Address Unknown (novel)

Last updated

Address Unknown is a 1938 short novel by Kathrine Taylor. The story, told entirely in letters between two German friends from 1932 to 1934, describes the rise of the Nazi Party and the growing acceptance of what would become the Final Solution in Germany and how the ideology had the power to profoundly change relationships. [1] [2] [3]

Contents

Plot

Martin returns to Germany from the United States with his family, exhilarated by the advances in the old country since the humiliation of the Great War. His Jewish business partner, Max, remains in the States to keep their art gallery running. Martin raves about the Third Reich and Hitler and at first, Max is covetous, envying his friend's return "to a democratic Germany... and the beginnings of a fine political freedom." He has misgivings, however, after hearing about violence against Jews and their businesses from those who have left Berlin. Martin dismisses his concerns, saying that Jews are the universal scapegoats and that "a few must suffer for the millions to be saved."

Martin asks Max to stop writing to him out of concern that, if a letter were to be intercepted, his family would be endangered. Max ignores this and continues writing. His sister Griselle, an actress, goes missing in Berlin and he becomes frantic to learn her fate; Martin responds that Griselle is dead. He admits turning her away when she came to him for sanctuary while she was being pursued by the Sturmabteilung. It is revealed that he and Griselle had previously been romantically involved. The contents of Max's letters change, now seemingly focused only on business and the weather, but the language he uses falsely implies that he is using a code. He refers to the exact dimension of pictures and to "our grandmother," implying that Martin is also Jewish. Martin responds, begging him to stop writing as he has been interrogated about each letter that arrives. Max again ignores him and eventually has one of his letters returned from Germany, marked "addressee unknown."

Publication

Story published Address Unknown in 1938. It was released under the name Kressmann Taylor, as the editor Whit Burnett and Taylor's husband Elliott deemed the story "too strong to appear under the name of a woman." [1] She used this name professionally for the rest of her life. Reader's Digest soon reprinted the story and Simon & Schuster published it as a book in 1939, [4] selling 50,000 copies. [5] Foreign publications quickly followed, including a Dutch translation, later confiscated by Nazis, [4] and a German one, published in Moscow.[ citation needed ] The book was banned in Germany. [4]

The book's afterword, written by Taylor's son, reveals that the idea for the story came from Taylor's experience seeing those returning from Germany turn their backs on their Jewish friends. [3] [4] In 1995, Story Press reissued Address Unknown to mark the 50th anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camps. [6] [4] The story was subsequently translated into more than 20 languages, with the French version selling 600,000 copies. [4] The book finally appeared in Germany in 2001 and was reissued in the United Kingdom in 2002. In Israel, the Hebrew edition was a best-seller and was adapted for stage.[ citation needed ] Taylor spent the final year of her life signing copies and giving interviews. [4] The book was re-issued again in Ecco Press in 2021. [7] [4]

The title of the book is a mistranslation of the German adressat unbekannt. Adressat is more equivalent to addressee than address.[ citation needed ]

Adaptations

The novel was adapted into a film of the same name in 1944 [1] [4] and has been performed as a stage play in nearly 100 locations, including in France (2001), Israel (2002 onward), [6] [8] at the Promenade Theater in New York City (2004), [6] Hungary (2008),[ citation needed ] at the Tron Theatre in Glasgow (2010), [5] at the Koninklijke Schouwburg in the Hague (2011),[ citation needed ] at Soho Theatre in London (2013), [9] [8] and at the Royal Danish Theatre in Copenhagen (2019). [10]

It has also been performed in Germany, South Africa,[ citation needed ] Italy, Turkey, Argentina, [6] and in various American cities. [8] In 2020, it was performed by Søren Sætter-Lassen and Lars Mikkelsen, [11] followed by a debate and discussion on how Denmark acted towards Nazi Germany before the war.[ citation needed ] An adaptation for BBC Radio 4 was broadcast in June 2008 as an Afternoon Play. It starred Henry Goodman as Max and Patrick Malahide as Martin and was adapted and directed by Tim Dee. [12] A dance production was put on by Gabrielle Lansner & Company in New York City in 2003. [13]

It was adapted for Australian radio in 1940 starring Peter Finch. [14]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Max Reinhardt</span> Austrian-born theatre and film director (1873–1943)

Max Reinhardt was an Austrian-born theatre and film director, intendant, and theatrical producer. With his radically innovative and avante garde stage productions, Reinhardt is regarded as one of the most prominent stage directors of the early 20th century.

