The Passenger

There's a sense of foreboding and danger throughout the book. The main character Otto is not nice but you still want him to get out of Nazi Germany alive. I felt sorry for him at the end, knowing where he ends up.
I would recommend this book!!

This was a compelling but uncomfortable read. The Second World War still casts a long shadow over our cultural and political perspectives and we have almost become accustomed to stories of its horror and tragedy but this book makes it feel close and real. There is a sense of claustrophobia as the main character tries to make decisions, take action and break free but seems doomed to fail. So many of our modern creative narratives show people as super heroes, able to triumph against impossible odds; this book, however, shows a man trapped as much by the fragility of his own human nature as the descent of his world into chaos. It makes the reader ask themselves, what would I do, if this happened to me? A question we should still ask and answer, even after all these years.
Victoria, Hunstanworth Village Hall Book Club

The following reviews are from Longford Book Club.

A particularly powerful book as it is a pretty much a contemporary account of events, written by someone with lived experience – though told through the story of Otto Silbermann; an honest, hardworking, successful businessman who happens to be Jewish, living in Berlin during the years prior to World War 2.

This book frequently reminded me of George Orwells 1984, the last sentence eerily so. In the Passenger facts, logic and history are subverted even by the close friends and relatives of Otto Silbermann, in order to justify political expediency and to protect self or personal interests. Honesty, hard work, and kindness count for nothing and in fact disadvantage Otto, as he has no shady contacts who might help him.

Otto Silbermanns human failings, his mildly condescending views towards what he sees as the “the lower classes”, and towards women give interesting insights into attitudes of the time and place. His circular thinking on his predicament oscillating between self-blame and absolute rage are all too human. The preface and afterward are a fantastic addition to the story, if like me, you wanted more at the end of the book.

Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz’s skill is telling the story in an objective, observant manner. There’s no tone of high drama here, and I found the likely outcome of the story hard to judge. To live, Otto must leave the country, his wealth could help, and I thought he might make it. – Angela

The book seemed almost autobiographical to me. It was very thought provoking showing that the Nazi Party had turned on the Jewish community quite sometime before war broke out in 1939. Concentration camps were in action much earlier than I had appreciated. The text came across as having been written at great speed and (as it turned out to have been) the end was very abrupt leaving me wondering if Silbermann really wanted his life to end. I read the book very quickly almost as if I had to keep up with the speed of the trains. - Mary

Although many of us have a broad understanding of and empathy towards the suffering of the Jewish community before and during the second world war, this book brings into sharp relief the confusion, abandonment and hopelessness of one man which reflects the experience of so very many Jews during this time. Otto Silbermann has a happy and successful life as a middle class merchant living in Berlin until the tentacles of the growing antisemitism promulgated by the Nazi regime gradually strip away everyone and everything that he values. He is forced to take refuge on the trains, endlessly travelling from city to city during which time he is shunned and disowned by his business partner, friends and family. The only thing that helps to keep his spirits up is his briefcase which contains all his remaining wealth. Once this is stolen from him, he sees no way out of his predicament.

This is a powerful and deeply disturbing account of pre-war Germany where the punitive actions of the ‘authorities’ and the compliance of the general population appear equally shocking. Yet the reader may reflect on how they would have conducted themselves at this time and indeed how discrimination, alienation and persecution continue to characterize human behaviour today.

The story is made even the more poignant because the author was classified as an ‘enemy alien’ by the UK government and deported to Australia in 1942. Following reclassification in 1942 he was returning to England aboard a troopship which was torpedoed. He died aged 27. – Helen

Riveting. Terrifying. A hard read because of the subject matter, but a book that everyone should be made to read. The book serves as a warning to us all about how quickly a situation can escalate and how fear and coercion can make us betray our friends and ultimately lose our humanity. At times I found it rather stilted- maybe that was deliberate because of what was happening in the story, or maybe something is lost in the translation at times?

The relationship Silbermann has with his wife felt rather unrealistic and remote and I was surprised to read at one point that they’re supposed to have been married for 20 years. Amongst all the evil and the fear, there are still some glimmers of light - a compassionate person or a touch of black humour such as when Silbermann can’t even get himself arrested when he tries to!

An important record of the time with an overall atmosphere of a rapid decline into terror and inhumanity. – Isobel

I found this an uncomfortable, harrowing read. It is a little dreary and repetitive at times. I’m unsure whether something has been lost in translation, but I found the writing style difficult to read. The character of the protagonist Otto Silbermann seemed quite dull and boring. Silbermann is a wealthy middle-class businessman, a Jew who is respected and was accepted in his society, but as the story unravels it becomes increasingly apparent that because he is a Jew, he is in danger and now ostracized from society, therefore he must be on the run, and he loses everything. The book is set in 1938, not so very long ago. I find it upsetting to think that human beings in a supposedly civilised society can treat each other in this way. Although there is a lot I didn’t like about the book, I did find it thought provoking and it made me consider that even today human beings can still be ostracized from society because of their race or their religion or for some other reason. Why do we do this to each other? – Frances

Set in Nazi Germany 1938 as the pogroms begin a terrified German Jewish business man, in trying to evade the Nazis, begins his erratic journey mainly by train. He ends up flitting around like a fly trapped in a box as he descends rapidly into madness. At times the book felt as tedious as his travelling must have been as he makes his ever decreasing circles. There's an increasing feeling of frustration and helplessness as the story reaches its devastating conclusion.