The City Without Jews: A Novel of Our Time [Paperback]

Hugo Bettauer (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0819705942 | ISBN-13: 978-0819705945 | Publication Date: May 1, 1997 | Edition: 1 ed

The subtitle of "The City Without Jews," A Novel of our Time, remains unfortunately true. Bettauer takes as his subject one of the oldest themes in Jewish history: exile. Exile appears constantly in Jewish literature and history. Written in 1923, the author imagines that anti-Semitism leads Austria to expel all Jews. He describes the expulsion, but does not linger over the suffering, humiliation, and trauma such expulsions have historically caused. Families may be split, and lovers torn from each other, proprietors may be forced to sell their businesses at ridiculously low prices, but Bettauer is less concerned with what happens to any one individual than with taking an idea and carrying to its ultimate conclusion no matter how ridiculous it may seem. This is very much a novel of ideas, not of character. One of the ideas is that the consequences of expulsion are as bad or worse for the country which throws out its Jews as they are for the Jews themselves.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: German

Product Details

• Paperback: 188 pages
• Publisher: Bloch Pub Co; 1 ed edition (May 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0819705942
• ISBN-13: 978-0819705945
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 4.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,436,609 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Is it possible that I'm the first to review this?, December 20, 2006

By 

Lynn Hoffman, author:The Short Course in Beer (Philadelphia) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The City Without Jews: A Novel of Our Time (Paperback)

The City Without Jews (Stadt Ohne Juden) was a
piece of social science fiction written in the

1920's. Its premise is that a future Austrian
government might decide to exile all its Jews
in order to reduce the competition for Christian
Austrians. After the completion of the forced
emigration, any Jew found in the city would be
put to death.
In the story, a well-disguised Jew re-infiltrates
Austrian society to find and court his Gentile
girlfriend. As the net closes in on him, the
consequences of a city losing its
intellectual and commercial elite starts to be
felt. Which will happen first? Will the lover be
discovered or the Jews readmitted?

This would all be a sweet liberal fable except
for a few things.

*First, this book was wildly
popular. It sold 200,000 copies in Austria alone.

*Second, a decade after it was published, the
Austriad goverment and people decided to commit
a far worse outrage against their Jewish citizen:
instead of exile, they were murdered and Austrians
comprised a disproportionate number of concentration
camp guards.

*Finally, to this day, the Austrian
government and people has been unwilling to
acknowledge that a crime was committed or to
recognize any moral debt to the survivors.

For those of us who want to believe in the power
of literature, The City Without Jews is a very
sad book indeed.


--Lynn Hoffman, author of THE NEW SHORT COURSE IN WINE and
the forthcoming novel bang BANG from Kunati Books.ISBN 9781601640005

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars a prescient novel about pre WWII, April 3, 2009

By 

Frank Weil "faweil" (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The City Without Jews: A Novel of Our Time (Paperback)

A slice of pre war Hitler in Austria- the characters are fascinating and the story reflects reality in retrospect