Such a pleasure to read this rediscovered story. Wow just wow.. two friends, partners in business.. just like family and a world war and a man named Hitler is able to break their bond. Max and Martin have been split a part by ear and geography and it seems like there is no link to get back their friendship. Address Unknown is so well written and I loved the story and how it played out. This was a five star read for me. It was my pleasure to read and review this story. Katherine Kressman Taylor is an excellent writer. Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

I apprecitate the publisher allowing me to read this book. I found this a really interesting read and the characters are quite engaging. it kept me reading until the end. I highly recommend.

I cannot believe I had not heard about this story before now. Address Unknown is a heartbreaking communication between friends during the rise of the Nazi party. The symmetry between them and now is staggering.

I think was different than any other book set around this time that I have read. It is unusual, from the historical books I have read, to get an American perspective during the time of Hitlers ascent. I don’t know that I would say it is a favorite but I am grateful to have read it.

I voluntarily reviewed a copy of this book provided by NetGalley.

I read this last night and am still just floored thinking about it. What a great story, what a fascinating piece of history. I agreed with Margot Livesey when she writes in the introduction about growing up with the feeling that people in the US didn't really know what was going on in Europe until closer to the end of WWII. I'm still ruminating about this brilliant short story and will probably be thinking of it for a while. One of my favorite reads this year!

This story was originally published in periodical in 1938. Then Simon & Schuster published the story in 1939.

The very short story, only 64 pages, is about a correspondence done in letter format between two men.
One lives in San Francisco and works for an art gallery. The other man lives in Berlin and is a dealer in art.
The year 1933 is when these two men correspondence with one another. One in Berlin tells about how this charismatic new leader has emerged. Name Adolph Hitler. And how Germany is changing for the better.
The one in San Francisco is pessimistic about this Adolph Hitler. And warns the other men about not being caught up in the euphoria of the moment.

A very major point that the author fails to mention that is the economy in both the United States and Germany in 1933.
Both countries were going through a depression. Germany even worse than the United States. So any change in leadership that would ensure that people worth would be better than the previous administration would be a welcome change.

The author uses the word 'concentration camp.' A casual reader in the 21st century mind would automatically go to the many concentration camps where the Jewish people were sent.
However in 1933 the concentration camp was used for political prisoners. Those opposed to Hitler.
There is a black lash mentioned against the Jewish people in Berlin. The reference to a storm trooper chasing a Jewish woman would not have happened in 1933 as Hitler had not come into power.
The author seems to believe that people cannot see the evidences of the evil in front of their faces and why this evil wasn't stopped.

We are gullible people. Anyone that comes around and makes promises of a better life than what we are living in we go in blinded by the moment.

This is a very short book of letters between two men, one a Jewish American living in the United States, the other a German who returns to Germany to raise his growing family just as Hitler is rising to power. The two men shared a friendship and were business partners, so it’s safe to assume that they had quite a bit in common.

As Hitler rises to power, the tone of their letters begins to change as the German gets taken in by Hitler’s rhetoric. It is chilling to note the comparisons of the past to our present, and also how otherwise intelligent people can be taken in by a lunatic.

Even though the book was originally published in 1938, it still resonates today by illustrating how easily people can be manipulated and how desperate they can become when trying situations arise.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Ecco for allowing me to read an advance copy and give my honest review.

A phenomenal, powerful story that deserves to be shared and discussed more. The afterword is not to be skipped, either.

dress Unknown, originally published in a magazine, is a short work of epistolary fiction between two business partners—Martin and Max—both originally from Germany, who are co-owners of an art gallery in San Francisco. Max is Jewish; Martin is not. Martin decides to move back to Germany in 1932 and the pair begin their correspondence. Through the bare-bones presentation of their letters, Kressman Taylor paints a picture of Martin's gradual transformation into a supporter of Hitler and Max's response to that transformation. The readers are given only pieces of this puzzles, but the pieces are enough to put together a full narrative. The book can be comfortably read in a single sitting, and that is probably the best way to approach it.

