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Mischling zweiten Grades
Ilse Koehn erinnert sich an ihre Jugend im Dritten Reich.
Lebendig und fesselnd erzählt sie von den Kinderverschickungslagern, der Mitgliedschaft im BdM, den Bombennächten in Berlin und von dem Ende des Krieges in Berlin.
Lebendig und fesselnd erzählt sie von den Kinderverschickungslagern, der Mitgliedschaft im BdM, den Bombennächten in Berlin und von dem Ende des Krieges in Berlin.
254 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1977
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
April 7, 2013
I'm not sure when I read this only that it was before I read the diary of anne frank & it moved me in an unusually stark & horrific way. I was so distraught by this book that I read pre-7th grade, that I made my Daddy read it as I considered him an expert on all things German & wanted him to tell me it wasn't true. It was the first time I saw my Daddy cry about a book & take to his bed on Sat., not for a nap because he was tired but because of all the memories it caused to resurface of friend's stories that were so similar. In my opinion this book should be read as a companion to Anne Frank, to shed light on what the youth of Germany were doing during WWII.
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July 30, 2014Despite the fulsome blurb and the slightly less uncritical Foreword, this is not a particularly extraordinary book. The author leaves out a lot of things she discovered later (for example, her father was undoubtedly forced to divorce her mother, because this was required by the Nuremberg Laws of 1934). Leaving out things the child hadn't known is arguably a sensible decision, although there should have been more footnotes providing updates.
Other things, however, seem to have been deliberately elided. For example, the 'Jewish' grandmother (not Jewish by her own standards, but according to the 'racial' definition of the Nuremberg laws) does die in this book. This is not a spoiler, since the woman was elderly and frail even at the beginning. But it's never explained HOW she dies. The first-person narrator simply states at one point that her father has told her that her grandmother couldn't live much longer--and that the father will notify the child when the grandmother dies. Then it's never mentioned again.
The child, remembered by her adult self, is no sort of angel. As with most pre-teens and teenagers, she's often angst-ridden. She tends to assume that people treat her badly because they don't like her, making little allowance for harsh circumstances, which she understands as a child does. She does, however, accede to many of the proscriptions her family imposes on her, because she knows they will cause her family trouble if they come to light. In short, she's a fairly ordinary child--in very extraordinary times.
This is not, by the way, a diary. There may have been diaries, though it doesn't seem that likely. Many of the things Ilse Koehn (properly, by the way, this surname should contain an umlaut) discusses in this book are things that would have got herself and her extended family in a LOT of trouble at the time. For example, she joins the Jungmadelbundchen (the female auxiliary of the Hitlerjungend) essentially because she's required to: but her father warns her not to take any kind of leadership position. Ilse doesn't quite understand this, and her father doesn't really explain it: but he probably kept apprised of the pronouncements on the BBC (which it was forbidden to listen to on pain of death, so he wouldn't have told Ilse the details), and would probably have known that the youth would not have been put on trial, UNLESS they were in leadership positions.
Most of the people Koehn describes were not unusual. A great many people essentially went into 'internal exile' during the Nazi period in Germany. Though they didn't even remotely agree with the Nazis, they realized that they would almost certainly be sent to concentration camps if they openly resisted (or worse: remember the White Rose). So they ducked their heads and tried to avoid notice, and went along with the regime as little as they could get away with.
The descriptions of the war are often of what most people on the 'home front' experienced. On both sides, by the way. The bombing raids were also the same on both sides--bear in mind, for example, that the present Queen of England was sent away to the countryside with her younger sister to escape just such raids. There was one difference: in Germany, both Dresden and Hamburg suffered firestorms, whereas in Britain, only Coventry did. But this was not in the areas where Ilse lived. Where she was, the bombing raids, while terrible, were not the worst.
One warning: there is one situation late in the book which people will find truly horrible. It's while the Russians are advancing, but is NOT the period when the young women were in hiding. That part was uncomfortable and unpleasant, but not the worst. The really bad part involves a (?refugee?) Polish family. I issue the warning because I kept hoping it wouldn't end the way it did--so that others will not hold out hope and be even worse hurt.
