| Mendelssohn Is on the Roof Contributor(s): Weil, Jiri (Author), Winn, Marie (Translator) |
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ISBN: 0810116863 ISBN-13: 9780810116863 Publisher: Northwestern University Press OUR PRICE: $18.81 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: November 1998 Annotation: Julius Schlesinger, aspiring SS officer, has received his new orders -- to remove from the roof of Prague's concert hall the statue of the Jewish composer Felix Mendelssohn. But which of the figures adorning the roof is the Jew? Remembering his course on "racial science", Schlesinger instructs his men to pull down the statue with the biggest nose. Only as the statue they have carefully chosen begins to topple does he recognize that it is not Mendelssohn; it is Richard Wagner. Thus begins a story of disarming simplicity that traces the transformation of ordinary lives in Nazi-occupied Prague. Death -- abetted by the petty malevolence of Nazi functionaries -- wins all the battles but ultimately loses the war, defeated by the fragile flowering of courage and defiance. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Fiction | Literary |
| Dewey: FIC |
| LCCN: 98031021 |
| Series: Jewish Lives (Paperback) |
| Physical Information: 0.69" H x 5.56" W x 8.72" (0.70 lbs) 228 pages |
| Themes: - Chronological Period - 1940's - Cultural Region - Eastern Europe - Ethnic Orientation - Jewish - Topical - Holocaust |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Julius Schlesinger, aspiring SS officer, has received orders to remove from the roof of Prague's concert hall the statue of the Jewish composer Felix Mendelssohn. But which of the figures adorning the roof is the Jew? Remembering his course on racial science, Schlesinger instructs his men to pull down the statue with the biggest nose. Only as the statue they have carefully chosen begins to topple does he recognize that it is not Mendelssohn; it is Richard Wagner. Thus begins a story of disarming simplicity that traces the transformation of ordinary lives in Nazi-occupied Prague. Death abetted by the petty malevolence of Nazi functionaries wins all the battles but ultimately loses the war, defeated by the fragile flowering of courage and defiance. |