωρακισμένων στην Αυστρία που καθυστερεί εξαιτίας μηχανολογικών προβλημάτων, ανήκει στις καλύτερες στιγμές του βιβλίου. Ο Βιγιάρ επιτυγχάνει με μια εικόνα να μετατρέψει το τραγικό σε ιλαρό, παραπέμποντας ευθέως στους Καβαφικούς στίχους (περί Βαρβάρων). Σε αντίθεση με τα προηγούμενα παραδείγματα, εδώ δεν υποπίπτει στο αμάρτημα των αναγωγών και των αφαιρέσεων χάριν ευκολίας. Αφήνει την εικόνα να μιλήσει από μόνη της και τον αναγνώστη να βγάλει τα συμπεράσματά του δίχως υποβολέα.
Συγκεφαλαιώνοντας, δεν θεωρώ πως έχασα τον χρόνο μου (προς τιμήν του συγγραφέα, το κείμενο είναι μικρό), μολονότι δεν βρήκα κάτι μοναδικό, άξιο ιδιαίτερης προσοχής, ώστε να επανέλθω σε άλλα έργα του.
https://fotiskblog.home.blog/2019/12/...
Αυτό που επιχειρεί ο συγγραφέας στο βιβλίο αυτό είναι να διανθίσει το ιστορικό γεγονός της εποχής του Anschluss με κάποια κινηματογραφικού τύπου στιγμιότυπα, προσπαθώντας να προσδώσει στο αντικειμενικό συμβάν μια πιο υποκειμενική διάσταση – εστιάζοντας στη λεπτομέρεια, στο πώς συγκεκριμένα άτομα βίωσαν μια ακραία κατάσταση (σύμφωνα πάντα με την οπτική και την κοσμοθεωρία του).
Μπορεί εκ πρώτης να ακούγεται ενδιαφέρον το εγχείρημα συγγραφής ιστορίας με λογοτεχνίζον περίβλημα αλλά κατά τη γνώμη μου πάσχει, καθώς δεν κατορθώνει να υπερβεί τους περιορισμούς της έλλειψης ταλέντου που απαιτείται για κάτι τέτοιο. Για να το θέσω ωμά, ο Βιγιάρ δεν είναι σπουδαίος ιστορικός και σίγουρα όχι μεγάλος λογοτέχνης. Είναι αρκετά ικανός στο να προσδώσει αυτό το εμπορικά αξιοποιήσιμο υποκειμενικό ύφος στο ήδη γνωστό ιστορικό συμβάν, αλλά όταν επιχειρεί να προχωρήσει σε αναγωγές και συμπεράσματα αυτά είναι τελικά κοινότοπα, εύπεπτα και διδακτικά.
Το βιβλίο ξεκινά με το αποδεδειγμένο ιστορικό γεγονός πως οι Κρουπ, Ζίμενς, Μπάγερ, Άγκφα, Όπελ κλπ. στήριξαν τον Χίτλερ όταν κατάλαβαν πως βρισκόταν στον προθάλαμο της εξουσίας (με την ίδια ευκολία θα τον ξεφορτώνονταν αν τους δινόταν εναλλακτική λύση), διότι αυτό βόλευε τα συμφέροντά τους. Στη συνέχεια επιχειρείται ένα θεαματικό… ρακόρ, μια σύνδεση με το παρόν και το πώς ο κόσμος μας ακόμη χρησιμοποιεί τα προϊόντα εκείνων των ίδιων επιχειρήσεων που επέζησαν των καταστροφών. Προφανής στόχος του συγγραφέα να τονιστεί η συνέχεια δια μέσου των εποχών, απευθυνόμενος στο θυμικό του αναγνώστη που αναζητά κάποιον υπαίτιο (η δειλή και αυταρχική οικονομική ελίτ που τον στήριξε οικονομικά υπήρξε κατάπτυστη, αλλά και η κρίσιμη μάζα πολιτών που έφερε τον Χίτλερ στην εξουσία μέσω της ψήφου της δεν στερείται ευθυνών), κάποιον στον οποίο να στρέψει τη δίκαιη οργή του (κάτι που γίνεται προφανές και από σχεδόν όλες τις κριτικές που συνοδεύουν το βιβλίο αυτό).
Παραμένω εσαεί επιφυλακτικός στις αναγωγές και στα εύκολα συμπεράσματα (κυρίως οικονομικίστικης φύσης), ιδίως εκείνα που λαμβάνουν ως δεδομένο αυτό που καλούνται να αποδείξουν ή εστιάζουν στο επιμέρους, αναγάγοντάς το σε καθολικό. Όχι, εκείνοι οι άνθρωποι, σε εκείνες τις εποχές, δεν έχουν την παραμικρή σχέση με τα συμβούλια μετόχων, τα στελέχη και τους ιδιοκτήτες των επιχειρήσεων αυτών της εποχής μας. Έχουμε πολλά να καταλογίσουμε στη συγκαιρινή άπληστη άρχουσα τάξη για λάθη, ατασθαλίες κ.ο.κ., δίχως να της φορτώσουμε και την ενοχή του ναζιστικού παρελθόντος των προγόνων της. Το αυτό προφανώς ισχύει και για το πολιτικό/ οικονομικό σύστημα της εποχής, το οποίο ουδεμία σχέση με εκείνο της σημερινής Γερμανίας και εν γένει της Ευρώπης. Όσο κι αν μας εξοργίζει αυτό, ο καπιταλισμός του μεσοπολέμου, ελάχιστα μοιράζεται (ευτυχώς!) με τον ύστερο καπιταλισμό της εποχής μας.
Βεβαίως, παραμένει αναντίρρητο το γεγονός της ατολμίας και της τυφλότητας των δυτικών χωρών (ιδίως των πρωθυπουργών Αγγλίας και Γαλλίας απέναντι) στον Χίτλερ. Και στην περίπτωση αυτή βέβαια υπήρξαν πολύ συγκεκριμένοι λόγοι που οδήγησαν στην υποχωρητικότητα (π.χ. η Βρετανία είχε χάσει τον ανθό της νεολαίας της, μεταξύ ανώτερων και κατώτερων τάξεων ομού, στον Α’ Π.Π. – ένα τραύμα που δεν ξεπέρασε ποτέ). Όμως, εκ του αποτελέσματος κρίνονται όλα, και το αποτέλεσμα δεν δικαίωσε τις επιλογές τους.
Εντόπισα και κάποιες άλλες ευκολίες, όπως για παράδειγμα την αναφορά στον αυστριακό δικτάτορα Κουρτ φον Σούσνικ, ο οποίος παρέδωσε τη χώρα του στον Χίτλερ. Μας λέει ο Βιγιάρ ότι μετά τον πόλεμο, «αυτός που είπε όχι σε όλες τις πολιτικές ελευθερίες», κλήθηκε να διδάξει πολιτικές επιστήμες στις ΗΠΑ (σε πανεπιστήμιο, για την ακρίβεια). Το… αβίαστο συμπέρασμα εδώ είναι η λογική συνέχεια μεταξύ του ακραίου εθνικισμού και του σύγχρονου καπιταλισμού που με περισσή υποκρισία παραβλέπει το εγκληματικό παρελθόν. Εμμέσως, λοιδορείται και ο «Αμερικανός φίλος» (αγαπημένο Light Motif της εθνικιστικής γαλλικής υπεροψίας).
Πολλά θα μπορούσα να πω εδώ, αντιστρέφοντας, για παράδειγμα, το διάχυτο στο βιβλίο οικονομικίστικο επιχείρημα του ιδίου του Βιγιάρ (όπως το χρησιμοποιεί στην περίπτωση των μεγαλοβιομηχάνων-συνεργατών): Ποιο το οικονομικό όφελος των ΗΠΑ από αυτή τη συναλλαγή; Εν συνεχεία, βάσει ποιας λογικής (συλλογική ευθύνη πάλι;) ο συγγραφέας θεωρεί πως ένα πανεπιστήμιο εκφράζει μια ολόκληρη χώρα; Τέλος, ένας εξίσου «αμερόληπτος» Αμερικανός συγγραφέας, θα αντέτεινε πως εφόσον οι εν υπνώσει Γάλλοι της εποχής είχαν κάνει στο ελάχιστο το χρέος τους απέναντι στους Ναζί, δεν θα χρειαζόταν να στείλουν εκείνοι τα παιδιά τους έναν ωκεανό μακριά για να σκοτωθούν απελευθερώνοντας μια ξένη χώρα. Και ούτω καθεξής…
Στα θετικά το στιγμιότυπο της τραγελαφικής, καίτοι αναίμακτης, εισβολής των γερμανικών τεθωρακισμένων στην Αυστρία που καθυστερεί εξαιτίας μηχανολογικών προβλημάτων, ανήκει στις καλύτερες στιγμές του βιβλίου. Ο Βιγιάρ επιτυγχάνει με μια εικόνα να μετατρέψει το τραγικό σε ιλαρό, παραπέμποντας ευθέως στους Καβαφικούς στίχους (περί Βαρβάρων). Σε αντίθεση με τα προηγούμενα παραδείγματα, εδώ δεν υποπίπτει στο αμάρτημα των αναγωγών και των αφαιρέσεων χάριν ευκολίας. Αφήνει την εικόνα να μιλήσει από μόνη της και τον αναγνώστη να βγάλει τα συμπεράσματά του δίχως υποβολέα.
Συγκεφαλαιώνοντας, δεν θεωρώ πως έχασα τον χρόνο μου (προς τιμήν του συγγραφέα, το κείμενο είναι μικρό), μολονότι δεν βρήκα κάτι μοναδικό, άξιο ιδιαίτερης προσοχής, ώστε να επανέλθω σε άλλα έργα του.
https://fotiskblog.home.blog/2019/12/...
November 3, 2019
I am not sure what this book is meant to be. It has been described as a novel, possibly a historical novel: or could it be just plain history. The author refers to it as a “recit”, a sort of historical essay with a few extras. One of the purposes of the author is to warn: “Great catastrophes often creep up on us in tiny steps”.
Vuillard looks at the meeting in February 1933 between Hitler and 24 leading German industrialists, with names that are still prominent today in big business (Siemens, Krupp, Bayer, Farben etc). The aim was to encourage donations to the Nazi party, and it succeeded.
He then looks at the Anschluss in Austria in 1938 in a little more detail. Meetings between Hitler and the Austrian Chancellor; the German demands, designed to humiliate Austria and turn the country into a vassal state. Looking at the role of Seyss-Inquart, Schussnig, Miklas and the various Nazi players. There is even a description of a dinner in London where Ribbentrop is dining with Chamberlain, other members of the cabinet and Churchill amongst others, with the telegram letting Chamberlain knowing about the Anschluss arriving in the middle.
The question of historical accuracy is a significant one. The dinner with Ribbentrop actually happened the day before the Anschluss (the author got his date from Churchill’s memoirs and Churchill was notoriously hazy about dates). The story about the German armour breaking down on the way to Vienna again comes from Churchill and is contradicted by Guderian, who was a lot closer to what was going on than Churchill. Vuillard’s research and factual accuracy is obviously questionable. This would be less important in a novel when such precision can be stretched or changed for effect. It’s certainly not a historical essay. What Vuillard does do is assess the internal thoughts of some characters and make moral judgements on them. The sketches though are fairly light and insubstantial and this feels like history as postmodern performance.
Although the whole is rather flimsy, there were for me to very powerful points, both briefly touched on and both deserving of much more attention. One is the very high number of suicides on the day of the Anschluss and on the days following. Many of them were Jews, some not, but there was very quickly a ban in the press on reporting them: this means actual numbers are not known. The second involves big business and the big names of German industry. They used concentration camps as recruiting grounds for cheap labour, slave labour in fact. The numbers who died whilst working for firms like Siemens, Krupp, Farben and the rest were very high and very few lasted more than a few months.
