posted on 07 Jul 2020

Address Unknown by Kressmann Taylor

The interwar period continues to provide an invaluable source of learning.  Those times bore witness to the power of demagogues to incite hatred, sow division, prosecute action rooted in racism and xenophobia - sound familiar?

Societies through the ages live on the same continuum, attempts to nurture multi-cultural, liberal, constitutional environments based on the rule of law seem ever at risk of darker forces that endeavour to drag us the other way towards a destination where, without challenge and resistance, the line really does stop at Auschwitz.

Archives continue to reveal long lost material from which further forensic analysis of motive is drawn, personal diaries come to light to tell individual stories, novels take us into places where hopefully we will never tread.

Yet there is still literature from those days to be discovered, illuminating our understanding.  Address Unknown was written in 1938, takes the form of letters between two German friends and business colleagues - Max in America and Martin now returned to Germany.

Friends who, we assume, have long shared similar values and outlook as well as personal memories.  Their correspondence sees Max become increasingly alarmed as Martin acquires new associates and opportunities, initially sceptical but quickly embracing the new reality and extoling the virtues of his ‘Gentle Leader’.

Within months Martin experiences only too personally what this new reality holds in store.

 

Simon Barton

July 2020