It is Friday March 17, 1882. In the village of Tisza-Eszlar in Hungary, Fourteen-year-old Julie Vamosi and her friend Sophie Solymosi are watching a travelling puppet show along with many others including Morris Scharf and his younger brother, Sam. The are Jewish boys from the Old Village as marked by the clothing they are wearing, their long curling forelocks and their black skull caps.
The two girls decide to stop and visit Sophie's sister, Esther who was unable to come to the show because she is working for Mrs. Huri. They find Esther feeding the chickens in Mrs. Huri's yard. Esther asks them to come sit with her while she eats teh piece of bread she's been given for her lunch. Julie reluctantly stays hoping she can still het home before her Pa, while Sophie who works for Mrs. Rosenberg as a maid as more freedom to do what she wants.
Julie lives in a small cottage with her Ma and Pa and her younger sister Clara. Their cottage has a small wooden table with chairs, a metal fireplace and four cots along the walls. Julie has made a fire because her mother is cold. Her mother became ill a year ago, first suffering from pain that gradually grew to become unbearable. However much she pleaded with Julie's father, he would not allow Dr. Weltner to treat her because the doctor is Jewish. So Julie waited until her father was working in the fields and brought the doctor to their house. Dr. Weltner told Julie's mother that she has breast cancer and that he cannot help her. Even though Julie told him they cannot pay, he gives them a powder to mix with water. As the days passed Julie's mother has taken more and more of the medication, putting her to sleep but also reducing her pain less and less.
Julie's father is physically abusive and struggles to get work. He also hates the Jews that live in their village often making crude remarks about them. But Morris Scharf, a young Jewish boy the same age as Julie brings a pot of soup that his stepmother has made for Julie's family.
Julie's friend, Esther is a live-in servant to Mrs. Huri who abuses her and doesn't let her out except to attend church. On the morning of April 1st, 1882, Julie arrives at Mrs. Huri's house to buy milk. There she witnesses Esther being beaten by Mrs. Huri for not following her instructions. Esther fills Julie's container with milk and tells Julie that she is cold and starving as she hasn't been allowed to eat that morning. Later that morning, Julie meets up with a shivering Esther who is on her way to buy blue paint at Kohlmayer's, in the Old Village. Esther arrives in a hurry, giving Julie a tin cup of milk for Clara and her mother, and refuses Julie's offer to accompany her to Kohlmayer's. Esther is given money by two village women, Mrs. Lanczi and Mrs. Csordas to buy them soap and nails respectively. As she leaves to go on her errand, Esther hugs Julie and tells her she is the only friend she has.
Later that afternoon, Esther's mother comes to Julie's home looking for her daughter. Julie is preparing potatoes while Clara naps and her father works at the Rosenberg's farm. Mrs. Solymosi tells Julie that her daughter Sophie and Rosie Rosenberg met her on her way back to Mrs. Huri close to one o'clock. That was the last time she was seen. Mrs. Solymosi is certain something has happened to Esther and she decides to check the river believing Esther may have gone for a walk. Julie and Mrs. Solymosi walk along the Tisza River but when it grows dark they both return to their homes.
The next day, Sunday April 2, Julie meets Mrs. Solymosi at the well and learns that Esther is still missing. At this time, Mr Scharf who is the Jewish caretaker of the synagogue attempts to comfort Mrs. Solymosi by telling her that a girl who went missing in the village of Hajdunanas was found after it was believed the Jews had taken her. She returned home after having fallen asleep among the reeds next to the river. However when Mrs. Solymosi doesn't respond, Mr. Scharf becomes embarrassed and explains that he was only trying to comfort her. He leaves to go to the synagogue to listen to Solomon Schwarcz, who Julie believes is the new butcher.
However the situation turns ugly when Mrs. Csordas tells Mrs. Solymosi not to believe a word Mr. Scharf has said. She states, "You know what these Jews do. Every year, before their Easter, they kill a Christian child and use his blood to make their matzo!" When Julie questions this but is put down by Mrs. Csordas who urges Mrs. Solymosi to talk to the magistrate. Mrs. Solymosi does just that.
