The city without Jews

About This Book

The subtitle of "The City Without Jews," A Novel of our Time, remains unfortunately true. Bettauer takes as his subject one of the oldest themes in Jewish exile. Exile appears constantly in Jewish literature and history. Written in 1923, the author imagines that anti-Semitism leads Austria to expel all Jews. He describes the expulsion, but does not linger over the suffering, humiliation, and trauma such expulsions have historically caused. Families may be split, and lovers torn from each other, proprietors may be forced to sell their businesses at ridiculously low prices, but Bettauer is less ...