<i>The Producers</i> (1967 film) Film by Mel Brooks

The Producers is a 1967 American satirical black comedy film written and directed by Mel Brooks and starring Zero Mostel, Gene Wilder, Dick Shawn, and Kenneth Mars. The film is about a con artist theater producer and his accountant who scheme to get rich by fraudulently overselling interests in a stage musical purposely designed to fail. They find a script celebrating Adolf Hitler and the Nazis and bring it to the stage. Because of this theme, The Producers was controversial from the start and received mixed reviews. It became a cult film and found a more positive critical reception later.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marcel Marceau</span> French mime artist (1923–2007)

Marcel Marceau was a French mime artist and actor most famous for his stage persona, "Bip the Clown". He referred to mime as the "art of silence", performing professionally worldwide for more than 60 years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eddie Fisher</span> American entertainer and singer (1928–2010)

Edwin Jack Fisher was an American singer and actor. He was one of the most popular artists during the 1950s, selling millions of records and hosting his own TV show, The Eddie Fisher Show. Actress Elizabeth Taylor was best friends with Fisher's first wife, actress Debbie Reynolds. After Taylor's third husband, Mike Todd, was killed in a plane crash, Fisher divorced Reynolds and he and Taylor married that same year. The scandalous affair that Fisher and Taylor had been having while each was already married was widely reported and brought unfavorable publicity to both Fisher and Taylor. Approximately five years later, he and Taylor divorced and he later married Connie Stevens. Fisher is the father of Carrie Fisher and Todd Fisher, whose mother is Reynolds, and the father of Joely Fisher and Tricia Leigh Fisher, whose mother is Stevens.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fritz Julius Kuhn</span> American leader of the German American Bund (1896–1951)

Fritz Julius Kuhn was a German Nazi activist who served as the elected leader of the German American Bund before World War II. He became a naturalized United States citizen in 1934. Still, his citizenship was canceled in 1943 owing to his status as a foreign agent of Nazi Germany. Kuhn served prison time for larceny and forgery from 1939 to 1943 and, upon release, was immediately interned by the federal government as an enemy agent. He was deported in 1945 and later served further prison time in post-war Germany before dying in 1951.

<i>The Tin Drum</i> 1959 novel by Günter Grass

The Tin Drum is a 1959 novel by Günter Grass, the first book of his Danzig Trilogy. It was adapted into a 1979 film, which won both the 1979 Palme d'Or and the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1980.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Telford Taylor</span> American lawyer (1908–1998)

Telford Taylor was an American lawyer and professor. Taylor was known for his role as lead counsel in the prosecution of war criminals after World War II, his opposition to McCarthyism in the 1950s, and his outspoken criticism of American actions during the Vietnam War.

Kathrine Kressmann Taylor or Kressmann Taylor was an American writer, known mostly for her Address Unknown (1938), a short story written as a series of letters between a Jewish art dealer, living in San Francisco, and his business partner, who had returned to Germany in 1932. It is credited with exposing, early on, the dangers of Nazism to the American public.

The Holocaust has been a prominent subject of art and literature throughout the second half of the twentieth century. There is a wide range of ways–including dance, film, literature, music, and television–in which the Holocaust has been represented in the arts and popular culture.

<i>Invincible</i> (2001 theatrical film) 2001 film by Werner Herzog

Invincible is a 2001 drama film written and directed by Werner Herzog. The film stars Tim Roth, Jouko Ahola, Anna Gourari, and Max Raabe. The film tells the story of a Jewish strongman in Germany. While basing his story on the real-life figure Zishe Breitbart, Herzog uses the bare facts of Breitbart's life to weave fact and fiction to create an allegory of human strength, knowing oneself with honesty and pride in one's heritage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Priest's Grotto</span> Cave in Ukraine

Priest's Grotto also known as Ozerna or Blue Lakes Cave, is a cave in western Ukraine near the village of Strilkivtsi, Chortkiv Raion, Ternopil Oblast (Province).

James MacPherson is a Scottish actor, best known for his role as Detective Chief Inspector Michael Jardine in the STV drama, Taggart.