On April 27 when Julie cannot wake her mother that morning, she takes Clara and they walk to Dr. Weltner's home. While waiting for the doctor to return from Mrs. Scharf's, Elizabeth Sos, one of Julie's costomers, accompanied by Mrs. Farkas, the sister of the village magistrate, arrives at the Weltner home. Julie and Clara have been waiting outside for Dr. Weltner to return, along with Sam Scharf. Julie watches as Mrs. Farkas attempts to manipulate five-year-old Sam Scharf by telling him what he saw the day of Esther Solymosi's disappearance.
Julie's mother is dead when she returns with Dr. Weltner. Five weeks after the disappearance of Esther Solymosi, Julie and her family bury their mother. At the funeral meal, Mrs. Solymosi, consumed with grief loudly asserts that the Jews murdered her daughter and that they must pay. She also repeats the story that Sam supposedly told Mrs. Farkas about how Esther was lured into the Jewish temple. Several of the women relate stories about Sam that seem to support his story. Julie feels confused and lost without the guidance of her mother.
The next day Clara is sent to live with their Aunt Irma and Julie is made to move to the jail where she works as housekeeper for Sergeant Toth who is a mild manner man. The job is unpaid and Julie has no time off, so she is unable to visit Clara. One day in May, while on an errand for Toth, Julie visits Sophie at the Rosenbergs. During her visit she learns that two men from the district court in Nyiregyhaza are in Tisza-Eszlar asking questions about Esther. Rosie Rosenberg tells Julie that they were also questioned. However, Sophie believes that the Jews killed her sister, although she doesn't blame the Rosenbergs.
Back at the jail, Julie witnesses Bary and Peczely interrogate, intimidate and abuse first Sam and then Morris so they can use one of the boys as a witness. Because the cannot use Sam's tale, Bary, Beczely andd Chief Recsky torture Morris eventually taking him to Nyiregyhaza. The next day, Monday May 22, 1882, Morris is brought back to the jail and all of the Jews in the village are lined up. It is clear to Julie that he has been physically harmed and under duress he is forced in front of the villagers and the Jewish community to implicate three men and a beggar: Solomon Scharwcz the butcher, Abraham Buxbaum and Lipot Braun who applied for the job of butcher, and Herman Vollner. It is clear the police and the villagers are not interested in learning the truth but have decided to scapegoat the village Jews.
With the impending loss of her job at the jail, and her father completely abandoning her, Julie asks to be taken along with the Jewish prisoners to Nyiregyhaza where she can find work. The hatred and prejudice of the village people leads to the Jewish men being tried in the district court in Nyiregyhaza.
Discussion
Puppet is a short novel about a real historical event that happened in the Hungarian village of Tisza-Eszlar, the blood libel of 1882. The "blood libel" is a myth that originated in England during the mid-twelfth century. It is the false belief that Jews use human blood to make the flatbread, matzos eaten during Passover. This falsehood has led to the persecution the death of thousands of Jews over the centuries.
In the case of Tisza-Eszlar, a fourteen-year-old Christian girl, Eszter Solymosi went missing from the village on April 1, 1882. Eszter worked as a servant in the home of Andras Huri. When she did not return home from an errand, a search failed to locate Eszter. A rumour that Eszter might the victim of a Jewish ritual began to spread quickly. This rumour may have been started by Moric Scharf, the son of Jozsef Scharf. Eventually, Hungarian leaders added fuel to the fire of the rumour by suggesting that the young girl was murdered to use her blood on the Jewish passover which would begin on April 3, 1882. However, for Jews any food that came in contact with blood, either animal or human would be non-Kosher and therefore not edible during Passover.
On May 6, Eszter's mother asked a judge to investigate and on May 10th a judge comes to the village to question the Scharf children. Josef Bary first questioned five-year-old Samuel Schraf who implicated his older brother, fourteen-year-old Moric and his father Josef. Despite Moric and his father denying any knowledge of the missing girl or her murder, Josef and his wife were arrested and Moric was taken to the commissar of safety's home in Tiszangyfalu. While there Moric "confessed" after being intimidated by Recszy, the commissar, telling him that Eszter was murdered by a Jewish lodger who lived with them, and with the help of two other Jewish men, drained blood from her body.
