by Arnold Zable
Author’s note
The title story of this collection, ‘The Watermill’, is set in a period that can be viewed as an interregnum between the Cultural Revolution, which ended in 1976, and the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. I lived and travelled widely in China in 1984–85 and was based in Guizhou Province for much of that time. I thank my colleagues and students at the Guizhou Agricultural College, and other people I met in China, for the journeys and stories they shared with me.
I have combined a range of separate incidents and encounters to create composite stories and composite characters, and I have used letters for names and monikers to protect the identities of the people whose tales I have drawn on. I have also changed some specific details as an added precaution.
Revisiting my time in China, I was struck anew by the Tang and Song dynasty poets. The poems of Li Bai, Du Fu, Wang Wei, Han Shan and others ring true many centuries after they were written. The title story is influenced by this poetic legacy.
In ‘The Ballad of Keo Narom’, I have again disguised the identity of individuals by creating pseudonyms and composite characters, except for Keo Narom and Voy Ho. My conversations with Narom initially emerged from the mutual recognition of the impact that genocides had on our families. The person I call ‘R’ organised the writing workshops in Phnom Penh, Siem Reap and Battambang between 2013 and 2015. He interpreted my talks at the workshops and my conversations with Keo Narom. I thank him for his knowledge, the journeys we shared, and his deep concern for Cambodia and its people. ‘The Ballad of Keo Narom’ was also informed by R’s memories of the Khmer Rouge era as a child. Without him, this story could not have been written.
I thank Phina So, writer and advocate for Khmer literature, for her constructive reading of the story and for enhancing my understanding of contemporary Cambodia. Oum Sophany, a participant in the workshops, wrote and spoke eloquently of her experiences of the Pol Pot era. She died in June 2018. I thank the Cambodian writers who attended workshops, some of whom invited me into their homes and accompanied me on some of my journeys.
I am indebted to Joan Healy for her careful reading of the manuscript. Joan has devoted years of service to Cambodia and its people. The verse on page 114 of the song ‘And You Plough’ is my translation of Chaim Zhitlowsky’s original Yiddish.
Sami Feder’s memoirs, which I read in the original Yiddish, provide the foundation for ‘Republic of the Stateless’. They include: Gebaylte foystn, Clenched Fists, Tel Aviv, 1974; Durkh tsv · elf gehenem-fayern, Through Twelve Fires of Hell, Tel Aviv, 1985; and Mayn Lebn, My Life, Tel Aviv, 1995. I also drew on Feder’s Notes on a Diary of the Yiddish Studio ‘Kazet Theatre’ in Bergen-Belsen 1945–1947.
I delivered a tribute to Sonia Lizaron at her memorial service, a version of which was published in the journal Meanjin in December 2016. As I researched the story further, hearing from Arie Olewski and Jochevet (Jochi) Olewski was indeed a pivotal moment, and I am greatly indebted to them for our conversations, for information they sent me and their enthusiasm for the project.
I also draw on the work of researchers Sophie Fetthauer—whose essay ‘The Kazet-Theatre and the Development of Yiddish Theatre in the DP Camp Bergen-Belsen’, appears in Dislocated Memories: Jews, Music, and Post-war German Culture, edited by Tina Fruhauf and Lily E. Hirsch—and Zlata Zaretsky, who met Sami Feder in his final years. And I thank Brazilian-based researcher Leslie Marko for our many discussions about the Kazet Theatre. Marko’s recently published doctoral thesis on Sami Feder and the Kazet Theatre is titled: Teatro De Sami Feder: Espaço Poético de Resistência nos Tempos do Holocausto (1933–1950).
I am indebted to Elly Trepman for checking passages of the story for historical veracity. As the years go by, and with the rise of Holocaust denialism, the need to be faithful to history grows more urgent. Hence I have drawn on many primary sources to check the historical facts.
Elly’s mother, Babey Trepman, was a pianist in the Kazet Theatre. His father, Paul Trepman, helped Sami Feder edit the Zamlung fun Kazet un Ghetto Lieder: Anthology of Songs and Poems from the Ghettos and Concentration Camps, 1945; and Babey wrote the music. Paul also acted as a spokesperson alongside Sami Feder on the theatre’s tour of Belgium and France.
Elly Trepman’s article ‘Rescue of the Remnants: The British Emergency Medical Relief Operation in Belsen Camp 1945’, an account of the British-led relief effort after the liberation of Bergen-Belsen—which draws on testimonies of British troops, doctors, relief workers and camp residents, and on articles published in the British Medical Journal and Lancet in the late 1940s—provided useful information.
I made use of the following books: Ben Shepherd’s After Daybreak: The Liberation of Bergen-Belsen, 1945; Angelika Konigseder and Juliane Wetzel, Waiting for Hope: Jewish Displaced Persons in Post-World War II Germany; and Jewish Displaced Persons in Camp Bergen-Belsen, 1945 and 1950: The Unique Photo Album of Zippy Orlin, edited by Erik Somers and Rene Kok. I also drew on eyewitness accounts published by the Imperial War Museum, London.
‘Republic of the Stateless’ is not a history of the Bergen-Belsen displaced persons camp and its complex politics, which included the ongoing conflict between the Jewish residents and the British authorities over restrictions to immigration in British-controlled Palestine. My story focuses on, and was inspired by, the life of Sonia Lizaron, born Sonia Boszkowska. Sonia was a dear friend for more than thirty years. I was also informed by many conversations over the years with Bono and Pinche Wiener and Abram Goldberg.