Other things, however, seem to have been deliberately elided. For example, the 'Jewish' grandmother (not Jewish by her own standards, but according to the 'racial' definition of the Nuremberg laws) does die in this book. This is not a spoiler, since the woman was elderly and frail even at the beginning. But it's never explained HOW she dies. The first-person narrator simply states at one point that her father has told her that her grandmother couldn't live much longer--and that the father will notify the child when the grandmother dies. Then it's never mentioned again.
The child, remembered by her adult self, is no sort of angel. As with most pre-teens and teenagers, she's often angst-ridden. She tends to assume that people treat her badly because they don't like her, making little allowance for harsh circumstances, which she understands as a child does. She does, however, accede to many of the proscriptions her family imposes on her, because she knows they will cause her family trouble if they come to light. In short, she's a fairly ordinary child--in very extraordinary times.
This is not, by the way, a diary. There may have been diaries, though it doesn't seem that likely. Many of the things Ilse Koehn (properly, by the way, this surname should contain an umlaut) discusses in this book are things that would have got herself and her extended family in a LOT of trouble at the time. For example, she joins the Jungmadelbundchen (the female auxiliary of the Hitlerjungend) essentially because she's required to: but her father warns her not to take any kind of leadership position. Ilse doesn't quite understand this, and her father doesn't really explain it: but he probably kept apprised of the pronouncements on the BBC (which it was forbidden to listen to on pain of death, so he wouldn't have told Ilse the details), and would probably have known that the youth would not have been put on trial, UNLESS they were in leadership positions.
Most of the people Koehn describes were not unusual. A great many people essentially went into 'internal exile' during the Nazi period in Germany. Though they didn't even remotely agree with the Nazis, they realized that they would almost certainly be sent to concentration camps if they openly resisted (or worse: remember the White Rose). So they ducked their heads and tried to avoid notice, and went along with the regime as little as they could get away with.
The descriptions of the war are often of what most people on the 'home front' experienced. On both sides, by the way. The bombing raids were also the same on both sides--bear in mind, for example, that the present Queen of England was sent away to the countryside with her younger sister to escape just such raids. There was one difference: in Germany, both Dresden and Hamburg suffered firestorms, whereas in Britain, only Coventry did. But this was not in the areas where Ilse lived. Where she was, the bombing raids, while terrible, were not the worst.
One warning: there is one situation late in the book which people will find truly horrible. It's while the Russians are advancing, but is NOT the period when the young women were in hiding. That part was uncomfortable and unpleasant, but not the worst. The really bad part involves a (?refugee?) Polish family. I issue the warning because I kept hoping it wouldn't end the way it did--so that others will not hold out hope and be even worse hurt.
January 9, 2009
Caleb and I are currently learning about Germany. I found this book and thought that it would be a good reader for us to read together.
March 8, 2011
Mischling, Second Degree
Biography
I enjoyed reading Mischling, Second Degree, because I got to experience the real feelings of a young girl who lived in Nazi Germany in the Holocaust, learning about each and every camp that she ever had to stay in for months that led on into years without seeing her family. The story is told by Isle Koehn and she tells a story about how she was 25 percent Jewish and was sent to camps because of this. At the camps Isle was put through a lot of hard working chores held outside, mean camp instructors, and made good and annoying friends. When Isle went through all of the camps she learned a lot about discipline and the way of living through a hard time. Without adapting to the camps and complaining instead, she wouldn’t have made it through the Holocaust.
I learned about going through the hard times and realizing how important you need to have your family and friends. I look up to Isle; she was able to stay in those camps without her family for long periods of time. I can’t even stay one week away from my parents. After reading this book I experienced the exact feelings that she felt. I couldn’t even imagine how Isle had the patience to sit in a long dug out hole in the wall of the ground for days with no food, water, or stretching room for your body. You lay there, silent until someone says its safe. I got claustrophobic just reading about it.
When you read this book you understand the true feeling of being in the camps and living in Nazi Germany. You may have thought you knew before, but you may not have a clue. This book will change how you feel about the Holocaust and about the people who suffered. I understand how thankful I am to be alive and free. I recommend this book to anyone interested in a fantastic, true story, about the Holocaust.
Biography
I enjoyed reading Mischling, Second Degree, because I got to experience the real feelings of a young girl who lived in Nazi Germany in the Holocaust, learning about each and every camp that she ever had to stay in for months that led on into years without seeing her family. The story is told by Isle Koehn and she tells a story about how she was 25 percent Jewish and was sent to camps because of this. At the camps Isle was put through a lot of hard working chores held outside, mean camp instructors, and made good and annoying friends. When Isle went through all of the camps she learned a lot about discipline and the way of living through a hard time. Without adapting to the camps and complaining instead, she wouldn’t have made it through the Holocaust.