Originally published in Story magazine 1938 and reprinted in other magazines, it was released as a book in 1939, first in the U.S., then in England. In 1995, Address Unknown had its first re-release to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps. Since then, Address Unknown has been translated into multiple languages. Kressman Taylor explained that she wrote Address Unknown as both a warning of events in Hitler's Germany, which an isolationist America was paying little attention to, and as an attempt to understand German-American friends who returned to Germany in the early 1930s and quickly became committed to the Nazi cause. In her own words, Kressman Taylor wanted to know "How can such a thing happen?... What can change their hearts so? What steps brought them to such cruelty?"

The questions Kressman Taylor was asking are, of course, relevant to our own times. Like many novels written in response to a particular historical moment, it remains pertinent even when that particular moment has passed.

I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher; the opinions are my own.

When I first came across this book, I was shocked I had never heard of it. I have always had a great interest in this period of history and have spent much of my life reading, researching, and seeking out information surrounding it. Address Unknown intrigued me for its history, but also for its popularity and reach at the time of publication and in all the years since.

Reading this short novel, I was heartbroken, sad, angry, and aghast. It’s terrifying to think how easily a person’s entire thought process can be rearranged and everything they’ve ever known and believed suddenly gone.

Kathrine Kressman Taylor wrote this story to show the American public how easily the normal, everyday person can be sucked into a warped ideology. She wrote it to expose the Nazis as well as to prove that our beliefs can be controlled through our thoughts which can be controlled by smooth words and nice sounding speeches.

This story was written 83 years ago and has just as much relevance today as it did then. This is a story we all need - to remember the truth of the past and to prevent the lies of the future.

It is a stark reminder that what we allow into our ears is absorbed into our minds and becomes our reality. Protect your truths.

5/5 ✨

Why do more people not talk about this book? Originally published in 1938, this story is series of fictional letters between a Jewish art dealer living in San Francisco and his former business partner, who has returned to Germany. Through these letters we see the Nazi's grow stronger, we see the way people were indoctrinated, and we see how insidious their power was.

Apparently the book was written after the author was shocked at the changes she would see in how her American-German friends after they returned to Germany. How normal people caught up in the hatred and madness. I rarely use phrases like "this is a powerful work" because it seems like the go-to cliché phrase for saying it made you think or feel something, but in this case, it seems not only accurate, but the only way I can currently express my reaction. This is a powerful and at times quite shocking work.

Again, I do not know why I had never heard of this before. It was apparently very well received upon publication, and it is an important work. Why this one is not regularly taught in Highschool English, I do not know. There is nothing more I can say and no more praise I can offer. A rare 5/5 stars.

My thanks to Netgalley and Ecco for providing me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

I became instantly fascinated with the fact that this was first published during the time of WWII. It was a quick read, but filled with so much power in the subject matter. I really enjoyed the epistolary aspect and the relationship between the antagonist and protagonist. It was also a complex story involving the emotions between the characters in regards to human conditioning and the turmoil of the time of the holocaust. I will remember this story for a long time.

#AddressUnknown #NetGalley . I heartily recommend this fascinating and unique book!

“There are certain novels that have the remarkable quality of being both timely and prophetic[,]" writes Margot Livesey in the introduction to this intriguing novella. Originally published in 1938, Kathrine Kressmann Taylor depicts in real time the spread of Nazism in a series of letters between Max, a Jewish art dealer in San Francisco, and Martin, his friend and business partner who has returned to Germany in 1932, just as Hitler is coming to power. The book was banned in Nazi Germany upon its publication.

As modern readers we know the horrors committed by Nazi Germany, yet Kressmann Taylor's depiction of these events in real time is chilling. In the 1930s, Kressman Taylor learned from Jewish family and friends in Europe of both the treatment of Jews, and the transformation of previously liberal friends into Nazi-supporters. The world at large was unconcerned with the Nazi threat to Jews but to her the writing was on the wall. This gives the work, as described in the introduction, "a Janus-like quality." The novella's contemporaneous portrayal of the experience of this threat is fascinating.