The songs of Shmerke Kaczerginski and Mordechai Gebirtig are deeply imbedded in Yiddish culture. I grew up hearing and singing them. Kaczerginski’s ‘Springtime’ has been translated into English many times. I have drawn on a range of translations in constructing my own. Other song and poetry credits include: Hirsh Glick, ‘Quiet the Night’ and ‘Never Say’; Mordechai Gebirtig, ‘It’s Burning’; Itkhak Manger, ‘Solitary’; Sami Feder, ‘The Shadow’; H. Leivik, ‘Eternal’; and Moshe Shulstein, ‘A Mountain of Shoes’. Sonia Lizaron’s album In Joy and Sorrow was recorded in Tel Aviv in 1966. The term ‘republic of the stateless’ is figurative. Officially, the inmates were designated ‘displaced persons’, a term that was widely used during and immediately after World War II for people who were removed from their native countries as refugees, prisoners or slave labourers.
For the record: The Jewish Central Committee of Bergen-Belsen Displaced Persons Camp was formed on 18 April 1945. The Cultural Department of the Committee, according to Sami Feder, was co-founded by himself, Sonia Boszkowska, Josef Rosensaft and Dr Hermann ‘Zwi’ Asaria-Helfgott, with Feder as artistic director. At its peak, the Kazet Theatre had thirty members, whose individual deeds have been documented and honoured in Sami Feder’s memoirs.
The final story, ‘Where We Meet’, was set in motion by my conversations with Wurundjeri elder, Aunty Joy Murphy Wandin, which I first wrote of in the feature article, ‘A Tale of Two Cities’, published in the Age, Melbourne, September 1995. The bigger story was seeded when I was invited to contribute to The Intervention: An Anthology, edited by Rosie Scott and Anita Heiss. The book brought together Indigenous and non-Indigenous authors writing in a range of genres. ‘Where We Meet,’ is a greatly expanded version, and in some ways, a quite different story, interweaving a major new strand—the tale of refugee and SIEV-X survivor Faris Shohani.
I am indebted to Aunty Joy Murphy Wandin, for sharing her knowledge and experience of her people’s history and for guiding me to the special places. I thank Jim Berg, founder of the Koori Heritage Trust, for the workshop he conducted and for introducing me to Aunty Joy. I thank Wurundjeri elders Uncle Bill Nicholson Snr, Margaret Gardiner and Annette Xyberras and Boonwurrung elder Caroline Briggs for showing me significant sites back in the mid 1990s.
The story of Coranderrk has received much attention in recent years. It features in the Verbatim Theatre play, Coranderrk: We Will Show the Country, based on the testimonies, minutes and proceedings of the 1881 Parliamen
tary Inquiry into Coranderrk and first performed at La Mama Theatre in 2011. The book by the same name, by Giordano Nanni and Andrea James, 2013, includes a detailed history of the Station. In ‘Where we Meet’, however, I have largely confined the story to my journeys with Aunty Joy Murphy Wandin back in the 1990s.
I met Faris Shohani in 2002, soon after his arrival in Melbourne from Indonesia. I thank Faris and his wife, Majida, for their kindness and hospitality over the years, and their courage in telling their stories.
I am grateful to the survivors who took part in the ‘Black Saturday: Telling the Stories’ project in 2009 and 2010. The book, Ten Years On, by Melanie Harris-Brady, one of the participants in the project, personifies the courage and the ordeal endured by the survivors.
I thank Michael McGirr and Rod Moss for reading the manuscript and providing positive feedback. Other generous readers included Adrian Hyland, Frank de la Rambelya, Christine McKenzie and Tina Giannoukos.
This is my seventh book with Text, and my fourth book with Jane Pearson as editor. I am grateful for her great skill, insight and support. Jane seeded the idea of interweaving the threads that form the final story.
This book has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.
Hadassah and Meier, my parents: you were both, in your different ways, heroic.
As always, I thank my partner, Dora, and son, Alexander. Your support makes it possible.
Praise for Arnold Zable
‘In Zable’s sensitive hands, each individual story of survival belongs to all.’ Australian
‘No one writes about the immigrant experience in Australia quite like Arnold Zable…His books have an ethereal, myth-like quality, complete with beautifully lilting prose and near-tangible warmth.’ Big Issue
‘Zable seeks to ennoble lives that might otherwise remain unheralded. His work recognises the basic decency of ordinary people and honours their struggles in the face of adversity.’ Age
‘Arnold Zable is a writer who turns the unnoticed and the overlooked into something fine and lustrous.’ Courier-Mail
‘The essential combined genius of Zable is that he can find a story of universal interest and tell it in such a way which commands universal attention.’ Australian Jewish News
‘Zable’s vision is ultimately optimistic and affirming.’ Sydney Morning Herald
‘Years of reflection and his own life experiences have contributed to the mastery with which Zable explores the themes of displacement, loss, nostalgia and homecoming in all of his books.’ Canberra Times
‘A master storyteller.’ Australian Book Review
Also by Arnold Zable
Jewels and Ashes
Wanderers and Dreamers
Cafe Scheherazade
The Fig Tree
Scraps of Heaven
Sea of Many Returns
Violin Lessons
The Fighter
Arnold Zable is a highly acclaimed novelist, storyteller, educator and human rights advocate. He lives in Melbourne. arnoldzable.com.au
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First published in Australia by The Text Publishing Company, 2020.
Cover design by Jessica Horrocks
Cover photo courtesy of the author
Page design by Text
Typeset by J&M Typesetters
ISBN: 9781922268556 (paperback)
ISBN: 978192923162 (ebook)
A catalogue record for this book is available from the National Library of Australia.
