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Title: TEARING THE SILENCE : On Being German in America by Ursula Hegi ISBN: 0-684-84611-X Publisher: Touchstone Books Pub. Date: 03 July, 1998 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.17 (12 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Excellent Oral History of Germans Born Late Living in US
Comment: Ursula Hegi does a great service by examining the feelings of the "2nd generation" of Germans who were too young to have participated in the Nazi horror, but who have had to deal with it nonetheless. It is also an examination of what it is like to be a German immigrant in the US, and deal with American Christians and Jews and their feelings towards Germans and the Holocaust. As a child of Holocaust survivors from Poland who has read much of the "2nd generation" children of survivors literature, as well as other interviews with Germans of the "2nd generation" (Sabine Reichel's "What Did You Do in the War Daddy" comes to mind), I believe this book contributes greatly to creating an understanding among all of us who have been so heavily effected by the Holocaust. It was also an eyeopener for me to read the descriptions of the relationships these people had with their parents, and compare them to the issues Holocaust survivors and their children deal with. Very well written and hard to put down. Highly recommended.
Rating: 4
Summary: On being German in post-war America
Comment: Tearing the Silence is one of the most important books that I have read, as I am the child of parents who grew up in the Third Reich. It was a truly rewarding experience reading this book and it helped me understand how others in my situation have been affected by the Nazi aspect of their German heritage. If I remember correctly, though, the author really only interviewed people of the "2nd Generation" born shorty after the war; there are, however, people like myself who were born somewhat later and had to come to terms with their heritage during the 1980s rather than the 1960s. The inclusion of one or two interviews with people in this situation would have added considerably to the book.
Rating: 4
Summary: "Tell me about your life . . ."
Comment: "We are not political." This assertion by the German family hosting the senior judge in the 1961 film Judgment At Nuremberg typifies the prevailing attitude of the parents of Hegi's subjects. It lies at the foundation of the "great silence" experienced by Ursula Hegi and other children who had to come to America to discover the Holocaust. Hegi and her peers grew up in a vacuum of information about the Nazi years. Realization came as a shock, disillusioning some, generating anger and resentment in others. But as Hegi's subjects relate, few cast off their roots. Some made pilgrimages to the sites of the Nazi crimes. Others sought understanding from parents who kept them in ignorance. Assembling a collection of interviews with her counterparts, Hegi gives us their viewpoints, life histories and introspections of their pasts. It's a unique and worthy effort.
In trying to reveal the present feelings of German children who came to America, Hegi undertook to understand for herself why Germans remained reticent about the Nazi years. She delved into people's lives through the interviews, asking them to examine their own feelings to see how they equated with her own. Clearly, the responses amazed her with their familiarity. Silence from the older generation and a strong desire to understand the root causes of Nazism in the younger, immigrant population.
The stories told, garnered from twenty three individuals, relate the upbringing and disrupted lives of Germans, usually children, who carry the burden of their parents' origins. American children, cognizant of the Holocaust in ways the immigrant children were not, might characterize their German-born peers as "Nazis," even when it was clearly impossible. For most of the interviewees, the accusation was more mysterious than offending. Confident of their own innocence, whatever resentment arose was usually directed at their families in Germany.
While this book is of great value in bringing the memories of the post-Nazi generation into view, it also poses some interesting questions. Oppressive fathers and submissive mothers aren't a uniquely German phenomenon. We aren't even clear as to whether these dominating parents are viewed as Nazis or sympathizers by Hegi's subjects. The only common theme, unique among immigrants to America, is the Holocaust. Some wonder how "normal" people could have engaged in such barbarity, asking themselves how they would have reacted had they been aware of the circumstances. Hegi, as investigative journalist in this book, is careful to avoid judgment. But the subjects raising these questions pose another: how did they view injustices in their adopted country.
Few current prejudices are related in the interviews. One man admits to discomfort at seeing the "Dots;" South Asians "who "smell bad" and "never offer you a fair profit." The reader cannot help but wonder how these people reacted to the protest movements of the 1960s. Did they react to racial hatred in America with quiet acceptance as their parents had done in Germany? Unlike Germany, the violent reaction to protest was visible on any news channel in America. Did they object to America's most controversial war, or support it? One is left with the impression that these exiles comprised part of Richard Nixon's "Silent Majority" and that they, like the parents they admonish, remained equally silent when confronted by issues of moral weight. What Hegi has done is document again the universal that ethical values remain the province of those who stand to be counted. They are, after all, no more or less than human.
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Title: Sacred Time : A Novel by Ursula Hegi ISBN: 0743255984 Publisher: Touchstone Books Pub. Date: 02 December, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: Trudi & Pia by Ursula Hegi, Giselle Potter ISBN: 0689846835 Publisher: Atheneum Pub. Date: 01 March, 2003 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Mastering German Vocabulary: A Thematic Approach (Mastering Vocabulary) by Gabriele Forst, Veronika Schnorr, Martin Crellin, Adelheid Schnorr-Dummler, Raymond Sudmeyer ISBN: 0812091086 Publisher: Barrons Educational Series Pub. Date: September, 1995 List Price(USD): $10.95 |
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Title: Kitchen God's Wife by Amy Tan ISBN: 080410753X Publisher: Ivy Books Pub. Date: 22 April, 1992 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Best Friends, Worst Enemies : Understanding the Social Lives of Children by Michael Thompson, Cathe O'Neill-Grace, Lawrence J. Cohen, Catherine O'Neill Grace ISBN: 034544289X Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 30 July, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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