Maureen 's Reviews > Address Unknown

Set in the 1930’s, and first published in 1938, ‘Address Unknown’ shares with the reader, a series of letters between friends and former business partners, Martin Schulse and Max Einstein. Max is a Jewish art dealer in San Francisco, whilst Martin has returned to his beloved Germany.

It demonstrates how the rise of Hitler and fascism convinced millions of everyday citizens to vote for the National Socialist German Workers’ (Nazi) Party, and hailed Hitler as a national savior in gigantic stadium rallies. We see how it affects a friendship and business partnership, that was, until that point, completely solid, with the rise of Hitler slowly turning Martin against his old friend, something that Max can neither believe nor understand. The changing mood of the times makes it a very dangerous time in history to be of the Jewish faith, as the world was about to find out.
The power of the written word was never more pertinent than it is here, with the correspondence being used to wound without physically doing so.

A sad, disturbing, but important read!