'cations, German Guilt
Pose nteresting Debatable Issues
in Alpert's Novel 'The Claimant'
When a novelist manages, in
the course of his narrative, to a-
rouse questions relating to inter-
national affairs, to pose queries
involving social relations and to
create doubts and provide ma-
terial for basic public discussions,
he succeeds in a major objective:
to make his story count as a
lesson-bearer.
Hollis Alpert may well be con-
sidered to have attained such a
goal in his "The Claimant," pub-
lished by Dial Press (750 3rd,
NY17), in which he introduces the
interesting and important subject
of the victims' claims of compen-
sation for their losses and suffer-
ings from the Germans and of the
morality of such claims.
Because this novel deals primar-
ily with the problems of indemni-
fication and the course pursued in
securing it—which often involves
exposing anew the Nazi criminals
to possible prosecution — "The
Claimaht" retains value even at
this time, when the era of com-
pensations is nearing its end. But
from some of the indications even
in a novel, there is ground, for be-
lieving that some claims may yet
be made for a long time, and the
search for proof of validity is the
apparent need emerging from this
story. Its hero, the New York
lawyer Alfred Becker, is the able
man who gets the proof. He also is
the, man who rejects an offer that
assumes the aspect of a pay-off.
"The Claimant" has many
other factors of value — such as
the love-making with the daugh-
ter of a. former Nazi who is
proven to have been guilty of
gathering a large number of
Jews to be sent to slave labor
camps and eventual extermina-
tion by his Nazi superiors.
Elizabeth Weisse captures t h e
heart of Alfred Becker while her
father, who was listed as Haupt-
mann 0. Weisse when he labored
under Nazism and when he par-
ticipated in a Zhitomir session
that planned the enslavement of
Jews, is exposed as a Nazi
criminal. But 0. Weisse escapes
danger on order from U.S. au-
thorities in Berlin who inform
Becker that the criminal had
provided aid to the U.S. in in-
telligence and no charges were
to be made against him. But the
firm against whom Becker made
claims in behalf of 62 Jews who
suffered under Nazism—a hand-
ful of survivors from the crim-
inal participation of a firm that
was at the root of extermina-
tion plans—was prepared to make
a payment. That was at once
interpreted as an obvious pay-
off and Becker r e je c t e d the
1,500,00-mark offer. Therein lies
an interesting . and very crucial
challenge: should such a pay-
ment be viewed as a pay-off
and should it have been rejected?
Becker rejected the pay-off.
What he was after in behalf of
his clients was substantiation of
guilt, admission of criminality. He
labored for an ideal and he ad-
hered to it.
Then, upon his return to New
York, after having negotiated for
restitution, he made his call to
Elizabeth and asked her to marry
him. He had been married to a
girl he met after the war in a con-
centration camp. It was never a
happy marriage. It was a child-
less one. While he was on the
mission in Germany and in Aus-
tria, described in "The Claimant,"
his wife took a trip to Israel.
There she met again one of the
concentration camp inmates. A
love affair developed. She called
her husband in Vienna, asked him
to meet her in Tel Aviv, a divorce
was arranged and a sad 18-year-
old marriage ended, making it
possible for Becker to marry the
German girl. Elizabeth was des-
cribed as having been revolted by
what her father did. She even said
she would want to become a Jew-
ess. But Becker had had another
affair with a German girl, before
he married the survivor from
Nazism. While the sex relations
with Germen women is presented
as posing problems, "The Claim-
ant" nevertheless indicates a sort
of endorsement.
This novel can not be dis-
missed in this brief fashion. It
has many more interesting in-
cidents. Becker gets information
about camp atrocities which may
enable him to get compensation
_ for a demented girl who sur-
vived the camp cruelties. He
succeeds in recovering a stolen
candelabrum of g r e at historic
value and the Austrian who
hands it back although he paid
a high price for it, and refuses
to accept payment, had been a
Nazi himself and he sought re-
lief for his conscience by this
act. These and other incidents
lend special significance to this
good novel.
