Geraty, Lawrence T.

English

Andrews University

204 SEMINARY STUDIES Rochat, Joyce. Suruiuor [A Biography of Siegfried H. Horn]. Berrien Springs, MI: Andrews University Press, 1986. xii + 332 pp. Paper- back, $9.95. Horn, Siegfried H. Promise Deferred. Washington, DC: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1987. 95 pp. Paperback, $6.95. The story recounted in these two books is one of the best I have ever read. It belongs to one of Adventism's most remarkable scholars-a re- nowned archaeologist, noted professor, prolific author, esteemed church- man, and founder and first editor of AUSS: Siegfried Herbert Horn. Both books concentrate on the six-and-a-half years of Horn's life when, as a German missionary to the Dutch East Indies, he was imprisoned as a World War I1 prisoner of war in a succession of five camps in Dutch Java, Sumatra, and British India. Both books see these years as not wasted, but as valuable preparation for Horn's scholarly career because of his iron determination to "redeem the time" by making the most out of his adversity. Both books are exceptionally well written, at least partially because both are based on the detailed diaries Horn has kept since his teen years. Joyce Rochat's volume has the advantage of historical context, begin- ning with accounts of Horn's grandparents, parents, and youth, all told in considerable detail and illustrated with family photographs. By compari- son, Horn's version is more like a Reader's Digest first-person account. Though considerably shorter, it gives some important details that are strangely missing from Rochat's longer book. The latter's early chapters are important for understanding the develop- ment of Siegfried Horn as a person. We see his paternal grandparents as indomitable and controlling; his father, one of the pioneering air heroes of his time, as daring and romantic; and his mother as strong, disciplined, loyal, and devoted to her church and its teachings. While Siegfried inherited characteristics from all of these ancestors, it seems to have been his mother who most influenced and molded his development. An iron will, coupled with a firm belief in providence, carried him through his schooling; his courtships in Germany, England, and Holland; his transition to denomi- national employment; his missionary hardships; and finally his years of imprisonment and separation from his wife. It is in these last six-and-a-half years that the two books overlap and, in fact, supplement one another. We learn how Horn miraculously ended up as a missionary in Java, and how he steadily built up his personal library to over a thousand scholarly volumes. We see him, as a German citizen, get caught up in the Dutch rage over the Nazi takeover of their homeland, while his Dutch-born wife was allowed by both the Dutch and later the Japanese (because she was married to a German) to carry on her mission work undisturbed. We read how he survived the cruel treatment he BOOK REVIEWS 205 received in an island prison off the coast of Java; how he nearly died of dysentery in the jungles of Sumatra; and how, when he was transferred to British supervision, he providentially escaped drowning in the Indian Ocean when he completed passage to India on the wrong ship. We watch him surmount difficulties at camps in Ramgarh, Deoli, and Dehra Dun, moving beyond circumstances that would have daunted most, even making these very circumstances work in his favor. Despite its greater length, Rochat's book skips some fascinating details of camp life-surgical operations under primitive circumstances and dar- ing prisoner escapes. The most glaring omission was the fact that Horn's wife was notified by the Red Cross that he had drowned at sea, and for nearly four years she believed herself to be a widow. Rochat's book also leaves its readers hanging with unanswered questions: What happened to the German wives and children who left the Indies for Germany via Japan and Russia? When and how was Horn reunited with his wife? Rochat's book is also marred by numerous typos, spelling errors, and other incon- sistencies: e.g., Hanschen or Hannchen? Seyss or Seis Inquart? Andreas or Immanual Krautschick? Nevertheless, using the inclusio of Psalm 146, Rochat tells her story well. Those readers who know of Horn's importance as an archaeologist, professor, author, and churchman will find in both books the account of a fascinating decade that places his scholarly endeavors in their immediate context. They will see the origins of his later scholarly contributions in his single-minded interest in his private library, in his unrelenting desire to travel in the Middle East and do advanced study, and in his devotion to learning and writing during a self-imposed camp regimen. Those readers who are merely looking for an inspiring story will find in either book not only entertainment, but also many valuable lessons and insights: the value of relating constructively to a different culture; the importance of sensitivity to a companion's differing reaction to what life brings; the sheer magnitude of what can be accomplished when a task is pursued with single-minded devotion, energy, and organization. Neither book takes the reader past 1947 and into the productive forty- year span of Siegfried Horn's scholarly career. In terms of a biographer's task, the easy part is now done. The analysis and evaluation of Horn's contributions since 1947 will be much more difficult but just as rewarding, if not more so. The work that has come the closest thus far, though it is far from definitive, in capturing the essence of one who modeled his life after Schliemann and Christ, is Lloyd A. Willis, Archaeology in Aduentist Literature, 1937-1980 (Berrien Springs, MI: Andrews University Press, 1984). Atlantic Union College South Lancaster, MA 01561 

Survivor [review] / by Joyce Rochat.

https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1830&amp;context=auss

Survivor [review] / by Joyce Rochat.

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