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Motherland: Beyond the Holocaust: A Mother-Daughter Journey to Reclaim the Past
A moving account of a mother and daughter who visit Germany to face the Holocaust tragedy that has caused their family decades of intergenerational trauma, from the author of Brothers, Sisters, Strangers
Finalist for the National Jewish Book Award
In 1938, when Edith Westerfeld was twelve, her parents sent her from Germany to America to escape the Nazis. Edith survived, but most of her family perished in the death camps. Unable to cope with the loss of her family and homeland, Edith closed the door on her past, refusing to discuss even the smallest details.
Fifty-four years later, when the void of her childhood was consuming both her and her family, she returned to Stockstadt with her grown daughter Fern. For Edith the trip was a chance to reconnect and reconcile with her past; for Fern it was a chance to learn what lay behind her mother's silent grief. Together, they found a town that had dramatically changed on the surface, but which hid guilty secrets and lived in enduring denial.
On their journey, Fern and her mother shared many extraordinary encounters with the townspeople and—more importantly—with one another, closing the divide that had long stood between them. Motherland is a story of learning to face the past, of remembering and honoring while looking forward and letting go. It is an account of the Holocaust’s lingering grip on its witnesses; it is also a loving story of mothers and daughters, roots, understanding, and, ultimately, healing.
Finalist for the National Jewish Book Award
In 1938, when Edith Westerfeld was twelve, her parents sent her from Germany to America to escape the Nazis. Edith survived, but most of her family perished in the death camps. Unable to cope with the loss of her family and homeland, Edith closed the door on her past, refusing to discuss even the smallest details.
Fifty-four years later, when the void of her childhood was consuming both her and her family, she returned to Stockstadt with her grown daughter Fern. For Edith the trip was a chance to reconnect and reconcile with her past; for Fern it was a chance to learn what lay behind her mother's silent grief. Together, they found a town that had dramatically changed on the surface, but which hid guilty secrets and lived in enduring denial.
On their journey, Fern and her mother shared many extraordinary encounters with the townspeople and—more importantly—with one another, closing the divide that had long stood between them. Motherland is a story of learning to face the past, of remembering and honoring while looking forward and letting go. It is an account of the Holocaust’s lingering grip on its witnesses; it is also a loving story of mothers and daughters, roots, understanding, and, ultimately, healing.
208 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2000
15 people are currently reading
383 people want to read
About the author
Fern Schumer Chapman
11 books65 followersCritically acclaimed Chicago-based writer Fern Schumer Chapman has written several award-winning books. Viking/Penguin released BROTHERS, SISTERS, STRANGERS: Sibling Estrangement and the Road to Reconciliation in 2021. She writes a blog about sibling estrangement for psychologytoday.com: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/bl... Some of her blog posts are compiled in her latest work, THE SIBLING ESTRANGEMENT JOURNAL: A Guided Exploration of Your Experiences .
Her memoir, MOTHERLAND -- a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award, and a BookSense76 pick -- is a popular choice for book clubs. She has written two picture books in the HAPPY HARPER series., which explores little people's big emotions.
Her other books -- IS IT NIGHT OR DAY?, LIKE FINDING MY TWIN, STUMBLING ON HISTORY, and THREE STARS IN THE NIGHT SKY -- are used in middle and high school classrooms. In 2004, Illinois Association of Teachers of English (IATE) named Chapman "Illinois Author of the Year." Twice, Oprah Winfrey shows have featured her books. The Junior Library Guild has selected STUMBLING ON HISTORY, IS IT NIGHT OR DAY?, and THREE STARS IN THE NIGHT SKY as featured titles.
Her memoir, MOTHERLAND -- a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award, and a BookSense76 pick -- is a popular choice for book clubs. She has written two picture books in the HAPPY HARPER series., which explores little people's big emotions.
Her other books -- IS IT NIGHT OR DAY?, LIKE FINDING MY TWIN, STUMBLING ON HISTORY, and THREE STARS IN THE NIGHT SKY -- are used in middle and high school classrooms. In 2004, Illinois Association of Teachers of English (IATE) named Chapman "Illinois Author of the Year." Twice, Oprah Winfrey shows have featured her books. The Junior Library Guild has selected STUMBLING ON HISTORY, IS IT NIGHT OR DAY?, and THREE STARS IN THE NIGHT SKY as featured titles.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 62 reviews
April 9, 2010
This was required reading for a Holocaust literature course I took in college. The author came and spoke at the school. My copy is autographed. The journey her and her mother took is both heartbreaking and hopeful. While some have criticized the way Chapman treated her mother, I applaud her for remaining true to their story.
