History is gendered and is often male. History is about rulers, wars and dry facts teased through deduction. The Silver Music Box by Mina Baites is a feminine retelling of a dreaded phase of Nazi Germany through the eyes of one Jewish family—the Blumenthals.
This domestic perspective is unique and emotional. The silver music box is a gift from silversmith Johann Blumenthal to his four-year-old son Paul on the eve of joining the German army in World War I. Over 1,00,000 Jews fought for their fatherland alongside other Germans, easily forgotten by the Nazis.
Johann never returns. In 1933, Paul settles into married life with the beautiful Clara while the slow horror of being segregated unfolds. Strangers cross the street on seeing them. Later they spit at them.
Ruffian neighbours punch Paul. Effectively ostracised, government orders specifically mention their store can no longer operate. Brownshirts visit their jewellery store and ransack it. It is not just the loss of livelihood or dignity as much as the slow awareness that their lives are in danger.
His uncle and his father-in-law refuse to leave their homeland. Paul’s mother migrates to Cape Town in a position to take nothing along. It would be sensible to follow suit. Paul chooses to travel abroad on fake passports. The going is not easy and with winter stretching ahead of them, Clara reveals that she is pregnant with their second child.
In London 1963, a young lady—Lillian—mourning the death of her parents discovers she is adopted and is given a silver music box. She investigates who she really is and where she came from.
While providing a counterpoint, trite domestic passages sit at odds with the wide sweep of the narrative. The actual language is simple enough to seem flippant bordering on dull. However, the author manages to create a well-structured tale set in a time we need to know about. The research is thorough and the style of writing brings characters and the backdrop alive. As a translation from German, it is remarkably lucid and meaningful.
In a bid to escape their fates, Paul and Clara convert to Christianity. It amounts to nothing as they are only known for their non-Aryan heritage and treated Jews are. Lillian is brought up as a Catholic. This unique situation of crossing the boundaries of religious identity is the stronger story and has been dealt with only in passing. To those interested in Nazi era Germany this is a must read.