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This historic book is a very important human document. It
tells the extraordinary story of Janni Kowalski’s survival
of the Warsaw Ghetto, Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen. It is the
story of a breathtakingly courageous young person who survived
partly because, as a strikingly beautiful, androgynous, bisexual
youth, men and women fell in love with him.
At the heart of this narrative is a strange paradox: Kowalski
wakes up in the ruins of a house (aged about 13) during the
Nazi blitzkrieg at the start of World War II, with no memory
of who he is, where he is, where he is from. He is not even
sure of his gender, let alone his identity. He is adopted by
a loving Jewish family and he slowly realises he can speak
German, Polish and English, and play the piano. Memories of
his earlier life and identity are, however, irretrievable.
(I will not spoil the astonishing discovery of his true identity,
which emerges in the last chapters of the book.) This book
then is the story of his life from 1939-55 (a second volume
is planned, which will bring us up-to-date). Despite the loss
of earlier memories Kowalski nevertheless is blessed with a
photographic memory and can remember his subsequent life in
minute detail, including dialogue. The book then is extremely
vivid. At times I could only bear to read a couple of pages
before I put it down for hours or days. This was not because
it was not well written: indeed it’s because it was so
vivid: terrifying even when it seems normal, poignant even
when joyous. At other times I could not put it down, but read
on through what is sometimes a terrific, even humorous, adventure,
at others a passionate and poignant love story.
I have no doubt that this book will become a film. It will
translate to film because there is so much vivid dialogue;
the music and dance, romance, adventure and history make it
extremely filmic. The scene of love making in the abandoned
apartment, sumptuously decorated and furnished with a Bechstein
boudoir grand piano, with the sun streaming through the windows… was
a film scene in my head as I read it, combining beauty, love,
romance and a terrible poignancy as one realised that this
was still the Warsaw ghetto, with people dying outside that
secret, locked room. The scene is rendered doubly tragic when
we later realise that this was the only time the girl, Rebecca,
made love in her short life.
There are a number of things that make this a most important
human document. We must remember that in the Holocaust, Jews
were massacred alongside gypsies, Russian peasants, Poles,
political prisoners, homosexuals, people with learning disabilities
and mental illnesses.That Janni was caught up in the holocaust
when he was NOT Jewish or Polish, nor identified as homosexual,
shows us how when genocide and oppression is practiced we are
all potential victims.
The book reminds us that the victims
are not statistics but real, individual, human beings. It undercuts
stereotypes and we must struggle with the recognition that
the SS officer Emil helped Janni to survive and was himself
trapped in a dehumanised world. That this book is sexually
explicit enriches the material by bringing into that dehumanised
environment human needs and feelings. The reality is more complex
than our simplified image of victims/oppressors: Janni was
not simply a victim of the SS officer’s exploitation
but rather, from the beginning of their relationship, took
control and ensured his own survival. The sex is never pornographic
but tender, passionate and delicately, even discreetly, described:
a real achievement for writer and storyteller.
There is an interesting formal innovation in the narrative
structure of this book. Apart from Janni’s dual identity,
providing in effect two voices/perspectives, there is a second
narrator, Michael. This is a startling change of perspective
that gives one another view: in effect making the picture three-dimensional.
In the end it is slightly frustrating because this second narrator
stops before completing his story: this gives one the sense
of how precarious, provisional and transitory relationships
can be in the aftermath of war. This device of the second narrator
provides some triangulation: evidence from another source.
The photographs and drawings that illustrate the book offer
further vivid documents which bring home the terror of the
camps and the wonder of Janni’s remarkable survival.
The narrative does not dwell on the horror of the concentration
camps: in this case however, less is more, as the details described
are heart stopping in their power to distress and disturb.
Janni is also able to tell us about his part in the hunting
down and assassination of camp guards by Jewish revenge groups
after the war: a piece of history of which I was not aware.
The book also has sunlit, lighter parts: comic, delightful,
fascinating revelations of wartime life and the post war clubs
where Janni sang his way to freedom.
Liebe Macht Frei is a staggering achievement for both of the
writer and his subject.
Dr. John Casson 2006
Harder, J. (2004) Liebe Macht Frei (Love Sets You Free) The
biography of Janni Kowalski.
Copies available from:
Castlegate Publishing, 55, Castlegate, Grantham, Lincs., NG31
6SN
Please enclose a cheque for £13.50 made payable to Castlegate
Publishing |
