A ghost of a Jew executed in Auschwitz takes hold of the former SS man Schatz… a theatrical comedian known as Chingiz-Haim…
The novel “The Dance of Chingiz-Haim,” written in 1967, did not receive literary prizes; however, it is considered R. Gary’s best work in his mature years. Brilliantly written as a burlesque, it transforms the experience of understanding the Second World War into a plot on the ontological union of Life and Death—the executioner and his victim, high tragedy and broad comedy.