The Author, Marga Minco is the pen

name of Sara Menco. In 1942, her

parents were forced to move into
the city's Jewish Quarter. The
parents, her brother and sister were
all deported and Marga/Sara
managed to survive the war in
hiding. Thus, her stories often
revolve around the existential
problems often faced by survivors.
 Background of the story
• World War II ran its course from 1939 - 1945. Most of
the nations of the world divided themselves into two
groups: the Allies and the Axis. The Allies initially
comprised of France, Poland and UK but soon became
the group led by "the big three" - USA, the British
Commonwealth, the Soviet Union. Other allies were
China, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa
and other third world nations. The axis were formed of
Germany, Italy, Japan and the areas they presided over
(Parts of Europe, Africa, East and South East Asia and
islands of the Pacific). The Allies eventually won but in
the interim, about 50-70 million lives were lost.
 Background
• The most devastating aspects of this war were
the Holocaust and the Bombing of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki. The Holocaust was the genocide of
about six million European Jews under the Nazi
reign of Adolf Hitler. The holocaust began with
laws being established to remove Jews from civil
society. They were sent to concentration camps
and used as labour or for medical experiments
unto death. Often mass shootouts took lives.
Some were sent to extermination camps by
freight train to be killed in the now infamous gas
chambers.
• Although it is proven that Hitler was an illegitimate child,
there is only speculation to a Jewish birth father. Scholars
still debate whether Hitler's antisemitism (hatred for the
Jews) was due to his abandonment issues or was a product
of the loss of Germany in World War I due to the civilian
Jewish leaders and Marxists within Germany. In any case,
having lived in antisemitic areas in his youth and served in
the German army, Hitler grew up hating Jews and
eventually devised "the final solution to the Jewish
problem".
• Our story begins after the Holocaust when our narrator, a
Jewish survivor who had lost her entire family, had
returned to find her mother's things at 46, Marconi Street
• The impact of war on civilians has been portrayed in
several books and movies including 'The Diary of a
Young Girl: Anne Frank', 'Sarah's Key' by Tatiana de
Rosnay, 'The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas' by John Boyne
and movies such as 'Schindler's List'. The torture of the
concentration camps, the loss of loved ones left a
painful ever-lasting impact. The narrator's observation
of the light-coloured bread, familiar views and
unthreatened sleep implies the coarse stale food of the
camps, the view of barren land and barbed wires and a
sleep forever threatened with pain and death.
 THE ADDRESS
by Marga Minco
• Marga Minco (pseudonym
of Sara Menco, born 31 March
1920) is a Dutch journalist and
writer. Her real surname was
Menco, but an official
accidentally switched the first
vowel.
 IMPORTANT BITS
• Marga Minco – The narrator. She
was a girl of fifteen or seventeen.
Her family was Jewish and Hitler
was planning to kill all the Jews in
Germany, Holland, Austria, etc.
Probably she was away from home.
• Mrs. S – The Narrator’s mother. S
may be Suzanne, Susannah, etc.
• Mrs. Dorling - A very wicked,
shrewd woman. She visited the
narrator’s mother saying that she
was her classmate years ago. We do
not know if it was so or not. She
offered to help the narrator’s family
by carrying their house hold
utensils, furniture and all the other
valuables.
• In fact she had no intention to help the
narrator’s family. All she hoped was that
the narrator’s family die in the war and
never return.
• The war was over and everyone (except
the narrator) in the narrator’s family was
either deported (sent out of one’s own
country) or killed in the gas chambers.
• When the war was over and the Jews
were feeling safe in these countries,
Marga (the narrator) returned to her
house (which was no more!) and lived in a
small hut.
• One day, Marga thought of the woman
(Mrs. Dorling) who had taken all her
possessions. She remembered her address
– 46, Marconi Street.
• Marga went to Marcony Street by train.
 First Visit

• The narrator traces Mrs. Dorling’s – No. 46 – address to claim her

family’s property.
• Mrs. Dorling refuses to give away.
• Mrs. Dorling says she doesn’t recognise the narrator but the
narrator recognises her.
• It was now evident that Mrs. Dorling had betrayed the narrator’s
mother.
• Marga was terribly pinched, hurt, disappointed and betrayed.
• She was turning away to go when someone appeared at the
window. Probably it was Mrs. Dorling’s daughter. She was asking,
“Mom, who’s there?” and Mrs. Dorling gives a discouraging reply.
• That was how the first visit ended.
 Second Visit

• The narrator grew impatient after a while so she decided

to visit Mrs. Dorling once again.
• When she rang the bell at house number 46, Mrs. Dorling
was away. Mrs. Dorling’s daughter welcomed the narrator.
• The daughter had no idea how her mother had looted the
utensils and furniture from the narrator’s house. All that
she knew was that her mother had bought these precious
antiques on an auction.
• The daughter was proud of the expensive utensils and
furniture.
• The narrator decides not to wait for Mrs. Dorling. She
leaves the house. She forgets the address.
 Some Questions Solved
• Question 1.Why did the narrator go to Number 46, Marconi Street?
• Answer: This was the address of Mrs. Dorling, the woman who had carried the valuable items from
the narrator’s mother to her home giving assurance to keep them in her safe custody during war
time. Before dying narrator’s mother gave this address to the narrator. So the narrator went there
to claim the belongings of her mother.

• Question 2. "I was in a room I knew and did not know", says the narrator in the story 'The
Address'. What prompted her to make this observation?
• Answer: The narrator found her in the midst of things she was familiar with and which she did not
want to see again. However, she found these things in a strange atmosphere where everything was
lying in a tasteless manner. The ugly furniture and the muggy smell created the feeling as if, she did
not know the room.

• Question 3. "Of all the things I had to forget, that would be the easiest." What does the speaker
mean by ‘that’? What is its significance in the story?
• Answer: The word "That" here stands for ‘the address’ of Mrs. Dorling i.e., Number 46 Marconi
Street. The story moves around the address which is also the title of the story. It is significant
because, the address was very important for the narrator in the beginning of the story although, at
the end she resolves to forget it as she wants to break off with the painful past and move on with
the present into the future.