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1940
"Jay Neugeboren traverses the Hitlerian tightrope with all the skill and formal daring that have made him one of the most honored writers of literary fiction and masterful nonfiction. This new book is, at once, a beautifully realized work of imagined history, a rich and varied character study and a subtly layered novel of ideas, all wrapped in a propulsively readable story. Neugeboren is marvelous. Part of the power of this intelligently and finely wrought novel is that... thoughts and questions arise unforced from the story, as though from life itself." —Tim Rutten, Los Angeles Times "Intelligent and absorbing... subtle and affecting." —Tova Reich, Washington Post On the eve of World War II, Elisabeth Rofman returns to New York to discover her father has disappeared. She befriends Dr. Bloch—a fascinating historical figure, physician to the Hitler family when Hitler was young, and the only Jew for whom Hitler arranged departure from Europe. Dr. Bloch aids in the search, also hiding Elisabeth’s son, who has escaped from a Maryland institution. Jay Neugeboren is the award-winning author of fourteen books.
284 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
February 22, 2011
This book had so much promise.
I tore through the first half in less than a few hours, even while at work, completely engrossed in the story, and most of the characters (namely Doctor Bloch, whose perspective and intelligence were captivating, and Daniel, who despite his condition, was clever and cool). As I noted in an update though, the main female lead, Elizabeth, was an utterly worthless and useless character. She had only two emotions: rage, and a lust that was both predictable and misplaced, and utterly boring. Many times over she was described as intelligent, though none of her dialogue supported this. From time to time a bit of her narrative would begin to redeem her and then she would be put in a situation that would make her seem completely dense, not at all the intelligent, quick, straight-forward character that the narrator and Doctor Bloch insisted she was, assertions which were the backbone of the story and managed to go entirely unfounded throughout.
Unfortunately, it was this sort of disjointed, unsupported story telling that overran the second half of the book and by the last two chapters I could not have cared less what happened to anyone at all. In fact, to put it crudely, I was left wanting to punch every one of the characters, save Daniel, in the throat. If the novel had not been so short and the last two chapters so quick (and rushed, at that), I probably would have tossed it in the bin at that point.
The only part of this book worth reading is Doctor Bloch's journal regarding Austria, Germany, and childhood anecdotes of Hitler, which, excised from the tie-ins with the rest of the story, would have taken up a whopping twenty pages. On the whole, I only gave this book two stars because it was so compelling at the start, and I could not completely discount the moments that had drawn me in, even though the rest of the narrative completely negated them later on.
I tore through the first half in less than a few hours, even while at work, completely engrossed in the story, and most of the characters (namely Doctor Bloch, whose perspective and intelligence were captivating, and Daniel, who despite his condition, was clever and cool). As I noted in an update though, the main female lead, Elizabeth, was an utterly worthless and useless character. She had only two emotions: rage, and a lust that was both predictable and misplaced, and utterly boring. Many times over she was described as intelligent, though none of her dialogue supported this. From time to time a bit of her narrative would begin to redeem her and then she would be put in a situation that would make her seem completely dense, not at all the intelligent, quick, straight-forward character that the narrator and Doctor Bloch insisted she was, assertions which were the backbone of the story and managed to go entirely unfounded throughout.
Unfortunately, it was this sort of disjointed, unsupported story telling that overran the second half of the book and by the last two chapters I could not have cared less what happened to anyone at all. In fact, to put it crudely, I was left wanting to punch every one of the characters, save Daniel, in the throat. If the novel had not been so short and the last two chapters so quick (and rushed, at that), I probably would have tossed it in the bin at that point.
The only part of this book worth reading is Doctor Bloch's journal regarding Austria, Germany, and childhood anecdotes of Hitler, which, excised from the tie-ins with the rest of the story, would have taken up a whopping twenty pages. On the whole, I only gave this book two stars because it was so compelling at the start, and I could not completely discount the moments that had drawn me in, even though the rest of the narrative completely negated them later on.
