Verna b. carleton

Reinald werrenrath, baritone

One day Londoner Eric Devon can no longer keep his true identity hidden. His real name is Erich Dalburg and he grew up in Berlin. During the war, Jewish and in the resistance, he had to leave Germany headlong. Only Nora, his British wife, and a befriended American journalist know his origins. When they managed to persuade him to travel with them to Berlin and Bergen-Belsen, he was faced with an unexpected task.Nothing seems as he thought it was, and only when Eric realizes that his fate, that of an exile, is no heavier than that of those who tried to survive in Berlin, does a new beginning emerge, where he did not expect it: with his family, in Berlin.

Verna b. carleton en línea

In the novel Back to Berlin, the American journalist and writer Verna B. Carleton (1914 – 1967), has chronicled the exile story of the German «Erich» who fled to England in the early 1930s and carefully concealed his true identity there. After World War II – and an ‘incubation period’ of more than a decade – could the exile simply take off his mask? At a time when the German firebird is rapidly resurrecting, when the Wirtschaftswunder is making the fraught past quickly forgotten for many, or even giving it a false nostalgic tinge?
It is interesting from a historical point of view that this 1959 work has been made accessible again in a new translation. It is an, otherwise quite colored, eyewitness account of the time just after World War II. The border between East and West Berlin is still fairly easy to cross. There was no Wall yet, Europe was still under construction, the occupying powers in Germany were still searching. The Cold War chess game is still at its opening moves.

Verna b. carleton 2020

-Hitler got the Germans to hate, and once they hated, everything was possible. The war, the murder of the Jews. Everything. When the Allies entered Berlin we knew that we would all pay, young and old, Nazis and anti-Nazis, we all had to pay. But then we thought: peace will come and they will leave us alone with our wounds. We didn’t expect the Allies to split in two and start another war over us. We didn’t expect them to preach hatred too, turning brothers against brothers, cutting us open, dividing homes and families. That I cannot forgive them,» he repeated. Anger shook his voice again. And now they are talking about another war. When we’ve barely finished clearing the rubble. Another war. Tell me, Erich: is that fair?» (pp. 201-202)

Verna b. carleton 2021

The aspect that I would highlight of the novel is the strength of the characters. It is very good the setting, which runs through Germany and above all, the Berlin divided by the wall and I was struck by the description that makes the author of the way of thinking of the Germans. The story is dynamic, not heavy and the plot is entertaining with fluid dialogue and rhythm. The novel is very well written, awakens and maintains interest until the end and tells us about a part of history very little treated, I definitely recommend it.