These two points stood out for me and more focus on them and less on the internal reflections of the politicians would have made the whole stronger.
Vuillard looks at the meeting in February 1933 between Hitler and 24 leading German industrialists, with names that are still prominent today in big business (Siemens, Krupp, Bayer, Farben etc). The aim was to encourage donations to the Nazi party, and it succeeded.
He then looks at the Anschluss in Austria in 1938 in a little more detail. Meetings between Hitler and the Austrian Chancellor; the German demands, designed to humiliate Austria and turn the country into a vassal state. Looking at the role of Seyss-Inquart, Schussnig, Miklas and the various Nazi players. There is even a description of a dinner in London where Ribbentrop is dining with Chamberlain, other members of the cabinet and Churchill amongst others, with the telegram letting Chamberlain knowing about the Anschluss arriving in the middle.
The question of historical accuracy is a significant one. The dinner with Ribbentrop actually happened the day before the Anschluss (the author got his date from Churchill’s memoirs and Churchill was notoriously hazy about dates). The story about the German armour breaking down on the way to Vienna again comes from Churchill and is contradicted by Guderian, who was a lot closer to what was going on than Churchill. Vuillard’s research and factual accuracy is obviously questionable. This would be less important in a novel when such precision can be stretched or changed for effect. It’s certainly not a historical essay. What Vuillard does do is assess the internal thoughts of some characters and make moral judgements on them. The sketches though are fairly light and insubstantial and this feels like history as postmodern performance.
Although the whole is rather flimsy, there were for me to very powerful points, both briefly touched on and both deserving of much more attention. One is the very high number of suicides on the day of the Anschluss and on the days following. Many of them were Jews, some not, but there was very quickly a ban in the press on reporting them: this means actual numbers are not known. The second involves big business and the big names of German industry. They used concentration camps as recruiting grounds for cheap labour, slave labour in fact. The numbers who died whilst working for firms like Siemens, Krupp, Farben and the rest were very high and very few lasted more than a few months.
These two points stood out for me and more focus on them and less on the internal reflections of the politicians would have made the whole stronger.
April 29, 2018
Η ημερήσια διάταξη της εισβολής των Ναζί στην Αυστρία. Με την αδρά συμβολή των Siemens, BMW, Bayer, Agfa ,Shell κ.α που έπαιρναν αναλώσιμο εργατικό δυναμικό από τα στρατόπεδα συγκέντρωσης, που πέθαιναν από λοιμώδεις ασθένειες ή την πείνα κ ανεξοδα αντικαθιστουνταν
Η βρώμικη ιστορία της Ευρώπης, που συνεχίζεται με συγκινητική συνέπεια μέχρι σήμερα
Η βρώμικη ιστορία της Ευρώπης, που συνεχίζεται με συγκινητική συνέπεια μέχρι σήμερα
January 31, 2023
This is how planning a world war goes thanks to the military industrial complex.
Before and after
The psychopathology is described by showing actions during the preparation for the war and how the perpetrators acted afterward. The whole psychological picture unfolds, showing the ones who burn in their lunacy, the ones dominated and manipulated to do what they want, and the average peoples´ reaction to the madness in Austria.
Why the Austrian focus?
Much of the novel is about the preparation of the Anschluss of Austria to the German Reich and how the nazis forced the Austrian government to do what they wanted. Vuillard could have created a much broader and more compelling picture with more different viewpoints, especially by switching between before, during, and after the war at the Nurenberg trials.
Banality of evil
As if they were normal people, the mass murderers do smalltalk, have a good time, practice intellectual drivel about culture or just share some gossip, all while playing psychological warfare alpha male dominance games with one another to get the escalation started as soon and bloody as possible. Some are having a great time and believe in what they do, the cynical
rich ones want profit for their angel investments, and many are just opportunistic sheep that are afraid not to follow orders and dogmas.
The influence of industry
The maybe most forgotten role is the one of the big German companies that gave money to the nazis and thereby helped them rise to power. Without big money's interest in getting the laws they want by whoever is willing to be their sockpuppet, this won´t have been possible. That´s a point with far too less focus on in general history, again showing the importance of creating a big history picture of whose money caused which world events at any time from ancient Egypt to current global politics and war. Then one would start asking more questions about what happened to all that bling bling generated by the German war machine and where it is and works today.
A wiki walk can be as refreshing to the mind as a walk through nature in this completely overrated real life outside books:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89r...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ord...
Before and after
The psychopathology is described by showing actions during the preparation for the war and how the perpetrators acted afterward. The whole psychological picture unfolds, showing the ones who burn in their lunacy, the ones dominated and manipulated to do what they want, and the average peoples´ reaction to the madness in Austria.
Why the Austrian focus?
Much of the novel is about the preparation of the Anschluss of Austria to the German Reich and how the nazis forced the Austrian government to do what they wanted. Vuillard could have created a much broader and more compelling picture with more different viewpoints, especially by switching between before, during, and after the war at the Nurenberg trials.
Banality of evil
As if they were normal people, the mass murderers do smalltalk, have a good time, practice intellectual drivel about culture or just share some gossip, all while playing psychological warfare alpha male dominance games with one another to get the escalation started as soon and bloody as possible. Some are having a great time and believe in what they do, the cynical
rich ones want profit for their angel investments, and many are just opportunistic sheep that are afraid not to follow orders and dogmas.
The influence of industry
The maybe most forgotten role is the one of the big German companies that gave money to the nazis and thereby helped them rise to power. Without big money's interest in getting the laws they want by whoever is willing to be their sockpuppet, this won´t have been possible. That´s a point with far too less focus on in general history, again showing the importance of creating a big history picture of whose money caused which world events at any time from ancient Egypt to current global politics and war. Then one would start asking more questions about what happened to all that bling bling generated by the German war machine and where it is and works today.
A wiki walk can be as refreshing to the mind as a walk through nature in this completely overrated real life outside books:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89r...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ord...
July 22, 2019
Eric Vuillard recounts certain scenes from the 1930s during Hitler’s rise to power: German business titans giving money to fund his political campaigns, Hitler bullying Austrian Chancellor Schuschnigg into agreeing to the Anschluss, and Neville Chamberlain and co.’s failed attempts at appeasement.
This isn’t fiction; this is narrative history. So why does the blurb describe this as a “novel” and how did it win the 2017 Prix Goncourt, France’s highest literary prize for fiction?
Well, possibly for a couple of scenes that Vuillard may have fabricated: the German army breaking down on the Austrian border before the reunification and Ribbentrop and his wife messing Chamberlain around at a dinner party before leaving Britain for good. I’m familiar with this era of history but I don’t think either of these events happened. I remember reading about the German tanks getting lost on the way to Austria but not all of them breaking down on the side of the road. And did Ribbentrop know about the Anschluss before Chamberlain? Unlikely - what would be the point?
And that’s mostly why I didn’t like this book much: I know all of this already. I’m fascinated by World War 2 and I’ve read numerous books on the conflict so I was acquainted with a lot of this stuff, barring the above, before. I feel like it’s a bit of a cheat though - Vuillard doesn’t use much imagination to slightly tweak this nonfiction piece into a fictional one.
I can sort of see why he did it: in the same way that the Nazis bluffed their way to power, Vuillard is bluffing the reader by presenting some minor fiction as nonfiction. But it’s blurbed as a novel and won a prize for fiction so what’s the point…?
A large part of this short book is Vuillard getting on his soapbox about how corporations are to blame for all of this - if they hadn’t funded Hitler to begin with, he’d never have had the capital to do what he did, and that we shouldn’t use these brands (many of whom are still around today and doing very well). But that’s a bit too simplistic. You can’t blame everything that happened to what was basically everyday political fundraising, which continues to happen in every democracy around the world today. Yup, corporations drove the political agenda back then and continue to do so today. I agree, it sucks. But they didn’t cause what the Nazis did - I mean, corporations fund numerous political candidates, so should they take credit for the good they do as well? And sure, they were part of a larger problem but not the sole cause of it. It just feels like Vuillard is belatedly and uselessly virtue-signalling, decades after god knows how many other people have done the same. How brave of him to denounce these people so long after they’ve all passed away!
Sure, boycott these companies for their role in WW2, using prisoners in their factories until they dropped dead, or accept that those companies then aren’t the same companies today and that the circumstances were more complex than black and white morality allows. I mean, should we boycott/shame NASA for having Wernher von Braun as one of their directors? He made V2 rockets for the Nazis and then, post-WW2, thanks to Operation Paperclip, he was whisked away stateside to work on the space programme where his same rocket technology took Neil Armstrong to the moon. He also hanged the slowest workers outside of his rocket factories every week as incentive for high productivity. He was never tried for his crimes and lived peacefully in America well into the 1970s.
The Order of the Day is well-written and informative to those who won’t be as well-versed in these events. I suppose it underlines how remarkably the Nazis were able to bullshit their way into getting what they wanted, which I’m always amazed by. If only the Allies had had the balls to stand up to Hitler’s empty posturing in the first place, they’d have found just how unprepared Germany was for a war and WW2 and the Holocaust could’ve been averted! I guess never play Germans at poker?
Recounting certain well-documented historical scenes from the 1930s and name-and-shaming corporations who worked under the Third Reich wasn’t enough for me and I certainly don’t think this very ordinary book should’ve won any prizes, particularly for novels!
This isn’t fiction; this is narrative history. So why does the blurb describe this as a “novel” and how did it win the 2017 Prix Goncourt, France’s highest literary prize for fiction?
Well, possibly for a couple of scenes that Vuillard may have fabricated: the German army breaking down on the Austrian border before the reunification and Ribbentrop and his wife messing Chamberlain around at a dinner party before leaving Britain for good. I’m familiar with this era of history but I don’t think either of these events happened. I remember reading about the German tanks getting lost on the way to Austria but not all of them breaking down on the side of the road. And did Ribbentrop know about the Anschluss before Chamberlain? Unlikely - what would be the point?
And that’s mostly why I didn’t like this book much: I know all of this already. I’m fascinated by World War 2 and I’ve read numerous books on the conflict so I was acquainted with a lot of this stuff, barring the above, before. I feel like it’s a bit of a cheat though - Vuillard doesn’t use much imagination to slightly tweak this nonfiction piece into a fictional one.
I can sort of see why he did it: in the same way that the Nazis bluffed their way to power, Vuillard is bluffing the reader by presenting some minor fiction as nonfiction. But it’s blurbed as a novel and won a prize for fiction so what’s the point…?
A large part of this short book is Vuillard getting on his soapbox about how corporations are to blame for all of this - if they hadn’t funded Hitler to begin with, he’d never have had the capital to do what he did, and that we shouldn’t use these brands (many of whom are still around today and doing very well). But that’s a bit too simplistic. You can’t blame everything that happened to what was basically everyday political fundraising, which continues to happen in every democracy around the world today. Yup, corporations drove the political agenda back then and continue to do so today. I agree, it sucks. But they didn’t cause what the Nazis did - I mean, corporations fund numerous political candidates, so should they take credit for the good they do as well? And sure, they were part of a larger problem but not the sole cause of it. It just feels like Vuillard is belatedly and uselessly virtue-signalling, decades after god knows how many other people have done the same. How brave of him to denounce these people so long after they’ve all passed away!
Sure, boycott these companies for their role in WW2, using prisoners in their factories until they dropped dead, or accept that those companies then aren’t the same companies today and that the circumstances were more complex than black and white morality allows. I mean, should we boycott/shame NASA for having Wernher von Braun as one of their directors? He made V2 rockets for the Nazis and then, post-WW2, thanks to Operation Paperclip, he was whisked away stateside to work on the space programme where his same rocket technology took Neil Armstrong to the moon. He also hanged the slowest workers outside of his rocket factories every week as incentive for high productivity. He was never tried for his crimes and lived peacefully in America well into the 1970s.
