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Searching for Papa’s Secrets in Hitler’s Berlin
As the author stood next to her father’s grave in 1994, she wondered what secrets he had taken with him and suddenly it became important to find out if in fact there were secrets. She got a slim file of documents mostly in German and she discovered her father had been a half-Jew, who survived World War II in Berlin. How? He looked quintessentially Jewish - so did his sister and their father but the author soon discovered that her grandfather, the full-Jew in the family had escaped Germany on the last boat that left Hamburg for South Africa and that was allowed to carry Jews to safety there. He had left his blonde Aryan wife with their two children behind – that was in July 1939 and there would not be another chance for them to escape Berlin or Germany.
In this journey of discovery, the author tells how that information about her father changed her life, of how she tried to determine how he had survived in Hitler’s Berlin, of the people she met along this route and the misconceptions she had had about his life in Berlin and the things that motivated his actions. This memoir focuses on a tiny part of the manic years that made Berlin the most modern, lively and promiscuous city in the world at that time. It shows the impact that the battles raging for the soul of the capital had on its ordinary citizens and on the generations that followed. The Roth family history is one small representation of the broader history between the 1920s and 1950. In that year her father, aunt and grandmother eventually left their homeland to join Opa Ernst Roth in Cape Town and start a new life there.
While it tells the story of her life and her quest for her father, the emphasis is on the triangular connection between father and daughter and the Holocaust. She tries to answer the questions of how her father and his sister survived in Berlin throughout the Second World War; what the cost was to them and their Aryan mother and how their suffering, degradation and deprivation impacted on them later in life and specifically on her father in his roles as husband, breadwinner and parent. As for so many who left the old country for the new world, talking about what had been, was not something they relished and often avoided especially in conversation with their children. In this respect the author’s experience with her father reflects that of many other second-generation trauma survivors.
One critic
The author’s writing is detailed and factual, her research passionate, but she has the ability to recreate the places she visited and the people she met. I felt very much part of the story as I moved with her through the Cape Town of the latter part of the 20th Century, went with her to Auschwitz-Birkenau, followed her through the streets of Berlin, stood silently before the Stolpersteine (memorial stones outside houses commemorating those who had lived there and perished in the Holocaust) and met the people who had known and helped her father, as they fleshed out her knowledge.
306 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 8, 2023
2 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 24, 2023
#SearchingForPapasSecretsInHitlersBerlin – Egonne Roth
#Naledi
Funerals often trigger reflection and introspection because of involuntary nostalgia in the face of a final farewell. The author was no exception: When she stood next to the grave of her father, something inside her was triggered. And when a slim, seemingly insignificant file containing documents pertaining to her paternal grandfather, was thereafter unceremoniously dumped onto her lap, a single sentence ‘I am a full Jew’ set in motion a chain of events that would continue for almost three decades, would take her to Israel, Poland, and Germany, and would alter the course of her life completely.
Her father, Edgar Essad Emil Roth was born in Germany on 14 January 1929 and was buried in Cape Town, South Africa, on 8 April 1994. The author knew several aspects of him: his love for music and books, the fact that he was an excellent cook and a lover of fine art who referred to her in endearing terms such as ‘Darlinkie’ or ‘my chicken child’. Also, that he was a womanizer, incapable of committing to a monogamous relationship, prone to mood swings, emotionally unpredictable and able to burst into violent fits of anger for no apparent reason. But of his past in Germany, she was blissfully unaware: ‘My apathy about his background began to crumble in the light of a tale that was obviously more complex than the one I had created in my head…’ (17)
The challenge of a quest into the past is often the regret of failure to ask questions timeously, especially when the subject was reluctant to revisit childhood trauma, as was the case with her father who, as a mere child in wartime Berlin, was subjected to antisemitism due to him being half Jewish, referred to as an ‘untermensch’ – less than a human: ‘They want to bury the past or rewrite it, as my father had done. We, their children, unwittingly cooperate with their silence, incorporating their unwillingness to talk with our unwillingness to know or ask.’ (34)
With the assistance of documents, albeit often incomplete or illegible; interviews with surviving witnesses, and visits to cemeteries and archives, the author was able to establish at least partially who her father really was – and, henceforth, what that meant in respect of her own search for identity. His early years in Hitler’s Berlin, the secrets that he chose not to share, are revealed in detail, making the past come alive: His Jewish father fled to South Africa in 1939, leaving his wife, an authentic Aryan, and their two mischling children to fend for themselves. At the tender age of ten he had to become the caretaker of his mother and younger sister whilst facing the onslaughts of war, discrimination, famine, bombings, and the death of loved ones, including his aunt, in Auschwitz.