October 27, 2024
Finished it in 24 hours- so harrowing
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May 8, 2020In 1938, when Edith Westerfeld was 12, her parents sent her from Germany to America to escape the Nazis. Edith survived, but most of her family perished in the death camps.
Read prologue: "I never thought of my mother as a Holocaust survivor ... the full pain of surviving."
Then read: "These young fugitves from war are called escapees ... No one escapes the motherland. Not my mother. Not me."
Like the phantom pain from an amputated limb, the loss of her home affects the author's mother in many ways. She conceals her childhood from her American family. She clings too hard to her only daughter, refusing her the normal independence that children need from their parents. She cannot abide changes in her life.
In 1998, a relic from Edith's past showed up in the mail: a letter from her mother to some distant cousins who had fled Germany for South America. The date: December 18, 1940. The German words plead for help in getting her husband out of the concentration camp, and then the two of them out of Germany. She cries in anguish that she is all alone, with none of her loved ones: "I open the door and no one is there." Edith's mother would later perish at age 43 in a different concentration camp.
Finally, it is time for Edith to face her past. Time to return to the Germany, to the motherland. Edith Westerfeld and her daughter, the author, plan a trip to Stockstadt, the German town of Edith's youth. Who they will meet there, who will be left who remembers her, what evidence they may find of the deceased Westerfeld family, no one knows.
The now-modern village bears few clues to Edith's past. She can't locate her house or even the town hall. A kindly man from the local history museum offers to show them around. But the next day, the local newspaper headline: "The Jew Edith Westerfled visists Stockstadt" has them wondering if Germany has changed at all.
The author, Fern Schumer Chapman, was a writer for the Chicago Tribune and still lives in the Chicagoland area.
Read prologue: "I never thought of my mother as a Holocaust survivor ... the full pain of surviving."
Then read: "These young fugitves from war are called escapees ... No one escapes the motherland. Not my mother. Not me."
Like the phantom pain from an amputated limb, the loss of her home affects the author's mother in many ways. She conceals her childhood from her American family. She clings too hard to her only daughter, refusing her the normal independence that children need from their parents. She cannot abide changes in her life.
In 1998, a relic from Edith's past showed up in the mail: a letter from her mother to some distant cousins who had fled Germany for South America. The date: December 18, 1940. The German words plead for help in getting her husband out of the concentration camp, and then the two of them out of Germany. She cries in anguish that she is all alone, with none of her loved ones: "I open the door and no one is there." Edith's mother would later perish at age 43 in a different concentration camp.
Finally, it is time for Edith to face her past. Time to return to the Germany, to the motherland. Edith Westerfeld and her daughter, the author, plan a trip to Stockstadt, the German town of Edith's youth. Who they will meet there, who will be left who remembers her, what evidence they may find of the deceased Westerfeld family, no one knows.
The now-modern village bears few clues to Edith's past. She can't locate her house or even the town hall. A kindly man from the local history museum offers to show them around. But the next day, the local newspaper headline: "The Jew Edith Westerfled visists Stockstadt" has them wondering if Germany has changed at all.
The author, Fern Schumer Chapman, was a writer for the Chicago Tribune and still lives in the Chicagoland area.
August 2, 2009
Motherland is a memoir of Edith Schumer who had returned to her hometown of Stockstadt am Rhein in Germany. As a child, she was sent to America by her parents to live with relatives in Chicago so that she would not have to experience Hitler's rage against the Jews. Edith had shut away her memories of the past and now it was time to face up to the reality of the past. The truth was found in a weed covered cemetery, one man's museum of things from the past, and an awkward class reunion of classmates from 1938.
I understand how Edith wanted to hide all that happened in the past and how she came to accept the results of what happened to her family.
A very good read.
I understand how Edith wanted to hide all that happened in the past and how she came to accept the results of what happened to her family.
A very good read.
June 25, 2023
Recommended and Loaned to me by a member of the Frauen Verein. A moving story, particularly that of Mina who refused to look the other way, was ostracised and then unable to let go. Couldn’t forgive herself for failing the Westerfeld‘s despite it being totally beyond her control.