The Order of the Day is well-written and informative to those who won’t be as well-versed in these events. I suppose it underlines how remarkably the Nazis were able to bullshit their way into getting what they wanted, which I’m always amazed by. If only the Allies had had the balls to stand up to Hitler’s empty posturing in the first place, they’d have found just how unprepared Germany was for a war and WW2 and the Holocaust could’ve been averted! I guess never play Germans at poker?
Recounting certain well-documented historical scenes from the 1930s and name-and-shaming corporations who worked under the Third Reich wasn’t enough for me and I certainly don’t think this very ordinary book should’ve won any prizes, particularly for novels!
June 22, 2018
Aquí la videoreseña: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zo-UH...
Este libro va sobre malas personas. O, al menos, personas de ética reprobable que, en su mayoría, no recibieron el castigo que merecían. En algunos casos ni siquiera la Historia los ha juzgado.
Comienza con empresarios alemanes financiando la campaña de Hitler (no os preocupéis, no sufrirán grandes consecuencias ni represalias, porque el capital es un amante de pocos prejuicios y tanto ayuda a un dictador fascista como a un político socialdemócrata y eso acalla muchas voces) y continúa para centrarse sobre todo en los días en los que se produjo el Anschluss, la anexión de Austria por los alemanes, que como todos sabemos se topó con gran oposición de los austriacos y una resistencia mayúscula de la comunidad internacional.
Ah, que no.
Se trata de un libro de no ficción, aunque ficcionalizado, que trata de ese principio del horror que todo el mundo, en mayor o menor medida, permitió, con sonrisas forzadas y palabras amables. Se permitió. Con la idea en mente de que "igual esa panda resulta que no pretende hacer todo lo que dice (aunque hasta entonces lo había hecho) e igual si los aplacamos no irá a más". Igual ese presidente que parece trastornado y suelta 18 chorradas por segundo y amenaza sin parar y promete hacer a su país grande otra vez -un imperio- está de bromis.
No tranquiliza mucho la lectura de esta novela. De hecho, no tranquiliza nada. Los seres humanos somos esa especie que tropieza mil veces con la misma piedra. Así que sí, es muy buena novela, corta y que se lee en un suspiro, pero te deja con un poco de mal cuerpo.
Este libro va sobre malas personas. O, al menos, personas de ética reprobable que, en su mayoría, no recibieron el castigo que merecían. En algunos casos ni siquiera la Historia los ha juzgado.
Comienza con empresarios alemanes financiando la campaña de Hitler (no os preocupéis, no sufrirán grandes consecuencias ni represalias, porque el capital es un amante de pocos prejuicios y tanto ayuda a un dictador fascista como a un político socialdemócrata y eso acalla muchas voces) y continúa para centrarse sobre todo en los días en los que se produjo el Anschluss, la anexión de Austria por los alemanes, que como todos sabemos se topó con gran oposición de los austriacos y una resistencia mayúscula de la comunidad internacional.
Ah, que no.
Se trata de un libro de no ficción, aunque ficcionalizado, que trata de ese principio del horror que todo el mundo, en mayor o menor medida, permitió, con sonrisas forzadas y palabras amables. Se permitió. Con la idea en mente de que "igual esa panda resulta que no pretende hacer todo lo que dice (aunque hasta entonces lo había hecho) e igual si los aplacamos no irá a más". Igual ese presidente que parece trastornado y suelta 18 chorradas por segundo y amenaza sin parar y promete hacer a su país grande otra vez -un imperio- está de bromis.
No tranquiliza mucho la lectura de esta novela. De hecho, no tranquiliza nada. Los seres humanos somos esa especie que tropieza mil veces con la misma piedra. Así que sí, es muy buena novela, corta y que se lee en un suspiro, pero te deja con un poco de mal cuerpo.
August 7, 2018
Ας διαβάσουν αυτο το βιβλίο όλα τα δίποδα ζωα που ασπάζονται ή φλερτάρουν με το ναζισμο-φασισμό-εθνικισμό ή όπως αλλιώς αποκαλούν κατ ευφημισμόν την ανοησία τους.
Ας το διαβάσουν όλοι οι υπόλοιποι νουνεχείς άνθρωποι ώστε να αντιληφθούν πώς γεννιεται και ποιοι τρεφουν το κτήνος.
Ας το διαβάσουν όλοι οι υπόλοιποι νουνεχείς άνθρωποι ώστε να αντιληφθούν πώς γεννιεται και ποιοι τρεφουν το κτήνος.
February 20, 2019
[3.5] What is the purpose of novels like this one, with stories that stick closely to real historical events?
I can only suppose that here, one purpose was to relate history in a style different from a serious non-fiction history book. And, if you are not otherwise very interested in the minutiae of the events, and don't object to the addition of the occasional sneeze, speculation on how a historical figure felt, and conversations about [classical] music politicians were known to like, it makes for more lively reading.
The other is perhaps to get the attention of that subgroup of literary fiction readers who rarely pick up a history book - especially in a case like this, where historical events are related with an eye to contemporary political relevance; it is one of the countless books that could share the title The Nazis: A Warning from History. It addresses support for the Nazis from German big business of the 1930s, and the stages of the Austrian Anschluss.
The Order of the Day is very short and was first published, in France, in May 2017 so it's reasonable to assume it, or most of it, was written in 2016 - although French writers were already concerned about the rise of nationalism a little earlier: there are several far-right characters in Virginie Despentes' Vernon Subutex 1, released in January 2015.
In 2016, analogies between the Nazis, the 1930s, and current global politics seemed urgent and novel to Anglo-American readers of centre and left-leaning mainstream news, but over the last 2-3 years they have become commonplace cliché, and been joined or superseded by more nuanced comment that we should be mindful equally of similarities and of differences. So The Order of the Day does not feel as fresh and timely as it may have when it was entered for (and won) the 2017 Prix Goncourt.
In a recent discussion thread, The Order of the Day was mooted as a potential inclusion on next month's Booker International longlist, as a 'Brexit book'. However, in the UK, the Brexit vote created divisions which do not mirror those in the novel, especially as readers of translated literary fiction are more likely than the average person to be Remain supporters, and most moderate individuals are tired of the accusation of "Nazi" being flung around by both sides. The Order of the Day is bookended by chapters indicting German captains of industry for financially and politically enabling the rise and endurance of Hitler's regime; they felt that a Nazi government would provide a stable environment for business. (For those outside the UK, big business is overwhelmingly in favour of remaining in the EU, and this is known to probably everyone in the country who's able to understand the news - but the idea of 'dark money' backing a no-deal Brexit only has currency among politics geeks on the left.) Near the end of the book, Alfried Krupp - son of one of those business leaders, and who, behind a facade of good publicity for making reparations to Jews, is said to have made anti-Semitic remarks and dragged out the reparation negotiations deliberately - "would nonetheless become one of the most powerful figures in the Common Market, the king of coal and steel, a pillar of Pax Europaea." The pro-European idea of the Pax Europaea as a strategy to prevent a similar war or repression happening again does not obviously come up in the book. Nazi entanglement with German manufacturing is shown as an inescapable legacy, in the same way that historians of colonial slavery in the Americas have shown that its influence remains with us not only because of racial inequality, but in via Western taste for sugar, coffee and cotton.
I don't think The Order of the Day works as a Brexit novel specifically- it is better seen as one relating to the rise of the far right in general, and a cautionary tale about the complacency of neighbouring countries - British and French inaction and appeasement are prominent in the diplomatic scenes.
Although recent events do not bear out some of Vuillard's details:
It’s strange how the most dyed-in-the-wool tyrants still vaguely respect due process, as if they want to make it appear that they aren’t abusing procedure, even while riding roughshod over every convention.
Whilst it is overkill to describe Trump as a tyrant, this generalisation about dangerous political leaders is clearly not true of him.
Other reviews, and blurbs, for the book have described it as narrating a series of steps by which the Nazis rose to power and war became inevitable. However, it jumps straight from the meeting of business leaders with Hitler in early 1933, to the 1938 "summit" which preceded the Anschluss. There are many points in between which could have been highlighted if charting that trajectory was the novel's aim, not least Britain and France's impassive stance on Nazi involvement in the Spanish Civil War. It isn't clear to me why Vuillard has chosen the Anschluss as his focus (perhaps he is implying that another power should have invaded and destroyed the broken-down German materiel near Linz, starting the war earlier) - but it was quite interesting, as I haven't studied the political history of WWII formally since secondary school, and most of my own reading has been about social history or tactics. There were quite a few details here I hadn't heard before, or had long forgotten. I suppose I've never actively sought this stuff out because I still find it a bit distasteful reading about the Nazi leadership without comedy to take the edge off - these warmongers without whom none of my grandparents would have met, and two of them would not have had to hide in cargo crates - and in some echo of that, I felt slightly nervous through the 1930s and the war in the book, and relaxed once the narrative got to the Nuremberg Trials and we've 'survived'.
The first review I read of this book was from the Spectator, posted in a Goodreads discussion thread. There was some suggestion that the Spectator reviewer disliked the book because of opinions in the narrative. Not those about Hitler and other major politicians, which it describes as 'uncontroversial' but some phrases about business, for example: Corruption is an irreducible line item in the budget of large companies, and it goes by several names: lobbying fees, gifts, political contributions.. Or perhaps the hints that the contemporary global situation is growing more and more like Chamberlain's dinner party with Ribbentrop, where the PM, a model of upper-middle class politeness, continued to listen to the German ambassador's small-talk without confrontation, although he'd been handed news of the Anschluss.
For me personally, the most interesting and confrontational point was part of a sentence from Lord Halifax: "'And I daresay if we were in their [the Nazis'] position we might feel the same.’ Such were the foundations of what, still today, we call the Policy of Appeasement."
For those of us who grew up with the ideal of listening to, understanding and empathising with all sides - and that it was more laudable to strive to understand those on the other side than to be partisan (a product of the tail end of the post-war consensus and the dawn of third-way politics) the recent shift towards polarised extremes and no-platform/don't debate fascists is disorientating. It is hard to find your footing when some of the ideas you learnt as the polestar of everyday morality don't always correlate with magnetic north any more, but sometimes they still do. Now the rules have different patterns, but only in some places, and the pin of the compass won't quite settle.
Otherwise, for me the most interesting parts of The Order of the Day were not about political leaders. They were about the lesser-known famous people mentioned in passing, like the artist Louis Soutter (whose drawings, made in an asylum, Vuillard sees as an unwitting allegory for the looming war); the tennis player Bill Tilden, about who Ribbentrop bores on; and the brief list of ordinary Austrian men and women who killed themselves as the Germans were, to all intents and purposes, invading, and the life stories Vuillard imagines for them.
I am not sure to whom I'd recommend this book - it seems like something you'd read because you think you should, or because it won't take long - but if you want to know more about the Anschluss beyond its definition, whilst recognising that this is slightly embellished fiction, this novella is less dry than a textbook, and short enough not to overstay its welcome.
(read & reviewed Feb 2019)
I can only suppose that here, one purpose was to relate history in a style different from a serious non-fiction history book. And, if you are not otherwise very interested in the minutiae of the events, and don't object to the addition of the occasional sneeze, speculation on how a historical figure felt, and conversations about [classical] music politicians were known to like, it makes for more lively reading.
The other is perhaps to get the attention of that subgroup of literary fiction readers who rarely pick up a history book - especially in a case like this, where historical events are related with an eye to contemporary political relevance; it is one of the countless books that could share the title The Nazis: A Warning from History. It addresses support for the Nazis from German big business of the 1930s, and the stages of the Austrian Anschluss.
The Order of the Day is very short and was first published, in France, in May 2017 so it's reasonable to assume it, or most of it, was written in 2016 - although French writers were already concerned about the rise of nationalism a little earlier: there are several far-right characters in Virginie Despentes' Vernon Subutex 1, released in January 2015.
