Badenheim 1939 by Aharon Appelfeld
"Badenheim 1939," a novel by Aharon Appelfeld, is set in a serene Austrian resort town on the brink of World War II, capturing the experiences of a community of Jewish residents as they face escalating threats. The story revolves around Dr. Pappenheim, an impresario, who is preparing for a cultural festival while grappling with the increasing presence of the sanitation department, which symbolizes the encroaching totalitarian regime. As spring unfolds, the atmosphere becomes increasingly ominous; guests, initially seeking leisure, begin to feel a sense of confinement as they are required to register with authorities.
The narrative follows a diverse cast, including a pharmacist, musicians, and a schoolgirl, highlighting their interactions and the gradual depletion of their freedoms. The arrival of rumors about deportation to Poland adds tension, as the characters oscillate between denial, hope, and despair. The story portrays the gradual transformation of the idyllic resort into a place of fear and uncertainty, as life's normalcy gives way to desperation and loss. Ultimately, the novel concludes with a powerful, haunting journey to an unknown fate, encapsulating the tragic reality faced by Jewish communities during this dark chapter in history.
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Badenheim 1939 by Aharon Appelfeld
First published:Badenheim, ’ir nofesh, 1975 (English translation, 1980)
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Parable
Time of plot: 1939
Locale: Badenheim, Austria
Principal characters
Dr. Pappenheim , the impresarioMartin , the pharmacistTrude , his wifeFrau Zauberblit , a guestLeon Samitzky , one of the musiciansPeter , the pastry shop ownerMandelbaum , a performerSally andGertie , prostitutes
The Story:
In early spring, the impresario Dr. Pappenheim returns to the Austrian resort town of Badenheim. As usual, he worries whether the performers, especially Mandelbaum, will appear as promised, and whether the festival will be successful. Soon, guests begin to arrive. To Trude, the pharmacist’s wife, they look pale, like patients in a sanatorium. To her, everything looks “poisoned and diseased.”
The next day, a sanitation department inspector visits the pharmacy. Although Martin, the pharmacist, does not know why the inspector is there, he feels guilty. All over Badenheim, investigators from the sanitation department measure things, erect fences, and put up flags. Porters unfold rolls of barbed wire and put up cement pillars. People take off winter clothes and put on sportswear.
At April’s end, the twins, who recite from the works of Rainer Maria Rilke, arrive. Dr. Shutz begins following a schoolgirl. Frau Zauberblit, who has left a tubercular sanatorium, talks with Leon Samitzky, a musician who is homesick for Poland. Professor Fussholdt stays in his room reading proofs of his latest book while his wife sunbathes and hunts for amorous adventures. The twins rehearse. Dr. Pappenheim receives a telegram announcing that Mandelbaum is ill and will not arrive.
In mid-May, an announcement demands that all Jewish citizens register with the sanitation department before the end of the month. A rumor circulates that they are being sent to Poland. Samitzky is happy to be going to Poland. Dr. Pappenheim, however, explains that the sanitation department makes the guests write their names in its “Golden Book” because it wants a record of its attractiveness to tourists. Dr. Pappenheim, Frau Zauberblit, and Samitzky register. Frau Zauberblit praises the sanitation department for “order and beauty.”
The sanitation department begins to look like a travel agency. Its posters carry such slogans as “Labor Is Our Life” and “The Air in Poland Is Fresher.” The department stays open at night. The band conductor carries his baptismal certificates in his pocket. Dr. Pappenheim tells him that he can “join the Jewish order.” When the conductor says that he does not believe in religion, Dr. Pappenheim invites him to become “a Jew without religion.”
Frau Zauberblit’s daughter arrives with a document stating that her mother renounces her maternal rights; Frau Zauberblit signs it and her daughter leaves. That evening, the twins perform. They recite poems about death. They seem to have “visited hell,” of which they are “no longer afraid.”
The long-awaited child prodigy arrives. Because his name is not on the hotel register, the doorman will not admit him. Dr. Pappenheim tells the doorman to let him in, asking whether he cannot see that the prodigy is a Jew. The half-Jewish waitress asks Samitzky if she can come to Poland too, although she is not fully Jewish. Samitzky replies that even though both his parents converted to Christianity, he will be going.
The sanitation department is now “the center,” and it spreads its nets in every direction. A barrier is erected to keep people from leaving or entering Badenheim. Milk is still being delivered, fruit is still being brought into town, and the band continues to play. However, the people are confined to the hotel, the pastry shop, and the swimming pool. At the sanitation department, Dr. Langmann is angry with Dr. Pappenheim. The people are registering for Poland. Dr. Pappenheim jokes that it makes no difference whether they are here or there.
A banquet is held to honor the child prodigy. The band conductor says that the people are going to their “native land.” Dr. Langmann tells Frau Milbaum that he is leaving the next day. She asks whether he has registered with the sanitation department. He replies that he believes he is “a free Austrian citizen” and that they can “send the Polish Jews to Poland; they deserve their country.”
After midnight, the child prodigy sings in Yiddish. Sally, the prostitute, asks Dr. Pappenheim if she can come to Poland too. He replies that “All the Jews and . . . everyone who wants to be a Jew” can come.
Summer arrives. The sanitation department closes the water supply. People who spent their time swimming now stand on the tennis court. Dr. Pappenheim says that now everyone will have time to study. Swearing loyalty to “Dr. Pappenheim’s Jewish Order,” the half-Jewish waitress says that her thighs are Austrian meat, and she offers everyone a taste. She saws on her legs with a knife and, bleeding, screams that when they leave for Poland they dare not go without her.
