THE BOOK FAIR

Leslie Epstein

Author:      Leslie Epstein

Published: 1979

Genre:        Holocaust Novel

Cover:         Paperback

Pages:         350

Review:

In the satirical novel, Issac Trumpelman is appointed chairman of the Judenrat, in the Lodz Ghetto, during the German occupation in WW II. 

Trumpelman becomes the dictator of Lodz, and hence “King of the Jews”.

Trumpelman, as appointed leader of the Ghetto, must fulfill the set quota of Jews daily for transport, as required by the Germans.  He realizes that he is sending Jews to their deaths when their articles of clothing are returned to the ghetto for processing.

Trumpelman’s council debates whether or not they have the right to turn over the lists of Jews demanded by the Germans.  But Trumpelman, full of wisdom and confidence, writes out lists with ease, declaring that if not, the Germans would surely march into the ghetto and capture many more Jews.

Trumpelman always manages to offer the people the tiny sliver of hope they need to survive, even throughout the selection process, an irony in the book that was a reality of the time.

As Trumpelman performs his duties, Jews are starved, beaten, hung, shot, and the transport trains fill beyond capacity.

 

Note:

Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski held the post, Head of the Judenrat in Lodz.  Lodz, annexed by Germany, in 1939, turned the Lodz Ghetto into a major industrial center for German supplies.  Although thousands of transports of Jews left from Lodz to the death camps, the ghetto, because of the necessary industry, remained in existence for four years.  Many Jews from other cities were also transported into Lodz, further multiplying the issues of overcrowding, hunger and disease.

The premise of the book is the “excruciating moral dilemma of the Judenrat…”  The Judenrat, a council of Jews from the community were sometimes thought of as collaborators.  The general view of the Judenrat and the Jews they governed was that the Germans could not kill all of the Jews, and no matter how horrible their situation, some Jews would survive.  The Jews however had no idea as to how many Jews the Germans would murder and of those, exactly how horribly those millions would perish.

The Judenrat’s original responsibility was to secure housing and food for the displaced Jews.  In the terror, confusion and upheaval, the Germans began the demands of the Judenrat; the lists, the eliminations.

The Judenrat, ”elected” members of the Ghettos,  could keep their position and fulfill the Nazi requests or they could join the ranks of their fellow Jews.  The Judenrat opposed any other Jewish authority in the Ghettos, including resistance, believing that their efforts saved more Jews with their appeals and negotiations.

The Germans sealed the ghetto in May of 1940 and liquidated the ghetto in August of 1944. Chaim Rumkowski and his family perished in Auschwitz.  The ghetto was liberated in Jan of 1945 by the Russian Red Army.  Of the 250,000 inhabitants of the ghetto, only some 800 were left.  Judgment of the Judenrat falls solely to the Jews.