Reviewers have also responded well to one of the most important themes Diane Armstrong brings to the fore in all of her writing: the way people are able to rise to the challenges that confront them in difficult times. Vibewire commented: ‘Nocturne had me captured from its opening chapters … it is an inspirational account of how ordinary people are forced to find strength and courage within themselves when the world around them falls apart.’
Peter Pierce of the Sydney Morning Herald recognised the way the author portrays the human cost of war through her characters: ‘Armstrong writes vividly of the shocks of displacement, the loss of stable identity, both en masse and for individuals … lavishing time on characters who reward her efforts.’
Q&A about Nocturne
Elzunia is an interesting and unusual heroine. What made you decide to tell much of the story from her point of view?
Most stories about the Warsaw Ghetto are told through Jewish eyes, so I thought it would be more interesting to have a heroine who at the start of the novel not only has no connection with Jews or Judaism, but doesn’t even know that she is Jewish. Ambivalence about religious and ethnic identity has been a recurring theme in my work, as a result of my own experiences, so I felt that to create a heroine who also has this ambivalence towards her own identity would set up an inner conflict within the exterior tension of the story.
Ambivalence about religious and ethnic identity has been a recurring theme in my work
Do you remember anything about the Holocaust yourself when you were a child in Poland?
Not consciously. Don’t forget that I was a very small child at the time and my parents shielded me from the trauma they themselves experienced. My parents fled with me to a small village in eastern Poland where we had to pose as Catholics to survive. From what they told me, I know that we went to church on Sundays, and I took part in the church processions, scattering petals with the other little girls. But although I didn’t know the truth, I must have sensed their tension and anxiety, must have noticed them exchanging glances and heard them whispering late at night, because I sensed that there was something different about us, and that secrets were being kept from me. So that when, after the war, my father told me that we were Jewish, I felt as though I had always known. Finally the secret was out. By this stage I was seven, and we were living back in Krakow.
So did your own experiences influence your choice of subject matter in Nocturne?
To some extent they did. Being a child Holocaust survivor, it’s not surprising that I find this period of history so compelling. But what fascinates me as a writer is the behaviour of ordinary people when they are trapped in extraordinary situations. In all my books, I explore the choices people make when their lives are on the line and they have to try to maintain their humanity at a time when violence rules.
In Nocturne many of your characters are children and teenagers. Why did you choose to tell your story through such young characters?
Not many novels set in wartime focus on the heroism of children, and the more I read about the war, and listened to survivors and witnesses, the more impressed I became at the maturity and resourcefulness of even very young children, some of whom knowingly risked their lives to smuggle food for their starving families. One of the most astonishing stories I heard was about youngsters who had escaped from the Ghetto and lived in the streets of Warsaw, selling cigarettes not only under the noses of the Germans soldiers but to the Germans themselves. I was moved when I read that in spite of their risky business and their own tenuous hold on life, the older kids looked after the younger ones. Their story said so much about the power of love and endurance, and the triumph of courage over brutality. When I started writing Nocturne, some of these incidents, and these street children, found their way into one of the threads of the plot.
I explore the choices people make when their lives are on the line
The most dramatic incidents in Nocturne take place during two insurrections that broke out in Warsaw. Although many people have heard of the Ghetto Uprising, not so many have heard of the Warsaw Uprising that took place one year later. Is this why you decided to write about the Warsaw Uprising as well?
When the Jews rose up inside the Warsaw Ghetto in 1943, they staged the first armed insurrection against the Germans in World War II. Armed with only a few pistols and home-made Molotov cocktails, the young Ghetto fighters managed to resist German tanks and artillery for five weeks, until the entire Ghetto was finally razed to the ground, set on fire, and most of its inhabitants killed. The Warsaw Uprising broke out in the entire city sixteen months later, in 1944, as the war was coming to an end. The leaders of the Polish Underground decided to rise up against the Germans before the Russians arrived, so that Poles would be in control of their capital city. Like the uprising by the Jews inside the Ghetto the previous year, this revolt ended with defeat, destruction and death. Warsaw was razed to the ground, and 250,000 people were killed. But although it was a military failure, it was a triumph of moral courage over oppression and brutality. The political machinations behind the scenes, as well as the personal dramas, enthralled me and as I researched I came across such dramatic and powerful events that I felt compelled to write about it, especially as so few people seemed to know anything about the Warsaw Uprising.
the Warsaw Uprising was a triumph of moral courage over oppression and brutality
Some of your main characters were inspired by real people. Tell us about that.
The Australian nurse in Nocturne is based on Muriel Knox Doherty, the remarkable Australian nurse who was placed in charge of the hospital set up in the grounds of the Belsen–Bergen concentration camp. Having read about Muriel and seen an exhibition about her at the Sydney Jewish Museum, I was so inspired by her skill and compassion that she found her way into my novel in the person of Judith McAllister.
