After 1942, some internees were able to regain their freedom—first and foremost those who were willing to serve in the British army and fight against Nazi Germany. Ulrich Boschwitz hesitated for a long time, for fear of the war and of the long passage, perhaps also for other reasons we can no longer know. He wrote incessantly, confessing to a fellow prisoner that he was more afraid of losing his last manuscript than his life. Sadly, this final work of his perished aboard the Abosso in 1942. This makes the publication of The Passenger all the more noteworthy, as it gives readers around the world a chance to discover the author Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz—since its republication the book has been translated into nineteen languages.

I should note that this is not the first attempt to have the book published in Germany: we know for instance that it was turned down by Fischer Verlag. None less than Heinrich Böll—one of the most passionate advocates for a humane society and against forgetting—campaigned on its behalf, as can be seen in a letter preserved alongside the typescript and other documents in the German Exile Archive. Böll recommended the text to his own publisher. But even his endorsement wasn’t enough. Decades had to pass before this novel could appear in its original language. I thank Reuella Shachaf for alerting me to the text and for her trust in allowing it to appear in the present form. Now, decades after Ulrich Boschwitz died at sea, his novel is at last available to the descendants for whose grandparents and great-grandparents it was actually intended—the “German Germans” who remained committed to humanitarian ideals.

I am convinced that in revising the typescript I have proceeded with the utmost respect and in accordance with the underlying original version. And I want to believe I’m not mistaken in this judgment, and that I am able to present a version that allows all the qualities of this important work to come to light. Astoundingly serene and well-observed, Ulrich Boschwitz’s The Passenger is both an important literary testament from a dark chapter in human history as well as a timeless—and timely—plea for greater humanity.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ULRICH ALEXANDER BOSCHWITZ was born in Berlin in 1915. He left Germany in 1935 for Scandinavia, studied at the Sorbonne in Paris, and wrote two novels, including The Passenger. Boschwitz eventually settled in England in 1939, although he was interned as a German “enemy alien” after war broke out—despite his Jewish background—and subsequently shipped to Australia. In 1942, Boschwitz was allowed to return to England, but his ship was torpedoed by a German submarine and he was killed along with 361 fellow passengers. He was twenty-seven years old. You can sign up for email updates here.