Letters stop arriving. The weather gets cold. Dr. Langmann asks the sanitation department to reexamine his case; he tells them that he is an Austrian. When he is told that he is also a Jew, he asks what that means.
The schoolgirl is pregnant. Dr. Shutz writes his mother that he is getting married. He asks for money, but the post office is shut. Frau Zauberblit runs a temperature of 101.2° and spits blood. Samitzky drinks steadily. In the pharmacy, Martin stops two men from poisoning themselves. People start buying poisonous drugs. Martin locks the pharmacy, but people break in and steal all the drugs.
Mandelbaum arrives. He says that where he comes from, the Jews were put in quarantine, but a young officer helps him escape so that he can get to the festival. Because Dr. Pappenheim was trying to get Mandelbaum to come for years, he is happy.
The telephone lines are cut. The non-Jewish employees leave. Dr. Langmann calls the Jews “an ugly people” and says that he cannot see “any use” in them. Supplies do not arrive. The hotel owner opens the storeroom. The twins grow thin.
Summer ends. The hotel serves golden cider. Usually, this is the time for leaving. Peter, the pastry shop owner, says, “Let Pappenheim emigrate, not us.” Strangers fill the town. The two prostitutes, Sally and Gertie, offer them soup. Dr. Pappenheim tells the strangers about Poland.
In the hotel, people stop serving meals. People line up for barley soup and dry bread. The old rabbi appears in a wheelchair. Everyone thought he was dead. A Christian lady cared for him, he says, but suddenly she left.
The musicians want to go home, but the roads are blocked. New supplies do not arrive. Stocks run low. Peter vows to kill Dr. Pappenheim. Dr. Pappenheim receives a letter from the sanitation department requiring that the artists be placed “at their disposal.” Delighted, he knows that a concert tour is coming.
The town runs out of cigarettes. People secretly swallow drugs stolen from the pharmacy. The child prodigy performs only for boxes of candy and grows fat. The people want the festival to be held.
Two men come from the sanatorium to take Frau Zauberblit back. They tell her that the Jewish patients are all emigrating; they tell her that she needs to return before the patients can leave. She agrees to go. The pastry cook buries the dead at night at the back of the Luxembourg Gardens. Every day, more people die.
On the last night, the people celebrate Gertie’s fortieth birthday. At the celebration, Dr. Pappenheim announces that the emigration procedures are posted. Gertie apologizes for having nothing to offer her guests. Dr. Pappenheim tells them that they will hold a party later in Warsaw.
The next day, the Jews of Badenheim walk to the train station, but Peter refuses to leave. As the people walk, they discuss things such as wages in Poland, retirement, and vacations. Policemen walk behind, but they do not hurry the people. At the station, the people bring newspapers, lemonade, cigarettes, and sweets. Two armed policemen arrive, escorting Peter. An engine approaches, pulling “four filthy freight cars.” As everyone is sucked into the cars, Dr. Pappenheim remarks: “If the coaches are so dirty it must mean that we have not far to go.”
Bibliography
Bernstein, Michael André. Foregone Conclusions: Against Apocalyptic History. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994. Describes the way in which three historical periods—Austria before the Nazi rule, Austria during the Nazi rule, and the world after the Holocaust—are interrelated simultaneously in the novel.
Budick, Emily Miller. “Literature, Ideology, and the Measure of Moral Freedom: Badenheim 1939.” In Aharon Appelfeld’s Fiction: Acknowledging the Holocaust. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005. Budick analyzes several of Appelfeld’s works, including Badenheim 1939, focusing on how he depicts the experiences of European Jewish life before, during, and after World War II.
Fridman, Lea Wernick. “The Silence of Historical Traumatic Experience: Aharon Appelfeld’s Badenheim 1939.” In Words and Witness: Narrative and Aesthetic Strategies in the Representation of the Holocaust. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2000. Fridman analyzes Badenheim 1939 and other Holocaust literature to demonstrate how Appelfeld and other writers invent techniques to represent this “unrepresentable” tragedy.
Langer, Lawrence I. “Aharon Appelfeld and the Uses of Language and Silence.” In Remembering for the Future, edited by Yehuda Bauer et al. 3 vols. Elmsford, N.Y.: Pergamon Press, 1989. Discusses Appelfeld’s irony and ambiguity. The set also includes articles on Aharon Appelfeld by Nurit Govrin, A. Komem, Gila Ramraz-Raukh, and Lea Hamaoui.
Ramraz-Raukh, Gila. Aharon Appelfeld: The Holocaust and Beyond. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994. Speaks of the novel’s “cold horror.” Sees the end as having been foreshadowed in the beginning.
Roth, Philip. “A Conversation with Philip Roth.” In Beyond Despair, by Aharon Appelfeld. Translated by Jeffrey M. Green. New York: Fromm International, 1994. First published in The New York Review of Books, February 28, 1988. Roth, the American novelist, talks with Appelfeld about his life and works. Roth calls Badenheim 1939 “vexing.” The interview gives insight into the novel’s autobiographical and historical background.
Schwartz, Yigal. Aharon Appelfeld: From Individual Lament to Tribal Eternity. Translated by Jeffrey M. Green. Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, 2001. Schwartz focuses on three major themes in Appelfeld’s work: the recovery of childhood and memory, the creation of place, and the religious views of the Holocaust writer. He maintains that Appelfeld’s underlying concerns transcend his experiences as a Holocaust survivor to include larger issues of Jewish identity.