“Listen, O Israel.” Two biographies of the Austrian poet and Nazi survivor Erich Fried

The book “And We Laughed Sometimes” by the Austrian poet and writer Erich Fried (1921 - 1988), recently translated by Dar Safsafa (Al Jazeera).

Perhaps the publication of the book “And We Laughed Sometimes” by the Austrian poet and writer Erich Fried (1921-1988), recently published by Safsafa Publishing House, came as a response to two fronts working non-stop.

The first front, which is represented by Israel and its hawks that carry Zionist ideas, which has been waging an ongoing war of extermination on the Gaza Strip since October 2023. While the second front is represented by the media machine that pumped out many books in Germany and elsewhere, in record time, portraying “Israel is a victim.” of Palestinian extremist Islamic violence.”

"Antisemitism"

If we leave aside the actions of the first front, which keeps getting more brutal and increasingly assumes the role of victim transformed into a constant perpetrator, the second front is working, as it did before, in the media in Europe and America to form a unilateral point of view on the Israeli-Palestinian issue.

That front that forgets Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories, the ongoing economic siege on the Gaza Strip since the Oslo Accords, preventing its people from working and preventing the most basic things of life from being available, and portrays "peaceful" Israel as a victim of what happened on October 7, as if nothing had happened. Before that date.

Within a few days, some German publishing houses, for example, issued many intellectual books that address the European mind, portraying the issue as “self-defense” against “anti-Semitism,” raising the slogan “There is no place again for anti-Semitism and anti-Jews.” The slogan erased the rights of Palestinian civilians, and can now be seen even on bulletin boards in schools and kindergartens.

Among these books is the book “Beyond October 7th”, published by Editions Tiamat on January 29, 2024. It is a book of essays of more than 30 articles and dialogues that were published in German newspapers and websites by many writers and artists known for their influence. On public opinion.

The book “Beyond October 7th”, published by Editions Tiamat Publishing House (Al Jazeera)

As well as the book “What is Anti-Semitism?, Terms and Definitions of Anti-Jewishness,” published by Wallstein Publishing at the end of January 2024.

The book “What is Anti-Semitism?, Terms and Definitions of Anti-Jewishness” (Al Jazeera)

Two walks

Therefore, Samir Grace’s translation of the biography “And We Laughed Sometimes” by a famous writer of Jewish origins who was angry with Israel seemed appropriate to thwart the work of the Second Front, as well as to provide readers with knowledge and information that may not be found in one book.

Erich Fried, who was born in Vienna, Austria, and died in Baden, Germany, is considered one of the major representatives of post-World War II German literature as a poet, translator, and essayist. In Germany, he is not forgotten because of his emotional poems, as well as because of his translations of Shakespeare, as critics consider them among the best translations. In addition to his other translations of Graham Greene and T. s. Eliot, Dylan Thomas, Sylvia Plath, and John Song.

The poet Erich Farid always insisted on calling things by their proper names without fearing anything, and he never adhered to the official discourse on any issue. He faced violent accusations and severe attacks, but he remained firm and uncompromising on his principles

But Erich Farid is not only the author of emotional poems, and this is what the Egyptian translator Giris explained in the introduction to the book in more than 35 pages, within the book that contains Farid’s memories in 200 pages, but he is one of the famous political poets in Europe and the world. He is a poet who "always insisted on calling things by their proper names without fearing anything, and he never committed to the official discourse on any issue. He faced violent accusations and severe attacks, but he remained firm and uncompromising on his principles." According to the words of Samir Grace.

Erich Farid continued to haunt Israel with poems that reminded it of its moral shame, especially through his most famous poem, “Listen, O Israel.” This exposed him to a major attack from his own people, and made them continue to suppress those political poems, so that readers would remember the author of “Warning Poems” (1964) and "Vietnam..and" (1966) and "Freedom to Open the Mouth" (1972) that he is the only author of famous sentimental poems.

In that political biography of Farid, Grace went on to provide generous information from Farid’s positions and poems, especially those he wrote after the 1967 war, or the June setback, which was the third Israeli war. He continued to persecute Israel with poems that reminded it of its moral shame, especially through his most famous poem, “Listen, O Israel,” which exposed him to a major attack from his own people, and made them continue to suppress those political poems, so that readers would remember the author of “Warning Poems” (1964) and “ Vietnam..and” (1966) and “Freedom to Open the Mouth” (1972) that he is the only author of famous emotional poems.

Grace does not only present his most famous poem, but also other poems that talk about injustice in the world, about the Israeli massacres in Palestine and Egypt, about his techniques in using vocabulary in his poems, as well as about German Jewish writers who did not have the courage of Erich Fried in criticizing the authorities, crimes, and silencing mouths.

