Described as "the greatest novel of the Holocaust",[1] this novel is an allegorical satire that tells the story of a fictional Jewish town in Austria shortly before its residents are relocated to Nazi concentration camps in German-occupied Poland.

[2] Badenheim is a primarily Jewish resort town in Austria that hosts a yearly arts festival, organized by Dr. Pappenheim.

Slowly, the Nazi regime, represented by the "Sanitation Department", begins shutting down the town and preparing to move its residents to Eastern Europe.

Aharon Appelfeld first published the novel as a short story entitled "Badenheim 1939" in the Hebrew journal Moznaim 36 (Dec. 1972), pp.

In 1995, an adaptation was directed and choreographed by Ian Spink, written by Sian Evans with music by Orlando Gough, first staged at Riverside Studios in Hammersmith, London.