Pg 44 it’s as if the Americans bombed yesterday - 2 Americans in Stockstadt, Germany. Seems a very biased American comment. Couldn’t have been any of the other allies could it? Just lost a star rating from me.
Pg 88 The corner’s ugly, unkempt state contrasts dramatically with the rest of the cemetery, like a housing project in the middle of an upscale neighbourhood. speaks volumes about the author. The latter part of the sentence isn’t even necessary to make the point. Grr!
Pg 114 Now, I notice, some signs tell us how many Kilometers to towns in other countries, like Zurich.
Pg 145 under his sleeve, he hides his Swiss Army knife, at the ready, in case he has to cut her throat to save her
Mina, by working for and being friends with the Westerfelds, especially Edith, became guilty by association. by not howling with the wolves she also challenged everyone else who did. Edith assumed Mina would be safe once she left. She is stuck in the past, telling Edith to avoid the people at the reunion as their families were all and (she claimed) still are Nazis at heart.
“But when her parents sent her away, my mother was a child- too young to comprehend the necessity, too old to overcome the loss….. Her understanding is stuck in a twelve-year-old’s broken heart. All she can know is that her mother and the Motherland abandoned and rejected her, and that’s what she can never escape.” Fern can now understand that her mother tried to spare her her own fate. That explains why when Fern started college it was a like a funeral for her mother, akin to an act of betrayal, severing the most basic bond of their relationship.
Finally Edith acknowledges she paid a terrible price for a better life.
Pg 44 it’s as if the Americans bombed yesterday - 2 Americans in Stockstadt, Germany. Seems a very biased American comment. Couldn’t have been any of the other allies could it? Just lost a star rating from me.
Pg 88 The corner’s ugly, unkempt state contrasts dramatically with the rest of the cemetery, like a housing project in the middle of an upscale neighbourhood. speaks volumes about the author. The latter part of the sentence isn’t even necessary to make the point. Grr!
Pg 114 Now, I notice, some signs tell us how many Kilometers to towns in other countries, like Zurich.
Pg 145 under his sleeve, he hides his Swiss Army knife, at the ready, in case he has to cut her throat to save her
Mina, by working for and being friends with the Westerfelds, especially Edith, became guilty by association. by not howling with the wolves she also challenged everyone else who did. Edith assumed Mina would be safe once she left. She is stuck in the past, telling Edith to avoid the people at the reunion as their families were all and (she claimed) still are Nazis at heart.
“But when her parents sent her away, my mother was a child- too young to comprehend the necessity, too old to overcome the loss….. Her understanding is stuck in a twelve-year-old’s broken heart. All she can know is that her mother and the Motherland abandoned and rejected her, and that’s what she can never escape.” Fern can now understand that her mother tried to spare her her own fate. That explains why when Fern started college it was a like a funeral for her mother, akin to an act of betrayal, severing the most basic bond of their relationship.
Finally Edith acknowledges she paid a terrible price for a better life.
August 4, 2020
3 1/2 stars rounded up to 4.
Fern Chapman is a journalism professor at Northwestern University. Her German mother was sent to Chicago by her parents shortly before the start of World War II. Her mother was devastated to be separated from her family, who she never saw again (they apparently died in concentration camps). Her mother never really dealt with her past, but it impacted her and her relationship with her husband and daughter.
Unexpectedly, Fern's mother decides that she wants to go back to her hometown in Germany and Fern agrees to accompany her. She finds much in her hometown that has changed, but much that is different. She attends a reunion of her grammar school class and remembers a friend who "saved her a seat" at school even when it was politically inadvisable and hears from another person who has lived his life in shame because he turned away Fern's mother when he was a Nazi soldier and she begged him for help. She finds a woman who had worked as a servant in their house as a young woman and was one of her best friends.
Fern Chapman is a journalism professor at Northwestern University. Her German mother was sent to Chicago by her parents shortly before the start of World War II. Her mother was devastated to be separated from her family, who she never saw again (they apparently died in concentration camps). Her mother never really dealt with her past, but it impacted her and her relationship with her husband and daughter.
Unexpectedly, Fern's mother decides that she wants to go back to her hometown in Germany and Fern agrees to accompany her. She finds much in her hometown that has changed, but much that is different. She attends a reunion of her grammar school class and remembers a friend who "saved her a seat" at school even when it was politically inadvisable and hears from another person who has lived his life in shame because he turned away Fern's mother when he was a Nazi soldier and she begged him for help. She finds a woman who had worked as a servant in their house as a young woman and was one of her best friends.
