Reluctant Return: A Survivor's Journey to an Austrian Town (Jewish Literature and Culture) [Hardcover]

David W. Weiss (Author)

Book Description

Series: Jewish Literature and Culture | Publication Date: July 22, 1999

"This beautifully written memoir, which shifts smoothly from past to present as it blends memory and contemporary experience, is a story that will resonate with any sensitive Jew. [The book] intrigues and challenges, transcends the personal and becomes a universal statement." —Hadassah Magazine

"In an astonishing and moving document, Weiss... describes his 1995 return trip to the Austrian hometown from which, as a boy, he fled Nazi persecution in 1938..... [T]his soul-searching odyssey... will reward readers of all faiths." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"A powerful and unusually eloquent memoir of a prominent Austrian Holocaust survivor invited back to face... old ghosts and demons.... An intelligent and profound memoir." —Kirkus Reviews

David Weiss is an eminent biomedical scientist, now living in Israel. But in 1938 he was an 11-year-old boy in Austria who dramatically escaped the Nazis with his family. For some 56 years Weiss held a deep and abiding enmity for everything Austrian and German. Reluctant Return is his account of his emotional return to his hometown of Wiener Neustadt, the remarkable Christian group that brought it about, and the visit's surprising echoes and consequences.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In an astonishing and moving document, Weiss, an eminent cancer researcher at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, describes his 1995 return trip to the Austrian hometown from which, as a boy, he fled Nazi persecution in 1938. He was invited to Wiener Neustadt by the Ichthys community, an unorthodox Protestant congregation. Members of Ichthys believe that God has withdrawn His presence from the world because of the Holocaust. To lift the curse, Ichthys's mission is to reach out to the Jewish people, to seek forgiveness for Christianity's centuries of persecution of Jews and to sponsor return trips to Europe by Holocaust survivors. The author's father, Heinrich Hillel Weiss, was a rabbi, professor and leader of Austria's Jewish community who later ran a Yiddish-speaking immigrant congregation on New York's Lower East Side. David Weiss, a microbiologist who emigrated to Israel from the U.S. in 1966, charts his metamorphosis from Berkeley New Left activist and anti-Zionist to his present deep commitment to Judaism. His relentless self-scrutiny enhances the impact of his emotionally charged memoir. As he speaks with members of Ichthys and with other Austrians who feel compelled to speak out on the Holocaust, he weaves in a soaring meditation on the survival of the Jewish people and the meaning of Jewish identity while also fearlessly probing the theological and xenophobic underpinnings of Austrian anti-Semitism. Ichthys's insistence on a Christian faith that recognizes a dynamic, unbroken continuum with Judaism pervades this soul-searching odyssey, which will reward readers of all faiths. Photos. (Oct.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

A powerful and unusually eloquent memoir of a prominent Austrian Holocaust survivor invited back to face and forgive old ghosts and demons. Weiss is a prominent Israeli immunologist and author of books on Jewish law and philosophy, who made traumatic returns to the eastern Europe that he fled as an 11-year-old boy. After serving as a young interrogator for the American army after the war, Weiss's first adult return was as a biomedical speaker at a scientific conference. But this account centers on his 1995 return to his Austrian hometown of Wiener Neustadt. Weiss was particularly wanted by the Ichthys mission of independent Christians of the town because his father had been the chief rabbi. This mission, and its major project, A Week of Return, was aimed at reconciliation with the town's surviving Jewish exiles. This church breaks from normative theology and believes that God ``will not illuminate the Christian world until amends are made to his chosen people.'' Much of the memoir's power and drama revolve around Weiss's reluctant decision to return and address the children of the people who were so violently anti-Jewish. Along the way, Weiss presents a concise summary of the seven centuries of Jewish history in Austria, leading to his family background, and how they escaped the Nazis and got to New York. On the road, he accepted an invitation to confer with specialists in Israel, and this Berkeley radical had ``the plain, overwhelming knowledge of being home.'' Living in Israel since 1966, Weiss, with his son and grandson, is able to return to his hometown's only surviving Jewish sitea row of tombstones now embedded in the town walland to give his life and the Ichthys community some closure. An intelligent and profound memoir. (25 b&w photos, 1 map) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Indiana University Press (July 22, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0253335841
• ISBN-13: 978-0253335845
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,656,736 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Rich and Moving Memoir of the Struggle for Forgiveness, April 19, 2000

