The first English translation of Roth's haunting journalistic essays
What seething activity in this world, an hour before its end! The ministers, Europe' racing waiters, run from one lost position to another and fresh misfortune flourishes in the ruins!
Having fled to Paris in 1933 following Hitler's rise to power in Germany, Joseph Roth wrote a series of articles in that "hour before the end of the world" which he foresaw was to come and that would culminate in World War II. This collection has never before been translated into English. Incisive and ironic, the writing evokes Roth's bitterness and despair at the coming annihilation of the free world while displaying his great nostalgia for the Hapsburg Empire into which he was born and his ingrained fear of nationalism in any form. Detailing the duplicities and criminalities of the Nazi regime, Roth denounced the terror sewn by Nazi storm troopers, the propaganda of Goebbels, the round ups, the assassinations, and the construction of concentration camps, alongside the seeming blindness of the rest of Europe, which appeared paralyzed in the face of Nazi expansion. Following the Anchluss in 1938, Roth, isolated in Paris, sunk into morbid alcoholism which lead to his death the following year. Within 12 months the Germans had overrun Paris.