Mendelssohn Is On The Roof Summary

Mendelssohn is on the roof copyrighted after his death in 1959 and translated to english in 1991 is a series of fictional intertwined cameos of life under the nazis for jews and czechs in prague and czechoslovakia during the nazi occupation from 1938 through 1942.

Mendelssohn is on the roof summary.

This is the bleakly comic strand of mendelssohn is on the roof highlighting the banality of evil its operation through ordinary and often incompetent bureaucratic processes and people. Mendelssohn is on the roof by jiri weil translated by marie winn. How safety and protection are never guaranteed no matter what people believe or have been told or convince themselves. Mendelssohn is on the roof is a novel by jiří weil written in 1959 and first translated into english by marie winn in 1991.

The enigmatic title of jiri weil s newly published novel refers to an incident in the. Remembering his course on racial science schlesinger instructs his men to pull down the statue with the biggest nose. On the roof of prague s concert hall julius schlesinger aspiring ss officer is charged with the removal of the statue of the jew mendelssohn but which one is he. It is an exploration of the many forms of corruption in nazi occupied czechoslovakia and embeds historical events such as the assassination of reinhard heydrich in prague in 1942 among fictional stories concerning the holocaust nazi careerism and the rise of nazism.

The book took 15 years to write. We see how quickly individuals turn against each other feel forced or reduced to report others.