NIGHT AND HOPE (Noc a nadeje)

Short stories by Arnošt Lustig, 1958

Night and Hope, published as Noc a nadeje in 1958 and in English translation in 1989, is a collection of seven short stories, all of which are emotionally charged and profoundly moving. Each story deals with feelings of guilt, trust, betrayal, or loss. The first story, "The Return," relates the story of Hynek Tausig, a middle-aged, unattached Jew who has taken the identity Alfred Janota in order to survive. Tausig is at a crossroads: does he accept the identity and constantly live in fear of being discovered by the Gestapo, or does he give himself up and join the others (mostly families) in the transports? The dilemma is similar to that of Raskolnikov in Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment : to confess or not to confess. Much like Raskolnikov's case, paranoia sets in, and Tausig fears that everyone knows the truth behind his facade. While others suffer for being Jewish, he is free on the outside, and the enormity of his guilt is palpable. He begs to be let into the ghetto for transport: "Would you do me a favor and put me among the crowd there behind the fence? Or take me with you. But if you would be so kind, I'd prefer the first, behind the fence. It won't mean a thing to you, you can just say you found me here and that I belong in this transport and not in the one that has gone. For you it means only a few steps and for me—just now, it means everything that is called life."

He does not feel alive as Alfred Janota—only as who he is—Hynek Tausig. But he soon discovers life is mere existence on the other side of the fence. The reality of the ghetto is too much and he escapes. False identity thus becomes Tausig's reality.

In an interesting twist guilt is not only felt by the Jews but also by those who are in charge of them. In Rose Street an elderly Jew by the name of Elizabeth Feiner is beaten senseless in her shop by the Nazi officer Herz, whose only goal is to rise in the Nazi ranks. In an interesting contrast Lustig introduces Herz's status-conscious wife and unbearable mother-in-law, both of whom Feiner embodies for Herz and both of whom Herz cannot stand. Feiner's beating is therefore symbolic of Herz's own shortcomings as a husband, father, and son-in-law. Werner Binde, a driver for the Reich, witnesses this cruelty and is powerless to do anything, but his guilt forces him to return to Feiner's shop and leave her a can of sardines. Lustig brings forth optimism about the human spirit not often seen in Holocaust literature. Binde is a character who represents the goodness of those who were caught up in the madness of the Holocaust and whose sympathetic inner struggle against the cruelty of the Nazis could lead to his own demise.

Children are also important characters in "The Children," "Moral Education," and "Stephen and Anne." In the camps they must become adults and fend for themselves. Growing up well beyond one's actual years is key to survival. Memories of the past are tied in to the present, and these memories are what sustain the children. Pain and loss are also emotions with which these children must deal, as seen in "Stephen and Anne," a couple of teenagers who fall in love at first sight and whose love is dashed when Anne is called to the transports the next day.

Envy and betrayal confront Ignatz Marmulstaub in "Blue Flames." The newly appointed council chairman of the ghetto has distanced himself from his community and has been a "pet Jew" of the Nazi Herr von Holler. Marmulstaub believes that his status with von Holler will save him from being transported, and it is this arrogance that will eventually lead to his departure for the East. He even takes a mistress, Liselotte, a teenage girl who realizes that sex is tantamount to her own survival. She represents an adult wisdom that is seemingly lacking in Marmulstaub, for she knows that the end is near, whereas he tends to ignore the inevitable. In the end Marmulstaub is sent to the East with the transports, much to the glee of a ghetto community that has always known that friendship and trust mean nothing to the Nazis.

A glimmer of optimism appears at the end of the collection. In "Hope" an elderly married couple, Simon and Chana, are waiting for the Germans to come and take them. Simon, however, anticipates the arrival of the Allies, who are gaining the upper hand over the Nazis. Who will knock at their door? The final line of the story leaves the reader with a ray of hope: "'We shall wait, my dear,' he whispered. He could not sleep that night; he was waiting."

—Cynthia A. Klíma