May 31, 2019
I started reading this book with a jaded attitude. My book club picked it. We read several books about the Holocaust, so I wasn't looking forward to this one. However, (warning, some spoilers in the next paragraph)
Chapman drew me in with her first few paragraphs. I remember thinking, "this book is going to be different." Although Chapman lets us in on all the victims residual suffering. Not only did her mother suffer the direct horrors of the Holocaust, but so did her mother's daughter, her childhood friends, and really, in one way or another, all the members of her mother's childhood village.
Chapman pulls at the thread of her mother's past and unravels the fabric of history. This is a book that I will recommend to friends and family, particularly those who have trauma in their pasts. Not because it relives the trauma, but because it sheds a light on the fallout of deep suffering.
Not only will I recommend this book, I'll put in on my shelf to re-read.
Chapman drew me in with her first few paragraphs. I remember thinking, "this book is going to be different." Although Chapman lets us in on all the victims residual suffering. Not only did her mother suffer the direct horrors of the Holocaust, but so did her mother's daughter, her childhood friends, and really, in one way or another, all the members of her mother's childhood village.
Chapman pulls at the thread of her mother's past and unravels the fabric of history. This is a book that I will recommend to friends and family, particularly those who have trauma in their pasts. Not because it relives the trauma, but because it sheds a light on the fallout of deep suffering.
Not only will I recommend this book, I'll put in on my shelf to re-read.
July 26, 2024
Chapman’s memoir, Motherland, is heartfelt and insightful. When the author’s mother, Edith was 12 years old, she had to flee from Germany in order to survive the mistreatment and persecution of the Nazis in her own hometown. Her parents made the supreme sacrifice of sending her away so she could live. However, Edith never could come to terms with her feelings of abandonment. When she married her past affected her marriage, and when she became a mother, her insecurities informed her parenting.
Then, when she’s in her 60s she decides to go back to her hometown in the company of her daughter. The trip brings fear and anxiety, but also answers and closure that help to create a bond between mother and daughter.
The book reads like a novel, giving us historical context and insight into the effect of war on the persecuted and the persecutors, on the rebels and those who stood by and did nothing.
Then, when she’s in her 60s she decides to go back to her hometown in the company of her daughter. The trip brings fear and anxiety, but also answers and closure that help to create a bond between mother and daughter.
The book reads like a novel, giving us historical context and insight into the effect of war on the persecuted and the persecutors, on the rebels and those who stood by and did nothing.
June 13, 2023
Amazing story. True story. Local author. Friend of my author cousin.
When the elderly mother (a holocaust escapee) and her grown, very pregnant daughter (the author) travelled back to Germany, they were seeking answers. They found those answers. And more.
Incredible to think of the scars these Jewish women (and many others) carried. From generation to generation. But also amazing to find that the ones they left behind were also scarred. Mostly by guilt. Guilt that they did nothing. And guilt that they didn’t do enough.
I am always especially impressed when an author researches a book and saves the story and, sometimes, even becomes a part of it. Like Rebecca Skloot did when she wrote “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” and like my cousin, Arnie Bernstein, did when he wrote “Bath Massacre: America’s First School Bombing”.
Kudos to authors.
When the elderly mother (a holocaust escapee) and her grown, very pregnant daughter (the author) travelled back to Germany, they were seeking answers. They found those answers. And more.
Incredible to think of the scars these Jewish women (and many others) carried. From generation to generation. But also amazing to find that the ones they left behind were also scarred. Mostly by guilt. Guilt that they did nothing. And guilt that they didn’t do enough.
I am always especially impressed when an author researches a book and saves the story and, sometimes, even becomes a part of it. Like Rebecca Skloot did when she wrote “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” and like my cousin, Arnie Bernstein, did when he wrote “Bath Massacre: America’s First School Bombing”.
Kudos to authors.
April 15, 2019
“In Germany, I saw the intensity of the war’s effect in so many lives, and how it’s existence lingers. Those who lived through it have been shaped, then defined, and finally, irreparably damaged by it. Yet they were “the lucky ones,” not physically injured by the war, suffering only from its corrosive reach.”