I learned about going through the hard times and realizing how important you need to have your family and friends. I look up to Isle; she was able to stay in those camps without her family for long periods of time. I can’t even stay one week away from my parents. After reading this book I experienced the exact feelings that she felt. I couldn’t even imagine how Isle had the patience to sit in a long dug out hole in the wall of the ground for days with no food, water, or stretching room for your body. You lay there, silent until someone says its safe. I got claustrophobic just reading about it.
When you read this book you understand the true feeling of being in the camps and living in Nazi Germany. You may have thought you knew before, but you may not have a clue. This book will change how you feel about the Holocaust and about the people who suffered. I understand how thankful I am to be alive and free. I recommend this book to anyone interested in a fantastic, true story, about the Holocaust.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 2, 2014
I might not have read this if I hadn't been in a cabin with very few books at the time, but I'm glad I did. I don't remember it being great literarily, but its being a true story & a very unique look into Nazi Germany made it very much worth reading. It gave me an extra feel for the time and for the fact that truth is stranger than fiction; a few things happened that I would have dismissed as really over-the-top if this were a novel. One thing I remember especially vividly is the preparations her farmer grandmother made when the Russians were coming. That scene now completely informs my notions of how to prepare for an invasion, and I've incorporated a few elements of this into a novel.
September 30, 2017
I found this book while cleaning out my husbands bookshelf after he passed. He marked it in 2001 "good reading". I was surprised that he had read it as he was raised as a Jew in a Jewish children's home in San Francisco and such readings usually made him sad. But I decided to read to see what he meant. It is a VERY good read. Told by the author, as she is the child in the book. Really brought to realism how life in Berlin and surrounding areas was from 1926 until 1945. No matter their party affiliation, it was so scary and life threatening.
I highly recommend reading this book.
I highly recommend reading this book.
February 3, 2014
I read this many years ago, so don't remember a lot of detail and did not take a lot of notes back then. But this is a 10-year-old girl's story of growing up in Nazi Germany. I remember thinking it was told in a way that did not leave you feeling depressed as so many in the genre do. You can read the Goodreads synopsis for the description.
January 15, 2015
this book was quite the story of Survival and how family differed in the New Germanic State under Adolf Hitler.
Also the bombing of Berlin.
Russians invasion of Germany & Berlin.
Survival of not being sent to camps or raped by Russians.
Her romance w/American Soldier.
Rate it w/"Corrie Ten Boom", Movie, "Rape of Berlin? or Something to that effect".
Also the bombing of Berlin.
Russians invasion of Germany & Berlin.
Survival of not being sent to camps or raped by Russians.
Her romance w/American Soldier.
Rate it w/"Corrie Ten Boom", Movie, "Rape of Berlin? or Something to that effect".
May 12, 2012
The cover of this book is deceptive. It looks like a book for mid-elementary school, but it has the "sh.." swear word in several parts. Overall, very good. Although a diary, it is not at all like Anne Frank.
August 8, 2016
Pour ceux qui s'intéressent à l'Allemagne, aux conflits de la seconde guerre. C'est une toute autre façon de voir les évènements. Une perspective que je n'avais pas envisagée. Un livre qui ne m'a pas laissé indifférente.
May 8, 2008
Young Jews, hidden by sympathizers, WWII
July 27, 2008
This is Ilse Koehn's story of growing up Jewish in Nazi Germany - and how she "hid in plain sight."
By joining the Hitler Youth.
By joining the Hitler Youth.
August 13, 2010
Interesting, but the writing was at times quite wooden and parts were difficult to follow. Interesting to see what it was like for Ilse as a Hitler Youth girl.
October 5, 2011
I read one review were it stated the writing was "wooden". That is a good way to describe it. However it has an important historical account.
February 20, 2013
It is a good outline of what some of the children of Nazi Germany had to go through. I wish that it wasn't so jerky in the reading.
May 13, 2013
I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in WWII. It is a different view than most survival stories and shows how dark war can be.
August 31, 2013
Indeed an amazing book,childhood in Nazi Germany--something I knew nothing about--so glad I read this and learned such a lot.
