Patrick Hicks, The
Commandant of Lubizec: A Novel of the Holocaust and Operation Reinhard
(Steerforth Press, 2013). 252 pages.
Also available for Nook and Kindle.
(Historical Fiction)
Reviewed by Tom Kessler
The Commandant of
Lubizec by Patrick Hicks is a novel set in occupied Poland during 1942 and
1943 within the context of the Nazi Operation Reinhard. While the story of
Lubizec and Commandant Hans-Peter Guth is a work of fiction, Operation Reinhard
was a horrific reality.
The history of Nazi concentration and slave-labor camps such
as Auschwitz and Dachau is, at least to a rudimentary degree, widely known. Who
can forget the black and white scenes in documentaries of the camps? Lubizec is
based on the lesser known camps of Sobibór, Bełżec
and Treblinka. The distinction of the Operation Reinhard camps from the
concentration camps is that they were strictly extermination facilities, each
approximately the size of three football fields, and constructed for the sole
purpose of killing thousands of people daily with industrial efficiency. Between
1941-1943 over one and a half million Jews were murdered in the Operation
Reinhard camps. No known movie images of these three camps exist, and the facilities
themselves were destroyed and plowed into the ground by late 1943.
The novel immediately drew me in,
and by the middle of the second page I had to remind myself that I was reading
a novel rather than a historical account. Adding to my reading experience was
the opportunity to hear the author Patrick Hicks speak at the University of
Northern Iowa at an event sponsored by the UNI Center for Holocaust and
Genocide Education. Hicks described how he came to write the novel and the
extent of his research, and he showed pictures from his trips to the sites of
both extermination and concentration camps. He said two things he hoped to
accomplish with the novel were to “add color” to those black and white mental
images we carry of the concentration camps, and to balance what happened in the
camps with the “normalcy” of real life. To my mind Hicks accomplished
both intents, and I would go so far as to say that he was successful in
transcending the line between fiction and nonfiction so that the reader
grapples with deeper issues of truth and human nature.
The Commandant of
Lubizec is an accessible and relatively short novel which presents readers
with a wide sweep Holocaust related facts, issues, and themes: the
incomprehensible magnitude of the death and destruction; the extent of the
brutality and cruelty to the “other;” the cold logistics and “learning curve”
of Nazi efforts of human extermination; the humanity of the victims and the
perpetrators; vivid details of personal experiences in the camps ranging from
months/years to a few minutes; the “banality of evil” and associated
controversies; the dynamics of collaboration; courage and heroism; moral
choice; religious meaning in the face of overwhelming evil; family life and
love in the shadow of unspoken evil; lives of victims and perpetrators after
the camps; and on and on.
On occasion I found myself wishing for more individual
character development. As the story unfolds the reader is confronted with many
different perspectives - Commandant Guth, his wife Jasmine, their children,
Jewish camp prisoner/workers, Nazi officials, guards and gas chamber operators,
murderers and those murdered. Thousands make appearances for the few minutes
between cattle cars and the gas chambers, and are reduced to aggregate numbers:
August 21, 1942 - 3,837; August 22, 1942 - 3,914; August 23, 1942 - 3,966. In
retrospect, the main character of the novel was the Holocaust itself, and it
was indeed effectively developed in stark and brutal detail and depth.
Ultimately, to engage deeply with the novel strips one of the
shields of objectivity and distance and asks what individual and collective
choices we would make in similar circumstances. And no less important, would we
individually and collectively even recognize similar circumstances before it
was too late? Am I alone in thinking that honest answers to those questions are
not as certain or obvious as we would like to think and hope?
During his presentation at UNI, Hicks said that the problem
with writing about the Holocaust is how to put it in words. As impossible as
that task may be, it is important that there are those courageous enough to
make the attempt. Alternatively, the problem with reading about the Holocaust
is the understandable reluctance to engage with the magnitude of cruelty, evil
and human depravity. As the events of the Holocaust of the 1930’s and 40’s
recede further into history, both the courage to write and the courage to read
and engage are essential. The lessons of one of the lowest points in human
history must not be forgotten.
NOTE: Steven Wingate’s interview with the author can be found
at http://fictionwritersreview.com/interview/rich-lives-for-the-departed-an-interview-with-patrick-hicks/.