This is the true story of a woman who travels with her mother to Germany, to the city she lived in before WWII. In an effort to save her from the Nazis, her parents sent her, at age 12, to live with relatives in America. Being sent away had long-lasting effects on her and her future family...issues that are explored and somewhat resolved during their visits. I was fascinated by the attitudes of many German citizens even 50 years after the war.
This is the true story of a woman who travels with her mother to Germany, to the city she lived in before WWII. In an effort to save her from the Nazis, her parents sent her, at age 12, to live with relatives in America. Being sent away had long-lasting effects on her and her future family...issues that are explored and somewhat resolved during their visits. I was fascinated by the attitudes of many German citizens even 50 years after the war.
May 19, 2024
When a book is touted as having great emotional appeal, I take it with a grain of salt, knowing they're trying to sell it. But this memoir, for me, did tug on some emotional strings.
The denial of the German people reminded me of the denial of Whites in the South regarding slavery and later on the treating of Blacks as a kind of 3rd class citizen. “We didn’t know – We didn’t do that, someone else did – We were afraid of what would happen to us if we stepped up. While you can maybe understand this point of view, it’s hard to forgive, especially when lives are at stake. They DID know … not necessarily the extent of what was going on … but they knew that what was going on wasn’t right.
The denial of the German people reminded me of the denial of Whites in the South regarding slavery and later on the treating of Blacks as a kind of 3rd class citizen. “We didn’t know – We didn’t do that, someone else did – We were afraid of what would happen to us if we stepped up. While you can maybe understand this point of view, it’s hard to forgive, especially when lives are at stake. They DID know … not necessarily the extent of what was going on … but they knew that what was going on wasn’t right.
July 23, 2018
I read Is it Night or Day? which was a YA fiction based on her mother's experience of coming to America and enjoyed it so when I saw she had also written about their return to her town 50 years later I was happy to pick it up. Most stories about the Holocaust center around the camps but her mother escaped and so more of her story is how the everyday person in her small town treated her family before and after she was sent away.
January 28, 2023
"'Many members of the Protestant church were bitterly anti-Semetic and fervently pro-Nazi...while the Catholics weren't quite as extreme, the pope supported the Nazis, too.'" (P.170)
It took a little while for me to get into this book, but once I did, I was hooked. The quote above is almost reminscent of current-day events. If we don't learn from history, history is bound to repeat itself. We need to face our past, learn from our mistakes, and make peace with our past.
It took a little while for me to get into this book, but once I did, I was hooked. The quote above is almost reminscent of current-day events. If we don't learn from history, history is bound to repeat itself. We need to face our past, learn from our mistakes, and make peace with our past.
January 15, 2019
This was beautifully written. It gave me a lot of insight about the complicated relationships between mothers and daughters. As a daughter of a holocaust refugee, I now understand my mother so much more than I did before.
February 6, 2020
A different take on the Holocaust. It tells the effect it had on children who were sent away to safety in other countries by their parents and on their home town gentile friends and schoolmates who spent the war in Germany. The devastating toll the war took on them all is spread before us.
February 9, 2022
I understand so many important things now
This was a book within a book within a book. A reader doesn’t need to be interested in the Holocaust to appreciate this riveting book. They just need to care about loss, mothers, and the complexities of life. I wish it hadn’t ended.
This was a book within a book within a book. A reader doesn’t need to be interested in the Holocaust to appreciate this riveting book. They just need to care about loss, mothers, and the complexities of life. I wish it hadn’t ended.
December 22, 2024
I found the story interesting but it seemed to lag at times. Overall, it was a different perspective from a survivor who was sent to the USA and then returned to meet her German neighbors who were collaborators and also find a friend who refused to collaborate and paid the consequences.
May 25, 2019
BEAUTIFUL ❤️❤️❤️😍😍❣️❣️
April 1, 2020
Outstanding book! Leaves you wanting to know more of Edith Westerfeld and her daughter's lives.
July 15, 2021
The children (and grandchildren) of escapees from Nazi persecution have not as often written about their perspective on its effects; this book gives a very personal account and does it well.
Read
June 21, 2023Accurate, true, heart breaking. I attended her lecture and she is so amazing.
March 22, 2024
It shows that traumas in childhood affect your entire life.
September 20, 2025
3.5 stars
February 27, 2019
This is another book about what the author calls the ‘half-life of the Holocaust’ - a phrase that seems to me a perfect description of this phenomenon. It’s a topic I find fascinating. Although this book is not written with the same literary finesse as some others, the author made, at times, startlingly perceptive observations about the way that WWII has shaped both Jews and Germans.