February 8, 2019
A girl growing up in Nazi Germany not understanding her Jewish Heritage.
June 3, 2015
Thought-provoking account of a girl in Nazi Germany.
October 6, 2014
The biography of a young German girl during WWII. The and the 4 books by Horst Christian are excellent stories of the lives of children raised during the years of Hitler ' s rule 8th Germany.
January 30, 2015
very funny, couldnt stop laughing a++
March 19, 2016
so interesting and gave me a broader understanding of Nazi Germany
November 8, 2023
Once again -- I can not understand why we as people have not learned from history. This book paralleled Pastor Morgan's sermon last Sunday about the families in Israel and Gaza and the struggles they face as war continues to kill more than two hundred per day. And since the attack from Hamas - more than 15,000 have died (abut three weeks ago!) Think about what it would look like if half the people of Wadsworth had died in the last three or four weeks!
I also think about my father passed away 51 years ago today. We were voting - it was the last thing he did that day. And the stories from my siblings and the horror of war are still so fresh in my mind. I just pray that this will end quickly.....
I also think about my father passed away 51 years ago today. We were voting - it was the last thing he did that day. And the stories from my siblings and the horror of war are still so fresh in my mind. I just pray that this will end quickly.....
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 14, 2022
Une époque historienne souvent raconté du côté opposé des allemands.
Une fois n'est pas coutume nous sommes projeter dans la vie "côté Hitler". Dans son autobiographie Ilse nous raconte son enfant et adolescence dans cette Allemagne transformée par la rage et le désir de vaincre.
Malgré le format journal intime l’écriture est agréable et très précise avec une attention particulière pour les détails d'apparence anodine.
De ce livre on retient surtout la difficulté de ces années de guerre, et ceux peu importe le camp, peu importe l'âge, peu importe l'engagement.
Une fois n'est pas coutume nous sommes projeter dans la vie "côté Hitler". Dans son autobiographie Ilse nous raconte son enfant et adolescence dans cette Allemagne transformée par la rage et le désir de vaincre.
Malgré le format journal intime l’écriture est agréable et très précise avec une attention particulière pour les détails d'apparence anodine.
De ce livre on retient surtout la difficulté de ces années de guerre, et ceux peu importe le camp, peu importe l'âge, peu importe l'engagement.
March 15, 2020
This is the other side of World War II. Although 1/4 Jewish, (thus the title), Ilse Koehn was treated as a German Child. She relates her experiences as a Hitler Youth and the struggles of surviving the war in Berlin and elsewhere around Germany.
Simple prose make this a quick read, but her experiences are no less poignant as she relates experiences being torn from her family, serving in on a farm, and hiding when the Russians entered Germany at the end of the war.
Simple prose make this a quick read, but her experiences are no less poignant as she relates experiences being torn from her family, serving in on a farm, and hiding when the Russians entered Germany at the end of the war.
February 20, 2025
Coup de cœur pour cette autobiographie! La vie d'une petite fille en Allemagne pendant la seconde guerre mondiale, la façon dont la vie s'organise et continue. Elle est protégée, elle ne comprend pas ce qui se passe et ne s'y intéresse pas trop. Ce n'est pas sombre. C'est juste la vie pendant un moment d'histoire horrible, pendant toutes les guerres, dans tous les pays. Actuel, émouvant, coup de poing
June 22, 2022
It was an interesting subject told in a really confusing and convoluted way, riddled with typos (Alex or Axel? It kept swapping!), and kind of a slog to get through.
October 1, 2022
J'ai adorée cette petite histoire.
A mon goût, rien de tel que quelques lectures historiques pour essayer de comprendre un peu l'histoire.
A mon goût, rien de tel que quelques lectures historiques pour essayer de comprendre un peu l'histoire.
June 7, 2020
The enduring image of this book is of the author's grandmother out in the fields planting potatoes during the Allied bombings. Her family worried she would be hit, but she said, in effect, If I I'm hit, I die, but if I'm not, we will need the potatoes. It is a logic that has helped me sort through a lot of issues.
August 17, 2022
A very informative book about young German girl Ilse Koehn during the war in Berlin. Ilse spends most of her childhood being shuffled around camps, and discovering the difficulties of coming from a non-Nazi family. A very enjoyable read.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews