Authors Interviewing Characters Series: Judith Berlowitz

A fictional diary set in interwar Germany and Spain allows us to peek into the life of Klara Philipsborn, the only Communist in her merchant-class, German-Jewish family.Klara’s first visit to Seville in 1925 opens her eyes and her spirit to an era in which Spain’s major religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, shared deep cultural connections.

At the same time, she is made aware of the harsh injustices that persist in Spanish society. By 1930, she has landed a position with the medical school in Madrid. Though she feels compelled to hide her Jewish identity in her predominantly Christian new home, she finds that she feels less “different” in Spain than she did in Germany, especially as she learns new ways of expressing her opinions and desires. And when the Spanish Civil War erupts in 1936, Klara (now “Clara”) enlists in the Fifth Regiment, a step that transports her across the geography of the embattled peninsula and ultimately endangers a promising relationship and even Clara’s life itself.

A blending of thoroughly researched history and engrossing fiction, Home So Far Away is an epic tale that will sweep readers away.

We’re delighted to feature this Authors Interviewing Characters piece by Judith!

Podcast #1:  Home So Far Away: The Other Side

Interview with Dr. Käthe Pariser (1893-1953) 

Image from El Sol, 25 Feb, 1936,page 10, procedente de los fondos de la Biblioteca Nacional de España.

Theme music, voice-over: The Other Side, interviews with characters from Judith Berlowitz’s historical novel, Home So Far Away

Theme music (“Clair de lune”) fades somewhat

Judith: Hello everyone, and welcome to The Other Side, a podcast that gives us the opportunity to meet characters featured in Home So Far Away. Here we learn more about their roles in Klara Philipsborn’s diary, the background events in the diary, and their lives before and since those moments. I’m Judith Berlowitz. And today, by special arrangement, we are thrilled to present our interview with the biologist and geneticist, Dr. Käthe Pariser. 

Music fades out

J: Well hello, Dr. Pariser, and welcome to The Other Side!

K: Hello, Dr. Berlowitz; it’s lovely to meet you.

J: Oh, will you please call me “Judith”?

K: Oh, of course, and please do call me “Käthe”. It is so much easier to be informal once one has shuffled off the mortal coil, as the poet would say. And thank you for inviting me to your podcast. Such a pleasure to speak with someone across time and space. Gott sei dank for your modern technology! 

J: Yes, isn’t it a wonder! 

K: And I want to thank you for including me in your book; quite an honor. 

J: It was an honor to bring you into Klara’s diary. I think you played an important role in it. But I’d like your opinion: How do you see your role in the diary? 

K: Ah, well, I think Klara was in need of companionship; female, German-Jewish companionship, to ease her culture shock from having to speak Spanish day and night, and, frankly, from being surrounded by – Goyim. 

J (chuckles)

K: And of course I just happened to be in Madrid when she was there!

J: Well, now, I think you are being modest. You were also very helpful explaining the absurd Nuremberg Laws to Klara. And by the time you had arrived in Madrid, you had quite a reputation. Let me refer to your CV for a moment: for the ten years before you came to Madrid, you were a research assistant at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Biology, in the Goldschmidt department. The great geneticist Dr. Richard Goldschmidt! You worked with him, right?

K: Indeed. We collaborated on some articles.

J: And then he was at Berkeley, where I studied and also taught. 

K: Yes, and he got out of Europe about the same time I did, and lived to make his transition two years after I departed from my body. He is responsible for the fact that I was able to do research in Madrid. He introduced me to the wonderful Antonio de Zulueta at a conference in Berlin in 1927. 

J: Klara does not say much about Zulueta in her diary. What can you tell us about him?

K: Well, as soon as Hitler was installed as chancellor, I fled Germany and managed to arrive safely in Zurich. The Nazis had forbidden me from teaching and had confiscated my bank accounts. I remembered Zulueta, and I wrote him from Zurich, probably a desperate plea. He remembered me and recommended me for the grant from the Spanish branch of the International Federation of University Women, that allowed me to go to Spain, and then got me the post at the Museum of Natural Sciences. So terrible what happened to him.

J: What do you mean?

K: Oy, you know that I left as soon as war broke out, in 1936. But he decided to stay and the victorious Franco dictatorship purged him, didn’t allow him to teach. He and his family barely survived – on his translation jobs, including Darwin’s Origin of Species – and when he finally departed from his body – at the beginning of 1971 – his death and his life were completely ignored. He was very bitter about that. 

J: Oh, do you mean that – er – you – eh – were able to communicate with him?

K: I’m sorry, Judith, I’m not able to say much more about that. Even your twenty-first century technology is unable to replicate or to describe certain – eh – energies. 

J: Oh, of course. Well, please tell us what became of you after you left Spain. That last scene with Klara in the basement of the Museum was so sad. The little lost newts…

K: Well, I was able to finagle a German passport (don’t ask!) to get to Tel Aviv, via New York, and then I was offered a teaching position in Sydney, Australia, where I remained until my final passage. I lived in Rose Bay with my dear friend and became a member of the Sydney Chevra Kadisha—

J: —the burial society-

K: Yes, and I ended my earthly journey at age 60 on August 2, 1953. There was a lovely service – and would you like to know whose bodies are buried near mine, at the Rookwood Cemetery?

J: Yes, of course – please tell me!

K: Klara’s sister, Liesa Philipsborn Berendt, and her husband, Moritz.

J: Oh, my goodness!  Does Klara – er – know this?

K: Sorry, I can’t talk about that. 

J: Oh, then – How about all the financial losses you incurred in the Holocaust?

K: Ah – [ghostly laugh] Ha! Ha! Ha! My eldest brother, Franz, helped me file with the Claims Resolution Tribunal, which was still not completed quite a distance away – in 2004! 

J: Oh, well I wish you the best of luck obtaining some kind of justice, and I want to thank you again for your gracious appearance on The Other Side.

K:  You are so welcome – good bye, and … Salud!