It is interesting to note that,
early in the story, when a German
spokesman comes to a gathering
of survivors, when the question of
forgetting the past is raised; one
of the victims, at the New York
meeting. commented: "Only the
dead can forget. The rest of us
can only remember, not as a duty,
but as a compulsion."
There are interesting comments
on Germans and Germany and
especially valuable references to
Austria.
Becker was -able to locate the
lost candelabrum when the di-
vorced wife of a friend who served
with him in Germany during the
war took him to the Austrian home
where it was kept until its owner
relinquished it voluntarily. After
that experience, he spoke about the
disease with which Austrians were
infected and he explained:
All of them who are old
enough to have been through the
Nazi mess and the war, bear
wounds that have never healed.
They never will. In Berlin, in
spite of everything, a few Jews
were saved. But not here. They
were all of them taken away.
Some lucky ones bought them-
_ ,selves free. But the Viennese
never lifted a finger. And now
that it is once. more a beautiful
city they know that deep down
there is something missing. The
people who helped so much to
give life to the city will never
come back. They have a wound,
the older Viennese, and nothing
can cure it. . . . The city will
come back to life only when the
old ones have died, every last
one of them."
Hollis Alpert tries riot to be un-
kind to Germany and to the Ger-
mans, but his novel exposes' the
German nature, and one of the
characters (Ulrich, Elizabeth's
friend) comments: "I am con-
cerned about German brutality,
and you must admit that my peo-
ple (I do not regard them proud-
ly) have at least demonstrated a
modern mastery of the art."
In other ways, the cruelties are
exposed, the criminals indicted,
the basic issues revolving about
Germans, their guilt and the com-
pensation problems emerge in all
their seriousness.
Alpert has written a good novel.
It creates matters for debate. It
is an effective story with contro-
versial elements—and that makes
"The Claimant" a very good novel.
— P. S.
-
Reducing Arab Unemployment
TEL AVIV—The -Israel Ministry
of Labor has taken the step of util-
izing large numbers of Arab work-
ers from the West Bank for the
construction and improvement of
the road network there. This policy
has the twin benefits of providing
work for many who would other-
The words of the wise are list-
Wise be idle and improving the in-
fra-structure of areas controlled by ened to with pleasure.--Ecclesias-
tes 9.
Israel.
Seventy • • •
By NATHAN ZIPRIN
Feature)
The calender on my wall reminds
me with brutal precision that seven
decades now keep vigil over my
path and that time is quickly near-
ing for the question "Watchman,
what of the night?"
Leaf falling is the sealing of
ripeness, reminder of golden har-
vest and of oncoming cold. Seventy
is a time for ingathering, assess-
ment and thanksgiving. Also the
telling age when years loom big
and time ever so minute. And por-
tent of the secret yet to be pierced.
My typewriter beats with under-
standable reluctance as these fin-
gers pound out s-e-v-e-n-t-y. But
without a trace of trepidation or
lamentation.
(A Seven Arts
There were the early years, when
the world began and ended within
the confines of the Ukrainian shtetl
whose remembrance will not vanish
only because I still nourish on that
remote and mystic day when tender
hands bore a talis-wrapped three-
year-old to cheder and beginnings.
There is the temptation to begin
counting the years from the time
Of our arrival. But the calendar
will not have it nor the bones.
The immigrant family has now
struck deep roots in the new soil.
There are the children and the
grandchildren and the brothers and
the sisters and their children. And
there is the child, my child, that is
beyond the reach of this frame-
work, and parents resting eternal-
ly while we relive the days they
forged for us with hand and tears.
Rapidly the circle is closing, and
this, their firstborn, is becoming
the unbearded p'atriach of the
tribe, the elder more perhaps by
virtue of years than by merit.
This in essence my notebook
tells me was my diary theme on
June 5, 1958. Now, ten years later,
the tune is the same, except that
the bones seem to be chanting ever
more mournful dirges. The nights
now are longer the shadows shorter
and the signposts on the road point
to its end.
Watchman, who will unlock the
theme for me in 1978?
Friday, June 21, 1968-21
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