Because what was Wawolnice but a Frankenstein village of Jews? It wasn’t meant to have come to life on its own, but it had, it had. So far, the outsiders hadn’t noticed. No mob of peasants with torches and pitchforks had swarmed in to destroy it—only performers playing Poles, who were every bit as artificial.
Shtetl Days
is a 2011 Alternate History novella by Harry Turtledove.
The year is 2041. A century after the victory of the German Reich in the War of Retribution, throughout the former Polish lands, mock shtetls (Jewish villages) are set up to demonstrate. One actor who plays the role of Jakub Shlayfer, grinder of the village of Wawolnice, finds himself identifying with his role more than with his Aryan identity.
The story contains the following examples.
- All Jews Are Ashkenazi: The actors all play Ashkenazim. This is justified since this is a recreation of a shtetl in Eastern Europe, where almost all Jewish people were Ashkenazim.
- Alternate-History Nazi Victory: Exaggerated. The Nazis have gained so much hegemony that they've achieved the Final Solution in every part of the globe, although their exact reach isn't specified.
- Becoming the Mask: Veit and his fellow actors go from playing Jewish caricatures to practically living as Ashkenazim.
- Big Brother Is Watching: Both Veit and Kristina worry that Sicherheitsdienst could be bugging their apartment. This is semi-confirmed when Veit is confronted by an SS official about his real identity.
- The Church: The German Christian Church is the state religion of the Reich, no other religions or even permitted Christian denominations are mentioned. It's explicitly stated that the Church really worships the Reich, not God.
- Crapsaccharine World: The Reich provides a high material standard of living (for Aryans), but it's artistically bereft, the SS can detain and interrogate anyone they like whenever they feel like it, and everyone is constantly fearful and suspicious of their neighbours. This is why the actors started to prefer their roles to their actual lives- they may be poor, but they're part of a real community which nobody in the outside world is.
- Creative Sterility: The cultural output of the 2041 Nazi Reich is boring, predictable, and repetitive pap. Veit finds the then-century-old Frankenstein (1931) to be far more interesting than any modern-day Reich production.
- Creator Couple: In-Universe, Veit and Kristina are married and work together, playing a Jewish couple. Most of the couples in the park are married in real life, as it supposedly enhances their performances.
- Dyeing for Your Art: In-Universe, Kristina/Bertha shaved off her natural blond hair for the role of an Orthodox Jewish woman, and presumably, the other actresses at the park did too.
- Final Solution:
- The Holocaust was achieved around the world.
- This fate also befell the Poles and their cultural identity.
- Gone Horribly Right: The Nazis recreated the shtetl so well, the actors are starting to identify with their fake Jewish identity more than their Aryan "roots."
- Good Feels Good: After reading Jewish scripture, Veit finds that he enjoys Jewish virtues and kindness more than the Nazi ideology of Might Makes Right.
- Good Shepherd: Reb Eliezer (real name Ferdinand Marian) as the "Rabbi" of the "Jews" in Wawolnice. Unlike the others, he wasn't an actor before coming to the park, he was a Christian minister who was chosen for the role because his training and consequent knowledge of Hebrew and Aramaic made him perfectly suited to play a Rabbi. He also becomes their unofficial leader outside the park as well.
- Japanese Tourist: The park is a popular attraction for them.
- Living Is More than Surviving: A recurring theme is that, even in the hyper-paranoid security state of the Reich, plenty of people skirt or lightly break the rules in ways that can get them thrown in jail or killed on the spot, because life isn't worth living otherwise.
- Lost in Character: Veit is so consumed by the persona of "Jakub Shlayfer" that he even writes it as his signature. An SS officer lampshades Veit's dedication to his role by seriously asking him for his identity card.
- Made a Slave: The few surviving Slavs in the Reich are used as slave labour.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: The Nazis, who have exterminated the world's Jews, wiped out the gypsies, and enslaved the Poles. The SS officer is enraged to hear even a little bit of Yiddish.
- Properly Paranoid:
- The Judaised actors are well aware that they'll be executed if they get caught, so they're very careful not to arouse suspicion. Veit and Kristina fast on Yom Kippur; but they turn on their oven for as long as it should take to cook something, sit at the table and talk for an appropriate amount of time and wash their perfectly clean dishes, so anyone who listens in or checks their utility usage won't see anything unusual.
- When Veit briefly falls under suspicion, he and Kristina make a point of going to a crowded restaurant that night and ordering two very non-Kosher meals, making sure plenty of people see them eat every bite. Then they go a few more times over the next couple of weeks, as either a one-off visit or going every night would also be suspicious.
- Public Execution: Hangings and beheadings are broadcast on TV along with football and bad sitcoms. The park occasionally stages "pogroms" where the actors playing Poles "riot" and beat convicts dressed as Jews to death in front of paying spectators.
- Rage Within the Machine: It's implied Veit's embrace of his Jewish identity stems from a distaste toward the Nazi Reich. At several points, he muses about how boring and lame the culture of the Reich is.
- "Ray of Hope" Ending: The story ends with the Nazi Reich still more or less in charge, but Harlan's infatuation with his Jewish identity over his Aryan "identity," on top of scenes where the Reich has to use threats and execution to keep people in line, implies that the Reich's foundation is not nearly as steady as it seems.
- Stay in the Kitchen: The Nazi-ruled world is clearly very patriarchal. Even in the mid-21st Century it's taken for granted that the wife does all the cooking and cleaning.
- The Theme Park Version: In-Universe Wawolnice is a recreation of a pre-World War II shtetl replete with the stereotypes of Jewish life.
- 20 Minutes in the Future: It's set at some point in the 2040's.
- Written by the Winners: As shown by their title of World War II, the War of Retribution, the Nazis have framed their war of aggression as a just cause.
- Yiddish as a Second Language: Veit and the other actors speak fluent Yiddish in their roles and pepper Yiddish words in casual conversation.