In 2016, analogies between the Nazis, the 1930s, and current global politics seemed urgent and novel to Anglo-American readers of centre and left-leaning mainstream news, but over the last 2-3 years they have become commonplace cliché, and been joined or superseded by more nuanced comment that we should be mindful equally of similarities and of differences. So The Order of the Day does not feel as fresh and timely as it may have when it was entered for (and won) the 2017 Prix Goncourt.
In a recent discussion thread, The Order of the Day was mooted as a potential inclusion on next month's Booker International longlist, as a 'Brexit book'. However, in the UK, the Brexit vote created divisions which do not mirror those in the novel, especially as readers of translated literary fiction are more likely than the average person to be Remain supporters, and most moderate individuals are tired of the accusation of "Nazi" being flung around by both sides. The Order of the Day is bookended by chapters indicting German captains of industry for financially and politically enabling the rise and endurance of Hitler's regime; they felt that a Nazi government would provide a stable environment for business. (For those outside the UK, big business is overwhelmingly in favour of remaining in the EU, and this is known to probably everyone in the country who's able to understand the news - but the idea of 'dark money' backing a no-deal Brexit only has currency among politics geeks on the left.) Near the end of the book, Alfried Krupp - son of one of those business leaders, and who, behind a facade of good publicity for making reparations to Jews, is said to have made anti-Semitic remarks and dragged out the reparation negotiations deliberately - "would nonetheless become one of the most powerful figures in the Common Market, the king of coal and steel, a pillar of Pax Europaea." The pro-European idea of the Pax Europaea as a strategy to prevent a similar war or repression happening again does not obviously come up in the book. Nazi entanglement with German manufacturing is shown as an inescapable legacy, in the same way that historians of colonial slavery in the Americas have shown that its influence remains with us not only because of racial inequality, but in via Western taste for sugar, coffee and cotton.
I don't think The Order of the Day works as a Brexit novel specifically- it is better seen as one relating to the rise of the far right in general, and a cautionary tale about the complacency of neighbouring countries - British and French inaction and appeasement are prominent in the diplomatic scenes.
Although recent events do not bear out some of Vuillard's details:
It’s strange how the most dyed-in-the-wool tyrants still vaguely respect due process, as if they want to make it appear that they aren’t abusing procedure, even while riding roughshod over every convention.
Whilst it is overkill to describe Trump as a tyrant, this generalisation about dangerous political leaders is clearly not true of him.
Other reviews, and blurbs, for the book have described it as narrating a series of steps by which the Nazis rose to power and war became inevitable. However, it jumps straight from the meeting of business leaders with Hitler in early 1933, to the 1938 "summit" which preceded the Anschluss. There are many points in between which could have been highlighted if charting that trajectory was the novel's aim, not least Britain and France's impassive stance on Nazi involvement in the Spanish Civil War. It isn't clear to me why Vuillard has chosen the Anschluss as his focus (perhaps he is implying that another power should have invaded and destroyed the broken-down German materiel near Linz, starting the war earlier) - but it was quite interesting, as I haven't studied the political history of WWII formally since secondary school, and most of my own reading has been about social history or tactics. There were quite a few details here I hadn't heard before, or had long forgotten. I suppose I've never actively sought this stuff out because I still find it a bit distasteful reading about the Nazi leadership without comedy to take the edge off - these warmongers without whom none of my grandparents would have met, and two of them would not have had to hide in cargo crates - and in some echo of that, I felt slightly nervous through the 1930s and the war in the book, and relaxed once the narrative got to the Nuremberg Trials and we've 'survived'.
The first review I read of this book was from the Spectator, posted in a Goodreads discussion thread. There was some suggestion that the Spectator reviewer disliked the book because of opinions in the narrative. Not those about Hitler and other major politicians, which it describes as 'uncontroversial' but some phrases about business, for example: Corruption is an irreducible line item in the budget of large companies, and it goes by several names: lobbying fees, gifts, political contributions.. Or perhaps the hints that the contemporary global situation is growing more and more like Chamberlain's dinner party with Ribbentrop, where the PM, a model of upper-middle class politeness, continued to listen to the German ambassador's small-talk without confrontation, although he'd been handed news of the Anschluss.
For me personally, the most interesting and confrontational point was part of a sentence from Lord Halifax: "'And I daresay if we were in their [the Nazis'] position we might feel the same.’ Such were the foundations of what, still today, we call the Policy of Appeasement."
For those of us who grew up with the ideal of listening to, understanding and empathising with all sides - and that it was more laudable to strive to understand those on the other side than to be partisan (a product of the tail end of the post-war consensus and the dawn of third-way politics) the recent shift towards polarised extremes and no-platform/don't debate fascists is disorientating. It is hard to find your footing when some of the ideas you learnt as the polestar of everyday morality don't always correlate with magnetic north any more, but sometimes they still do. Now the rules have different patterns, but only in some places, and the pin of the compass won't quite settle.
Otherwise, for me the most interesting parts of The Order of the Day were not about political leaders. They were about the lesser-known famous people mentioned in passing, like the artist Louis Soutter (whose drawings, made in an asylum, Vuillard sees as an unwitting allegory for the looming war); the tennis player Bill Tilden, about who Ribbentrop bores on; and the brief list of ordinary Austrian men and women who killed themselves as the Germans were, to all intents and purposes, invading, and the life stories Vuillard imagines for them.
I am not sure to whom I'd recommend this book - it seems like something you'd read because you think you should, or because it won't take long - but if you want to know more about the Anschluss beyond its definition, whilst recognising that this is slightly embellished fiction, this novella is less dry than a textbook, and short enough not to overstay its welcome.
(read & reviewed Feb 2019)
October 3, 2020
Πάντως επιμένω εάν ο Χίτλερ είχε πάει σε ψυχίατρο και είχε δεχθεί να δοκιμάσει ειδικές φαρμακευτικές ψυχοτρόπες θεραπείες, η ανθρώπινη Ιστορία θα είχε αλλάξει πλήρως, τελείως, παντελώς.
Αυτό το βιβλίο, υποθέτω αφορά κυρίως την αυστριακή Anschluss (προσάρτηση) από τη ναζιστική Γερμανία το 1938. Ωστόσο, ειλικρινά δεν είμαι απολύτως βέβαιη, καθώς περιπλανήθηκε πολύ ανάμεσα σε διάφορες πτυχές της ναζιστικής ιστορίας και της σύγχρονης εποχής. Για να το ονομάσουμε ακόμη και ένα ιστορικό δοκίμιο είναι λίγο ή πολύ επιφυλακτικό, καθώς δεν αναφέρονται πηγές ούτε βιβλιογραφία.
Τέλος, η γραφή είναι ως επί το πλείστον αναφορικά ρηχή και πολύ περιστασιακή για σοβαρή ιστοριογραφία.
Τα περίπλοκα σενάρια του Vuillard χρωματίζουν ένα επαίσχυντο πορτρέτο μεγάλων επιχειρήσεων που εμπλέκονται στην πολεμική μηχανή της ναζιστικής Γερμανίας.
Παρόλα αυτά Ο συγγραφέας γράφει όμορφα,απλοϊκά
και λυρικά, πολλές φορές επιφανειακά και αποστασιοποιείται συναισθηματικά απο τα γεγονότα δημιουργώντας μια αγαστή συνεργασία ανάμεσα σε συγγραφέα και αναγνώστη. Όμως, δίνει στον αναγνώστη μια επισκόπηση του τρόπου με τον οποίο η ναζιστική συνάρτηση για προπαγάνδα και υπερβολή βοήθησε στη δημιουργία της ψευδαίσθησης της εξουσίας και της δύναμης στα αυστριακά σύνορα και δίνει στον αναγνώστη μια λίστα.
Ναι, μια λίστα που υπενθυμίζει στην παγκόσμια αμφισημία των εγκληματικών πράξεων ότι τα περιεχόμενα του βιβλίου δεν πρέπει να θεωρούνται ότι ανήκουν σε ένα μακρινό παρελθόν.
Η λίστα: ThyssenKrupp, Bayer, BMW, Daimler, IG Farben, Agfa, Shell, Schneider, Telefunken και Siemens. Αυτά τα τερατώδη βιομηχανικά και ναζιστικά ανθρωποειδή με τα προϊόντα τους και τα συμπαρομαρτούντα τους έζησαν και επευφημήθηκαν και μετά το τέλος του πολέμου. Αυτοί οι ίδιοι βαρύτατοι εξελιγμένα βιομηχανικοί και ευνοημένα πάμπλουτοι πρωκτοκαταναγκαστικοί οσφυοκάμπτες του Χίτλερ λεηλάτησαν τους άντρες και τις γυναίκες του Μαουτχάουζεν, του Νταχάου, του Πάπενμπουργκ, του Σατσενχάουζεν, του Νατζβάιλερ-Στρούτοφ, του Μπουχενβαλντ, του Σέρμπεκ, της Ντόρα-Μίτμπεμπαου, του Γκρος-Ρόζεν, του Σαχσενχάουζεν, του Ράβενσμπρουκ, του Άουσβιτς και του Νουενγκάμ, προσπαθούν σήμερα που βρίσκονται ακόμη μέσα στα σπίτια όλων μας, να δημιουργήσουν μια αύρα αξιοπρέπειας, ανάλογη με την μπλόφα, σαν αυτή που υπήρχε στα αυστριακά σύνορα το 1938.
Η άνοδος της ναζιστικής Γερμανίας δεν ήταν προκαθορισμένη. Αυτό συνέβη επειδή οι άνθρωποι στην Αγγλία, τη Γαλλία και την Αυστρία, οι οποίοι θα μπορούσαν να αντέξουν τις εγκληματικές τακτικές εκφοβισμού του Χίτλερ και των οπαδών του, χαιρέτησαν αντί να αντιταχθούν. Ο αριθμός των αυτοκτονιών αυξήθηκε μετά την Άνσχλους, όταν αξιοπρεπείς Αυστριακοί αυτοκτόνησαν ακυρώνοντας τα μαρτύρια της Ναζιστικής κατοχής στη χώρα τους. Όταν τελείωσε ο πόλεμος, πολλοί από τους υπεύθυνους, όπως ο Krupp, πήραν πρωταγωνιστικά το ρόλο τους ως αποζημιωτές!... στρατοπέδων κατοχής και ανθρώπινης εξολόθρευσης.
Δεν υπάρχει τίποτα εδώ που να μην μπορεί να βρεθεί σε ένα ψάξιμο στη Βικιπαίδεια 2 σελίδων. Μην περιμένετε να βρείτε κάτι νέο εδώ. Η ιστορία που υποτίθεται ότι χρησιμεύει ως όχημα για την εξήγηση ενός ιστορικού γεγονότος είναι αλυσιδωτή.
Φυσικά δεν πρόκειται για σοβαρή ιστορία. Δεν προσθέτει σχεδόν τίποτα νέο - είτε στην πραγματική έρευνα είτε στη νέα ερμηνεία - σε αυτό που είναι ήδη γνωστό για την Ανσχλού της Αυστρίας το 1938 (εκτός από το να απεικονίζει με φρικτό τρόπο τη γερμανική στρατιωτική είσοδο στην Αυστρία ως περισσότερη κυκλοφοριακή συμφόρηση Keystone Kops από την εισβολή). Ο Vuillard δημιούργησε αυτό που ισοδυναμεί με σενάριο και όχι ιστορία. Σε αυτό το βαθμό, είναι περιστασιακά ενδιαφέρον, αλλά όχι διαφωτιστικό.
Καλή αναγνώστη.
Πολλούς ασπασμούς.
