Anyone Who Utters a Consoling Word Is a Traitor: 48 Stories for Fritz Bauer

by Alexander Kluge, Alta L. Price (Translator)

A book about bitter fates—both already known and yet to unfold—and the many kinds of organized machinery built to destroy people.

Alexander Kluge’s work has long grappled with the Third Reich and its aftermath, and the extermination of the Jews forms its gravitational center. Kluge is forever reminding us to keep our present catastrophes in perspective—“calibrated”—against this historical monstrosity. Kluge’s newest work is a book about bitter fates, both already known and yet to unfold. Above all, it is about the many kinds of organized machinery built to destroy people. These forty-eight stories of justice and injustice are dedicated to the memory of Fritz Bauer, a determined fighter for justice and district attorney of Hesse during the Auschwitz Trials. “The moment they come into existence, monstrous crimes have a unique ability,” Bauer once said, “to ensure their own repetition.” Kluge takes heed, and in these pages reminds us of the importance of keeping our powers of observation and memory razor sharp.
 

120 pages, Hardcover

First published March 31, 2013

About the author

Kluge was born in Halberstadt at the year 1932.

He studied history, law and music at the University of Marburg Germany, and the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University of Frankfurt, where befriended the philosopher Theodor W. Adorno, who was teaching at the Institute for Social Research, or Frankfurt School.

In 1960 he shooted his first films, before the launch of the New German Cinema.

He also is a remarkable fiction writer, which tend toward the short story form, significant for their formal experimentation and insistently critical thematics.

Reviews

[Tijana]

Aleksander Kluge je pre par nedelja napunio devedeset godina i tim povodom ga je bibliotečka aplikacija reklamirala, hvala joj na tom podsećanju i zakasneli srećan rođendan :)
Ovu zbirku priča objavio je pre devet godina, dakle kako god okrenemo pisao ih je oko osamdesete, i to je važno napomenuti jer ne deluju nimalo matoranski osim, eventualno, u tom smislu da ih je pisao neko ko nema vremena za nagvaždanje nego odmah ide na glavno. U skladu s time, ovih 48 pripovedaka staje na nešto više od sto strana, ima ih i od dva pasusa a mislim da nijedna ne prelazi tri strane.
Posveta Fricu Baueru je u suštini dovoljan signal da ova knjižica neće biti vesela - Bauer je bio pravnik koji je ceo svoj posleratni život posvetio što privođenju nacista pred lice pravde što naganjaju te iste pravde da se nacistima bavi, i završio je tragično tj. samoubistvom pod nerazjašnjenim okolnostima. I ove priče deluju ponajviše kao vrlo sažete stvari koje je Bauer mogao iskusiti ili čuti od svedoka, ili kao rasuti listići iz prikupljene dokumentacije o holokaustu. Dakle, užas sabijen u orahovu ljusku. Kluge ovde sa apsolutnom suverenošću pokazuje nadmoć tellinga nad showingom (da, baš tako) kad je u pitanju prosto saopštavanje informacije i prepuštanje čitaocu da neke stvari sam domisli. To su oni slučajevi kad umetnost i treba da zanemi, ali da sad ne citiramo Adorna.
Najvažnije i najupečatljivije s književne strane jeste to koliko ove priče zrače jednom ledenom inteligencijom koja nikad ne pređe u jeftini cinizam, ali nema ni trunke sentimentalnosti i labavosti ni prema zločincima ni prema žrtvama, a naročito ne prema svedocima koji stoje sa strane s rukama u džepovima.* Kluge je britak, nemilosrdan i gadno pronicljiv kad je u pitanju rašrafljivanje mehanizama nacizma, holokausta, masovnih deportacija i pokolja, i udžbenički hladno i racionalno pokazuje načine na koji su oni funkcionisali i na koji i danas-sutra mogu ponovo da prorade. Ponekad nam da trunčicu nade (i u tim pričama se približava formi parabole) ali generalno slabo, ovde je neko izmerio ljudski rod i našao da je nezadovoljavajuć.

*jedna onako grozomorna osuda takvih likova sa strane, ali bez ijedne izrečene osuđujuće reči, jeste priča u kojoj Ernst Jinger i Karl Šmit dokono raspravljaju o tome da li su represalije i streljanje talaca korisni ili izazivaju kontraefekat, Jinger je protiv streljanja, Šmit je za, ali pričaju o tome s jednom olimpskom uzvišenošću i apstraktnošću do koje ič ne dopire krvava stvarnost, i na kraju ih Jingerov šef (...da...) samo poklopi primedbom da je baš lepo što i u ratovima ima ljudi koji su sposobni da ih posmatraju kao partiju šaha, na koju ionako ne mogu nikako da utiču. U srce me je dirnuo Kluge, ili sam možda samo upoznala previše fanova Jingera&Šmita u životu.

[michal k-c · Rating 5 out of 5]

à propos of something: Brecht once said something along the lines of "humans learn as much from catastrophes as lab rats learn about biology."

[Thies · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lässt mich mit sehr gemischten Gefühlen zurück. Mal kürzere, mal längere Stories, alle mit dem Anspruch, im Sinne des #niewieder Erinnerungsarbeit an die Shoah zu leisten. Was das Buch gut macht: Die sehr technokratische und pointierte Sprache bringt einem die Absurdität des Grauens auf eine Art nahe, die vielleicht im adorno‘schen Sinn alte literarische Formen und Muster nach Auschwitz überwindet. Was es für mich teilweise problematisch macht: Zu oft liegt der Fokus auf der Perspektive der Täter:innen. Damit spielt Kluge bewusst, das ist mir klar, aber die Einzelschicksale der Vernichteten sollten immer im Vordergrund sein. Mich hätte interessiert, was Fritz Bauer selbst dazu gesagt hätte.

[Corey Preston · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a quietly powerful book about how “successful” mass atrocity relies on the administrative gears of a society working in service of said atrocity. And how the ones working the gears (or the ones looking away) are us.
These stories are brief, sometimes opaque, but filled with pathos and sorrow.
We’re in a moment where an extraordinary fracture in human affairs feels a little too possible, and we should all be trying to better understand as well as we can, the last time that happened. This book helps in that regard.

[Crystal · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Derek · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m increasingly fascinated by Kluge, who always offers fresh perspectives on the Nazi period. Interesting to look at the end of Nazi Germany via kaleidoscopic stories from various corners of Germany.