New York City

New York City is both the intended refuge that carries Hans Schwarz out of an increasingly hostile Germany and the setting for the material success that fails to resolve his sense of personal failure. The city links his forced departure to the adult life he builds in exile: secure in outward appearances, but marked by unrealized literary ambition.

Refuge and Arrival

At the beginning of December, Hans’s parents tell him they have decided to send him to America for the time being. Their relatives in New York City will look after him and arrange for him to attend university. His father frames the separation as temporary, hoping that conditions will change, while insisting that the family itself will remain in its Fatherland and home. The plan gives New York City a practical role in Hans’s escape: it is where family support and the prospect of education make departure possible.

Hans leaves school at Christmas and departs for America on January 19, his birthday. The narrative thus connects New York City with a decisive break in his life, though the account of the decision emphasizes the family’s plan and departure rather than describing his arrival or early experiences in the city.

Adult Life in the City

As an adult, Hans has an apartment overlooking Central Park, along with cars, a place in the country, and membership in several Jewish clubs. These possessions make his success visible in the landscape of his American life. He has studied law at Harvard University, become a lawyer, married a woman from Boston, and had a child; he acknowledges that most people would consider him successful.

Yet the apartment and its view cannot stand in for the work he wanted to do. Hans has never written the good book or poem he hoped to create. At first, he says, poverty kept him from beginning; after he acquired money, lack of confidence became the obstacle. New York City therefore appears not simply as the destination of exile but as the setting of a life in which professional achievement and comfort coexist with an enduring sense of frustrated artistic purpose.