The Wind Knows My Name

The novel opens with Kristallnacht, a night in Vienna during which Nazi groups terrorized Jewish people and neighborhoods, and introduces the Adlers, a Jewish family. The text quickly establishes the dynamics at work in this oppressive atmosphere. For the Adlers, a continued sense of impermanence pervades how they view and discuss the oppression of Jewish people under the Nazis. For example, when noting that Jewish students are being removed from schools and taught privately, most people view it as “a temporary emergency measure” (10), reflecting an expectation that discrimination and violence are a passing phase. Likewise, those outside the Jewish community, like Peter Steiner, think the “situation is completely untenable” (14), and Peter reassures Rudolph that “[i]t will have to get better soon” (14). However, the situation doesn’t improve, and Rudolph, Rachel, and Leah are all sent to concentration camps, where they die. The idea that discrimination is a temporary measure introduces the theme of Denial in the Face of Atrocities, in which “victims” and allies alike try to convince themselves that the situation isn’t as dire as it might seem. Peter and Rachel have a lingering perception that Nazi ideologies won’t be sustainable and that the Jewish community won’t be seriously damaged by it: Imagining legitimate ethnic cleansing happening in one’s own home country is difficult. In England, Samuel experiences similar denial: When he sees a newsreel revealing the extent of the Holocaust, “he refused to believe that his parents could be among the victims” (44). However, as is typical of oppressed peoples during times of terror and danger, the atrocities place the threat close to people’s families and homes, thereby threatening to break down the dissociation that they feel.

Further, allies must reconcile their own untenable position, as Peter discovers when he searches for Rudolph. Donning Nazi symbols, Peter “let[s] himself be pulled along by the tide of humanity” (19), during which he struggles to retain his sense of morality as the crowd threatens to absorb him. Interestingly, Peter uses his ability to present himself as Aryan, or pure German in Nazi ideology, to protect the Adlers’ property by putting it in his name. However, his daughter, Heidi, later reveals to Samuel in England that Peter was “accused of being a Communist” (46) and died in Auschwitz in 1943. Peter isn’t sent to a concentration camp for being Jewish, and the text acknowledges that of the more than 11 million people killed in concentration camps, only half were Jewish. In fact, Peter isn’t even sent to Auschwitz for helping a Jewish family but for suspicion of being a communist, a crime which can’t be proven or disproven. As the Nazi party takes control, its ability to expand the reasons for oppressing other people increases, meaning that as they oppress the Jewish community, they oppress other communities too.

The overriding theme of Family as the Greatest Strength drives these opening chapters as Rudolph fights to get home and Rachel resorts to sexual favors to ensure her family’s passage overseas. The text depicts their sending Samuel away on his own as a last resort rather than an ideal solution to escaping oppression. Several elements of Samuel’s life demonstrate the importance of family, such as music, language, and support. Samuel’s music is powerful, swaying the crowd as he prepares to go to England, and his music ties him to his mother, who plays the piano. However, the Nazi rioters destroy her piano, and Samuel slowly loses his prodigal talent on the violin. Likewise, he loses his ability to write and speak German, which he notes in a letter to his parents. Individually, these may seem like collateral costs of the Holocaust, but Samual reflects that he isn’t even interested in the Jewish traditions with which his mother and aunt wanted him to grow up. As the Nazis tear the family apart, some members die, while others lose critical elements of what defined their family and themselves. By the time Samuel heads for New Orleans, “Adler” is more his last name than an association with his family heritage and traditions.