Celia Gurevitch Jewish Community Library

I always appreciate when I learn something that helps me imagine life before I was born. I read a fair amount about the Shoah and World War II, but almost all of it was written after the war. “Address unknown” first appeared in 1938 and is set 1932-34. It gives such a different perspective than the books written with hindsight knowledge. It shows the process as it happened, how intelligent and decent people were swept away by the Nazi ideology in Germany in the 1930’s. Through a series of letters we get acquainted with a Jewish art dealer in San Francisco and his long-time friend and business partner. The latter was of German origin whose move back to Germany in 1932 gave an opportunity to revive their correspondence. Step-by-step the German businessman becomes engrossed by local politics and the prevalent ideals of his country, to the point… No, I will not post spoilers here to what extremes he changes, you just need to find it out for yourself, from this short, 64 page long book.

The foreword is also worth reading. That’s where I learned that the story was first published in Story magazine, but it was thought to be too strong coming from a woman, so it was published under the “Kressmann Taylor” name, Kressmann being the author’s maiden last name and Taylor her husband’s. The history of the piece includes being published in Reader’s Digest, despite their policy of not publishing fiction and gaining popularity throughout the US. It had no chance of getting known in Europe because shortly after its original publication the Nazis occupied most of Europe and banned the book, along with many other.

For a chilling effect, read through the letters and meditate with me how deep mass psychosis, desperation, need for self-esteem can drive people.