<i>The Book Thief</i> 2006 novel by Markus Zusak

The Book Thief is a historical fiction novel by the Australian author Markus Zusak, set in Nazi Germany during World War II. Published in 2006, The Book Thief became an international bestseller and was translated into 63 languages and sold 17 million copies. It was adapted into the 2013 feature film, The Book Thief.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carl Sternheim</span> German playwright and short story writer

Carl Sternheim was a German playwright and short story writer. One of the major exponents of German Expressionism, he especially satirized the moral sensibilities of the emerging German middle class during the Wilhelmine period.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nazi book burnings</span> 1930s campaign to destroy prohibited literature and research in Nazi Germany and Austria

The Nazi book burnings were a campaign conducted by the German Student Union to ceremonially burn books in Nazi Germany and Austria in the 1930s. The books targeted for burning were those viewed as being subversive or as representing ideologies opposed to Nazism. These included books written by Jewish, half-Jewish, communist, socialist, anarchist, liberal, pacifist, and sexologist authors among others. The initial books burned were those of Karl Marx and Karl Kautsky, but came to include very many authors, including Albert Einstein, Helen Keller, writers in French and English, and effectively any book incompatible with Nazi ideology. In a campaign of cultural genocide, books were also burned en masse by the Nazis in occupied territories, such as in Poland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Max Wallace</span> Canadian journalist

Max Wallace is a New York Times-bestselling author and historian specializing in the Holocaust, human rights in sport, and popular culture. He is also an award-winning filmmaker, and long-time disability advocate.

<i>Address Unknown</i> (1944 film) 1944 film

Address Unknown is a 1944 American film noir drama film directed by William Cameron Menzies based on Kressmann Taylor's novel Address Unknown (1938). The film tells the story of two families caught up in the rise of Nazism in Germany before the start of World War II.

Nigel Jones is a British journalist and biographer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jack Thorne</span> English screenwriter and playwright

Jack Thorne FRSL is a British playwright, television writer, screenwriter, and producer.

Martin Julian Goldsmith is an American radio personality and an author, best known as a classical music host on National Public Radio and Sirius XM, and for a book about his parents' experiences as Jewish musicians in Nazi Germany.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Freedland, Jonathan (2019-08-23). "Address Unknown: the great, forgotten anti-Nazi book everyone must read". The Guardian. Retrieved 2023-06-24.
  2. ↑ Applebaum, Adina (2021-12-20). "Address Unknown". Jewish Book Council. Retrieved 2023-06-24.
  3. 1 2 Morrison, Kennie (2021-09-04). "Address Unknown by Kathrine Kressmann Taylor". The C Word Mag. Retrieved 2023-06-24.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Dreifus, Erika (2020-12-12). "Dusting off a classic". The American Scholar. Retrieved 2023-06-24.
  5. 1 2 Scott, Robert Dawson (2010-05-18). "Address Unknown at the Tron, Glasgow". The Times. Retrieved 2023-06-24.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Jones, Kenneth (2004-06-10). "Friendship Poisoned in Nazi Era in Off-Broadway's Address Unknown, With Dale & Atherton". Playbill. Retrieved 2023-06-24.
  7. ↑ Freedman, Howard (2021-07-13). "Looking back on Nazi era in newly reissued novels from 1930s". JWeekly. Retrieved 2023-06-24.
  8. 1 2 3 "Address Unknown". Holocaust Theatrer Catalog. Retrieved 2023-06-24.
  9. ↑ Cavendish, Dominic (2013-07-04). "Address Unknown, Soho Theatre, review". The Telegraph. Retrieved 2017-02-05.
  10. ↑ "Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary attended a premiere in Copenhagen". New My Royals. 2019-08-31. Retrieved 2023-06-25.
  11. ↑ "Address Unknown". The Royal Theatre. Retrieved 2023-06-24.
  12. ↑ "Address Unknown". BBC Radio 4. Retrieved 2023-06-25.
  13. ↑ Anderson, Jack (2003-01-23). "IN PERFORMANCE: DANCE; A Friendship Disintegrates As Hitler Triumphs". The New York Times. Retrieved 2023-06-24.
  14. ↑ Australasian Radio Relay League., "JONATHAN LISTENS TO PLAYS New Ground Broken In Radio Drama", The Wireless Weekly: The Hundred per Cent Australian Radio Journal, 35 (44 (November 2, 1940)), Sydney: Wireless Press, nla.obj-720741120, retrieved 16 March 2024– via Trove
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.