November 8, 2011
very neat premise of the story of the doctor of hitler's family in austria, but doc goes to usa in what, 1940? '36. doesn't matter, also a few good subplots of docs family and friends. the best bits of novel take place in europe and surprising fall flat and seem rushed when story is in nyc. not sure why. a small beer press
November 20, 2024
I can’t be neutral on a Jay Neugeboren novel. Years ago, when I published my first essay on Jewish gangsters, he wrote me a warm and supportive letter. He also sent me a copy of his Before My Life Began, which remains a favorite of mine (with or without the Jewish gangster elements).
We haven’t kept in touch, and I haven’t met him, but I’m a fan. I’ve read most of his work, and I think he’s an often-overlooked talent. If ever I establish a press that brings out-of-print works back, I’ll want to have some of his on the list.
This one is subtly troubling. Half the chapters are from the journal of Eduard Bloch, an Austrian Jewish physician who’s fled the rise of the Third Reich for the United States. (As the title suggests, it’s set in 1940.)
He’s also notorious for having been Hitler’s childhood physician and, as a consequence, the only Jew Hitler ever helped to escape.
Neugeboren captures the voice wonderfully. We get the sense of a humane man who’s somewhat overwhelmed by history, one who persists in wanting to help others and to find joy in life.
He’s drawn into the drama around Elizabeth Rofman, a woman whose institutionalized son has escaped his treatment center. The doctors there – and his father, Elizabeth’s ex-husband – want him to undergo sterilization because he has begun to harass the female attendants at the home.
I leave the juxtaposition to speak for itself (and it’s part of the subtle power of the book) – this is sterilization of a Jewish boy at a time when Hitler has come to power.
At the same time, Elizabeth’s father – a construction worker who helped build the New York subways – is missing as well. With father and son on the run, she turns to Dr. Bloch for help and comfort
I confess, I find this half of the novel – the chapters written more from the vantage of a conventional narrator – a bit less effective. Even at the end,
Above all, it’s powerful to read about Bloch’s dignity as he confronts the unfounded charge that he had something to do with the evil of Hitler. History squashes lot of people, but he – never quite crushed – shows it’s possible to remain oneself throughout.
We haven’t kept in touch, and I haven’t met him, but I’m a fan. I’ve read most of his work, and I think he’s an often-overlooked talent. If ever I establish a press that brings out-of-print works back, I’ll want to have some of his on the list.
This one is subtly troubling. Half the chapters are from the journal of Eduard Bloch, an Austrian Jewish physician who’s fled the rise of the Third Reich for the United States. (As the title suggests, it’s set in 1940.)
He’s also notorious for having been Hitler’s childhood physician and, as a consequence, the only Jew Hitler ever helped to escape.
Neugeboren captures the voice wonderfully. We get the sense of a humane man who’s somewhat overwhelmed by history, one who persists in wanting to help others and to find joy in life.
He’s drawn into the drama around Elizabeth Rofman, a woman whose institutionalized son has escaped his treatment center. The doctors there – and his father, Elizabeth’s ex-husband – want him to undergo sterilization because he has begun to harass the female attendants at the home.
I leave the juxtaposition to speak for itself (and it’s part of the subtle power of the book) – this is sterilization of a Jewish boy at a time when Hitler has come to power.
At the same time, Elizabeth’s father – a construction worker who helped build the New York subways – is missing as well. With father and son on the run, she turns to Dr. Bloch for help and comfort
I confess, I find this half of the novel – the chapters written more from the vantage of a conventional narrator – a bit less effective. Even at the end,
Above all, it’s powerful to read about Bloch’s dignity as he confronts the unfounded charge that he had something to do with the evil of Hitler. History squashes lot of people, but he – never quite crushed – shows it’s possible to remain oneself throughout.
