First published in 1934 but fully imagining the future of Germany over the ensuing years, The Oppermanns tells the compelling story of a remarkable German Jewish family confronted by Hitler's rise to power. Compared to works by Voltaire and Zola on its original publication, this prescient novel strives to awaken an often unsuspecting, sometimes politically naive, or else willfully blind world to the consequences of its stance in the face of national events -- in this case, the rising tide of Nazism in 1930s Germany. The past and future meet in the saga of the Oppermanns, for three generations a family commercially well established in Berlin. In assimilated citizens like them, the emancipated Jew in Germany has become a fact. In a Berlin inhabited by troops in brown shirts, however, the Oppermanns have more to fear than an alien discomfort. For along with the swastikas and fascist salutes come discrimination, deceit, betrayal, and a tragedy that history has proved to be as true as this novel's astonishing, profoundly moving tale.
| Acknowledgments | 7 | |
| Introduction | 9 | |
| The Fall of the House of Usher | 17 | |
| Green Tea | 37 | |
| The Damned Thing | 71 | |
| The Yellow Sign | 81 | |
| The Monkey's Paw | 101 | |
| The White People | 113 | |
| The Willows | 153 | |
| Casting the Runes | 204 | |
| The Graveyard Rats | 226 | |
| Pigeons from Hell | 234 | |
| It | 265 | |
| Smoke Ghost | 291 | |
| Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper | 308 | |
| The Small Assassin | 326 | |
| The Whimper of Whipped Dogs | 345 | |
| Calling Card | 365 | |
| Coin of the Realm | 372 | |
| The Reach | 385 | |
| Biographical Notes | 408 |
Anonymous
Posted January 4, 2009
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I read this book several years ago for a comparative literature class in college and it remains to be one of my favorite books. <BR/>Powerful, thought-provoking and moving.
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Overview
First published in 1934 but fully imagining the future of Germany over the ensuing years, The Oppermanns tells the compelling story of a remarkable German Jewish family confronted by Hitler's rise to power. Compared to works by Voltaire and Zola on its original publication, this prescient novel strives to awaken an often unsuspecting, sometimes politically naive, or else willfully blind world to the consequences of its stance in the face of national events -- in this case, the rising tide of Nazism in 1930s ...