Many years ago I watched a Polish resistance activist being interviewed in a documentary called Shoah by Claude Lanzmann. Jan Karski, a courier in the Polish Underground, was smuggled into the Warsaw Ghetto, and later from Poland to the West. His task was to let Allied leaders know about the genocide taking place in Poland and to enlist their aid. I couldn’t get his haunted expression out of my mind as he described what he witnessed inside the Warsaw Ghetto, and my hero Adam was inspired by this man. The way that real people become transformed into fictional characters is quite mystifying.
Music plays an important role in the book. Why is that?
I think music expresses emotions that are too deep and too complex for words. While writing Nocturne, I often listened to the nocturnes of Chopin, and the anguished symphonies of Shostakovich. I have woven music into key scenes of Nocturne to reinforce its themes and increase emotional impact. For instance, Elzunia hears the strains of a Chopin nocturne while she and Andrzej make love for the last time in his family’s ruined apartment. And when the starving, destitute musicians inside the Ghetto stage a concert, they are defying the Germans and showing the strength of the human spirit.
While writing Nocturne, I often listened to the nocturnes of Chopin
Why did you call your novel Nocturne?
The word ‘nocturne’ refers to night-time, and my novel is set during the darkest days of the twentieth century. Nocturnes are poignant, haunting pieces of music that are particularly associated with Chopin, who is Poland’s national composer, so it seemed to me that this title was very evocative for a novel set in Poland during the war.
For me, Chopin’s nocturnes express sadness and joy, and evoke the heights that the human spirit can reach.
History always seems to be tightly woven into what you write. Why is this?
I’m fascinated by the way that we never learn from history, and by the parallels I see between past and present. I wanted to write about Warsaw because in some ways its fate seemed to encapsulate the history of the world. Nocturne deals with uncertainty, anxiety and terror, and in many ways we’re dealing with all these things today, especially with regard to the th
reat of terrorism. So I was interested to look back and see how people reacted when that terror did fall on them, and how they behaved. It seems as though we never learn the lessons that history teaches.
I’m fascinated by the way that we never learn from history
What other themes have you explored through your characters?
I’m fascinated with how ordinary people behave in extraordinary situations, when they have to struggle to survive, when their values are put to the test, and when they face the challenge of maintaining their humanity at a time when violence rules. Some people descend into cruelty while others find strength they never suspected they possessed. Those who never lose their humanity are the true heroes. We all have the potential for good and evil in our natures, and my characters are not perfect: they have flaws and weaknesses. The traumatic events of war give a writer the opportunity to explore many aspects of human nature. Although Nocturne covers some of the most dramatic events of World War II, war is the backdrop against which relationships develop, love affairs blossom, and people discover their inner strength as well as their weaknesses.
How did you research Nocturne?
Long before I ever thought of writing a novel set in Poland and England during World War II, I’d started collecting memoirs, biographies, autobiographies and history books written about this period, so when I decided to write Nocturne I already had a whole library of relevant books at home. Fortunately, there are still many Holocaust survivors and World War II participants and witnesses and talking to them gave me a wealth of details and personal experiences. I also found the Internet a treasure trove of photographs, maps, memoirs and biographies. Listening to survivors and reading memoirs not only increased my knowledge and enriched my understanding but gave me ideas for the plot. I’m lucky in that I can read Polish because some of the most valuable material I obtained was written in Polish. My father brought with him to Australia some eyewitness accounts of events during the Holocaust. One of them was a short but powerful account of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising that was written immediately after the war by Marek Edelman, one of the few fighters who survived. My most invaluable resource about the Warsaw Ghetto was the detailed and exhaustive tome The Ghetto: a Guide to the Perished City by Barbara Engelking and Jacek Leonciak, which was published recently in Poland and is publishing in English in 2009. Books by Wladyslaw Bartoszewski and other Polish historians and journalists about the Warsaw Uprising gave me startling insights about the military and political leaders of the Uprising, the conflicts that raged behind the scenes, as well as the dramatic personal experiences of those who participated in this revolt.
Those who never lose their humanity are the true heroes
Discussion questions
1. Can love survive great trauma? How do you imagine the relationship of Elzunia and Andrzej after the end of the novel? What about Adam and Judith? Do you think each couple has a future?
2. If you were Elzunia, would you be able to reconcile with your father at a later date? Do you find it plausible that Elzunia’s father believed that his family was dead or do you think that he deserted his wife and children?
3. The novel explores the heroism of children and young people forced to fend for themselves and having to assume responsibility way beyond their years. Which particular scenes most struck a chord with you? Do you believe children who have faced the trauma of war can ever truly regain their childhood?
4. What do you think about the way Elzunia responded to the news that she was Jewish?
5. How does Elzunia’s relationship with her brother, Stefan, change throughout the story? What do you think of him?
6. Do you understand Adam’s decision to seek a post-war life far from Poland when he had been so patriotic throughout the course of the novel?
