Narrative Transgression in Edgar Hilsenrath's Der Nazi und der Friseur and the Rhetoric of the Sacred in Holocaust Discourse1

Der Nazi und der Friseur (1977), a satirical novel by the German-Jewish Holocaust survivor Edgar Hilsenrath,2 opens in the year 1907 with the birth of two boys-one Jewish, one non-Jewish-on the same day in the same street in the town of Wieshalle, East Prussia. One of the boys is named Max Schulz, who, as an adult, is the narrator of the novel, which is presented as his autobiography. The other child is Itzig Finkelstein, Max's best friend throughout childhood and youth. As Max tells us at the beginning of the novel, the Judische Rundschau announces Itzig's birth in the following manner: "Ich, Chaim Finkelstein, Friseur, Besitzer des eingefuhrten Friseursalons 'Der Herr von Welt,' Ecke Goethe- und Schillerstrase, Wieshalle, Vorstand im 'Judischen Kegelklub,' stellvertretender Generalsekretar der 'Judischen Kultusgemeinde,' Mitglied des 'Deutschen Tierschutzvereins,' des Vereins der 'Pflanzenfreunde,' der Liga 'Liebe deinen Nachsten' und der 'Wieshaller Friseurinnung,' Verfasser der Broschure 'Haarschnitt ohne Treppen,' ... erlaube mir, die Geburt meines Sohnes und Nachfolgers 'Itzig Finkelstein' bekanntzugeben." (8) At the end of the novel, the narrator reproduces for the reader a similar announcement, this time composed by an adult Itzig Finkelstein in anticipation of his own son's birth: "Ich, Itzig Finkelstein, Friseur, Besitzer des eingefuhrten Friseursalons 'Der Herr von Welt,' ehemaliges Mitglied der Schwarzgruppe, Haganahsoldat, Sergeant der Israelarmee, Veteran vom Jahre 48, erster judischer Soldat, der an der Spitze seiner Leute am 30. Dezember 1948 den Suezkanal erreichte, Prasident des Tierschutzvereins von Beth David, Prasident der ortlichen Antiwiedergutmachungsliga, Erfinderdes beruhmten Haarwuchsmittels 'Samson V 2,' erlaube mir, die Geburt meines Sohnes und Nachfolgers Judas oder Jehuda Finkelstein bekanntzugeben." (295) Extracted from the larger context of the novel and juxtaposed together, these two short texts, narrated in the first person and separated by an interval of over sixty years, not only tell the story of three generations of the Finkelstein family, but also appear to relate a particular narrative of German-Jewish experience in the middle part of the twentieth century. In the first text, we find Itzig Finkelstein in a middle-class acculturated family, whose members, as evidenced by Chaim Finkelstein's social connections, identify with both the local Jewish community and the larger non-Jewish society in which they live. As such, they can be seen to represent the way many Jews preferred to see themselves in pre-1933 Germany: as a hyphenated identity that consisted of almost equal parts German and Jew. The second birth announcement mediates another history, that of the Jews in Germany after 1933 and especially after 1945. It does not tell us exactly what happened to the Finkelstein family, but its mention of Itzig's leadership of the local Antiwiedergutmachungstiga lets us know that Itzig somehow survived the Holocaust. We also learn that he emigrated to Palestine and was instrumental in the creation of the state of Israel. By reading these two passages together (that is, apart from the rest of the novel), we can extrapolate to a certain extent Itzig's fate, which mirrors the experiences of hundreds of thousands of European Jews who survived the Holocaust. These two birth announcements thus appear to encapsulate Itzig's story as Max Schulz relates it in the novel; considering the narrative they relate jointly, we might be led to believe we need read the entire book only if we want to learn the details of Itzig's childhood and youth in Germany, his survival of the Holocaust, and his experiences as an immigrant to Palestine and in the young state of Israel. The important facts we appear to already know, and from these facts we can form an interpretation of Itzig's experience, one that the narrator Max encourages us to make with his insertion of the two texts. As the gap between the first and second announcements indicates (a gap that signifies not only the greater part of Itzig's life, but a large portion of the novel as well), Itzig's life is marked by incredible rupture and displacement. …