Αυτό το βιβλίο, υποθέτω αφορά κυρίως την αυστριακή Anschluss (προσάρτηση) από τη ναζιστική Γερμανία το 1938. Ωστόσο, ειλικρινά δεν είμαι απολύτως βέβαιη, καθώς περιπλανήθηκε πολύ ανάμεσα σε διάφορες πτυχές της ναζιστικής ιστορίας και της σύγχρονης εποχής. Για να το ονομάσουμε ακόμη και ένα ιστορικό δοκίμιο είναι λίγο ή πολύ επιφυλακτικό, καθώς δεν αναφέρονται πηγές ούτε βιβλιογραφία.
Τέλος, η γραφή είναι ως επί το πλείστον αναφορικά ρηχή και πολύ περιστασιακή για σοβαρή ιστοριογραφία.
Τα περίπλοκα σενάρια του Vuillard χρωματίζουν ένα επαίσχυντο πορτρέτο μεγάλων επιχειρήσεων που εμπλέκονται στην πολεμική μηχανή της ναζιστικής Γερμανίας.
Παρόλα αυτά Ο συγγραφέας γράφει όμορφα,απλοϊκά
και λυρικά, πολλές φορές επιφανειακά και αποστασιοποιείται συναισθηματικά απο τα γεγονότα δημιουργώντας μια αγαστή συνεργασία ανάμεσα σε συγγραφέα και αναγνώστη. Όμως, δίνει στον αναγνώστη μια επισκόπηση του τρόπου με τον οποίο η ναζιστική συνάρτηση για προπαγάνδα και υπερβολή βοήθησε στη δημιουργία της ψευδαίσθησης της εξουσίας και της δύναμης στα αυστριακά σύνορα και δίνει στον αναγνώστη μια λίστα.
Ναι, μια λίστα που υπενθυμίζει στην παγκόσμια αμφισημία των εγκληματικών πράξεων ότι τα περιεχόμενα του βιβλίου δεν πρέπει να θεωρούνται ότι ανήκουν σε ένα μακρινό παρελθόν.
Η λίστα: ThyssenKrupp, Bayer, BMW, Daimler, IG Farben, Agfa, Shell, Schneider, Telefunken και Siemens. Αυτά τα τερατώδη βιομηχανικά και ναζιστικά ανθρωποειδή με τα προϊόντα τους και τα συμπαρομαρτούντα τους έζησαν και επευφημήθηκαν και μετά το τέλος του πολέμου. Αυτοί οι ίδιοι βαρύτατοι εξελιγμένα βιομηχανικοί και ευνοημένα πάμπλουτοι πρωκτοκαταναγκαστικοί οσφυοκάμπτες του Χίτλερ λεηλάτησαν τους άντρες και τις γυναίκες του Μαουτχάουζεν, του Νταχάου, του Πάπενμπουργκ, του Σατσενχάουζεν, του Νατζβάιλερ-Στρούτοφ, του Μπουχενβαλντ, του Σέρμπεκ, της Ντόρα-Μίτμπεμπαου, του Γκρος-Ρόζεν, του Σαχσενχάουζεν, του Ράβενσμπρουκ, του Άουσβιτς και του Νουενγκάμ, προσπαθούν σήμερα που βρίσκονται ακόμη μέσα στα σπίτια όλων μας, να δημιουργήσουν μια αύρα αξιοπρέπειας, ανάλογη με την μπλόφα, σαν αυτή που υπήρχε στα αυστριακά σύνορα το 1938.
Η άνοδος της ναζιστικής Γερμανίας δεν ήταν προκαθορισμένη. Αυτό συνέβη επειδή οι άνθρωποι στην Αγγλία, τη Γαλλία και την Αυστρία, οι οποίοι θα μπορούσαν να αντέξουν τις εγκληματικές τακτικές εκφοβισμού του Χίτλερ και των οπαδών του, χαιρέτησαν αντί να αντιταχθούν. Ο αριθμός των αυτοκτονιών αυξήθηκε μετά την Άνσχλους, όταν αξιοπρεπείς Αυστριακοί αυτοκτόνησαν ακυρώνοντας τα μαρτύρια της Ναζιστικής κατοχής στη χώρα τους. Όταν τελείωσε ο πόλεμος, πολλοί από τους υπεύθυνους, όπως ο Krupp, πήραν πρωταγωνιστικά το ρόλο τους ως αποζημιωτές!... στρατοπέδων κατοχής και ανθρώπινης εξολόθρευσης.
Δεν υπάρχει τίποτα εδώ που να μην μπορεί να βρεθεί σε ένα ψάξιμο στη Βικιπαίδεια 2 σελίδων. Μην περιμένετε να βρείτε κάτι νέο εδώ. Η ιστορία που υποτίθεται ότι χρησιμεύει ως όχημα για την εξήγηση ενός ιστορικού γεγονότος είναι αλυσιδωτή.
Φυσικά δεν πρόκειται για σοβαρή ιστορία. Δεν προσθέτει σχεδόν τίποτα νέο - είτε στην πραγματική έρευνα είτε στη νέα ερμηνεία - σε αυτό που είναι ήδη γνωστό για την Ανσχλού της Αυστρίας το 1938 (εκτός από το να απεικονίζει με φρικτό τρόπο τη γερμανική στρατιωτική είσοδο στην Αυστρία ως περισσότερη κυκλοφοριακή συμφόρηση Keystone Kops από την εισβολή). Ο Vuillard δημιούργησε αυτό που ισοδυναμεί με σενάριο και όχι ιστορία. Σε αυτό το βαθμό, είναι περιστασιακά ενδιαφέρον, αλλά όχι διαφωτιστικό.
Καλή αναγνώστη.
Πολλούς ασπασμούς.
March 3, 2022
This is not your typical WWII book. At first, I thought it was non-fiction, and it is definitely based on what happened in Austria in the lead-up to WWII, but it also provides more interpretation, characterization, and storyline behind it, so it is a novel of historical fiction. It begins in 1933, when Hitler meets German industrial leaders to obtain financing for his plans. It then moves to the Austrian leaders in 1938 as they attempt to delay Anschluss. It is short and focused solely on one episode in history.
It reads as an indictment of the companies that funded Hitler’s campaigns, resulting in great personal gain and free labor from the concentration camps. It employs excerpts from the Nuremburg trials to portray Hitler’s use of propaganda, bluff, and manipulations. It serves as a warning. Be extremely wary of supporting demagogues. "Great catastrophes often creep up on us in tiny steps."
It reads as an indictment of the companies that funded Hitler’s campaigns, resulting in great personal gain and free labor from the concentration camps. It employs excerpts from the Nuremburg trials to portray Hitler’s use of propaganda, bluff, and manipulations. It serves as a warning. Be extremely wary of supporting demagogues. "Great catastrophes often creep up on us in tiny steps."
March 8, 2020
Δεύτερο βιβλίο του Βιγιάρ μετά το Κονγκό που διαβάζω και καταλήγω στο ίδιο συμπέρασμα. Το ύφος της αφήγησης, σαν ενός παραμυθιού, δεν ταιριάζει με το περιεχόμενο. Θεωρώ πως ήταν καλύτερο από το Κονγκό. Σημαντικές πτυχές της ιστορίας η συνεργασία των μεγάλων βιομηχάνων με τον Χίτλερ και το παρασκήνιο της εύκολης προσάρτησης της Αυστρίας στο ναζιστικό καθεστώς, σαν υπενθύμιση, αλλά σαν ιστορικά γεγονότα θα προτιμούσα ένα αμιγώς ιστορικό βιβλίο.
March 1, 2024
Eigentlich mag ich dieses Genre, in dem Eric Vuillard schreibt. Keine Ahnung, wie man es bezeichnen soll, diese Mischung aus Sachbuch und fiktionalen Elementen. Westermann, Illies, Binet, Wittstock. Es gibt viele Autoren, die ich mit großem Gewinn gelesen habe. Warum hat es bei Vuillard nicht funktioniert? Ich habe mich von Anfang gefragt, warum er dieses Buch geschrieben hat. Warum er? Warum diese Collage aus szenenhaften Betrachtungen? Warum diese Wertungen in Form von Sarkasmus und beissendem Spot? Was will er uns aufzeigen? Worin unterscheidet sich das Buch von den unzähligen anderen Büchern, die versuchen, den Aufstieg des Nationalsozialismus zu erklären?
Die anderen genannten Autoren haben einen klar erkennbaren roten Faden in ihren Büchern. Sie picken sich einen Zeitabschnitt oder eine Person heraus und beleuchten genau. Vuillard fängt mit den deutschen Großindustriellen an, macht dann mit Schuschnigg und Hitler im Berchtesgaden weiter und kommt über Göring und Rippendrop in die Downing Street, um danach in Österreich einzumarschieren. Der Autor rauscht mit einem Affenzahn durch die Geschichte. Die Bilder der Collage fliegen einem wie eine Diaschau um die Ohren. Das Feuilleton meint, dass man durch dieses Meisterwerk eine neue Sicht auf die Dinge bekommt. Ich mag schon keine Collagen in der Kunst, keine Potpourris in der Musik und selten Kurzgeschichten in der Literatur. Daher bewirkt Vuillards Stil bei mir nur, dass ich mich beginne, mich für seine Themen stärker zu interessieren, und ich recherchiere. Und dann lese ich über den Anschluss Österreichs teilweise die exakten Beschreibungen von Vuillards auf der entsprechenden Wikipedia-Seite und bin noch stärker irritiert.
Zudem mag Vuillard markante Sätze, die sein Geschildertes zusammenfassen. „Die größten Katastrophen kommen oft auf leisen Sohlen.“ So vereinfacht er die Politik der Nationalsozialisten bis zum Jahr 1938. Stimmt das? „Was an diesem Krieg verblüfft, ist der unerhörte Erfolg der Frechheit, der uns eines lehren sollte: Die Welt gehorcht dem Bluff. Selbst die seriöseste, steifste Welt, selbst die alte Ordnung, die sich niemals dem Anspruch der Gerechtigkeit beugt oder vor dem aufständischen Volk einknickt: Sie tut es vor dem Bluff.“ Wirklich? Hitler hat geblufft. Ich empfand seine Einstellung von Anfang an klar und eindeutig. Die Gegner wussten um seine Intentionen und wollte es nicht wahrhaben oder versuchten das Spiel mitzuspielen. Aber ein Bluff in Form eines bewusstes Irre führen? Wenn ich das mit Wittstocks "Der Winter der Literatur" vergleiche, wo allen beschriebenen Intelektuellen bereits im ersten Monat nach der Machtergreifung klar war, in welche Richtung das Land steuert, dann kann ich mir wirklich nicht vorstellen, dass Champerlain, Halifax oder Daladier verblüfft waren von Deutschlands Machtanspruch und Drang nach territorialer Ausdehnung. Auch sind die Aufmärsche und Massenkundgebungen, das Geschrei, die Bücherverbrennung, die Masseninhaftierungen alles andere als ein Indiz für ein Vorgehen "auf leisen Sohlen."
Sprachlich ist die Erzählung hervorragend, konzeptionell und inhaltlich aber für mich fragwürdig. Binets HHhH fand ich Wesentlich besser, um mal einen Vergleich mit einem anderen Franzosen zu wagen, der sich in die dunkle, deutsche Geschichte eingearbeitet hat.
Die anderen genannten Autoren haben einen klar erkennbaren roten Faden in ihren Büchern. Sie picken sich einen Zeitabschnitt oder eine Person heraus und beleuchten genau. Vuillard fängt mit den deutschen Großindustriellen an, macht dann mit Schuschnigg und Hitler im Berchtesgaden weiter und kommt über Göring und Rippendrop in die Downing Street, um danach in Österreich einzumarschieren. Der Autor rauscht mit einem Affenzahn durch die Geschichte. Die Bilder der Collage fliegen einem wie eine Diaschau um die Ohren. Das Feuilleton meint, dass man durch dieses Meisterwerk eine neue Sicht auf die Dinge bekommt. Ich mag schon keine Collagen in der Kunst, keine Potpourris in der Musik und selten Kurzgeschichten in der Literatur. Daher bewirkt Vuillards Stil bei mir nur, dass ich mich beginne, mich für seine Themen stärker zu interessieren, und ich recherchiere. Und dann lese ich über den Anschluss Österreichs teilweise die exakten Beschreibungen von Vuillards auf der entsprechenden Wikipedia-Seite und bin noch stärker irritiert.
