Address Unknown is a short story in the form of a set of letters between old friends—one of them a Jew in America and the other a German American who returns to the Fatherland just before Hitler assumes power. Acclaimed when first published in 1938 as an indictment of Nazism, Address Unknown keeps returning to print—now as a slender volume with explanatory material.
The author had a masterful sense of construction, building suspense and tension. The transition of the German from a cultured moderate to a Nazi seems abrupt, but his emotional fascination with a strong man ruler is well expressed. “For I tell you, my friend, there is a surge—a surge.” The appeal is the bitter fruit of resentment from people who felt left behind and put upon.
Address Unknown is a period piece but continues to speak in an era of populist fanatics seeking scapegoats and easy answers.