Personally, I love an epistolary structure. I love entering the characters' worlds in media res. I love that the reader can infer as much from characters' silences as from what they communicate in letters. In this instance, I loved noting the passage of time between letters when the reader must infer that Martin's development into a full-blown Nazi takes place. This devolution occurs off-stage and registers as a punch to the gut. The epistolary structure puts the reader in Max's position wherein with each new letter you hope that Martin's anti-Jewish statements are a cover, that he doesn't mean them, or that there's been some misunderstanding.

I recommend this edition in particular because it includes a very interesting introduction (quoted above), and had a pretty cover.

Address Unknown is an epistolary novel originally written by Kathrine Kressmann Taylor in 1938 that is now being republished. The book details the deterioration of a friendship during the rise of Nazi Germany. Due to its format, this story had me completely gripped. While reading you feel as if you are eavesdropping on your neighbor's private conversations, which leaves you needing to know what the next letter holds. I was unable to put it down.

The forward written by Margot Livesey helps bring this novella into our modern world. Not only is this book speaking about the time and place it was written in, but reaches out to us now. I firmly believe this should be required reading for everyone. There is so much we can learn from such a small but important text.

A quick read of a book. It was not my style,but I can understand the appeal. The Bronte-esk writing didn't immediately capture my attention, but I appreciate the story being told in a way I haven't read before (outside of theater). Letter forward dialogue. Interesting concept. Just not my ideal cup of tea. May be worth a reread. Thanks netgalley.

Short epistolary novel written before the invasion of Poland that kicked off the hot war in WWII. A great taut plot that highlights just how quickly someone can become cruel and a fascist when their self interest and pride are at stake. Some of the plot points were straightforward but there was a twist or two I didn't see coming. My only complaint was that it was too short - the evolution of the characters seemed a bit abrupt. Some 90 years on it's dismaying that this book is still urgent reading.

Wow. How do I react to this? Cheer? Cry? Feel horrified? Drop my jaw in disbelief and shock? Honestly I am feeling all the feels. What a massive thought bomb this very short book is! While this story is set as WWII is gaining ground, I think it so relevant to today and everyday really. It will make you reflect deeply on your own values and morals. Friendship. Family. Patriotism. Humanity. What would you stand up for? Who would you stand up for? How far would you go to support your friends and family? The more I think about the implications of these character's actions and situations, the more I am thinking this feels like a horror novel - and even more horrifying, it's actually our historical reality. It's definitely 90 pages that will leave you reeling.

"Address Unknown" written in 1938, has remained timely for over 80 years. Written in epistolary form, consisting of nineteen letters and one cablegram written between the fall of 1932 and the spring of 1934 , the points of view of two friends, co-owners of an art gallery in San Francisco were revealed. Martin Schluse had decided to move back to Germany with his wife and three young sons. "You are right to go...you have never become American despite your success here...Take your sturdy German boys back to the homeland to be educated", so states Max.

Martin described his thirty room house in Munich, a house purchased on the cheap. "How poor is now this sad land of mine...but...we employ now ten servants for the same wages of our two in the San Francisco home...Our American income places us among the wealthy here." Writing from the Schluse-Eisenstein Gallery, Max described taking delight in "meaningless little triumphs...gloating because I have tricked a giddy old woman into buying a monstrosity...You with your country house and your affluence...We are vain and we are dishonest persons...".

It had been fourteen years since World War I, "the old despair has been thrown aside like a forgotten cart." Martin writes, "I think in many ways Hitler is good for Germany...strong as only a great orator and a zealot can be...a big movement...a feeling that we of Germany have found our destiny...Even now there are wrongs being done...these things pass; if the end in view is right...Is the end right?"

Max is distressed at reports from the Fatherland...a terrible pogrom...it is almost unbelievable that the old martyrdom must be endured in a civilized nation. Martin's view is that "a few must suffer for millions to be saved...In defeat for fourteen years...we rise in our might...the rebirth of the new Germany under our Gentle Leader!"