Zudem mag Vuillard markante Sätze, die sein Geschildertes zusammenfassen. „Die größten Katastrophen kommen oft auf leisen Sohlen.“ So vereinfacht er die Politik der Nationalsozialisten bis zum Jahr 1938. Stimmt das? „Was an diesem Krieg verblüfft, ist der unerhörte Erfolg der Frechheit, der uns eines lehren sollte: Die Welt gehorcht dem Bluff. Selbst die seriöseste, steifste Welt, selbst die alte Ordnung, die sich niemals dem Anspruch der Gerechtigkeit beugt oder vor dem aufständischen Volk einknickt: Sie tut es vor dem Bluff.“ Wirklich? Hitler hat geblufft. Ich empfand seine Einstellung von Anfang an klar und eindeutig. Die Gegner wussten um seine Intentionen und wollte es nicht wahrhaben oder versuchten das Spiel mitzuspielen. Aber ein Bluff in Form eines bewusstes Irre führen? Wenn ich das mit Wittstocks "Der Winter der Literatur" vergleiche, wo allen beschriebenen Intelektuellen bereits im ersten Monat nach der Machtergreifung klar war, in welche Richtung das Land steuert, dann kann ich mir wirklich nicht vorstellen, dass Champerlain, Halifax oder Daladier verblüfft waren von Deutschlands Machtanspruch und Drang nach territorialer Ausdehnung. Auch sind die Aufmärsche und Massenkundgebungen, das Geschrei, die Bücherverbrennung, die Masseninhaftierungen alles andere als ein Indiz für ein Vorgehen "auf leisen Sohlen."
Sprachlich ist die Erzählung hervorragend, konzeptionell und inhaltlich aber für mich fragwürdig. Binets HHhH fand ich Wesentlich besser, um mal einen Vergleich mit einem anderen Franzosen zu wagen, der sich in die dunkle, deutsche Geschichte eingearbeitet hat.
December 28, 2024
Suptilan, elegantan i kompaktan roman, hronika bez epske širine, koja brižljivim pripovedanjem formira prostirku za užase. Još jednom je pokazano kako ublaženi prizori, nagoveštaji, mogu da režu dublje i bolnije od onoga što je neposredno, a da je istorija, ako hoćemo da je prigrlimo u svoj svojoj punoći, duboko cinična.
A osim što je cinična, ona je pre stvarena po kuloarima rezidencija i multinacionalnih kompanija, nego u zvaničnim institucijama. Dokumenta su uvek sekundarna u odnosu na pravu, živu istoriju, koja je dovela do njih. Imajući ovo u vidu, jasno je zašto je jedan od presudnih događaja, omogućilac Drugog svetskog rata, susret 24 industrijalca koji će u februaru 1933. podržati nacistički projekat. Među njima i firme: Opel, Siemens, Telefunken, BASF, Allianz.
I kako a da se ne setim prokletog kaučuka, zbog koga je u Kongu umrlo 10 miliona ljudi, odlukom Leopolda II, jednog od najvećih zlotvora u istoriji čovečanstva. Ili kako da se ne setim Nivee u „Limenom dobošu” Gintera Grasa.
Bilo kako bilo, ko želi, naći će u „Dnevnom redu” plan ukroćene banalnosti u jukstapoziciji sa planom (ideološkog) izrabljivanja. Sve je dobro podešeno.
Vijarove rečenice su nespokojno lepe. Taman da vam u toku svake bude savršeno udobno, a u njihovim dometima – liticama – krajnje neudobno. I ne mogu a da ne primetim dobru meru u autorskoj samosvesti, koja uspeva da zavede fokus i negovanom ironijom skrene pažnju tačno tamo gde treba.
Kao Modijano, samo bolje.
Kratak roman za dugo čitanje.
A osim što je cinična, ona je pre stvarena po kuloarima rezidencija i multinacionalnih kompanija, nego u zvaničnim institucijama. Dokumenta su uvek sekundarna u odnosu na pravu, živu istoriju, koja je dovela do njih. Imajući ovo u vidu, jasno je zašto je jedan od presudnih događaja, omogućilac Drugog svetskog rata, susret 24 industrijalca koji će u februaru 1933. podržati nacistički projekat. Među njima i firme: Opel, Siemens, Telefunken, BASF, Allianz.
I kako a da se ne setim prokletog kaučuka, zbog koga je u Kongu umrlo 10 miliona ljudi, odlukom Leopolda II, jednog od najvećih zlotvora u istoriji čovečanstva. Ili kako da se ne setim Nivee u „Limenom dobošu” Gintera Grasa.
Bilo kako bilo, ko želi, naći će u „Dnevnom redu” plan ukroćene banalnosti u jukstapoziciji sa planom (ideološkog) izrabljivanja. Sve je dobro podešeno.
Vijarove rečenice su nespokojno lepe. Taman da vam u toku svake bude savršeno udobno, a u njihovim dometima – liticama – krajnje neudobno. I ne mogu a da ne primetim dobru meru u autorskoj samosvesti, koja uspeva da zavede fokus i negovanom ironijom skrene pažnju tačno tamo gde treba.
Kao Modijano, samo bolje.
Kratak roman za dugo čitanje.
May 2, 2025
https://kansasbooks.blogspot.com/2025...
“Sobre el papel, Austria ha muerto; caída bajo la tutela alemana. Pero, como salta a la vista, nada tiene allí la densidad de la pesadilla, tampoco la refulgencia del terror. Tan solo el aspecto pegajoso de los trapicheos y la impostura. Ni altanería violenta, ni palabras terribles e inhumanas; únicamente la amenaza, brutal; la propaganda repetitiva y vulgar.”
Es mi primer acercamiento a Eric Vuillard y tengo que decir que he disfrutado mucho de esta novela sobre todo por el periodo histórico que viene a rescatar un momento crucial en el desencadenante de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, aunque también es verdad que no tengo muy definido todavía a Vuillard como autor, debe ser precisamente porque este tema tan potente ensombrece de alguna manera su forma narrativa. Tendría que seguir leyéndole para comprobar quién es realmente Vuillard. Pero sí que es cierto que un detalle a destacar y en favor de Vuillard sea el hecho de que consigue transmitir lo relevante que este momento histórico sigue siendo en nuestro presente porque de alguna forma establece un símil entre el pasado y nuestro presente. Eric Vuillard incide en el hecho de que el Pasado no se ha desvanecido y que el mundo sigue gobernado por los mismos porque la oscuridad en la que cayó Europa a principios del siglo XX sigue acechando, está a la vuelta de la esquina:
“Se abruma a la Historia, se pretende que ésta obliga a adoptar poses a los protagonistas de nuestros tormentos. No veremos nunca el dobladillo mugriento, el hule amarillento, la matriz del talonario, la mancha de café. Tan solo nos mostrarán el perfil amable de los acontecimientos.”
En “El orden del día”, Vuillard se centra en la toma de control de Austria por parte de Alemania a principios de 1938, una invasión disfrazada de anexión, las palabras pueden llegar a engañar pero tal como dice Vuillard en un momento “La verdad está dispersa en toda clase de partículas”. La novela, que se podría calificar de ficción histórica comienza con la reunión de los 24 principales industriales de Alemanía con Göring e Hitler, una excusa para pedirles fondos en pleno 1933, estos fondos servirían para la llegada del terror, y el primer paso era invadir Austria. Los Krupp, BMW, Siemens, Bayer, Agfa, etc contribuyeron con fondos al partido nazi, y las mismas empresas sobrevivieron y prosperaron hasta el día de hoy sirviendo a los diferentes gobiernos, partidos o alianzas; una reunión la de 1933 en la que “los sacerdotes de la gran industria alemana, estudiaban ya como despedazar el país”.
“Sin embargo, justo antes del Anschluss, se produjeron más de mil setecientos suicidios en una sola semana.
[...]
Tanto da que hubiera presenciado o no aquellas abyectas escenas en las que les obligaban a comerse la hierba. Su muerte refleja únicamente lo que sintió, la enorme tribulación, la repulsiva realidad, su asco hacia un mundo que vio desplegarse en su desnudez asesina. Porque en el fondo, el crimen estaba ya allí en las banderitas, en las sonrisas de las muchachas, en toda aquella primavera pervertida. Incluso en las risas de ese fervor desencadenado, debió de advertir Helene Kuhner el odio y el regocijo.”
Vuillard cuenta algunas escenas durante el ascenso de Hitler al poder en una mezcla de ficción y realidad, los hechos históricos están ahí, palpables, documentados, pero convierte en ficción literaria escenas concretas que no están documentadas, y lo hace cuestionando y criticando la hipocresía y la indiferencia tanto de los británicos como del resto del mundo ante lo que se estaba produciendo en Alemania. Quizás la ficción pueda estar en lo que Vuillard inventa sobre cómo se sentían, pero yo diría que hay más de historia que de ficción en este texto de Vuillard. Las escenas en las que Hitler presiona, por ejemplo, al canciller austríaco para que acepte la anexión/invasión, y sus giras triunfales por Austria están perfectamente documentadas, pero Vuillard lo relata con mucho ritmo e ironía. Lo compara a un teatrillo pachanguero, diplomacias fallidas, intereses, trapicheos, fortunas engrosadas a costa de un horror que muchos vieron venir. Todo enmascarado bajo multitudes que disfrazan la realidad con vítores a un líder que podría haber salido de una película de cartón piedra, y hay momentos en que Vuillard consigue comparar toda esta parafernalia creada por los nazis con la ilusión que crea el cine: “El mundo no es un desfile de modas, y el cine debe crear ilusión”. Esta es una novela corta que se puede leer apenas en una tarde y Vuillard demuestra talento a la hora de contarnos estos acontecimientos de un momento crucial de la historia, recrea ciertas historias, saca a relucir ciertos personajes de tal forma que incluso llegamos a reconocer a los que nos gobiernan hoy en día, mismos fantoches, con diferente disfraz. Quizás este sea el detalle que más me ha interesado de esta novela, cómo Vuillard consigue traspasar la historia y situarla en el presente y sin embargo el texto se queda un tanto corto y se eche de menos algo más de profundidad. “Y lo que sorprende de aquella guerra es el inaudito triunfo de la desfachatez, por lo que debemos tener presente una cosa: el mundo se rinde ante el bluff. Incluso el mundo más serio, más rígido, incluso el viejo orden, aunque nunca cede cuando se exige justicia, aunque nunca se doblega ante el pueblo que se subleva, sí se doblega ante el bluff.”
“Es curioso cómo, hasta el final, los tiranos más convencidos respetan vagamente las formas, como si quisieran dar la impresión de que no se saltan por las buenas los trámites administrativos mientras transitan abiertamente por encima de todas las normas. Se diría que el poder no les basta, y que experimentan un placer suplementario obligando a sus enemigos a cumplir, por última vez, los rituales del poder que ellos mismos están dinamitando.”
♫♫♫ Bad Vibrations - The black angels ♫♫♫
“Sobre el papel, Austria ha muerto; caída bajo la tutela alemana. Pero, como salta a la vista, nada tiene allí la densidad de la pesadilla, tampoco la refulgencia del terror. Tan solo el aspecto pegajoso de los trapicheos y la impostura. Ni altanería violenta, ni palabras terribles e inhumanas; únicamente la amenaza, brutal; la propaganda repetitiva y vulgar.”
