Embassy from Granada
Message from Granada is a historical novel by the German-Jewish writer Ernst Sommer , published in 1937.
action
The novel is set against the background of the persecution and expulsion of the Jews in 1492 , during the Reconquista under the reign of Isabella of Castile . The focus here is not on the great politics of the powerful, but on the multi-perspective listing of individual Jewish fates. Among these, the figure rises of the Spanish knight Juan Fonseca out of a converted Jew , a favorite of the mighty Grand Inquisitor Tomas de Torquemada is and what is happening during the persecution of the Jews ( assimilation , resistance, torture , forced baptism ) since Alhambra Decree again original to his Finds back faith.
background
The book was first published in 1937 in what was then Czechoslovakia and is considered a literary anticipation of the persecution of the Jews under National Socialism . The novel was put on the “list of harmful and undesirable literature” and could only appear in the German Reich as part of an exception . The literary figure of 'Juan Fonseca' should not be confused with Juan Rodríguez de Fonseca .
expenditure
- Ernst Sommer: Message from Granada . Mährisch-Ostrau 1937, 389 pp.
- Ernst Sommer: Message from Granada . Jewish Book Association, Berlin 1938
- Ernst Sommer: Message from Granada . Greifenverlag, Rudolstadt 1953, 323 pp.
- Ernst Sommer: Message from Granada . Zsolnay , Vienna / Hamburg 1987, 422 pages, ISBN 978-3552039193
Reviews
- The three events: the conquest of Granada , the expulsion of the Jews and the departure of Columbus are linked in a very clear way that corresponds to historical truth. A Jewish poet to be heard - a Jewish work to be heard about. (Jewish Review, 1937, Issue 12, p. 707)
Web links
- Gerhard Langer: Ernst Sommer's novel 'Message from Granada' - Conference contribution: Hidden Faith or Double Identity? - The image of Marranism in the 19th and 20th centuries . Moses Mendelssohn Center for European-Jewish Studies in cooperation with the Jägerstrasse History Forum, Berlin, March 2009
- Anthony Grenville: The Earliest Reception of the Holocaust: Ernst Sommer's Revolt of the Saints. In: German Life and Letters. 51, 1998, pp. 250-265, doi : 10.1111 / 1468-0483.00097 .