For Every Sin

This is not one of my favorite Appelfeld books. But it nonetheless is a novel of quality which gives insights into the very special world of survivors of the Shoah. In this work the hero, a young man named Theo attempts to make his way home to Bad-a -Wein(Vienna) where he was born. On the way he meets with various groups of survivors who he alternatively is drawn to and repelled by. In one such meeting he tells a survivor named Paul that he is going home in order to convert to Christianity. When Paul grabs his coat Theo pushes him, and unintentionally leads to his death. After this he continues in his desperate bid to return home, a home which he will come to understand no longer exists. Once again the theme of survivor's problematic relation to their own Jewishness is central to an Appelfeld work. Once again the struggle to survive in hostile circumstances comes to play. In this work the protagonist is strongly attached to the memory of his mother, a beautiful woman who once thought to convert to Christianity. In the course of returning home however Theo encountering again and again groups of refugees understands that he himself has changed. The pure German his mother taught him is no longer his. Rather the Yiddish inflected language he learned in the camps remains with him. He through the wanderings arrives at last at a group or refugees one of whom tells him that they must give love and help to each other. He understands he cannot go back home to the home which no longer exists, but rather as a survivor must go on with other survivors, however slowly, to wherever their Fate leads them.

It may appear simplistic/extreme to say only a survivor of Genocide can write with credibility on the topic. A great Novelist can take a reader anywhere; an excellent Historian can document every detail of an event. I have read books by the latter two and they do communicate the horror of Genocide, however when a person with the talent of a great writer who also is a survivor writes on the topic, there is a difference, a great difference. Fortunately for the Historical Record Mr. Aharon Appelfeld is just such a man, and when he tells a tale he communicates feelings that are more disturbing, and that resonate longer than just a recital of facts no matter how shocking.With his book, "For Every Sin", he again uses the form of a novel to share experiences of a survivor making his way home after the War. Very little of the emotion that his character Theo feels is what you would expect, and the same holds true for many other players in the book. Many of the emotions and the plans that people make in the book are a direct result of their wartime experiences, and they rarely are what a reader would expect. And yet every action makes sense after Mr. Appelfeld tells the story.Some Jews converted to Christianity before the war in the hope they would not then be found by the Nazis. The step was taken to preserve life. The Author deals with the following paradox, a man survives the camp, the war, the attempt to destroy the people he is a part of. If a person were to lose all faith it would not be hard to understand, but Theo is returning home so that he may convert to Christianity after he has survived. The reactions of those other survivors he meets cover the range of reactions from understanding, to violence regarding his decision. The remarkable effects of this book are the people that the Author brings to us, and even more interesting their behavior. Theo is determined and states to all he meets what his goal is, however he seems to walk back as often as he does forward. Violence against a fellow survivor would seem to be unthinkable, judgments about another based on religious belief, again would seem impossible based on what was survived, and why it happened.Only the Author knows what he was attempting to portray or perhaps teach. I believe at least one subject was how little some people change, or how little some people change after the most unimaginable experiences. How people of shared experience have been so harmed that they cannot trust or sympathize with those that have had the same experience.It may also be true that if you have not experienced the most extreme human atrocity you never can truly understand what the victims suffered. Knowing a survivor may bring you closer, but even that may not be close enough. Mr. Appelfeld makes a reader feel very uncomfortable as the work is read. And perhaps that is the best anyone can do. Bring a reader as close as they can, disturb them as much as they can, and know that still, the true horror of the experie