From Fin-de-Siecle to Theresienstadt

This critical anthology presents original scholarship and materials about the prominent dramatist and concentration camp memoir writer Elsa Porges-Bernstein (1866-1949). The individual scholarly contributions provide new insights into the issue of multiple identity and allegiance in the first half of the twentieth century. Bernstein was a Germanophile and, according to Nazi ideology, a Jew; she also assumed the traditional roles of mother and housewife; finally, she was a feminist and a socialite related to the Wagner family. The complexity and conflictedness of Elsa Porges-Bernstein appeals to contemporary audiences, as evidenced by the 2002 revival of her play Maria Arndt, in Chicago.