7. Throughout the story, there are many examples of heroism by ordinary people. Which particular instances moved you the most?
8. Many of the characters in Nocturne risk their lives to defend themselves, their people and their city against their oppressors. Can you imagine being in that situation? How do you think you’d react?
9. Do the events that take place in Nocturne during World War II have any relevance for us today? Can you think of any instances of history repeating itself today?
10. Some of the characters in Nocturne behave in despicable ways but as the story develops, they gradually become transformed. Is the author showing us that circumstances can affect people’s behaviour? Do you think people can redeem themselves?
11. Why do you think that Chopin’s nocturnes are heard at particular points in the story? What effect does this have? What role do you think music plays in the novel?
Read on
Have you read?
Mosaic: A Chronicle of Five Generations
(2009, HarperCollins Australia, ISBN 978 07322 8431 2)
Starting in Krakow, Poland, in 1890, and spanning more than 100 years, five generations and four continents, Mosaic is Diane Armstrong’s moving account of her remarkable, resilient family. An extraordinary story of a family and one woman’s journey to reclaim her heritage.
‘Diane Armstrong’s book is a source of delight to the reader. Written with fervour and talent, it will capture your attention and retain it to the last page’ — Nobel Prize winner Elie Wiesel
‘Mosaic flows like a novel, which once started, is hard to put down. It is a compelling family history of extraordinary people played out against some of the most frightening events of our century. The depth of emotions evoked is stunning. I was thrilled and deeply moved’ — Joseph Heller, author of Catch-22
‘It is no small achievement and it bristles with life … Mosaic is a work of many levels. But ultimately it succeeds because most of its characters demonstrate how the human spirit can soar way, way above adversity’ — Sydney Morning Herald
‘A most remarkable book about one family’s experience … a rich and compelling history … Just as A.B. Facey’s A Fortunate Life and Sally Morgan’s My Place have become part of the national literary heritage, so too has Mosaic earned its place in our social dialogue as part of our cultural tapestry’ — Daily Telegraph
The Voyage of Their Life: The Story of the SS Derna and its Passengers
(2001, HarperCollins Australia, ISBN 978 0 7322 8150 2)
In August 1948, 545 passengers — from displaced persons camps in Germany, death camps in Poland, labour camps in Hungary, gulags in Siberia and stony Aegean islands — boarded an overcrowded, clapped-out vessel in Marseilles to face an uncertain future in Australia and New Zealand. The epic voyage on this hellship lasted almost three months and was marked by conflict and controversy. As the conditions on board deteriorated, tension and violence simmered above and below decks. But romances and seductions also flourished, and lifelong bonds were formed.
Diane Armstrong set sail on the Derna with her parents when she was nine years old, and as an adult she located over a hundred of the passengers to retell their stories.
‘She is a natural sleuth … her writing is clear, incisive, yet imaginative’ — Sydney Morning Herald
‘Armstrong’s triumph in this history is to avoid judgment or argument … she allows readers to enter into the mindset of the refugees, to empathise with them’ — Weekend Australian
‘Armstrong weaves in these individual tales with great skill. They flow in and out of the narrative in rhythm with the ship’s slow movement from the old world to the new’ — The Age
‘The characters become familiar and absorbing … almost unbearably moving’ — Australian Book Review
‘Diane Armstrong’s study of the Derna is an important contribution to postwar Australian history’ — Dr Suzanne Rutland, Australian Historical Society Journal
Winter Journey: a novel
(2006, HarperCollins Australia, ISBN 978 0 7322 7695 9)
When forensic dentist Halina Shore arrives in Nowa Kalwaria to take part in a war crimes investigation, she finds herself at the centre of a bitter struggle in a
community that has been divided by a grim legacy. What she does not realise is that she has also embarked on a confronting personal journey.
Inspired by a true incident that took place in Poland in 1941, Diane Armstrong’s powerful novel is part mystery, part forensic investigation, and a moving and confronting story of love, loss and sacrifice.
‘A bold adventure of a novel … Here is a consummate writer at the top of her form. A fine fictional debut from a writer who’s already made her mark’ — Canberra Times
‘Profoundly moving, compelling and superbly written’ — Australian Women’s Weekly
‘A deeply moving and inspiring novel’ — Good Reading
‘Diane Armstrong has done it again with an absorbing page-turner from the opening sentence’ — Australian Jewish News
Find out more
WARSAW GHETTO UPRISING OF 1943
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WEBSITES:
Holocaust Research Project. See: http://www.holocaustresearchproject.net/ghettos/warsawghetto.html
Jewish Virtual Library: the Warsaw Ghetto. See: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/warsawtoc.html
Photographs of the Warsaw Ghetto. See: http://www.zwoje-scrolls.com/shoah/wghetto.html
BOOKS:
Draenger, Gusta. Justyna’s Diary (available as Justyna’s Narrative, University of Massachusetts Press, 1996).
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