Hans Eichner (1921–2009)

If you are looking to read a novel that encompasses decades of Jewish life leading up to World War II, and post World War II, then Kahn & Engelmann, by Hans Eichner is the book for you! Eichner has masterfully written a story that is based in part on his own family, and their experiences as Jews in Vienna. More than that, Kahn & Engelmann is a tribute to all of the Jews of Vienna who had to leave their homes, leave their country, in 1938, because of the annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany. This novel is a compelling saga.

The narrator is a man named Peter Engelmann, and as the reader peruses the pages they become aware that he is laden with guilt for having survived the Holocaust (this is not an unusual experience). Engelmann reflects back on his life, and the lives of his grandparents, beginning in the current 1980, moving backwards to 1880. His voice becomes the voice of his ancestors, and their stories, struggles and journeys resound strongly throughout the novel.

Eichner weaves the threads of time with brilliance, leaving no detail untouched or unturned. From the most poignant moments, and the intimate moments, to the humorous moments, our senses are completely filled with their life stories, sweat, blood and toil. The word imagery is magnificent, vivid and masterful, almost poetic in spots.

The scenes of Engelmann’s grandparents and their emigration to Vienna from Tapolca, Hungary are absolutely astounding. The struggles they endured, on foot, no less, leave the reader with saturated images, images that in and of themselves, are striking for the mind to absorb. Eichman’s writing leaves the reader gasping for breath. That they were able to make it to Vienna is incredible, but their perseverance was the driving force behind their journey. The reader becomes consumed with the characters and with the story line.

Actually, his grandmother was the driving force behind the journey. Her character is one of strength and determination, no matter the situation they encounter. And, it was her forcefulness and her strong will that led them to return, to the city they left behind.

Engelmann is caught in a quandary. He reflects because he must, because he has a strong need to constantly remember the events that occurred before him, beginning with his grandparents, yet he is a man in emotional turmoil due to his need to also forget. Engelmann relates his own story and escape from the Nazis within the confines of his ancestors.

Eichner is a true Jewish story teller, in every sense. Some compare him to Proust, and I can understand why they do, due to Eichner’s amazingly beautiful word paintings. His insight into Jewish life and Jewish guilt is profound. Eichner’s fondness for Jewish humor shines through, as he injects it throughout the novel, through Jewish jokes, stories and fables.

His depiction of Jewish daily life and Jewish traditions is written with forthrightness, yet with a voice that is unsentimental. Kahn & Engelmann is much more than a familial tapestry. It is a novel that depicts the hardships of three generations of a family caught in struggles to survive, not only in a country no longer their original homeland, but struggle within the family dynamics of envy, desire, financial survival, love and loss, and the struggle to survive the Holocaust.

Hans Eichner has written a novel of historic proportions, with minute details that astound the mind. Kahn & Engel. It is an important work of not only Holocaust Literature, but historical Literature, and is beautifully written tribute to the Jews of Vienna. Once I began it, I was engrossed until I finished the last page. I highly recommend it to everyone.

As an added note: “On April 8, 2009, Hans Eichner died in his sleep. Three days later the first print run of Kahn & Engelmann, in its luminous new translation by Jean M. Snook, arrived from the printer.”
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Monday June 8, 2009 – 16th of Sivan, 5769… (mehr)