Jewish Voices, German Words: Growing Up Jewish in Postwar Germany and Austria

Lappin, a Jew who spent part of her childhood in Germany, has compiled an anthology of 14 gifted Jewish authors who write in German and share the experience of growing up in post-Holocaust Germany and Austria. The selections are drawn from fiction, memoirs, essays and poetry, and deal with the search for a Jewish identity as well as feelings of alienation stemming from past and current anti-Semitism. In ``Joemi's Table,'' novelist Esther Dischereit attempts to come to grips with her mother's suffering under the Nazis. In ``Shock and Aftershock,'' theater director Benjamin Korn explores his ambivalent reaction when he learns that his mother is among the Jews demonstrating against the presentation of an alleged anti-Semitic play. In ``Heimat? No, Thanks!,'' journalist Henryk Broder rejects German assimilation and explains his decision to live in Israel. A worthy collection. (Apr.)