Reencuentro, is the debut feature of German painter and writer of Jewish origin Fred Uhlman. Written in 1971 it soon became a literary success and a of critical literature with the Nazi holocaust. Its success lies in its delicate and intimate point of view that addresses the event from the first person. Context
The novel takes place in the period between the wars, at the moment of the rise of Nazism and its previous moments. The problem comes from the Treaty of Versailles at the end of the First World War, with a text of peace that offered conditions that were deeply unfavorable for Germany. Clauses such as heavy war compensation plunged the country's economy, occupation of the mining area of the Rhur to secure the border and payment of compensation to France, as well as the creation of the fictional Polish Corridor caused the humiliation of a German people of character proud, and finally the disintegration and reduction of the army left in the street hundreds of thousands of veterans who went to swell a already bulging list of unemployment.
It turned out to be the perfect breeding ground for the rise of Nazism. There was a radicalization of the positions, a search for the feeling of country, of belonging to something higher. In this context, the figure of Hitler and German National Socialism appeared, who took advantage of the situation and filled the void created to gather the masses around them. It created an "absolute", an idea like hope, ambition and future that was quickly assumed by the German society. In spite of everything, the emergence of Nazism can not be explained in a country other than Germany, since it was linked to the German "elitist" tradition, of exacerbated nationalism and cult of noble lineages. The novel
La Novella is defined as the middle term between the story and the novel, a narrative form that stands out for its simplicity and direct style. Arthur Koestler makes this distinction in the prologue of the book, referring to Uhlman's work with the Italian term, which has no equivalent in Spanish.
The novel deals with friendship between Hans, a Jewish boy of bourgeois parents, and Konradin, a young aristocrat of wealthy family, who reside in Stuttgart, Germany. This idyllic relationship is interrupted by the events that took place in the Germany of the 1930s, which force Hans to move to the United States receiving a letter from his friend.
Despite not being an autobiographical work if it maintains certain parallels with the author's life, such as exile and life abroad, the description of the feeling of being "Suevo, Aleman and Jew in that order", etc.
Thus the book presents as a theme the concept of individualism against mass. Uhlman creates an individualistic view of the conflict, and shows how it affects the social relations and the daily life of a single individual, against the usual historical chronicles that mark as objects of history the great mass of the people, offering an impersonal vision and insensitive.
It also shows a vision according to which the Germans themselves were guilty of the holocaust for wanting to ignore it, and for indulging it indirectly, responding to the false argument that defends the Germans by placing the blame on the Nazi bodies. They were not aware or did not want to be aware of the potential danger posed by Hitler and Nazism.
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