Abstract
“Nach Wilna” is the story of a family trip to the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius that Rabinovici undertook with his brother and his parents in June 2011. His mother, Schoschana Rabinovici, had grown up in Vilnius before the Second World War, survived the Holocaust, and emigrated first to Israel and later to Austria. Her father, Isaukas Weksler, did not escape and, like most of Vilnius’ Jewish population, was murdered by the Nazis. Rabinovici’s sensitive and thoughtful tale of this trip weaves together family stories (from his mother’s childhood, from his and his brother’s childhoods, from ancestors’ histories, and from the present), historical periods (Vilnius in the 1940s, Vilnius in the 1980s, Vilnius today), and different texts (most notably his mother’s internationally-acclaimed account of her childhood in Vilnius, Dank meiner Mutter) in a deliberately non-linear manner in order to capture the range of conflicting thoughts and emotions that accompanied this trip through both time and space.
Highlights
Doron Rabinovici: Historian and Storyteller Since his rise to prominence in the debates surrounding the election of Kurt Waldheim as President of Austria in the mid-1980s, Doron Rabinovici has consistently woven together insightful investigations into the questions and problems of history with a fresh and innovative literary style
His publications have alternated between nonfictional and fictional texts, including collections of short stories (Papirnik, 1994) and essays (Credo und Credit, 2001), three novels (Suche nach M., 1997; Onehin, 2005; Andernorts, 2010), a history of the Jewish Council of Vienna during the Anschluss (Instanzen der Ohnmacht, 2000), a philosophical discussion of the concept of resistance (Der ewige Widerstand, 2008), and an illustrated children’s book (Das Jooloomooloo, 2008). Within this varied body of work, three key themes continually emerge: the ways in which family stories interconnect across generations, the negotiation of multiple identities and, above all, the complex and constantly shifting relationship between the past and the present. All of these themes are at the forefront of ‘Nach Wilna’, the story that appears in this volume
In this text, Doron Rabinovici the academic historian and Doron Rabinovici the writer work hand-in-hand to tell a gripping and touching story
Summary
Doron Rabinovici: Historian and Storyteller Since his rise to prominence in the debates surrounding the election of Kurt Waldheim as President of Austria in the mid-1980s, Doron Rabinovici has consistently woven together insightful investigations into the questions and problems of history with a fresh and innovative literary style. Herzog and Herzog: Writing as Return that is a meditation on the interconnections of the past and the present and a reflection on the ways in which families and histories intersect to form constantly shifting identities.
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