H.G. Adler: A Life in Many Worlds

Filkins, a Bard literature professor and translator of several Hans Günther “H.G.” Adler novels, offers a powerful portrait of Adler (1910–1987), a scholar, novelist, poet, and tireless witness to the horrors of the Holocaust. The book focuses most effectively and eloquently on Adler’s experiences in Theresienstadt and Auschwitz, which forever colored his work and beliefs—including his commitment to living a principled life devoted to the future yet cognizant of the lessons of the past. Raised in a German-speaking, largely secular Jewish community in Prague, Alder was never a practicing Jew, but did connect more deeply to Judaism while in the camps. There, he was sustained by his love of and intense engagement with literature and philosophy. Following the war, Adler became a passionate advocate for survivor reparations, and even provided an affidavit for the Eichmann trial. Perhaps most significantly, he wrote the monumental nonfiction works Theresienstadt 1941–1945 (1955) and Administered Man: A Study of the Deportation of the Jews from Germany (1974). Filkins could have better synopsized Adler’s fiction, or more thoroughly introduced supporting characters in the narrative, important figures in Adler’s own time, of whom readers may not have heard previously. But this vivid biography does create a convincing picture of a man who grappled with the unimaginable and, upon his death, was justifiably called righteous. [em](Mar.) [/em]