Es mi primer acercamiento a Eric Vuillard y tengo que decir que he disfrutado mucho de esta novela sobre todo por el periodo histórico que viene a rescatar un momento crucial en el desencadenante de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, aunque también es verdad que no tengo muy definido todavía a Vuillard como autor, debe ser precisamente porque este tema tan potente ensombrece de alguna manera su forma narrativa. Tendría que seguir leyéndole para comprobar quién es realmente Vuillard. Pero sí que es cierto que un detalle a destacar y en favor de Vuillard sea el hecho de que consigue transmitir lo relevante que este momento histórico sigue siendo en nuestro presente porque de alguna forma establece un símil entre el pasado y nuestro presente. Eric Vuillard incide en el hecho de que el Pasado no se ha desvanecido y que el mundo sigue gobernado por los mismos porque la oscuridad en la que cayó Europa a principios del siglo XX sigue acechando, está a la vuelta de la esquina:
“Se abruma a la Historia, se pretende que ésta obliga a adoptar poses a los protagonistas de nuestros tormentos. No veremos nunca el dobladillo mugriento, el hule amarillento, la matriz del talonario, la mancha de café. Tan solo nos mostrarán el perfil amable de los acontecimientos.”
En “El orden del día”, Vuillard se centra en la toma de control de Austria por parte de Alemania a principios de 1938, una invasión disfrazada de anexión, las palabras pueden llegar a engañar pero tal como dice Vuillard en un momento “La verdad está dispersa en toda clase de partículas”. La novela, que se podría calificar de ficción histórica comienza con la reunión de los 24 principales industriales de Alemanía con Göring e Hitler, una excusa para pedirles fondos en pleno 1933, estos fondos servirían para la llegada del terror, y el primer paso era invadir Austria. Los Krupp, BMW, Siemens, Bayer, Agfa, etc contribuyeron con fondos al partido nazi, y las mismas empresas sobrevivieron y prosperaron hasta el día de hoy sirviendo a los diferentes gobiernos, partidos o alianzas; una reunión la de 1933 en la que “los sacerdotes de la gran industria alemana, estudiaban ya como despedazar el país”.
“Sin embargo, justo antes del Anschluss, se produjeron más de mil setecientos suicidios en una sola semana.
[...]
Tanto da que hubiera presenciado o no aquellas abyectas escenas en las que les obligaban a comerse la hierba. Su muerte refleja únicamente lo que sintió, la enorme tribulación, la repulsiva realidad, su asco hacia un mundo que vio desplegarse en su desnudez asesina. Porque en el fondo, el crimen estaba ya allí en las banderitas, en las sonrisas de las muchachas, en toda aquella primavera pervertida. Incluso en las risas de ese fervor desencadenado, debió de advertir Helene Kuhner el odio y el regocijo.”
Vuillard cuenta algunas escenas durante el ascenso de Hitler al poder en una mezcla de ficción y realidad, los hechos históricos están ahí, palpables, documentados, pero convierte en ficción literaria escenas concretas que no están documentadas, y lo hace cuestionando y criticando la hipocresía y la indiferencia tanto de los británicos como del resto del mundo ante lo que se estaba produciendo en Alemania. Quizás la ficción pueda estar en lo que Vuillard inventa sobre cómo se sentían, pero yo diría que hay más de historia que de ficción en este texto de Vuillard. Las escenas en las que Hitler presiona, por ejemplo, al canciller austríaco para que acepte la anexión/invasión, y sus giras triunfales por Austria están perfectamente documentadas, pero Vuillard lo relata con mucho ritmo e ironía. Lo compara a un teatrillo pachanguero, diplomacias fallidas, intereses, trapicheos, fortunas engrosadas a costa de un horror que muchos vieron venir. Todo enmascarado bajo multitudes que disfrazan la realidad con vítores a un líder que podría haber salido de una película de cartón piedra, y hay momentos en que Vuillard consigue comparar toda esta parafernalia creada por los nazis con la ilusión que crea el cine: “El mundo no es un desfile de modas, y el cine debe crear ilusión”. Esta es una novela corta que se puede leer apenas en una tarde y Vuillard demuestra talento a la hora de contarnos estos acontecimientos de un momento crucial de la historia, recrea ciertas historias, saca a relucir ciertos personajes de tal forma que incluso llegamos a reconocer a los que nos gobiernan hoy en día, mismos fantoches, con diferente disfraz. Quizás este sea el detalle que más me ha interesado de esta novela, cómo Vuillard consigue traspasar la historia y situarla en el presente y sin embargo el texto se queda un tanto corto y se eche de menos algo más de profundidad. “Y lo que sorprende de aquella guerra es el inaudito triunfo de la desfachatez, por lo que debemos tener presente una cosa: el mundo se rinde ante el bluff. Incluso el mundo más serio, más rígido, incluso el viejo orden, aunque nunca cede cuando se exige justicia, aunque nunca se doblega ante el pueblo que se subleva, sí se doblega ante el bluff.”
“Es curioso cómo, hasta el final, los tiranos más convencidos respetan vagamente las formas, como si quisieran dar la impresión de que no se saltan por las buenas los trámites administrativos mientras transitan abiertamente por encima de todas las normas. Se diría que el poder no les basta, y que experimentan un placer suplementario obligando a sus enemigos a cumplir, por última vez, los rituales del poder que ellos mismos están dinamitando.”
♫♫♫ Bad Vibrations - The black angels ♫♫♫
December 28, 2024
Ово је само наизглед књига невеликог обима која се бави тренуцима непосредно пред Аншлус Аустрије. Узимајући овај догађај за основу, Вијар нам заправо говори о томе како функционишу интереси "великих" и о спрези капитала и ратне машинерије, не само средином ХХ века, већ и данас и, вероватно, и убудуће.
Сведено, занимљиво, са дозом ироније и хумора, ова књига, чини се, описује и модерна времена. Брзо се чита, али остаје дуго у памћењу. Препорука.
Сведено, занимљиво, са дозом ироније и хумора, ова књига, чини се, описује и модерна времена. Брзо се чита, али остаје дуго у памћењу. Препорука.
December 31, 2018
Una lucidissima cavalcata negli orrori della normalità del nazismo.
A posteriori, ci si continua a chiedere come sia stato possibile, quella nebbia di follia che sembrava aver permeato l'Europa, ottuso i sensi e chiuso gli occhi, e fatto accettare ogni singolo boccone amaro trasformandolo in uno zuccherino.
Vuillard non segue uno schema ideologico, narra una sequenza di avvenimenti sinistra e del tutto evidente. Nelle stanze del potere Hitler era riconosciuto e accettato, perché il caos non porta profitto sul lungo periodo e chi promette di mantenere l'ordine è sempre ben accetto. La narrazione ricorda e sottolinea che quelli che hanno finanziato e sostenuto quella "follia" sono ancora tra noi, corpi non più organici e disincarnati dai fondatori (Krupp, Opel, Siemens, etc.), multinazionali e società per azioni (ma è un caso che il suo esempio di società sovra-organica sia l'Opel, come fa anche Harari in Uomini e dei? c'è un qualche supertesto che mi sfugge?).
La lettura è resa più piacevole (se di piacevolezza si può parlare quando il tema è sempre più repellente) da alcune folgoranti chiose di Vuillard, molto, molto attuali, ad esempio: a proposito di inglesi simpatizzanti dei nazisti cita lady Douglas-Hamilton che "amava pazzamente gli animali; poiché si sa, tutte le miserie hanno per capoluogo l'anima umana".
A posteriori, ci si continua a chiedere come sia stato possibile, quella nebbia di follia che sembrava aver permeato l'Europa, ottuso i sensi e chiuso gli occhi, e fatto accettare ogni singolo boccone amaro trasformandolo in uno zuccherino.
Vuillard non segue uno schema ideologico, narra una sequenza di avvenimenti sinistra e del tutto evidente. Nelle stanze del potere Hitler era riconosciuto e accettato, perché il caos non porta profitto sul lungo periodo e chi promette di mantenere l'ordine è sempre ben accetto. La narrazione ricorda e sottolinea che quelli che hanno finanziato e sostenuto quella "follia" sono ancora tra noi, corpi non più organici e disincarnati dai fondatori (Krupp, Opel, Siemens, etc.), multinazionali e società per azioni (ma è un caso che il suo esempio di società sovra-organica sia l'Opel, come fa anche Harari in Uomini e dei? c'è un qualche supertesto che mi sfugge?).
La lettura è resa più piacevole (se di piacevolezza si può parlare quando il tema è sempre più repellente) da alcune folgoranti chiose di Vuillard, molto, molto attuali, ad esempio: a proposito di inglesi simpatizzanti dei nazisti cita lady Douglas-Hamilton che "amava pazzamente gli animali; poiché si sa, tutte le miserie hanno per capoluogo l'anima umana".
February 7, 2020
In “L’ordre du jour” ("The Order of the Day", 2017) in 10 scenes Eric Vuillard sketches how the Nazi's from 1933 onwards came to alter the fate of the world and how the weakness of their opponents fostered them. The scenes are largely fictionalized history, a genre that I can appreciate as long as it is applied in a balanced way and with respect for the facts. But Vuillard regularly shies away from historical truth (for example, the amateuristic way the German army proceeded in the annexation of Austria in 1938 goes back to an exaggeration of Churchill), and that is a bridge too far.
Vuillard clearly wanted to warn in these Trump and Putin-times how quickly things can go wrong and how refined the manipulation of facts by malicious people can be. That's commendable, but he does this so explicitly that he misses his goal. " We never fall twice into the same abyss. But we always fall the same way, in a mixture of ridicule and dread. We so desperately want not to fall that we grapple for a handhold, screaming. With their heels they crush our fingers, with their beaks they smash our teeth and peck out our eyes.”. This little book certainly has a literary merit, but I really don't understand how this could win the Goncourt of 2017.
Vuillard clearly wanted to warn in these Trump and Putin-times how quickly things can go wrong and how refined the manipulation of facts by malicious people can be. That's commendable, but he does this so explicitly that he misses his goal. " We never fall twice into the same abyss. But we always fall the same way, in a mixture of ridicule and dread. We so desperately want not to fall that we grapple for a handhold, screaming. With their heels they crush our fingers, with their beaks they smash our teeth and peck out our eyes.”. This little book certainly has a literary merit, but I really don't understand how this could win the Goncourt of 2017.
November 18, 2025
Hitler okkal izgatja az írók fantáziáját. Megpróbálják értelmezni a démoni oldalán keresztül, vagy épp a paródia eszközével, hátha ezzel valamiképp kontrollálni tudják azt a gonosz erőt, amit megéreznek benne. Vuillard kerülőúton próbálkozik, azokat mutatja be, akik még a világégés előtt egyezkedni próbáltak vele: a gyáriparosokat, politikusokat és a diplomatákat. Ebből a szögből nézve a történet olyan, mint valami tévedések vígjátéka. A tárgyalópartnerek odajárulnak Hitler elé, hónuk alatt sakktábla, és azon morfondíroznak, vajon indiai megnyitással kezdjék-e a partit, meg beáldozzák-e a futót, ha úgy alakul. Csakhogy a Führer nem sakkozni jött. Ő boxkesztyűt hozott. Tényleg komikus az akkori európai elit naivitása. Ők úgy képzelték, partnerük alapvetően ugyanazoknak a szabályoknak van alávetve, amelyek a komplett európai diplomáciát addig meghatározták, kompromisszumokban, szerződésekben, "ez a tiéd, ha az az enyém"-ben gondolkodtak. Holott Hitler jól láthatóan* elejétől fogva a szabályok felrúgásában volt érdekelt. Ő a hagyományos macsó-éthosz túlkarikírozott verziója, aki szerint nincs olyan probléma, amit a kellő agresszióval ne lehetne megoldani**. Ellenkezik valaki? Hát csapjunk oda az asztalra, aztán küldjünk rá pár zászlóaljat. Nyilván e taktika helyenként sikeres tud lenni - viszont ha nem sikeres, akkor rohadtul nem sikeres.