March 31, 2025
I couldn't in all good conscience give this book more than a 3. I did indeed do that because it kept my attention to the end. The problem was the end was pretty disappointing. Now if you like dark, this book is dark and will be for you. The characters are dark, save the one Dr. Bloch who though he is more of a light and airy personality compared to the others, his idealism and pollyanna view of Hitler as a young boy, made me go hmmm... That part of the book was pulled from history. Dr. Bloch was in fact young Hitler's family doctor who treated his mother for breast cancer, which she did succumb to. Dr. Bloch was extraordinarily given safe passage to NY from Germany by Hitler. Basically, Hitler saved Dr. Bloch from Hitler. Indeed I did some perusing on my own after reading this book, and the author did a really good job depicting Bloch's personality -and Bloch's description of Hitler as a youth and his family- in the interviews he gave prior to his death in 1945. And Bloch very much struggled to condemn Hitler for the atrocities he committed against the Jewish nation. SO that part of the book, the historical part seemed pretty accurate. The characters and the main plot line, otherwise, were disjointed and lacked an ending that tidied things up. Elisabeth's missing father just suddenly showing up at the end of the book, having hidden himself away because he had a malignant tumor and didn't want his daughter to have to be involved with that.??...And when he shows up, he decks two officers with a board to protect the daughter that he literally has hidden from all this time? None of that made sense. Nor was it beliveable. At all. Daniel was indeed a menace and clearly preyed on women, which in the end seemed understated. Elisabeth? Well, the ending to the book I guess showed her truest of colors. I was just left staring at the wall, trying to figure out what was the main point (s) the author wanted to convey....
October 8, 2012
Saying something insightful about this psychological/historical novel, beyond sketching in the basic plot line, feels unusually challenging.
Here's the surface story: Elisabeth Rofman, a middle-aged divorcee employed as a medical illustrator by doctors at Johns Hopkins in 1940, travels to New York to visit her father, only to discover that he has disappeared. While in the city, she meets and forms a relationship with a somewhat elderly physician, Eduard Bloch, who'd recently immigrated from Austria. (Bloch, an historical figure, was apparently the only Jew given permission by Hitler himself to depart on the eve of the Holocaust, that mercy having been shown because Bloch had been the family doctor when Hitler was young.) Soon, in addition to her father, Elisabeth also becomes anxious about her adolescent son, previously institutionalized because of some psychological or neurological problem, who (like Bloch) has escaped. (More than enough is depicted of the place he's left and the loathsome people running it to justify escape.) (As the parent of an adult son with disabilities of his own, I found the son's part of the story especially disturbing. Although both medicine and the treatment of the disabled have improved drastically since 1940, much of this is recognizable.)
Beyond this summary, I feel less confident in saying what the story is ultimately about. Multiple layers of meaning are attributed to everything, but the significance is only suggested--and then often dismissed by one of the characters. However, I think the author is saying that the main characters view life as being fleeting, chaotic, and perhaps even meaningless--probably even before the needless cruelties of other people are factored in. In response, they seek to assign meaning and permanence in their own ways. The third-person narrator tells us that Elisabeth does her illustrations in order to "conjure up something ... that would seem more real than the life she was living." And in the elaborately written journal entries that make up a large part of the narrative, Bloch makes observations such as this:
"It occurs to me to note that the gratification Miss Rofman takes from her work--in the drawings she makes--is not unlike the pleasure I have come to take in the words I write. Her desire, for example, to draw my skull--in effect, to make tangible that hard reality which will endure after I have departed from this world--is not unlike the desire I have to make real and enduring in words on a page those events and feelings that are themselves as ephemeral as flesh."
Here's the surface story: Elisabeth Rofman, a middle-aged divorcee employed as a medical illustrator by doctors at Johns Hopkins in 1940, travels to New York to visit her father, only to discover that he has disappeared. While in the city, she meets and forms a relationship with a somewhat elderly physician, Eduard Bloch, who'd recently immigrated from Austria. (Bloch, an historical figure, was apparently the only Jew given permission by Hitler himself to depart on the eve of the Holocaust, that mercy having been shown because Bloch had been the family doctor when Hitler was young.) Soon, in addition to her father, Elisabeth also becomes anxious about her adolescent son, previously institutionalized because of some psychological or neurological problem, who (like Bloch) has escaped. (More than enough is depicted of the place he's left and the loathsome people running it to justify escape.) (As the parent of an adult son with disabilities of his own, I found the son's part of the story especially disturbing. Although both medicine and the treatment of the disabled have improved drastically since 1940, much of this is recognizable.)
