FOOLED BY FOOLS, CRAZED BY LUNATICS

Radio Record, Volume XII, Issue 37, 24 February 1939, Page 16

FOOLED BY FOOLS, CRAZED BY LUNATICS

Stirring Prophecy In Drama Of Jewish Refugees’ Pitiful Plight. | "But they knew that... a day would come when they would travel back to Ger-many-those hundreds of thousands, to whom the land belonged, would stream back to join the millions who, for their sake, too, had borne the yolk of slavery. Then the exultant song of labour would burst forth; the Te Deum of liberation would ring out from a thousand throats; the dead would arise to announce that the dawn had come... . "Hundreds of thousands had been driven out whom no bond could keep together. . «. But one day they would recognise that a common task had been Iaid upon them ali. . « « One day all those who had left Germany would come together and gather up the German soil they had brought with them (on the soles of their shoes); and a power would arise before the astounded world-a power so great and so mighty that the resistance of the false Caesars would collapse and vanish; for earth draws earth, and the profaned soil of Germany would thanicfully receive the fresh and fruitful strength of kindred earth returning. ... Terrible would be that awakening for the great ones of that dreadful domination! Ome day the world would realise that it had been fooled by fools, crazed by lunatics, and driven unawares to the very edge of the abyss. There would be a terrible and bloody mustering of forces and the world would burn the idols that itself had carried... . For the last time force would crash into force-that the world might Rmow peace at fast."-Extract from Mans Habe’s "Three Over the Frontier," reviewed ere to-day.

AS there been written L-| around the plight of the Jewish exile from Germany a more powerful and compelling story than Hans Habe’s ‘‘Three Over the Frontier’’? I doubt it. Nor do I wonder that it has the recommendation of the Book Society. It is brilliantly executed, and, making no attempt at heroics, is yet heroic throughout. It has adventure, it has the hard philosophy of the persecuted, it has much that is harrowing and it has free licence in its dealings with the love-life of some of its characters upon whom desperation, brutality and the deprivation of citizenship have left their mark in the disintegration of moral, spiritual and all other values. But above all, it paints a shattering picture of the utter futility, the utter hopelessness that confronts most victims of that vicious decree-exile. O little word, embracing so much sorrow, so much terror, so much tragedy, so much-in the ease of these Jews-that cries aloud for vengeance! For A Passport T the risk of their marked lives, three refugees cross the German-Czechoslovak frontier in 1933. Nora Geldern,

beautiful, degenerate, but essentially brave young Jewess; Dr. Heinz Kiesler, wealthy industrialist, whom bitter Fate dogs to the end, and Richard Sergius, Communist engineer who, with Nora, brings a grim

story to an inspiring finish with a prayer that the birth of their first-born might herald the coming of peace and justice for the future. There is a fourth leading character, Vernon McCallum, an Englishman, who is immersed in the affairs of the exiles, especially after an extraordinary transaction in which he ‘‘buys’’ Nora when Kiesler, whose mistress she is for a period, ‘‘sells’’? her to him in order that she might possess that invaluable piece of paper -a British passport. "Blank, Benumbed Days" **Three Over the Frontier’’ contains pointed descriptions of life in Berlin... . ‘‘When _Nora woke in the morning and opened her eyes she could barely see the sky for a vast swastika flag... . And so begam all those last blank, benumbed days. Life was barely endurable in Berlin. ... It was something in the air-something impalpable

and ajll-pervading. People spoke in whispers even when they were alone.... "’ Comes the awfulness of the Jewish boycott; after it the exiles, tossed about in the crosscurrents of international intrigue and uncertainty. Later, more glimpses of the chaos ‘‘back home.’’... ‘‘Have you seen the photographs in the papers? ... Victory on the battlefield at the Kreuzberg Library... . Our heroic infantry sueceeded in storming 62 bookeases. .. . The enemy had to leave behind him on the battlefield no fewer than 800

volumes of Erich Maria Re-marque-isn’t that a splendid victory?... 77! An Exile’s Cry you pity Dr. Kiesler, speaking for all exiles, when, in explaining his presence to London detectives questioning him as an ‘‘undesirable immigrant,’’ he says: "TI came here, gentlemen, for a mean and shabby reason that may seem to you infamous and criminal. I wanted to live, gentlemen; [ wanted to breathe, gentlemen, as you do. I wanted to walk through streets and squares; I wanted to awake in

the morning, lie down ‘o rest when evening came, and take a hand in mine when I felt lonely; I wanted to kiss a woman, ag you do, and to know that 1 was allowed to live.... Yes, that is what I wanted, gentlemen, although I am an emigrant-mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa!’ " Excitement and misery, ac tion and inspiration blend in this arresting record of 2 mad country’s human discards. Per. sonally, I was drawn irresistibly into the story from the start and held in its grip until I had reached the last line, Which will be more easily understood if you read again the striking example of the/’ author’s prose-power which is quoted, in all its prophetie intensity. at the beeinnine of

this review.

A.R.

M.

"Three Over the Frontier.’"’ Hans Habe, translated from the German by Eric Sutton. Harrap. Our copy from the publisher. ,