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This review is from: Reluctant Return: A Survivor's Journey to an Austrian Town (Jewish Literature and Culture) (Hardcover)

"Reluctant Return" by David Weiss presents the intricate emotional landscape of a Holocaust survivor compelled by the sincerity and heart of a new Christian sect to return to his Austrian hometown of Wiener Neustadt on a mission of reconciliation. Ichthyus, a new Christian sect devoted to repairing the deep wounds caused by Christian anti-Judaism and anti-semitism, begins from the dreams and visions of a minister's wife, Uli Eiwen, who feels led by God to uncover the truth of 1000 years of Jew-hatred in her hometown, and to work to forge a reconciliation. Uli's visionary experiences lead her to the belief that God has abandoned Christianity because of two thousand years of Christian anti-Judaism. Recognizing her God as the God of the Jews, she feels that God's covenant with Abraham speaks directly about Christians in particular in the statement, "your enemies shall be my enemies." She convinces her husband, Helmuth, of the power of her beliefs after a chilling vision of the Nazi swastika during a mass he leads drives her from church screaming. He discovers the horrible history of Lutheran complicity with the SS in his hometown, resigns his ministry, and starts Ichthyus. Weiss and other Jews from Wiener Neustadt are convinced to return by the simplicity and honesty of the Eiwens, much to their own surprise. Weiss's mapping of the intricate and complex emotions he feels during his return has much to say about the destructiveness of prejudice and hatred, and the difficulty and beauty of forgiveness. Weiss writes with a pained lyricism in this profoundly moving book. I have used this recently in a course on religious autobiography (college level), and it has been a powerful source of knowledge and reflection for my students. Very highly recommended.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A most powerful book!, November 5, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Reluctant Return: A Survivor's Journey to an Austrian Town (Jewish Literature and Culture) (Hardcover)

David Weiss opened his heart and soul with "Reluctant Return" and I was drawn into his life and experience so deeply that I finished the book in one sitting (with a dinner break). We all have our ghosts and parts of our past we have buried or refuse to acknowledge and we live our lives fully, successfully and quite happily. David Weiss lived like that until he was forced to take another look at his feelings about Austrians and growing up in antisemitic Austria. He shares his own survival experiences during the 1930-45 period and his feelings about pre- and postwar Germany, Germans, Austria and Austrians. He points out that Germany and many German people have openly acknowledged their role in the holocaust whereas Austria and the Austrian people are barely beginning this process. He describes his experiences and deepest feelings when he is returned to the town of his youth. Then how he shared his life and these feelings with groups of Austrian school children whose history books have deliberately omitted their country's role in the holocaust. The children start to realize and accept that their elders committed terrible crimes against other humans whose only error was to try to live peacefully in this small town in Austria.

If this book were published by a BIG NAME publisher, it would be an instant best seller. I believe that "Reluctant Return" will take a path similar to "Under the Tuscan Sun" and "The Perfect Storm" and grow to be a classic.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A remarkable memoir, November 18, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Reluctant Return: A Survivor's Journey to an Austrian Town (Jewish Literature and Culture) (Hardcover)

This is an astonishing work -- deeply revealing, personal, and yet universal in its message. David Weiss uses language with precision, describing complex emotions and internal conflicts with grace and originality. This book, regardless of our associations to the Holocaust, is one that we can all learn from. It reminds us that each human being must be judged as an individual, even when circumstances make it difficult for us to do so. For those of us who search within to overcome old biases and hatred, this book can be an epiphany. For any thoughtful person, it can illuminate a black period in history and inform our responses to it.