In his famous poem, “Listen, O Israel,” Erich Farid writes about the Jews as victims of Nazism, that he was one of them, and that his relatives also died by suffocation or in gas chambers. Then he says: “You became skilled farmers/Irrigated the desert/But you displaced/the poor who lived here before you.” (..) I did not want you to drown in the sea, and I also did not want others to die of thirst because of you in the desert. When you were persecuted/I was one of you/How can I remain so/When you persecute others?”

In his famous poem, “Listen, O Israel,” Farid writes about the Jews as victims of Nazism, that he was one of them, and that his relatives also died by suffocation or in gas chambers. Then he says: “You became skilled farmers/Irrigated the desert/But you displaced/the poor who lived here before you.” (..) I did not want you to drown in the sea, and I also did not want others to die of thirst because of you in the desert. When you were persecuted/I was one of you/How can I remain so/When you persecute others?”

The other biography

This biography written by Grace does not exist, in all its details, in the biography written by Erich Farid in this book. Farid does not even mention those poems that poisoned Israel's life and his own, nor the articles that brought him accused to the courtrooms; Rather, he writes the biography of a family within the biography of a group that suffered the scourge of Nazism.

Farid begins his memoirs with “And We Laughed Sometimes” with his grandmother’s stories. From the life of his grandfather and grandmother, that is, he writes about what preceded his biography, or what is the origin of his biography later. Then about the child, Farid, from a non-Orthodox Jewish family, and about his nanny, his mother, and his father, who died while being interrogated by the Nazi secret police. About the child, Farid, who witnessed “Bloody Friday,” when he was six years old, when the Austrian police opened fire on demonstrators who demonstrated against a court decision that acquitted a group of right-wingers who had killed two people. The child, Farid, saw that and was entrenched in the scene that was supervised by the Vienna police chief at the time.

The following year Fred was to recite a poem at the school's Christmas celebrations. He went up on stage and told the audience that he apologized for reading the poem “because of the presence of the police chief” in the hall, the one who gave his orders to kill the demonstrators!! The police chief left angrily. Then Farid said to the audience, “Now I can recite my poem.”

The solid foundation of Erich Farid's political formation was: watching innocent people being shot and killed, and courageously standing up to the police chief who gave the orders to kill; But it was also the basis for Farid's literary formation, and he became a writer of poems and an actor in traveling plays

This was the solid foundation of Erich Farid's political formation: watching innocent people being shot and killed, and courageously standing up to the police chief who gave the orders to kill; But it was also the basis for Farid's literary formation, and he became a writer of poems and an actor in traveling plays.

Journey from Nazism to London

Most parts of this biographical book go into stories about childhood friends who became members of Hitler's student organizations, about the annexation of Austria by Germany, the terrifying rise of Nazism, and about the humiliation and injustice suffered by Jews, especially the poor and leftists, at the hands of volunteers, before the Nazi intelligence services invaded. For Austria. These stories extended until 1938, the year Fred arrived in London alone, escaping the fate that befell his family and the remaining Jewish families in Vienna.

In London, the reader will find a life of destitution and life before and after the war, and Fred, who used dozens of means to save children and sick German Jews, and free them from the terrible Holocaust.

Erich Farid's works are considered "a sincere cry of protest, and a call to emerge from the dark tunnel of fanaticism into broad political horizons; a call to fight injustice wherever it may be, and whoever is committing it." From these principles “came his absolute support for the Palestinian cause.” In the words of translator Samir Grace

The book is about the stories of Farid's neighbors and his family that slowly formed, and about his congenital illness that created memories for him from his childhood until his death, and about Farid the child, the young man, the exile, the man and the old man waiting for death, that old man who became a popular poet because of his famous emotional poems, and awards went to him. Successively from 1972, with the Austrian Prize of Merit in Literature, up to the Georg Büchner Prize in 1987, one year before his death.

Whoever reads this book of memoirs will find it as a renewed reminder of what the Jews suffered in many parts of the world, and it will appear as if it was written to the Western reader, so that you will not find even a millimeter of anti-Semitism in Europe again. Therefore, the translator's introduction seems very important, and a reason to understand the occasion of publishing this book now, during the Israeli aggression on Gaza.

From here, Grace says that Erich Farid’s works are considered “a sincere cry of protest, and a call to emerge from the dark tunnel of fanaticism into broad political horizons; a call to fight injustice wherever it may be, and whoever is committing it.” From these principles “came his absolute support for the Palestinian cause.” In the words of translator Samir Grace.

Source: Al Jazeera