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A review by mylogicisfuzzy
On the End of the World by Will Stone, Joseph Roth
4.0
Joseph Roth left Berlin for Paris on the same day that Hitler became German chancellor. On the End of the World is a short collection of articles he wrote between 1933 and 1939 criticising the Nazi regime and lamenting the loss of European consciousness in the wake of Hitler’s rise to power.
The first article, The Dream of a Carnival Night, dating from March 1924 sets the tone in likening Hitler’s trial (following the unsuccessful beer hall putsch) to a dream of a carnival night. “I dreamt Germany altogether, her illiterate upholsterer, my colleague who, barely has he learned to read and write in a racist alphabet book, immediately becomes a writer and political personality”.
Angry and frustrated but always clear, sharp and penetrating, Roth is particularly good on highlighting the lies of Goebbels and his ministry of propaganda and I couldn’t help (hindsight is a wonderful thing) thinking of today’s post-truth world. He writes about Nazis’ appropriation of Nordic mythology (in The Myth of the German Soul) and criticises the Western diplomats and journalists who “go to Germany like theatregoers” instead of observing and explaining current events. Having just read Julia Boyd’s Travellers in the Third Reich with numerous examples of exactly this – international visitors to Bayreuth during the 1930s and their often blinkered love for German culture - Roth’s article felt particularly acute. The most poignant, however is ‘Rest While Viewing the Demolition’, written in June 1938 (after the Anschluss) on demolition of the Paris hotel where Roth lived while he watches from a nearby café. “Misery crouches beside me, ever gentler and ever greater, pain drops by, becoming great and beneficent, horror blasts its way in, but doesn’t scare me anymore. And that’s the most inconsolable thing of all.”
I’ve been meaning to read more of Joseph Roth’s writing since I finally read The Radetzky March last year and am very grateful for to Netgalley, Steerforth Press and Pushkin Press for the opportunity to read On the End of the World.
The first article, The Dream of a Carnival Night, dating from March 1924 sets the tone in likening Hitler’s trial (following the unsuccessful beer hall putsch) to a dream of a carnival night. “I dreamt Germany altogether, her illiterate upholsterer, my colleague who, barely has he learned to read and write in a racist alphabet book, immediately becomes a writer and political personality”.
Angry and frustrated but always clear, sharp and penetrating, Roth is particularly good on highlighting the lies of Goebbels and his ministry of propaganda and I couldn’t help (hindsight is a wonderful thing) thinking of today’s post-truth world. He writes about Nazis’ appropriation of Nordic mythology (in The Myth of the German Soul) and criticises the Western diplomats and journalists who “go to Germany like theatregoers” instead of observing and explaining current events. Having just read Julia Boyd’s Travellers in the Third Reich with numerous examples of exactly this – international visitors to Bayreuth during the 1930s and their often blinkered love for German culture - Roth’s article felt particularly acute. The most poignant, however is ‘Rest While Viewing the Demolition’, written in June 1938 (after the Anschluss) on demolition of the Paris hotel where Roth lived while he watches from a nearby café. “Misery crouches beside me, ever gentler and ever greater, pain drops by, becoming great and beneficent, horror blasts its way in, but doesn’t scare me anymore. And that’s the most inconsolable thing of all.”
I’ve been meaning to read more of Joseph Roth’s writing since I finally read The Radetzky March last year and am very grateful for to Netgalley, Steerforth Press and Pushkin Press for the opportunity to read On the End of the World.