What it was like when the Nazis came to power

philebersole

May 29

THE OPPERMANNS by Lion Feuchtwanger (1933) translated from the German by James Cleugh (1934) with an introduction by Ruth Gruber (2001)

The Oppermanns is about a wealthy, emancipated German Jewish family and their blindness to the rising threat of Nazism until it was nearly too late.

Lion Feuchtwanger, a famous German Jewish author, wrote it as a warning to the world and especially to the world's Jewish community. I read it as part of a reading group that wondered whether it has a warning for us today. I think it does.

The Oppermanns are the third generation of a Jewish family that owns a well-known chain of furniture stores. They consist of four siblings, Martin, an honest businessman; Edgar, a distinguished physician; Gustav, an intellectual dilettante; and Klara, married to a cynical East European Jew named Jacques Lavendal.

There also is a younger generation - Martin's son Berthold, who embodies the best of Germany's cultural heritage; Edgar's daughter, Ruth, a Zionist; and Jacques' son Heinrich, who is interested mainly in football.

There also is a minor character, an Oppermann furniture salesman named Herr Wolfsohn, whose apartment is coveted by a Nazi neighbor.

At the outset of the novel, all of them, except brother-in-law Jacques, regard themselves as secure, both as German citizens and as members of their social class. Jacques compares them in their blindness to French aristocrats on the eve of the French Revolution.

Two of the characters - Berthold and Gustav - stand up to the Nazis and both are crushed. The other Oppermanns escape, with enough of their wealth to reestablish themselves in other lands.

They are sad that their beloved Germany is no more, but they are still better off than the vast majority of people, Jewish or not, left behind in Germany. They are good people as the world goes, but they don't appreciate how (relatively) fortunate they are.

I have more sympathy with meek, semi-comical Herr Wolfsohn, who gets a chance to immigrate to Palestine and accepts the challenge of learning Hebrew and reinventing himself as a farm laborer.

The central moral question of the novel, asked a number of times in different ways, is whether Berthold and Gustav were heroes or victims. Or, as young Heinrich puts it, is it better to be "decent" or to be "sensible"?

Berthold and Gustav defied the Nazis in the name of truth and justice, and paid a terrible price. But, as Heinrich noted, their courage, integrity and self-sacrifice changed nothing.

He resolves that he will not risk his life for the sake of any principle unless, and only then, taking the risk will achieve something that will justify the risk.

Lion Feuchtwanger himself tried to be an effective opponent of the Nazis, while keeping himself out of their hands. He was in fact interned by French collaborators with the Nazis after the fall of France in 1940, but managed to escape and live to write another day.

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