Home » Czech Republic » >Jiří Weil » Za Sřeše je MendelssohnMendelssohn Is On the Roof)
Jiří Weil: Za Sřeše je Mendelssohn (Mendelssohn IsOn the Roof))
This book, in some respect, can be considered in two parts. The eponymous story concerns attempts by the Nazis to remove a statue of Mendelssohn from the roof of the Rudolfinum, the concert hall in Prague, where the statues of various composers are located. This should have been a simple task but turns out to be rather complicated as we shall see. Weil mocks the Germans throughout the story.
However, interspersed with this story is a grimmer side, as we follow the horrors faced by the Jews under Nazi occupation. We see this both from both the Jewish point of view and the Nazi point of view. Konstantin von Neurath had been in charge of what the Nazis called the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, He was replaced by Reinhard Heydrich who unknown to anyone else in Czechoslovakia has a second job – what we now know as The Final Solution, i.e. the extermination of all Jews not only in Czechoslovakia but throughout Europe. We see examples of this with the transports, i.e. the shipment of Jews toAuschwitz and similar camps, the ghettoisation of the Jews and the creation of Terezin and similar camps.
However we start with Mendelssohn. Heydrich was a monster but he was a great lover of classical music, particularly Mozart. It is he who spots the statue of Mendelssohn on the roof of the Rudolfium (This is outrageous. This is worse than treason – it’s incompetence. Mendelssohn is on the roof!) and demands that it be removed immediately. Mendelssohn is Jewish. The task is entrusted to the ambitious but embittered (because he has not had the promotion, he thinks he deserves) Schlesinger with two local men. The problems start when he declines to go up on the roof because he has vertigo. The two workmen do not know which statue should be removed and report back to him that there are no labels or other markings to indicate which composer is which. Schlesinger suggests that they remove the one with the biggest nose, because he is obviously the Jew. Fortunately for.Schlesinger, he spots, before any damage is done, that the one they are about to remove with the biggest nose happens to be Wagner, the favourite of Hitler.
Every so often Heydrich asks whether the statue has been removed and is told that this is currently happening even though we know it is not.
Me Meanwhile, we follow what is going on with Heydrich and his various activities and plans. For example, he hosts the visit of an unnamed German minister. Who insists that Prague is really and always has been a German town. We see a a Jewish ghetto where all the stuff stolen both from individual Jews and synagogues is stored and more arrives all the time. It was to be a storehouse of trophies commemorating the Reich’s victory over its enemy.
From here we have a series of attempts to discover which is the right statue. A Nazi is sent to the Jewish ghetto and told to bring back a learned Jew. Foolishly, no one has mentioned what he should be learned in. He is an expert on the Talmud but considers statues graven images and therefore sacrilege. Moreover he considers Mendelssohn to be Moses Mendelssohn whom he is against and considers the composer a Christian, as he was christianised and was baptised. He has no idea what the composer looks like.
The issue is finally resolved when someone does identify the statue but Bevcar, one of the workmen, cleverly decides that no one will notice if they just lay it down as it will not be seen from the street and when there is a change of regime, it will be easier to put back in place.
H However, of the result is that three people involved in this business business get punished.Schlesinger is sent to the Russian front, Raisinger. The guard at the Jewish ghetto, is sent to work for the Ggestapo, helping with sorting out and moving around all the items they steal from Jews and Jewish buildings. Bevcar is sent to work in the Reich.
Raisinger does all right as the Gestapo seem to be nicer to him than others have been. Bevcar has to work in a munitions factory and the situation is made worse as there are frequent air raids.
The main issue, however, is the assassination of Heydrich, which is described in great detail and of course leads to vicious repercussions on the part of the Germans.
We are also following the story of a Jewish family. Rudolf had a terrible disease whereby he cannot move his limbs. His two nieces are in hiding with a family. Their parents are both dead. They are nearly caught in the sweep after the assassination of Heydrich but are well hidden. A family friend, Jan visits them and brings food for them and the family looking after them. However, it seems that the group that Jan belongs to has been compromised.
Meanwhile, back in Prague the various people who have been dealing with the Jewish property find that their work is winding down and pretty well all the Jews and the Jewish property have been discovered and the property stolen . We know and the Germans know the war is coming to an end as the Russians are approaching but the head of the bureau dealing with the Jews is determined to finish the job and the final episode shows the people being transported to the Fast, which we know means the extermination camps.
There is no doubt that this book was written to show the horrors that the Jews went through in German occupied Czechoslovakia during the war. Weil just throws in the humour of the Mendelssohn statue,but most of the book is deadly serious, describing in detail the brutality and cruelty that the Jewish population in Czechoslovakia suffered during the war.
Publishing history
First published in 1959 by Československý spisovatel
First published in English in 1992 by HarperCollins
Translated byMarie Winn