During the search for her paternal heritage, the author discovers and embraces her own roots; her memoir revealing her journey as much a loving biography of the man known to her as ‘Papa’. The book is highly recommended for lovers of memoirs, biographies, and history.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ #Uitdieperdsebek
#Naledi
Funerals often trigger reflection and introspection because of involuntary nostalgia in the face of a final farewell. The author was no exception: When she stood next to the grave of her father, something inside her was triggered. And when a slim, seemingly insignificant file containing documents pertaining to her paternal grandfather, was thereafter unceremoniously dumped onto her lap, a single sentence ‘I am a full Jew’ set in motion a chain of events that would continue for almost three decades, would take her to Israel, Poland, and Germany, and would alter the course of her life completely.
Her father, Edgar Essad Emil Roth was born in Germany on 14 January 1929 and was buried in Cape Town, South Africa, on 8 April 1994. The author knew several aspects of him: his love for music and books, the fact that he was an excellent cook and a lover of fine art who referred to her in endearing terms such as ‘Darlinkie’ or ‘my chicken child’. Also, that he was a womanizer, incapable of committing to a monogamous relationship, prone to mood swings, emotionally unpredictable and able to burst into violent fits of anger for no apparent reason. But of his past in Germany, she was blissfully unaware: ‘My apathy about his background began to crumble in the light of a tale that was obviously more complex than the one I had created in my head…’ (17)
The challenge of a quest into the past is often the regret of failure to ask questions timeously, especially when the subject was reluctant to revisit childhood trauma, as was the case with her father who, as a mere child in wartime Berlin, was subjected to antisemitism due to him being half Jewish, referred to as an ‘untermensch’ – less than a human: ‘They want to bury the past or rewrite it, as my father had done. We, their children, unwittingly cooperate with their silence, incorporating their unwillingness to talk with our unwillingness to know or ask.’ (34)
With the assistance of documents, albeit often incomplete or illegible; interviews with surviving witnesses, and visits to cemeteries and archives, the author was able to establish at least partially who her father really was – and, henceforth, what that meant in respect of her own search for identity. His early years in Hitler’s Berlin, the secrets that he chose not to share, are revealed in detail, making the past come alive: His Jewish father fled to South Africa in 1939, leaving his wife, an authentic Aryan, and their two mischling children to fend for themselves. At the tender age of ten he had to become the caretaker of his mother and younger sister whilst facing the onslaughts of war, discrimination, famine, bombings, and the death of loved ones, including his aunt, in Auschwitz.
During the search for her paternal heritage, the author discovers and embraces her own roots; her memoir revealing her journey as much a loving biography of the man known to her as ‘Papa’. The book is highly recommended for lovers of memoirs, biographies, and history.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ #Uitdieperdsebek
September 26, 2023
This is the story of my grandfather and his descends and how a half-Jew survived WWII in Berlin. This is the story of my mother's family, my family. It is about my mother finding a part of herself by finding out more about her father and his family, about untold stories and secrets, about pain and suffering. At times, it felt too personal to read. One thing reading about WWII as this far-off concept. Quite something different reading about it and what transpired when it is your family. I am extremely proud of how well my mother has written this and feel as if I have gotten to know my grandfather a little better through this book. Well done Mom.
July 17, 2024
I wasn't sure this would be my cup of tea, but in the end it was a good read. I didn't get bored and I enjoyed all the little facts and anecdotes. I also enjoyed the photos. It's a true story about Egonne's search for proof of her Jewish heritage. However, the more interesting story is the story behind her decision to become an Israeli citizen which kicks that search into gear.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews