Judenstaat (33 page)

Authors: Simone Zelitch

BOOK: Judenstaat

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“Oh, I forgot,” said Judit. “I guess they can die here too.”

It was so like something Rudi would have said that Leonora couldn't help it. She laughed. What would her husband have made of the daughter who so resembled him? But then again, what would he make of this new world? What kind of country will their grandchild know? Rudi would want to protect that child and so would she, but now there was no safe place.

There was no safe place anywhere on earth. She had been foolish. After she'd gotten married, she'd let down her guard. Then Rudi died. Three years later, Judit brought that boy home, and Leonora knew. She'd seen it in his face, just like a vision, that he was more than just himself; he was a sign of something terrible, a forerunner of what was to come, and now that world was here. Yet if she was really honest with herself, she had to say that she had let even Hans disarm her. She'd seen light in Judit's face when she looked at him, and then, after those tragedies, she'd seen the way that young man had stood by her. Never would Hans have left Judit in this condition. Never in a million years.

And now, as was her way, Leonora didn't speak her mind, not really, but she did say something. “Judi, how can you stand it?”

“Stand what?” Judit asked. It was a reasonable question.

“These open borders. Knowing the monster who killed him is free as a bird. It isn't right. We both know it.”

Judit was still holding those violets, maybe because she had forgotten to put them down, or maybe because she just liked holding them. Who knows? She used them as an excuse to hide her face, and her mother sensed she'd hit a nerve. When she lowered them, her eyes were wet. She said, “Sometimes, things aren't right.”

“So we make them right,” said Leonora.

“Well, that would be a different line of work,” Judit said. She smiled a little. “Mom, I've always said, I'm just a technician. I piece things together and let other people figure out what it all means. And anyway, it wouldn't have mattered to Hans. One of the first things he said to me was that he didn't believe in justice.” She laid a hand on Rudi's marker, lowered herself down with some difficulty, and placed the violets there.

“But Judi, sweetheart,” Leonora said, “he couldn't have meant it. Of course Hans believed in justice. Everyone believes in justice. Honestly, what else is there to believe in?” She moved to help her daughter to her feet.

And Judit answered, “I believe in ghosts.”

HISTORICAL TIMELINE

Over the last few decades, the history of Judenstaat has become, shall we say, disputed territory. The timeline that follows, taken from materials approved by the National Archives in Dresden in 1987, might serve as a foundation for some readers.

1908â1938:
Birth of Leopold Stein in Munich. Theoretical and practical basis of Jewish state in Germany established through Stein's travels through his homeland and interaction with Jews throughout Central and Eastern Europe. Alliance with Socialist Labor Bund in Poland and Lithuania. Rise of fascism in Germany.

1945:
Liberation of Germany and its conquered territories by Allied forces. Stein meets in Yalta with Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin and gains informal approval of plan to establish Jewish homeland on territory of Saxony bordering Germany, Poland, and Czechoslovakia.

April 4, 1948:
The nation of Judenstaat established.

1948â1950:
Occupation of Judenstaat by Soviet liberators, and loans for rebuilding of capital in Dresden and other major urban centers financed by the United States.

1949:
Population transfer of Saxon-German fascist sympathizers across the Brandenburg border to Germany. In-gathering of Jews from Displaced Persons camps in Germany, and neighboring Central and Eastern European countries, most notably Chasidim and other strictly religious Jews. Small Saxon minority remains.

1950:
Against opposition from Yiddishists, German declared national language of Judenstaat.

1951:
Stein's advisor, Stephan Weiss, unmasked as U.S. agent and flees the country. American businesses barred from Judenstaat. Campaign against Cosmopolitanism begins, coordinated by the Ministry of State Security.

1952:
New Parliament completed on site of the old Cathedral in Dresden. Bundists voted into power by an overwhelming majority.

1953:
Stein suffers stroke on the flight back from Joseph Stalin's funeral. Successors cultivate closer ties with the Soviet Union. Factories and businesses expropriated. Further emigration of Saxon population into Germany.

1953â1956:
Saxon fascists based in villages and hillsides attack civilians throughout Judenstaat, staging night raids in major cities. Area along Czechoslovak border, formerly known as Saxon Switzerland, a base for terror attacks on Dresden.

1956:
Fascist cells are broken through a network of informers coordinated through the State Security Police. Leaders are deported or imprisoned. In response to reports of weapons funneled from Germany, the Brandenburg border sealed and the Protective Rampart constructed.

1957â1967:
Period of relative stability. Growth of Bundist Youth Movement, Bundist culture, discovery of important archeological evidence of Jewish settlement in Saxony.

1968:
Judenstaat Defense Force joins Soviet army to defeat fascist uprising in neighboring Czechoslovakia. Reactionary and Cosmopolitan elements in Judenstaat initiate misinformation campaign that leads to domestic upheaval. Universities closed; coal miners strike; general curfew. Ringleaders apprehended and order restored.

1968â1980:
New policy of liberalization opens trade with the West.

1983:
Helena Sokolov of the Neustadt Party elected prime minister. Judenstaat gains status as a base for banking and trade.

1987:
Country prepares for Fortieth Anniversary celebration.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Six months before this novel's publication, we lost David Hartwell. It pains me to know that the book will enter the world without him.

The author would like to thank
Judenstaat
's earliest readers, including Joseph Kenyon, who navigated through an impossibly rough draft, and other members of the Community College of Philadelphia Prose Writer's Group who gave crucial advice on early chapters. The novel was revised during a sabbatical from that same college during residencies at the Edward Albee Barn, I-Park, and Yaddo, and enriched by travel and research made possible by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. I spent a month at the Vilnius Yiddish Institute, where ex officio director and gadfly Dovid Katz struggled to honor complicated history in a country that would sooner sanitize its past; his highly unofficial tour of the Jewish partisan camp with ghetto fighter Fania Brantsovsky had a tremendous impact on this novel. Matthew Lyons's knowledge of German as well as leftist and Zionist history helped raise questions about the implications of this thought experiment, and S. L. Wisenberg, Gail Hochman, and Ethan Nosowsky's advice sharpened the book considerably untilâas I put it laterâ“
Judenstaat
had a plot.” There is no way I can ever express the depth of my gratitude to Terry Bisson, who was the first person in the world of publishing who seemed to understand what I was doing and then helped me find others, including Hartwell and his assistant, Jennifer Gunnels, at Tor Books. A number of family members read
Judenstaat
in manuscript, and my mother, Laikee Zelitch, is not only a marvelous proofreader but also the model for Judit's mother, Leonora; she knows and doesn't mind, and it's about time I thanked her properly for being a model in so many other ways. Then, of course, there's my husband, Doug, my secret weapon, my sparring partner, and my great love, who puts up with my obsessions and cleans up after me as best he can, but understands that I can't ever throw anything away.
Welch GlÃ¼ck!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

SIMONE ZELITCH
is the author of
Louisa,
winner of the Goldberg Prize. Her stories have been broadcast on NPR, and in 2010, she was awarded a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts in fiction. She teaches creative writing at a community college in Philadelphia.

www.simonezelitch.com
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