Novel
Ein Soldat und ein Mädchen
Not translated into English
Erich Fried · 1960
Synopsis
Occupied Germany, just after the war. Helga, who was in charge of a Nazi camp, is sentenced to death by a tribunal of the victors. As a last favour, she asks to spend the night with a man, and chooses the soldier on guard, an American, a Jew who emigrated from Europe. He agrees.
Context
The book appeared in 1960: its author wrote no other, and he was then a poet of London exile whom his collections were beginning to make known in Germany. It sets face to face, in occupied Germany, a Jewish American soldier and a condemned camp guard, and asks what love can still do between them without ever settling the question. Its reception was disputed, and the novel remains in the shadow of the poems.
Who it is for
Two hundred pages that are not read in one sitting. It is worth knowing on opening it that the female character is a criminal and not a victim.
Prizes and reception
Its author's only novel, received on publication as a radical contribution, in form as in substance, to the question of Nazi guilt.
Sources for this page 7
The pages consulted to check this page.