Synopsis: Karl and Emil are friends who live in Vienna. After they both lose their parents in house raids by the Nazis they are forced to try and survive on the streets. A powerful novel on the evils of Fascism.

Review: The story is set in Vienna after the Anschluss and begins with Karl sitting in his apartment in a state of shock. It is gradually revealed that Karl’s mother has been arrested and dragged away. The men who have taken her, have attacked Karl and threatened to return for him. Realising his danger, Karl leaves his home and goes to his school friend Emil’s house. He arrives at Emil’s house to find it in a state of mourning. Emil’s father was also arrested and his ashes have been returned to his family. Emil’s mother cannot cope and is taken into care the next day. The children are left alone and are forced to survive in a city where they are unable to live openly. Daring to venture from safety, they are forced to take part in the mass cleaning of a Viennese public square along with Jews of all ages. They are made to clean the pavements with their bare hands.

Emil and Karl was first published in Yiddish in New York in 1940. The author, originally from Poland, was one of the major figures of the New York Yiddish literary scene. It is an incredibly powerful and moving book that has many strengths. One of these is that its main protagonist – Karl – is not Jewish, but a young boy whose family has been involved in socialist politics and resistance to Nazism.

This book is highly recommended for children who are learning about Fascism and the Holocaust, which is Fascism’s logical conclusion. It makes it clear that Fascism is not only about the anti-Semitism and the genocide of Jews, but that Fascism by its nature is anti-humanist. It records the fact that what appears to have been one of the most sophisticated of European cultures so quickly turned bestial as Fascism took hold. It raises the concern that this period of history and this country were not abnormal – the events in the book can happen anywhere.

To counteract the anti-humanism of Nazism, there are characters like Matilda who helps children she does not know and risks her life to resist the regime, and Hans, her comrade in the Resistance, who vows to die “so that Emil and Karl might be able to live together in peace.” In opposition to these people, there are also the uniformed thugs and the throng of Viennese civilians who jeer as Jews are made to perform for them in the park. Finally there is the overseer who rescues the boys from the mass cleaning and of whom Karl asks “What makes them do it?”

This is not an easy book to read and dismiss. It has no easy answers nor a happy ending as the children are parted when they embark on a kinder transport and leave their city. But it does make sure that the reader asks and keeps asking, “What makes them do it?” A necessary question for all to ask.

2006-11-10