Beyond this summary, I feel less confident in saying what the story is ultimately about. Multiple layers of meaning are attributed to everything, but the significance is only suggested--and then often dismissed by one of the characters. However, I think the author is saying that the main characters view life as being fleeting, chaotic, and perhaps even meaningless--probably even before the needless cruelties of other people are factored in. In response, they seek to assign meaning and permanence in their own ways. The third-person narrator tells us that Elisabeth does her illustrations in order to "conjure up something ... that would seem more real than the life she was living." And in the elaborately written journal entries that make up a large part of the narrative, Bloch makes observations such as this:
"It occurs to me to note that the gratification Miss Rofman takes from her work--in the drawings she makes--is not unlike the pleasure I have come to take in the words I write. Her desire, for example, to draw my skull--in effect, to make tangible that hard reality which will endure after I have departed from this world--is not unlike the desire I have to make real and enduring in words on a page those events and feelings that are themselves as ephemeral as flesh."
January 30, 2015
I'm somewhat challenged in reviewing this book, or even rating it. I think the book would likely be very interesting to certain readers - I was not that reader. Maybe I was in a funk when I read it, or maybe it was unnecessarily cluttered. Neugeboren has taken an interesting tack for assessing the relationship between Hitler and Judaism by casting the lead of this story as a Jewish doctor who treated Hitler's mother. This allows the exploration of all sorts of ideas about a young Hitler, and about what role a person can (or cannot) play in influencing the development of a child who ultimately acts monstrously in adult life. The problem I had with the novel was that it attempted to create several threads of, what I would consider, sidebar strands of drama but those all felt a little weak compared to the central theme, and made me want to skim pages until I got back to the doctor. Neugeboren is a fantastic writer creating strong imagery and exploring unique ideas and situations, you won't be let down by him on those fronts, but I think I'd send you looking for The Other Side of the World or another of his works before suggesting you pick up 1940.
December 19, 2013
The basic concept of this book is fabulous. Despite a great deal of historical information pertaining to the Holocaust, I was unaware of the FACT that a young Adolf Hitler and his family were under the care of a Jewish physician, a man whom Hitler himself deported to the United States to save him from the inevitable (but as yet unknown) plan for extermination of the Jewish people. The rest of the story is fictionalized. Interestingly, I think I'd have enjoyed the story much more if the whole Hitler-as-a-youth part was uninvolved. To me, it was a hook to get the reader involved when, in fact, I believe the other characters and their stories could have stood on their own. That said, the factual medical information about Adolf Hitler's mother and his relationship with her are of worth in that it's so difficult to imagine that a monster had a mother. Be that as it may, I enjoyed the book a good deal primarily because of the other characters and their deeply imaginative stories.
January 9, 2015
This book was a disappointment (as other reviewers have said.) Started off promising - Hitler's family physician, an Austrian Jew - has been given special permission to leave Germany with his daughter and son-in-law. He lands in NY and develops a friendship, relationship with an American Jewish woman, an artist, divorcee, mother, daughter. The relationship between these two became increasingly flat. Eventually, the characters - including the former husband and troubled adolescent son - seem like caricatures. The ending is strange - I still don't get it. Was the author bored and wanting to end it quickly and move onto something else?
May 24, 2008
This book was just kind of boring. One of the main characters is the Hitler family's doctor prior to WWII. Supposedly one of the only Jews that Hitler specifically allowed out of the country. I thought all of that would make the book a little more interesting. But there is an annoying woman and her equally annoying ex-husband and son that kind of ruined it for me.
October 13, 2008
Several subplots of moderate interest,But not enough to keep me reading the book. not enough emphasis is given to the most intriguing story behind the story--Dr. Bloch's relationship with Adolf Hilter and the rest of the Hitler family in pre-World War II Germany
To much jumping in time frame between chapters, that left you wondering... did you miss some pages?
I only read 1/2 of it
To much jumping in time frame between chapters, that left you wondering... did you miss some pages?
I only read 1/2 of it
July 7, 2009
Not a bad book, it just felt like work to get through it. I never quite understood the relationship between Elizabeth and Dr. Bloch. Although the small tidbits about Hitler interspersed throughout were interesting.
July 29, 2009
Thought it be more powerful. The ending felt rushed whereas the rest of the book was very languid.
March 19, 2012
2.5 stars
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews