As the final rays of light glance off the water of the Zwanenburgwal, Amsterdam closes down. No dark circles surround his eyes—they will come later. Beide Hauptfiguren sind gründlich recherchiert, jedoch eindeutig li… In his official report, Rosenberg's officer, the Nazi who did the hands-on looting of the library, added a significant sentence: 'They contain valuable early works of great importance for the exploration of the Spinoza problem.' But now here I am before you, not in general but in particular. "We fed them and took good care of them.". It is your duty to a traveler. And not very profitably, as you see." When sixteen-year-old Alfred Rosenberg is called into his headmaster’s office for anti-Semitic remarks he made during a school speech, he is forced, as punishment, to memorize passages about Spinoza from the autobiography of the German poet Goethe. "Uh. He is frightened all the time. ", Place: A bench in the main corridor outside Headmaster Epstein's office in the Petri-Realschule. By admin September 27, 2020. I am taking Franco, for he must return to his faith. Vermeer nods to his miniature self. Or perhaps only one in a thousand? "So, Rosenberg, I'm of Jewish ancestry, am I? I can offer nothing. By imagining the unexpected intersection of Jewish philosopher Spinoza’s life with that of powerful Nazi ideologue Alfred Rosenberg, bestselling novelist Irvin Yalom explores the mindsets of two men separated by 300 years. Amazing!" He is wise in such matters. "I am Jacob Mendoza," says the taller of the two. There's a story here, I thought. In thirty years his troops will storm into a small Dutch museum in Rijnsburg and confiscate Spinoza's personal library of one hundred and fifty-one volumes. ", I felt stunned. ", Glancing at Herr Schäfer and with a prayer in his voice, Alfred answers meekly, "Eighteenth century and . But my reverie was soon interrupted by my host: "Of course, Dr. Yalom, his possessions—bed, clothes, shoes, pens and books—were auctioned off after his death to pay funeral expenses. ", "A salt mine? It will be open. Usant tot el seu bagatge professional, ha confegit una ficció empeltada d'assaig filosòfic, d'especulació històrica i d'estudi mèdic. "Then," Spinoza continues, "I submit that God has no wishes about how, or even if, we glorify Him. Let me give you some facts about names. ", "Then surely you would agree that, by definition, a perfect and complete being has no needs, no insufficiencies, no wants, no wishes. I don't understand. Headmaster Epstein motions to Alfred to sit in a chair at the end of the table. He bends closer to catch the tiny but piercing gaze of the leering young man with the foppish hat. During World War II, Ro… And tell me, Rosenberg, the rumors are grounded in what facts? The structure of the story consists of alternating chapters describing the lives of Benedict Spinoza and Alfred Rosenberg. ", "Amazing!" Little is known about the psyche of either Baruch Spinoza or Alfred Rosenberg, yet using his extraordinary ability to peer into the minds of his patients, Dr. Yalom has produced a … Inhaling the dusty air, Bento Spinoza identifies, with resignation, the fetid rat droppings accompanying the odor of dried figs, raisins, candied ginger, almonds, and chickpeas and the fumes of acrid Spanish wine. Alfred Rosenberg en Spinoza: de nazi en de vrijdenker Michiel Wielema In Irving D. Yaloms nieuwste roman Het raadsel Spinoza wordt verhaald hoe de ideoloog van het naziregime Alfred Rosenberg (1893-1946) zijn leven lang gefascineerd was door de problematische genialiteit van Spinoza. The Spinoza Problem: A Novel (Book Review) The connection and dialogue between these two men serve to convey Spinoza’s main ideas to the reader. It's not my affair. Upon the bench fidgets the sixteen-year-old Alfred Rosenberg, who is uncertain why he has been summoned to the headmaster's office. Spinoza In The Spinoza Problem, Irvin Yalom contrasts the courage and confidence of Spinoza with the insecurity and pettiness of Alfred Rosenberg. "Irvin Yalom's The Spinoza Problem is an amazing novel that combines fact and fiction in a spell-binding manner. Spinoza turns to face two strangers, young weary men who seem to have traveled far. . Prayer. Gruffly pushing aside the gawkers on the staircase, he steps outside the front door, inhales the salty air, and stumbles toward the corner tavern. "Surely a man named 'blessed'—Bento in Portuguese and Baruch in Hebrew—will not refuse to speak to me? The stone in a former graveyard, does not mark the exact place of his grave. If they refused to pay, then they might receive ridiculous names, such as Schmutzfinger or Drecklecker. Headmaster Epstein pauses and then barks, "Rosenberg, do you know when and what the Enlightenment was? Why Spinoza, now? My hosts took me to look at the rest of the house. The money had nothing to do with it. ", "Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg. That we must preserve our race and our culture.". I have a meeting I must attend. He must have had a strong emotional response to being excommunicated, at the age of twenty-four, by the Jewish community in Amsterdam—an irreversible edict that ordered every Jew, including his own family, to shun him forever. ", "I'm not so sure. In The Spinoza Problem, Irvin Yalom spins fact and fiction into an unforgettable psycho-philosophical novel. His clothes are of good quality but soiled and wrinkled. Spinoza notes the beginnings of a smile on Franco's lips. He is withdrawn as a hermit to polish glass. But just before entering, he hesitates, turns back to Alfred, and in a not unkind voice whispers, "Rosenberg, you disappointed me, all of us, with your poor judgment in your speech last night. The other, dressed in tattered peasant's clothes, stands behind his companion. Die persönliche Faszination des Autors für Spinoza führt ihn selbst schließlich zu weit in die Geschichte hinein. We need you. Greatly pleased, he signs his name with a flourish in the lower right corner. As a psychiatrist, I felt convinced that he could not have written this section unless he had experienced a conscious struggle with his own passions. Pirates intercepted his last shipment from Bahia, and there is no coffee, sugar, or cocoa. His crime? Swinging between one and the other keeps the reader entertained awakens his curiosity in the story. ", "And where was the library kept during the war? And downstairs, the tiny Spinoza Museum was looted, sealed, and expropriated by an officer of the Rosenberg task force, who believed that its library could help the Nazis solve their "Spinoza problem." He has long, matted hair, dark eyes, a strong chin and forceful nose. He told us that Rabbi Mortera is severe with doubters, that he believes all Jews in Portugal who converted to Christianity face eternal damnation, even if they were forced to choose between conversion and death. ", "The shop? Other recent fiction on the subject includes Irvin Yalom’s 2012 The Spinoza Problem, which connected Spinoza’s life to the Nazi philosopher Alfred Rosenberg. ", "You mean that despite your education in science and philosophy in our school you never think about how you know what you know. Tomorrow midday? Wie in den beiden Vorgängern des Romans kann auch dieser als Einführung in das Leben und die Philosophie der titelgebenden Figur gesehen werden. But our landlord, a distant cousin, advised against it. No, not much external drama in his life: most scholars regard Spinoza as a placid and gentle soul—some compare his life to that of Christian saints, some even to Jesus. NEW LOW PRICING! Four out of five Dutch Jews murdered by the Nazis! It has become a common Jewish name in the Fatherland, and I assure you that if, or when, you make the trip to the Fatherland, you will see glances and smirks, and you will hear rumors about Jewish ancestors in your bloodline. Of course—that is why I am ordered here. In Delft, seventy kilometers south, another artist begins his ascent. "Rabbi Mortera is our spiritual leader. "But the Sabbath? The books just vanished for five years and turned up again in 1946 in a German salt mine. These are some of the ideas examined in The Spinoza Problem. ", "And who has misled you by sending you here? They carted it all away, then sealed and expropriated the museum. What did he mean? ", Young Alfred hears the echoing sound of approaching footsteps in the corridor, and spotting Herr Schäfer, his advisor and German teacher, he bolts to his feet to greet him. Destined to become a million-copy best seller, it will provide much of the ideological foundation of the Nazi party and offer a justification for the destruction of European Jews. But how to write about a man who lived such a contemplative life marked by so few striking external events? He takes a last look around: many shelves are as empty as his pockets. I'm sorry, but you are mistaken. The twenty-five-year-old Johannes Vermeer takes a final look at his new painting, The Procuress. He was in charge of looting for the Third Reich, and under Rosenberg's orders, the ERR plundered all of Europe—first, just the Jewish things and then, later in the war, anything of value. Little is known about the psyche of either Baruch Spinoza or Alfred Rosenberg, yet using his extraordinary ability to peer into the minds of his patients, Dr. Yalom has produced a … Only his eyes move, darting like frightened tadpoles. says Jacob, but then immediately reverses himself. Yet upstairs in the Spinoza house, hidden in the attic, two Jewish women were tenderly cared for throughout the war. Perhaps your name? This is a book that will appeal more to the rational and analytical reader. Tell me, Rosenberg, when that happens, how will you answer them? September 2020. '. ", "I have personally done my family's genealogical research back for several centuries. A psychiatrist with a deep interest in philosophical issues, Yalom jointly tells the story of the seventeenth-century thinker Baruch Spinoza, his philosophy and subsequent excommunication from the Jewish community, and his apparent influence on the Nazi ideologue Alfred Rosenberg, whose einsatzgruppewas dispatched during the Second World War to investigate a mysterious “Spinoz… Herr Schäfer's instruction has not been entirely lost on you. ", "No, here. All religious ritual. "You're saying that because of this Spinoza problem, they protected these books rather than burn them, as they burned so much of Europe? Isn't that one of the major lessons of the Enlightenment? Why does He permit such things? His reverie is interrupted by the opening of the massive ten-foot-high door and Headmaster Epstein's booming voice, "Herr Rosenberg, bitte, herein.". We too. And Jews are an inferior race and should not teach Germans? ", "What other kind?" Spinoza points at the dusty window through which the half-empty shelves are visible. I also believe that Spinoza, like Nietzsche and Schopenhauer, on whose lives and philosophy I have based two earlier novels, wrote much that is highly relevant to my field of psychiatry and psychotherapy—for example, that ideas, thoughts, and feelings are caused by previous experiences, that passions may be studied dispassionately, that understanding leads to transcendence—and I wished to celebrate his contributions through a novel of ideas. But entering the museum, I was immediately disappointed. Das Opus Magnum des großen amerikanischen Psychoanalytikers und Bestsellerautors Irvin D. Yalom Der jüdische Philosoph Spinoza und der nationalsozialistische Politiker Alfred Rosenberg – nicht nur Jahrhunderte liegen zwischen ihnen, auch ihre Weltanschauungen könnten unterschiedlicher nicht sein. Good. Baruch Spinoza (1632 - 1677) war ein Außenseiter in der jüdischen Gemeinschaft/Gesellschaft. ", "We've been told that you're the one to render help. Alfred silently hangs his head again. Maybe a story about sheer elusiveness, I wondered. This is the man I seek. His features are perfect, his olive skin unblemished, his dark eyes large, and soulful. Alfred's torso is wiry, his eyes grey-blue, his Teutonic face well-proportioned; a lock of chestnut hair hangs in just the desired angle over his forehead. The ERR had some mysterious interest in Spinoza. And what was their Spinoza problem? This is a book that will appeal more to the rational and analytical reader. "Now your name, Rosenberg, is a very old name also. Perhaps he should have stopped there. ", I turned away from the library and gazed at the portrait of Spinoza hanging on the wall and soon felt myself melting into those huge, sad, oval, heavy-lidded eyes, almost a mystical experience—a rare thing for me. "Sorry. Spinoza’s portrait is fictional. The house, destined three centuries later to become his museum and memorial, is on this day witness to his shame. First, the prostitute in a gloriously yellow jacket. The Spinoza Problem by Irvin D. Yalom. Little is known about the psyche of either Baruch Spinoza or Alfred Rosenberg, yet using his extraordinary