A Journey to Poland – A Return to the Self in Poland, a Green Country by Aharon Appelfeld

Abstract

In his mid-life Jacob Fein, a businessman, an ex-officer in the Israeli army, unhappily married, and a failed father of two daughters, embarks on a Journey to the birthplace of his parents—Holocaust survivors—to a small village not far from Krakow. It was a sudden decision, in fact not a decision but an impulsive urge. The journey turns into a pilgrimage of atonement. Jacob, who in his youth made a great effort in order to move away from his parents and their world, to detach himself from the Jewish past and his roots, feels his life hollow. In the journey he becomes acquainted with his parents’ life before the war, with their world, habits, beliefs, and their green and wild environment. The nature there, so different from Tel-Aviv, enchants him. His parents and ancestors, who were in his eyes wretched and miserable, become worthy, full, interesting, and dignified. The world of his parents fills the hollowness of his life and his self. The self which, as he comes to understand in the village, is incomplete and blemished without the past. Perhaps reconciling with the parents is not enough for a complete atonement, but at the end of the Journey Jacob is in a state in which he is allowed to ask for forgiveness.