For the past four years I have been working in an editorial capacity with a Radcliffe Institute colleague of mine based in Germany, Irmtrud Wojak, to develop the Fritz M. Bauer Library of Remembrance and Human Rights, a project aimed at publishing bi-lingual editions of books that tell important stories about courage in the face of tyranny.
The first volume—Full of Hunger and Full of Bread: The World of Jura Soyfer 1912-1939 by Dorothy James—will be published this year in English and in German by Buxus Edition. This compelling work recounts the life of the Austrian novelist and cabaret composer Jura Soyfer.
Jura Soyfer’s writing spoke to the dark era in which he lived and speak, as well, to the era we are living through now. He is most famous for composing The Dachau Song while a concentration camp prisoner. The back of the English language version of the book features this translation of the last stanza of “Wanderlied der Zeit.”
The storm of time
Is raging past
And you are tired,
Find no rest.
You long to close your eyes now.
But do not, do not
Close your eyes.
Just look the storm
Full in the face!
You have to know it all now.
