The child of atonement

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The Child of Atonement is a novella by the Austrian writer Karl Emil Franzos , written in 1872 and published in 1876 in the collection Die Juden von Barnow at Duncker & Humblot in Leipzig .

This story runs in the Podolian town of Barnow around the middle of the 19th century over three decades.

prehistory

In 1831 a cholera epidemic hit the country. In their distress, the Barnow Jews asked the Rabbi of Sadagóra for assistance. The enterprising wonder man says: "You have all offended God, you must all repent" and has a remedy ready. The church has to equip several destitute couples and marry them off in the cemetery as a sacrifice to the angry God.

In 1848, during the next epidemic, the Barnowers remember that magic bullet from seventeen years ago. Among the poor couples who are now being married between the fresh graves are the gravedigger Nathan Goldstein and the anemic Miriam Roth, maid of the community leader. The couple has two children. They die one after the other.

In 1859 the above mentioned strangling angel strokes the country again. Miriam Goldstein is pregnant and gives birth to Lea Goldstein. Nathan Goldstein is the only Barnow victim of this third scourge of God. In the meantime the son of the miracle man has inherited the business from his father. The new Rabbi of Sadagóra accepts the thanks and gifts from the wealthier Barnowers. Because the gravedigger's widow really can't give anything, the rabbi tells her that the newborn Lea will only live to be a sacrifice atonement for all Barnow Jews one day.

action

In 1863 the fourth cholera wave hit Barnow. Little Lea falls ill. Her mother Miriam asks the Rabbi von Barnow for a blessing for the child. The rabbi refuses the request, referring to the words of the great Rabbi of Sadagóra. The mother replies: “You are lying, Rabbi ...! My child won't die! God is wise, gentle, just, ... you and all of you are not! ”Curious neighbors drop by. The short visit hopes for Lea's death and thus for the end of the epidemic. But there is also an old woman who wants to help. This, the Urbabele (great-grandmother) Sara, persuades the desperate mother Miriam to visit the great rabbi in Sadagóra. Only he could withdraw his spell. Lea leaves her child to the neighbor, travels, but soon turns back. Lea survives. Franzos sums up that motherly love has exercised its healing power. And miracles of God are mightier than a saying of the miracle rabbi.

expenditure

  • The child of atonement , pp. 142–168 in: The Jews of Barnow. Stories from Karl Emil Franzos . 11-15 Edition. Cotta'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Stuttgart 1920 ( archive.org ).
  • The child of atonement . P. 69–95 in: Karl Emil Franzos: The child of atonement. Stories. Illustrations by Gerhard Großmann . With an afterword by Wolfgang Schütze. Buchverlag Der Morgen, Berlin 1965 (2nd edition, edition used)

In English

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Note on p. 139 in the English edition of 1882