A long-standing friendship has unraveled. Once Martin moved to Germany, his liberal views morphed into action, his intention to put his "back and shoulders" behind the great new movement. He was a German patriot, now a member of the National Socialist Party. It was impossible to correspond with a Jew. Max's sister, an actress living in Europe, had been offered an acting job in Berlin. Although using a stage name, "her features, gestures and emotional voice proclaimed her [ethnicity]." Where is she now?

"Address Unknown" by Kathrine Kressmann Taylor is an anti-Nazi work of fiction. The reader is privy to the conversation between two former friends. As Martin's ideological views emerged, he disavowed his friendship and correspondence with Max. The power of words...a cablegram sent to Martin...to a man [Max] had loved as a brother... This cautionary novel should become an essential student read.

Thank you Ecco and Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

03-23-2021

Address Unknown
Kathrine Kressmann Taylor
HarperCollins (June 29, 2021)

The reminder of what happened in Address Unknown reopens the wound inflicted upon humanity by Hitler.

Address Unknown was first published in 1938. It is an epistolatory novel, written in the form of letters between two friends, one in Munich and one in San Francisco, between November, 1932, and March, 1934. Both men were German, but both had moved to San Francisco years before, perhaps after World War I, it is unclear, and started a business, the Schulse-Eisenstein Galleries. Martin moved back to Germany in 1932 and Max remained in San Francisco to run the gallery with Martin, ostensibly, buying art for the gallery in Germany.

Max, who was Jewish, wrote the first letter in the novel, and then the last. The tone of their letters was in the beginning one of dear old friends. At the end of 1932 and in early 1933, Martin referred to Max as “Uncle Max.” And then Hitler was mentioned, and Martin’s writing began to depict the cry of the National Socialists that Germany must fulfill its destiny. In July of 1933, Martin asked that Max cease his personal letters on account of German censors, and said to Max, “I have loved you, not because of your race but in spite of it.” Max persisted, sending a letter to Martin through a friend traveling to Germany, and Martin’s response, a picture of propaganda, ended with his observation that the two friends were “no longer in sympathy.” And then came the turning point. Max’s sister was killed by stormtroopers at Martin’s house, and Martin’s letter that delivered the news to Max began with “Heil Hitler.” How Max reacted in early 1934 brought the story to a brilliant, yet troubling, conclusion.

The beauty of Address Unknown is its making human the horror in Germany during those times. The epistolary format helps with this, and it is the experience of the two old friends that brings the horror home for the reader, each of them having become a person next door through the very personal milieu created by the author in the early letters. In historical time, the events in Germany moved at lightning speed, something easy to capture in letters weeks apart. One’s first impression from the letters is that Martin undergoes the biggest transformation, from a kind friend to a Jew hating Nazi. Upon reflection after reading the story, one can’t miss that Max’s change is as great, and similarly as horrible as Martin’s, despite the tug of sympathy for the sister’s murder. It is appropriate that Address Unknown be republished. What happened in Germany must always be remembered in such a personal manner and not simply relegated to historical text. The retelling in the present day of the events in the novel reopens the wound inflicted upon humanity by Hitler. It is appropriate that a reminder of those events stab the younger generation in a manner not easy to forget.

Mark Zvonkovic, Reviewer and Author
Read My Reviews at markzvonkovic.com

So much to think about in this brief novella. Told through a series of letters between two friends: a Jewish art dealer in San Francisco, and his partner, a banker who has moved back to Munich in 1938. Theirs is a close friendship, and they share a common affection for the art dealers sister who is an actress on the stage in Germany. As Hitler rises to power, the tone of their correspondence, and the opions about each other and their standing in life devolves. When a letter to his sister is returned "Address Unknown" to the dealer, he seeks help from his friend in Germany in finding her, and the letters become almost weapons. Much to think about and contemplate. Originally written in the 1940s, this republication includes a wonderful forward and an equally helpful afterward. Highly recommend.