Urs Faes

Sommer in Brandenburg

«What kind of voice was this – a laugh, not loud but penetrating, boisterous and playful, a stranger’s, most importantly a girl’s laugh he had never heard before, with a sound that was new to him, throaty, raw.»

It’s Summer, 1938: Lissy Harb and Ron Berend are spending some time in Brandenburg, working on a Jewish agricultural training project in Ahrensdorf, near Trebbin. Ron is from Hamburg, Lissy from Vienna. Along with other young people, they’re getting ready to emigrate to Palestine. Once they arrive, they’ll be living on a kibbutz, so they have to learn the skills they’ll need to survive out there. They’re taking courses in agriculture, vegetable farming and joinery; they’re learning new languages and are being instructed in Jewish culture and religion.
Urs Faes‘ carefully researched novel reveals to us a little known aspect of Jewish history. It takes as its starting point a photograph of the lovers, and – underpinned by proven facts – imagines how in those uncertain times, young people might have come together and lived in what were called «Hachschara», or Jewish training camps in Nazi Germany, at a time of great unrest, fear and also great hope. The Jewish would-be emigrants have lived for a long time in ‘enemy territory‘: the Hitler Youth has a camp in the neighbourhood, there’s also an aerodrome nearby. Everyone is fearful, as to whether they’ll be able to get out of Germany in good time, and get permission from the British authorities, to travel to the British Mandate in Palestine.
Interwoven into this picture of a German Summer, is the love story of Lissy and Ron, who meet in Ahrensdorf, fall in love – and then lose each other again. They wanted to build a life together in Palestine; this novel becomes their touching memorial.

(Martin Zingg)

Recommended for translation by the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia:
www.12swissbooks.ch

Translation of title: Summer in Brandenburg

Suhrkamp, Berlin 2013

ISBN: 978-3-518-42419-3