[ book tip by Translated Tips ] Barbara Basting writes about the German edition of Unsentimentale Reise
Literary testimonies of Holocaust survivors - from Primo Levi, Jorge Semprun and Ruth Klüger to Louis Begley and György Konrad - are heavy reading matter in more than one sense. Drach's Unsentimental Journey is different. True, he was spared a concentration camp. Nevertheless his characteristic dry humour, which stops neither at perpetrators nor future victims, springs from a disillusioned conception of man, one which constantly expects the worst. Hence the author is not an unpleasant buffoon who plays down the catastrophe in retrospect, but a meticulously sarcastic observer of human behaviour in extreme circumstances. Which is why Drach's report, first published in 1966, about his internment and flight from French extradition camps as well as his years in emigration actually succeeds in being amusing in parts. Though faced with this sardonic tableau of the period, readers' laughter tends to stick in their throats - a well-calculated effect. By the way, it was also his wits that saved the attorney's life: when confronted by the Vichy authorities, he translated the initials I.K.G., 'Israelitische Kultusgemeinde' (Religious Community of the Israelites), in his passport as 'Im Katholischen Glauben' (In Catholic Faith) - and got away with it.

[ book info ] Drach, Albert: Unsentimental Journey: A Report. Ariadne Pr, 1991 . ISBN: 0929497473.