Each dies alone ( German: Jeder stirbt für sich allein ) - a novel by German writer Hans Fallad , written in 1947 and partially based on the story of Otto and Eliza Hampel . The novel is considered the first book written on Resistance by a writer who did not emigrate from Nazi Germany . The writer Primo Levy called this novel “the best book ever written about the German Resistance” [1] .
| Everyone dies alone | |
|---|---|
| Jeder stirbt für sich allein | |
| Author | Hans Fallad |
| Genre | Novel |
| Original language | Deutsch |
| Original published | |
| Publisher | |
| Release | 1947 |
At the original publication, the Falladas manuscript was heavily censored and only in 2011 was reprinted, being restored on the basis of the writer's surviving drafts. The novel was Fallad’s last work — he wrote it in just 24 days and died a few months later, about a week before the book was published.
The Russian translation of the novel was published in 1948 and was the first foreign translation. In 2017, a version of 2011 entitled “Alone in Berlin” was translated - most modern foreign translations of the novel today use just such a variant of the name.
Story
The novel takes place during World War II in Nazi Germany. On the day of the surrender of France, the postman Eva Kluge brings to the house of the spouses Otto and Anna Quangel a funeral for their son, who died in battle. This event arouses in them hatred of Nazism. Quangel reports the death of his son to his bride, Trudel Bauman. During the conversation, the latter, in shock, confesses to Kwangel that she is in an underground resistance group and is engaged in sabotage . Dissatisfied with this, her bandmates Jensch and Grigoleit offer her suicide, but another member of the group, Karl Hergesel, becomes her defense, claiming that he will not let this happen. Resistance Group breaks up.
Meanwhile, in the house where Kwangeli lives, gambler at the races and womanizer Enno Kluge, former husband of Eva Kluge, and his acquaintance, police agent Emil Borkhausen, are trying to rob the apartment of Frau Rosenthal, the wife of a wealthy Jewish businessman sent by the Nazis to a concentration camp but during the theft at the crime scene they are caught by a young SS man Baldur Perzike, the son of a Nazi party veteran and a resident of this house. At this time, Frau Rosenthal hid first at the Kwangels, then she was concealed by a retired adviser From. A few days later, Frau Rosenthal does not stand it and rises to his apartment, meeting Baldur Perzike on the stairs. The latter calls a police commissioner with an assistant, who interrogate her with partiality. During interrogation, unable to bear the torment, Frau Rosenthal is thrown out of the window. In reward for helping her capture, Perzike received a suitcase with linen, previously owned by the deceased.
The Kwangels make the decision to fight the Nazis alone - to write postcards calling out against the existing regime and the aggressive war unleashed by it, realizing that they can pay their heads for it and throw them into public places. They safely toss the first card at the entrance of a residential building. The postcard was found by an actor, once the favorite of the Reich Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels , and now he fell into disgrace. He took it to his friend, a lawyer who lives in the same house. Both of them did not have any other feelings, except for indignation at the actions of the author of the card, which can substitute other people. Those who find carry the postcard to the Gestapo . The investigation is entrusted to police commissar Escherich. As the cards are found, he sticks the flags into the map, marking the places where they were found.
For six months, the Kvangels write and toss 48 cards, 44 of them go to Escherich. The Commissioner suggests that the author of the postcards, or, as he was dubbed, “invisible,” is a lonely or widowed person from the work environment who is not used to writing. At this time, a person suspected of throwing postcards is detained in the clinic. It turned out to be Enno Kluge, one of the participants in the robbery of the apartment of Frau Rosenthal. Kluge was in the clinic, trying to get an exemption from work due to illness. Escherich understands that Kluge has nothing to do with postcards or their author, but nonetheless forces him to sign a protocol stating that the postcard was planted by him. After this, Escherich releases Kluge, securing him external surveillance, but he accidentally manages to escape. Kluge began to hide with the owner of the pet store, Hete Gaberle. Borkhausen, who was searching for Kluge at the direction of Escherich, discovers him and demands money from Gaberle for his silence. She agrees to pay and sends Klug to her friend, who is harboring those who are being persecuted by the Nazis, but Borkhausen’s son Kuno-Dieter hunts him down, after which Escherich comes to Klug. He takes it with him and takes him out of town, where he requires him to commit suicide. Kluge tries to shoot Escherich, but he manages to kill him. Escherich reports to his boss, Obergruppenführer Pral, that he has no clues, and so he has to wait until the "invisibility" pierces, and offers to transfer the case to another investigator, Zott. Pral orders the arrest of Escherich.
The kwangel almost comes across twice. For the first time he was identified as the person who laid the card, but the person who identified him turned out to be a petty swindler, and therefore no one believed him. For the second time, Kwangel’s postcard is found by Trudel Bauman, who by then had already married Karl Hergesel and took his last name. Investigator Zott, who failed to cope with the “invisibility” case, was removed from the case, and Escherich was released from prison and returned to his duties, but internally he was already broken. Soon after, Kwangel inadvertently loses a postcard in the furniture factory workshop where he works. After this slip, Kwangel is arrested. At the interrogation of Escherich, he does not unlock, but keeps with dignity. The only thing that shakes him is that almost all the postcards he wrote fell into the Gestapo. That same night, the drunken Gestapo officers, led by Pral, descend into the basement, into the cell where the Kwangel is held, and subject him to beatings and bullying, forcing Esherich to participate in this. On the night of the same day, Escherich shot himself in his own office.
In addition to Otto Quangel, his wife Anna, Trudel and Karl Hergeseli, as well as Anna's brother Ulrich Hefke, were also arrested. In the Gestapo, Karl Hergesel dies of beating, and Trudel commits suicide by jumping into a flight of stairs. The court sentenced the Kwangels to death . Ulrich Hefke lost his mind during the trial and was placed in a psychiatric clinic where he was killed . After the trial, Advisor Frome transfers the ampoules of potassium cyanide to the Kwangelam. Anna Quangel, not wanting an easy death, destroys her ampoule, and Otto Quangel decided to pull to the last and take the poison just before the end. But he did not succeed - he did not have time to crack the ampoule, and was guillotined . Anna Kwangel dies in prison during the bombing of Berlin , never knowing that her husband has already been executed.
Eva Kluge with a scandal leaves the Nazi party and leaves to live in a village, where he starts a family with a local teacher and takes Kuno-Dieter Borkhausen into a family, who, having quarreled with his father, fled home. Emil Borkhausen and policeman Klebs were arrested for attempting to rob the apartment of the Perzike family and sentenced to imprisonment . Baldur Perzike sent his father, a veteran of the Nazi party, to a nursing home, and he went to study at the elite Nazi school “ Napola ”. At the end of the novel, Emil Borkhausen, having met his son, tries to impose himself on him, but Kuno-Dieter drives him away.
Films
- 1962 - directed by Falk Harnack.
- 1970 - GDR , DEFA studio , director Hans-Joachim Kasprzik.
- 1975 - director Alfred Forer [2] .
- 2004 - Czech Republic , director Dusan Klein [3] .
- 2016 - Great Britain , France , Germany , director Vincent Perez .
Notes
- ↑ berlinerliteraturkritik.de
- ↑ Jeder stirbt für sich allein (link not available) bei filmportal.de, abgerufen am 17. Juli 2011.
- ↑ I ve smrti sami in der Česko-Slovenská filmová databáze.