LONDON - Edmund de Waal is sitting on the floor next to the piano in the “Austrian Cultural Forum” looking up at his father Victor. The old man thanks his son for helping publish the novel of Edmund’s grandmother. “The Exiles Return” is a largely autobiographical account of her own visit to Vienna in the Fifties. A poet, Elisabeth de Waal was exiled after the “Anschluss”, when her family was thrown out of Austria. Victor and Edmund de Waal are both visibly moved that Elisabeth’s book has finally got published - 75 years after the “Anschluss”.

On March 12th 1938, German troops crossed the border into Austria. On March 13th, Austria’s integration into Nazi Germany was proclaimed. “Much to the pleasure of many Austrians”, as Elisabeth Kögler, director of the Austrian Cultural Forum said in her speech. Edmund de Waal wanted to arrange the presentation of his grandmother’s book on precisely this date. Although he is Professor of Ceramics at Westminister University, the author of “The Hare With The Amber Eyes” is really a historian.

His book chronicles the family’s history from 1871 to 2009. The Jewish Ephrussis from Odessa acquired glory and wealth as bankers in Vienna and art collectors in Paris. But after the “Anschluss” in 1938, they were quickly thrown out of their mansion on Vienna’s famous Ringstraße by the Nazis. “The Hare”, published in 2010, became a surprise bestseller. Millions have read it. Even in Vienna, where the truth often needs a little help to emerge, the German translation of “The Hare” has sold 175,000 copies.

Edmund de Waal says he prefers to produce vases, so his new role as a world-famous author has come as a surprise to him. But for the moment, he is successful at everything he tries: next autumn he will exhibit with the Zeus of commercial art – Larry Gagosian - in New York. And “The Hare With The Amber Eyes” will be turned into a major film.

This week, however, is “Anschluss” week. Edmund de Waal needs to take a break from the vases, which look so much like him: slim and prudent. From London he went to Vienna to say

a few words. “The speech is ready”, he tells me. “Maybe I will read it one more time.” Edmund de Waal will be the guest of honour when Austria officially remembers the anniversary of March 1938 - the disastrous entry of the country into the “Third Reich” 75 years ago. His speech tonight at Palais Epstein in Vienna is called: “Bringing memory home.” 

“The Exiles return” by Elisabeth de Waal:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Exiles-Return-Elisabeth-Waal/dp/1903155924

Edmund de Waal tonight in Vienna:

Lecture | 13.03.2013 | 19.00 Uhr

"BRINGING MEMORY HOME" Ort: Palais Epstein , Dr. Karl-Renner-Ring 1, 1010 Wien

I met Edmund de Waal last spring in Jacob Rothschild’s Party palace “Waddesdon Manor”:

http://derstandard.at/1339638689298/Keramiken-Wiedereroberung-der-Familiengeschichte