On June 18th the body of a girl was pulled from the river but Eszter's mother said that although the clothes belonged to her daughter, the body was not that of Eszter. The body was eventually determined to be that of a girl who was older and it was buried. Eventually fifteen Jewish men were accused and tried. They were acquitted based on the contradictions in Moric Scharf's account and the lack of evidence at the supposed crime scene. Moric Scharf eventually had to leave Hungary.
In Puppet, the story is told from the perspective of a fourteen-year-old Christian girl, Julie Vamosi. Julie and her family are fictional characters but the events she relates and the people she interacts with are real. Wiseman "...has based the trial scenes on the court transcripts from the Egyetertes, a daily Hungarian newspaper at the time, which were published in entirety in Elek Judit-Sukosd Mihaly's 1990 book, Tutajosok." The chapters in Puppet are titled by date beginning with a Prologue July 1876 and ending with the end of the trial and Julie moving to Budapest on August 4, 1883.
It's interesting that Eva Wiseman chose to tell this story through the eyes of a Christian girl. Unlike the other Christian villagers, Julie does not seem to dislike her Jewish neighbours. Julie Vamosi is skeptical about what the villagers are saying about their Jewish neighbours because they do not fit with what she has experienced. When she first overhears Mrs. Csordas accusing the Jews of being responsible for Eszter's disappearance Julie considers what Mrs. Csordas is saying might be true. However, Julie realizes that she doesn't really know her Jewish neighbours at all. They do not speak Hungarian but German and their own language (likely Yiddish). Because they are so different she wonders, "Could it be possible they used our blood to make their Easter bread? If they didn't kill Esther, then who did? If she was alive, my friend would have come home. The Jews had to be responsible. there was nobody else. The Jews must have killed her."
However, Julie remembers the kindness of the Jews who have helped her family. "Then I remembered how Mr. Rosenberg hired my pa to work on his farm when nobody else would give him a job and how my pa hated him for it. I remembered how Dr. Weltner gave Ma medicine without her being able to pay for it. I remembered Mrs. Scharf sending soup to Ma. Finally I remembered the kindness in Mr. Scharf's eyes when he told us the story of the missing girl who had been found. I even thought of Morris. He had been a sweet natured little boy." Even the Solymosi family has experienced kindess with the Rosenbergs treating their other daughter Sophie well, giving her clean clothes and the freedom to come and go. Julie wonders who is right. When Julie tells her mother how the women believe that Esther was murdered by the Jews, Ma tells her, "People can be foolish. They don't know much about the Jews, although they've lived among us as long as I can remember.Tiszla-Eszlar is as much their home as ours. They are ordinary people, both good and bad. They aren't devils who would do the terrible thing they are accused of."
As the rumour about the Jews murdering Esther takes root, Julie struggles with what to do. At her mother's funeral meal, when the village women accuse the Jews of murdering Esther, Julie attempts to speak up but is quickly silenced by her abusive father. However, at the jail as Sam is questioned by Mr. Bary, Julie keeps quiet despite knowing that it was Mrs. Farkas who created the rumour about what happened. "I wanted to shout that I had heard Mrs. Farkas and Elizabeth Sos tell Sam that the butcher Schwarcz had cut Esther's leg. It wasn't Sam who had said it. All he had done was cry. However, after a quick glance at Bary's fierce face, I kept quiet."
Although Julie is intimidated into silence, when a girl's body is pulled from the river in Csonkafuzes Julie positively identifies it as that of Esther based on a scar she knows her friend had, the clothing found with her and the tin of paint. When pressed and even attacked by Esther's mother, Julie explains how she knows the body is that of her friend. She attempts repeatedly to explain to Mr. Bary but he doesn't listen and Julie even attempts to talk to the Warden Henter. "I realized at that moment, that although I knew the truth, nobody around me wanted to know it." They don't want to listen because Esther's body has no cuts on the throat or anywhere else, meaning that the story of the blood libel is not true.
Eventually Julie does speak with Jewish mens' lawyer, Mr. Eotvos prior to the trial in June of 1883. She confirms that Morris was beaten and intimidated into confession, that he is being persuaded to believe that "the Jews are evil, wicked people" and she explains how there is proof that the Jews were likely not involved in Esther's death. But Julie's greatest challenge comes when Mr. Eotvos asks her to testify as a witness for the defence as she was present to identify Esther's body when it was found. This is not an easy decision for her. "I thought of how they had made Morris ashamed of who he was. I no longer wondered about the right thing to do. I was certain. But I was too afraid to do it." However, Mr. Eotvos counters, "Doing the right thing is never easy. The Jews of Tisza-Eszlar and Morris himself are the victims of hate. Bary, Recsky and Peczely are evil men. So is Henter. I know that it'll take tremendous courage on your part to tell the truth with them looking on in court, but I know you can do it." Teresa who Julie works with as a scullery maid at the jail in Nyiregyhaza tells her that without her testimony the Jews who are innocent might come to harm.
However, Julie must overcome severe intimidation by her own pa, who comes to the jail the night before she is to testify and physically beats her. Initially Julie lies in her testimony telling the court she cannot be certain that the body was that of Esther Solymosi. She is competely terrified of what her father and Warden Henter might do to her if she tells the truth. However, as she gets up to leave, Julie realizes that she alone can fight the injustice that is happening in her village and her country. And so she sits down and tells the court the truth. "In that moment, I realized that here was an injustice I could right. I realized I didn't have to add to the sum of misery." Julie's testimony along with the inaccuracies in Morris's result in the accused Jewish men being released as the charges were not proven. Her courage at this crucial moment saves the lives of the Jewish men and paves the way for Morris to realize what he's done by his lies. Julie also never judges Morris Scharf, repeatedly urges him to tell the truth, and in the end has great pity for him.
Puppet is aptly titled because Morris Scharf is no more than a puppet in the hands of authorities who are should be unbiased and determined to learn the truth about what happened to young Esther Solymosi. They are also responsible for overseeing community safety and judicial matters in a fair manner. Scharf, young and easily intimidated, was manipulated into testifying against his own father and his own people by those who hated the Jewish people living in their village and their country. At the trial in June 1883, Morris gives his testimony without any expression. "Morris began to recite his confession in a monotone. His stiff manner reminded me of the way the puppet Leslie the Brave had given his speeches in the traveling puppet show I had seen in Tisza-Eszlar. " Morris the puppet is very much the opposite of the puppet, Leslie the Brave who boldly defeats evil in the play that Julie and Sophie watch at the beginning of the story. Sadly, Morris's lies have only served to incite the villagers against their Jewish neighbours. The syngagogue in their home village of Tisza-Eszlar has been completely destroyed and the Jewish people have left, fearful of the their lives.
Puppet demonstrates how ignorance about people who are different can lead to misunderstanding and discrimination, isolation and great harm. As Julie's mother points out, because the Jewish people in their community are different and because people do not understand their culture, they are viewed with suspicion. Mrs. Csordas exemplifies this when she speaks about her experience living next to the synagogue. "I can hear their infernal praying from my house. Their service is usually finished by eleven o'clock in the morning, but yesterday they didn't leave until noon. Something must have been going on there!" She doesn't know what happens in the "temple" but she's certain it must be something evil, merely because it doesn't conform to her beliefs or understanding.
While Julie’s presence at all of the key events - the bribery of the young children, the jails where the Jewish men were held, Morris being taken to the archives and offered training, and at the trial- seem contrived, the retelling by Eva Wiseman is effective. The key characters in the event, notary Joseph Bary, the brutal court clerk Peczely, Chief Recsky, and the kindly Christian lawyer Karl Eotvos are well developed.
Puppet is well-written and engaging, but because of the more mature subject matter of physical abuse, manipulation, murder, suicide (implied) and coarse language, this short novel is for older teens.
For more information on this event, you can read an entry in the Jewish Encyclopedia (http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=226&letter=T)
Book Details:
Puppet by Eva Wiseman
Toronto: Tundra Books 2009
243 pp.
