Customer Reviews

The City Without Jews: A Novel of Our Time

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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

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