A twist of fate
FOR author Ben Elton, it was an amazing family story that he has wanted to tell for decades, but it was only in recent years that he felt ready to write the novel, Two Brothers, which tells the story of two brothers who end up on opposite sides during World War II.
“It’s a pure work of fiction inspired by the very interesting fact that one of my uncles was in the Wehrmacht and the other was in the British Army,” Elton explained in an interview last week to promote the release of the novel.
“All my life I have known that I was going to get around to writing a historical novel inspired by this very unusual family circumstance, but why I started it two-and-a-half years ago I don’t know.
“Perhaps I needed to experience family life myself – my wife Sophie and I have three children aged 13 and 11 – and perhaps that allowed me to be ready to draw such an intimate portrait of family life.
“Even though emotionally I found the writing quite gruelling at times, I found it a more enjoyable experience than many of my other writing projects.”
Elton, 53, has written 13 novels that have enjoyed international success, written the stage hits We Will Rock You and Popcorn, and written for popular TV shows including The Young Ones, Blackadder and The Thin Blue Line.
Two Brothers tells the story of Paulus and Otto, who were born to German Jews in Berlin in 1920. At birth one baby dies and is replaced by an adopted German baby born on the same day. Paulus and Otto are raised as twins, although only one is Jewish.
Elton says the story is drawn from his own family’s history. His father, Ludwig Ehrenberg, was born in Tubingen, Germany, in 1923, two years after his brother Gottfried. Their parents, Victor and Eva, were scholars and secular Jews.
“Both my grandparents fought in World War I on opposite sides. My father’s father won an Iron Cross,” says Elton.
After Kristallnacht in November 1938, when thousands of German Jews were arrested and imprisoned in concentration camps, the Ehrenbergs decided to flee the Nazis.
Through his academic connections, Victor Ehrenberg secured a research position in London and the family – wife Eva and sons Gottfried and Ludwig – arrived in Britain in February 1939.
In 1943 Gottfried enlisted in the British Army and anglicised his name to Geoffrey Elton. He became an interpreter with the Army Intelligence Corps. Meanwhile, Ludwig changed his name to Lewis Elton.
Gottfried and Ludwig had a cousin, Heinz. When his adoptive parents, Paul and Clara Ehrenberg, escaped Germany, Heinz decided to remain on the family farm.
With the war in full swing, Heinz was drafted into the Wehrmacht and was part of the German army stationed on the Channel coast in 1940. Heinz also served in Italy and after the war the family worked out that he had been stationed within a mile of Geoffrey. When the war ended, Heinz returned to the family farm in Germany.
Geoffrey, an eminent historian, later became Professor Sir Geoffrey Elton. Lewis later became a professor of higher education at University College, London.
“My father’s family was fortunate to get out of Europe and escape the Nazis in 1939,” Elton says.
“I was so fascinated by the historical context and became caught up in the story I was creating. When I was writing Two Brothers, even though unquestionably it is not a comedy, I don’t believe it is bereft of wit or fun.
“People involved in desperate times do not lose their sense of humour. The humour of the oppressed is always funnier than the humour of the bully.”
Elton says he is not Jewish, although describes himself as being “informed by a Jewish heritage”.
“My mother is not Jewish and my father’s family, like many Jewish families in Germany, were secular and integrated into society.
“I’m a humanist atheist but I can’t deny that any experiences that my great-grandfather had would have affected my grandfather, which affected my father and hence must have affected me.”
Elton shot to fame with his stand-up comedy acts in the 1980s, especially on TV shows such as Saturday Live and Friday Night Live.
Elton lives in Fremantle and divides his time between Britain and Australia. He is currently working on Slings And Arrows, a BBC sitcom set in a council’s health and safety department.
Two Brothers is published by Bantam Press, $32.95 (rrp).
REPORT by Danny Gocs
PHOTO of author Ben Elton
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