ability to peer into the minds of his patients, Dr. Yalom has produced a … training videos starting at $29/month. Alfred shakes his head. Alfred Rosenberg (January 12, 1893–October 16, 1946) was one of the most influential Nazi intellectuals. . So we call it Spinoza's library, but it's really a replica. He holds his chin high. I know they have some modest value—being seventeenth-century and older—but why didn't they just march into the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum and pluck a single Rembrandt worth fifty times this whole collection? "You mean that books had to be purchased again and the library reassembled a second time? In the course of his career, he held a number of important German state … This is my cousin, Franco Benitez, whom I've just brought from Portugal. I am but a merchant—", "He claims that if you had not been forced into business because of the death of your older brother and your father, you would have been the next great rabbi of Amsterdam. But then my host said, "You may not know this, but that's not really Spinoza's likeness. You can see the report on the web, if you like—it's in the official Nuremberg documents. But for over a hundred years it has had a new life. 'Franco needs a helper, not a judge,' he said. One is tall, with a massive, burly head that hangs forward as though it were too heavy to be held erect. What have your scholarly investigations shown you? He is punished by having to memorise passages from the autobiography of Goethe — and is stunned to discover that his idol was a great admirer of the seventeenth-century philosopher Baruch Spinoza. Bestselling novelist and psychiatrist Irvin Yalom explores the mindsets of Jewish philosopher Spinoza and Nazi ideologue Alfred Rosenberg. Rosenberg was first introduced to Adolf Hitler by Dietrich Eckart and held several important posts in the Nazi government. Yet I was stumped for years because I could not find the story that a novel requires—until a visit to Holland five years ago changed everything. He wants to gaze out the window, midway down the table, but looks up apprehensively at the headmaster. The ERR had some mysterious interest in Spinoza. The solution came to him when he discovered that the entire private library of Spinoza was stolen by the Nazis in under orders of Alfred Rosenberg, in many ways the ideological leader of national socialism. Back in Amsterdam at Breestraat No. "And yet you called me and my wife Jews," the headmaster continues. This poor judgment is not erased by having being elected class representative. These are some of the ideas examined in The Spinoza Problem. All Epsteins are Jews, is that it? It swarms with bidders anticipating the auction of all of the artist's possessions. No response. I had come to lecture and, as part of my compensation, requested and was granted a "Spinoza day." My father's brother, Jacob's father, was murdered soon after. . By imagining the unexpected intersection of Jewish philosopher Spinoza’s life with that of powerful Nazi ideologue Alfred Rosenberg, bestselling novelist Irvin Yalom explores the mindsets of two men separated by 300 years. I wondered if this Nazi, Alfred Rosenberg, had also, in his own way, for his own reasons, been looking for Spinoza. The dyers gather up their magenta and crimson fabrics drying on the stone banks of the canal. I doubted that this small, sparse museum could bring me closer to Spinoza. Baruch Spinoza contre Alfred Rosenberg . He is punished by having to memorise passages from the autobiography of Goethe — and is stunned to discover that his idol was a great admirer of the … "I will speak to you, Franco. Or you, us?". Most of the Jews agreed to pay for a prettier or more elegant name, perhaps a flower—like Rosenblum—or names associated with nature in some way, like Greenbaum. . "What? He looks like everyone and no one. He scans from right to left. A novel by the masterful storyteller and psychotherapist Irvin Yalom interweaves the philosophical life of Benedict Spinoza with the story of the obsessive Nazi philosopher” Alfred Rosenberg I scanned the simple room quickly and began to descend, when my eye caught sight of a thin, two-by-two-foot crease in a corner of the ceiling. I meant these remarks only in a general way.

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