The Promised Land “Under Strange Skies”

Abstract

Ilse Losa’s narrative fiction is a very relevant contribution to the reflection on anti-Semitism, Nazi genocide and the role of Portugal in welcoming Jewish refugees during World War II. The novels O Mundo em que Vivi (The World in Which I Lived) (1949) and Rio Sem Ponte (River Without Bridge) (1952) fictionalize the writer’s childhood and youth in Germany throughout the rise of National Socialism. Sob Céus Estranhos (Under Strange Skies) (1962) exposes the situation of Jewish-German refugees in Portugal during World War II.

The main purposes of this essay are: 1) to identify the images of Nazi Germany built by the novels’ protagonists; 2) to show that exile means the pursuit of the Promised Land; this search, however, clashes with the painful reality of Portuguese dictatorship; 3) to emphasize that, despite the limitations suffered in exile, Portugal represents the recovery of hope, tolerance and humanity aspired by all those who refuse to return to a country attacked by “dehumanized fanatics”.