Moriz Scheyer

A recently discovered tense, raw, and at times angry account of one Jewish man's persecution in Vienna, flight to France, and hidden life in a convent during World War II. Moriz Scheyer was in hiding at a convent in the Dordogne in 1943 when he began drafting what would become his memoir. An arts editor for Vienna's principal newspaper before the German invasion in 1938, Scheyer was friends with some of the city's great artists, from Stefan Zweig to Gustav Mahler, and an important literary journalist in his own right. Here he turns his acerbic wit and critical eye to his own remarkable experiences, tracing events from the Anschluss in Austria to Paris immediately pre-war and under occupation; the exodus from Paris to life in two different concentration camps; an escape attempt, contact with the Resistance, and, finally, a dramatic rescue and clandestine life in a convent. Written when the events were still fresh and raw, Scheyer's memoir is riveting in its immediate perspective and the minute details of those days. After Scheyer's death in 1948, his stepson - who disliked the book and its all-encompassing denunciation of the German people - destroyed the manuscript. Or thought he did. Recently, a carbon copy of the manuscript was discovered in the family's attic by Peter Singer, the author's step-grandson, who has translated and provided an afterword.

Moriz Scheyer

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