Nem tudok szabadulni a gondolattól, hogy amikor Vuillard ezt a könyvet írta, valamit üzenni akart. Amikor a gonosszal egyezkedő iparbárókat rajzolta, a ma felelőtlen iparbárói jártak az eszében, és amikor békepárti politikusok impotenciájáról beszél, akkor kicsit a jelenkoriak teszetoszaságáról is bírálatot kíván mondani, akik képtelenek erőt mutatni akkor, amikor valami náluk erőszakosabb entitás úgy rugdosná szét, amit addig felépítettek, mint az agresszív Tibike a kiscsoportosok homokvárát. Ez például megmagyarázná azt is, miért rövid szöveg ez: hisz a figyelmeztető kiáltások is mindig rövidek. Aki a mélyvízbe pottyan, nem diverzifikál, nem magyarázza meg kimerítően, miért maradt ilyen hiányos az úszótudása, illetve az időjárási körülmények mennyiben befolyásolják a felszínen maradás esélyeit. Csak ordít, hogy "Segítség!!!" Szóval ez érthető, és remélem is, a kötet rövidsége minél többeket inspirál arra, hogy elolvassák. De azért szerintem lehetett volna kicsit mélyebb.
* "Jól láthatóan", ezt persze utólag könnyebb mondani. A korszak békepolitikusainak nyilván más információk álltak rendelkezésükre. Előttük nem volt olyan minta, ami alapján Hitler viselkedését megjósolhatták volna, és amikor minden áron kompromisszumra törekedtek, voltaképpen választóik akaratának tettek eleget, akik rohadtul nem akartak egy háborúban elvérezni. Ami pedig konkrétan Chamberlaint illeti, ő igenis jól látta, hogy Britannia nem elég erős egy háborúhoz, és hát igaza is lett: hiába fejezték be az egészet a győztes oldalon, világbirodalmi ábrándjaik olyan sebet szenvedtek, amiből nem lehetett felépülni.
** Nyilván előfordulhat, hogy az agresszió kezdeményezője nálánál nagyobb arcba köt bele, és az általa indított erőszakkal önmagát pusztítja el. De szigorúan véve ez is megoldja a problémát azzal, hogy az egyik felet megszünteti.
January 17, 2023
Imprescindible, por lo que cuenta y cómo lo cuenta. Para entender el comienzo de la segunda guerra mundial.
January 3, 2021
Se solleviamo gli stracci immondi della Storia troviamo questo: la gerarchia contro l’uguaglianza e l’ordine contro la libertà.
”Improvvisamente le porte cigolano, i pavimenti scricchiolano, si sentono voci in anticamera. Le
ventiquattro lucertole si alzano sulle zampe posteriori e si tengono ben dritte.”
Stiamo parlando dei Krupp, gli Opel, i Siemens, degli imperi che ancora oggi si chiamano Basf, Bayer, Varta, Allianz, Telefunken. Sono tra noi e intorno a noi, sono le nostre automobili, le nostre lavatrici, i nostri detersivi, le radiosveglie, l’assicurazione per la casa, la pila dell’orologio. E sono i ventiquattro individui presenti nel palazzo del Reichstag quel 20 febbraio 1933 che versarono senza batter ciglio cifre astronomiche per finanziare il nascente partito nazista, furono i mandatari dei criminali che, come macchine calcolatrici, sovvenzionarono l’inferno.
Gustav krupp, uno dei ventiquattro grandi sacerdoti dell’industria che all’inizio del libro hanno versato il proprio contributo ai nazisti per sostenere il regime fin dalla prima ora, nella primavera del 1940, quando ormai le cose si mettevano male per l’esercito tedesco in rotta su tutti i fronti decideva di lasciare la proprietà, la grande dimora dove aveva sempre vissuto e ritirarsi sulle montagne… (ma guarda, proprio come nei Vicerè” che ho appena letto, gli Uzeda all’arrivo dell’ennesimo scoppio di colera: i ricchi hanno sempre un Belvedere sicuro in cui rifugiarsi quando gli eventi girano al brutto).
La Bayer prese in appalto durante il regime nazista la manodopera a Mauthausen, la BNW si rifornì a Dachau, Buchenwald, Auschwitz e tanti altri lager, così come la odierna Varta, l’Agfa, la Tekefunken. Questa “manodopera” doveva percorrere 5 chilometri al giorno e ritorno dalle baracche alla fabbrica, picchiata brutalmente, senza quasi cibo, senza igiene, pulizia, in una parola senza dignità. Di un lotto di seicento deportati arrivati alle fabbriche Krupp nel 1943, l’anno dopo ne rimanevano venti. E questi benemeriti non sfilarono a Norimberga, non hanno recitato pur tardivi “meaculpa”, al contrario si sono riciclati, a volte riuniti (il nome Tyssen-krupp credo possa dire qualcosa a qualcuno), e addirittura al posto della Insegna d’oro alcuni esibiranno fieramente la croce al merito della Repubblica federale, come in Francia si porta la Legione d’onore (mai come in questo momento così poco onorevole. Grazie Corrado Augias!)
“Non si cade mai due volte nello stesso abisso, ma si cade sempre nello stesso modo, con un misto di ridicolo e di spavento.”
Poche pagine, ma talmente forti, e vere, e condivisibili, che mi sono andata a cercare chi è questo Eric Vuillard. Devo approfondirlo meglio. Ne vale la pena.
”Improvvisamente le porte cigolano, i pavimenti scricchiolano, si sentono voci in anticamera. Le
ventiquattro lucertole si alzano sulle zampe posteriori e si tengono ben dritte.”
Stiamo parlando dei Krupp, gli Opel, i Siemens, degli imperi che ancora oggi si chiamano Basf, Bayer, Varta, Allianz, Telefunken. Sono tra noi e intorno a noi, sono le nostre automobili, le nostre lavatrici, i nostri detersivi, le radiosveglie, l’assicurazione per la casa, la pila dell’orologio. E sono i ventiquattro individui presenti nel palazzo del Reichstag quel 20 febbraio 1933 che versarono senza batter ciglio cifre astronomiche per finanziare il nascente partito nazista, furono i mandatari dei criminali che, come macchine calcolatrici, sovvenzionarono l’inferno.
Gustav krupp, uno dei ventiquattro grandi sacerdoti dell’industria che all’inizio del libro hanno versato il proprio contributo ai nazisti per sostenere il regime fin dalla prima ora, nella primavera del 1940, quando ormai le cose si mettevano male per l’esercito tedesco in rotta su tutti i fronti decideva di lasciare la proprietà, la grande dimora dove aveva sempre vissuto e ritirarsi sulle montagne… (ma guarda, proprio come nei Vicerè” che ho appena letto, gli Uzeda all’arrivo dell’ennesimo scoppio di colera: i ricchi hanno sempre un Belvedere sicuro in cui rifugiarsi quando gli eventi girano al brutto).
La Bayer prese in appalto durante il regime nazista la manodopera a Mauthausen, la BNW si rifornì a Dachau, Buchenwald, Auschwitz e tanti altri lager, così come la odierna Varta, l’Agfa, la Tekefunken. Questa “manodopera” doveva percorrere 5 chilometri al giorno e ritorno dalle baracche alla fabbrica, picchiata brutalmente, senza quasi cibo, senza igiene, pulizia, in una parola senza dignità. Di un lotto di seicento deportati arrivati alle fabbriche Krupp nel 1943, l’anno dopo ne rimanevano venti. E questi benemeriti non sfilarono a Norimberga, non hanno recitato pur tardivi “meaculpa”, al contrario si sono riciclati, a volte riuniti (il nome Tyssen-krupp credo possa dire qualcosa a qualcuno), e addirittura al posto della Insegna d’oro alcuni esibiranno fieramente la croce al merito della Repubblica federale, come in Francia si porta la Legione d’onore (mai come in questo momento così poco onorevole. Grazie Corrado Augias!)
“Non si cade mai due volte nello stesso abisso, ma si cade sempre nello stesso modo, con un misto di ridicolo e di spavento.”
Poche pagine, ma talmente forti, e vere, e condivisibili, che mi sono andata a cercare chi è questo Eric Vuillard. Devo approfondirlo meglio. Ne vale la pena.
December 18, 2018
No aprendemos. Estamos atrapados en una eterna repetición de la historia. Vergonzoso y muy triste.
Una lectura muy recomendable.
Una lectura muy recomendable.
September 6, 2020
Với một cái bìa nhìn có vẻ khá căng thẳng và một cái tựa đề sặc mùi chính trị, cuốn tiểu thuyết mỏng này dễ làm người ta tưởng lầm nó là một cuốn sách khô khan, đầy rẫy những thông tin lịch sử mà quên mất rằng đây là cuốn sách đoạt giải Goncourt năm 2017 - một trong những giải văn chương uy tín nhất nước Pháp - giải thưởng không chỉ đề cao tư tưởng hay nội dung mà còn được biết đến với những lựa chọn đậm chất văn chương của hội đồng chấm giải.
"Chương trình nghị sự" là một cuốn tiểu thuyết lịch sử nhưng không sa đà vào kể lể hay liệt kê sự kiện, Éric Vuillard chỉ lựa chọn một buổi họp và những hệ lụy của nó giữa Hitler mà thủ tướng Áo lúc bấy giờ, và tôi đã thật sự bất ngờ vì lối viết đầy đẹp đẽ, trữ tình, giàu chất thơ nhưng cũng đầy châm biếm và buồn bã của Éric Vuillard. Một cuốn tiểu thuyết mỏng nhưng khiến ta hoang mang quá đổi, vì cái tài năng hiếm có của một nhà văn biến cái sân khấu chính trị tưởng chừng khô khan và đầy lý trí ấy dung hòa cùng cái nghệ thuật kể chuyện tài tình và đậm chất văn chương, mà trong đó những cái tên không còn là một dấn ấn đơn điệu trong lịch sử nữa mà những nhân vật tưởng chừng vô cảm trong sách giáo khoa ấy lại được Éric Vuillard trao cho nhân dạng mà ta có cảm tưởng ông đã quan sát họ một cái tỉ mỉ, hiểu rõ tính cách, dáng đi hay sở thích của từng người để viết nên cuốn sách này.
Điều duy nhất đáng phàn nàn về cuốn tiểu thuyết có lẽ là nó quá mỏng khi ta vẫn còn muốn đọc tiếp mà thôi.
"Chương trình nghị sự" là một cuốn tiểu thuyết lịch sử nhưng không sa đà vào kể lể hay liệt kê sự kiện, Éric Vuillard chỉ lựa chọn một buổi họp và những hệ lụy của nó giữa Hitler mà thủ tướng Áo lúc bấy giờ, và tôi đã thật sự bất ngờ vì lối viết đầy đẹp đẽ, trữ tình, giàu chất thơ nhưng cũng đầy châm biếm và buồn bã của Éric Vuillard. Một cuốn tiểu thuyết mỏng nhưng khiến ta hoang mang quá đổi, vì cái tài năng hiếm có của một nhà văn biến cái sân khấu chính trị tưởng chừng khô khan và đầy lý trí ấy dung hòa cùng cái nghệ thuật kể chuyện tài tình và đậm chất văn chương, mà trong đó những cái tên không còn là một dấn ấn đơn điệu trong lịch sử nữa mà những nhân vật tưởng chừng vô cảm trong sách giáo khoa ấy lại được Éric Vuillard trao cho nhân dạng mà ta có cảm tưởng ông đã quan sát họ một cái tỉ mỉ, hiểu rõ tính cách, dáng đi hay sở thích của từng người để viết nên cuốn sách này.
Điều duy nhất đáng phàn nàn về cuốn tiểu thuyết có lẽ là nó quá mỏng khi ta vẫn còn muốn đọc tiếp mà thôi.
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