August 23, 2015
A very fine memoir of Schumer Chapman's trip to Germany with her mother, who fled her small town in 1938 and travelled to America as part of the One Thousand Children saved by church groups in the 1930s and 40s. The story takes you through both the physical trip locating a small town and places that have changed, and the emotional journey of understanding how her mother ended up the person she is. The writing is profound but not difficult - the author's journalism background shows in the clarity of her sentences even when she is considering abstract concepts, like the response of her mother's home town residents to the appearance of the Jews driven out so long before or to the woman who was the only person to stand up against Naziism. And this is a very personal story, one you will read in a single sitting because you'll not be able to stand putting it down even when you are crying.
The author and her mother visited our middle school and told even more of the story, including their later visits to Germany and the changes in the town and townspeople. It was amazing.
The author and her mother visited our middle school and told even more of the story, including their later visits to Germany and the changes in the town and townspeople. It was amazing.
May 1, 2016
Motherland is one of those books that once you start it.....you can't stop until it is finished. Edith suffers for survivors guilt. She was sent to Chicago to live with cousins and Hitler's rise to power increases. She tries so hard to not appear German but never feels like she fits in here. She doesn't really know what happened to her family. Edith can't share here heritage, experience or what is bothering her with her daughter Fern.
Out of the blue, Edith decides that it is time for her and Fern to make the trip to Germany. To go back to her hometown and find out what is left and what happened to her family.
Motherland is her journey to closer. It is also Fern's journey to understanding her mother and thus herself.
A very beautiful, haunting story.
Out of the blue, Edith decides that it is time for her and Fern to make the trip to Germany. To go back to her hometown and find out what is left and what happened to her family.
Motherland is her journey to closer. It is also Fern's journey to understanding her mother and thus herself.
A very beautiful, haunting story.
October 24, 2020
I was expecting a novel, but it turned out to be a memoir. Well written, told from the perspective of the daughter, whose mother was sent to America at the age of 12 to avoid persecution by the Nazis. We get a sense of how non-Jewish Germans felt about the situation and how the mother grew up with this cloud hanging over her head.
I seem to be gravitating toward books that chronicle the dark side of our history, especially the effects on individuals. This book was uplifting in a certain way, as was A Man Called Ove, but the uplift comes through darkness. And yet what's the point of simple happy talk books? Unless you're reading to a child, of course. One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish.
I seem to be gravitating toward books that chronicle the dark side of our history, especially the effects on individuals. This book was uplifting in a certain way, as was A Man Called Ove, but the uplift comes through darkness. And yet what's the point of simple happy talk books? Unless you're reading to a child, of course. One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish.
September 2, 2008
Okay, I admit, I am usually too chicken to read or watch a film about the atrocities of the Holocaust. It leaves me with an insufferable sense of doom.
But Fern Schumer takes us on a journey from a totally different perspective, that of a young Jewish girl in a small German town, her mother. This true story written so beautifuly recounts her mother's journey to reclaim her childhood which along the way leads to her uncovering some dark truths.
I am so glad I set aside my anxieties and read this wonderfully written story of damaged people putting back the pieces of their lives.
But Fern Schumer takes us on a journey from a totally different perspective, that of a young Jewish girl in a small German town, her mother. This true story written so beautifuly recounts her mother's journey to reclaim her childhood which along the way leads to her uncovering some dark truths.
I am so glad I set aside my anxieties and read this wonderfully written story of damaged people putting back the pieces of their lives.
February 16, 2009
This was a very different revelation about WWII and Hitler. So many people were so adversely affected by the Holocaust. Not only were the Jews so terribly stricken, but the Germans suffered too. It turned neighbor against neighbor. Some were left with profound guilt, others had hatred that never went away. Childhoods were lost and families were torn. In spite of that, the world heals. Sometimes it takes a couple of generations. People can repair their lives and some will move on. It left one hopeful.
August 16, 2011
Virginia Woolf once said "Things we have felt with great intensity, have an existence independent of our minds." So it is with Edith, the mother in this story who was sent to Chicago as a child to escape the holocaust. Never discussing the circumstances with her daughter, the two return to Germany after the war to repair old wounds. Not only has Edith been unable to move forward, but the reactions of the German townspeople, many who persecuted her family are also stuck in time. This is a great addition to holocaust literature.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 62 reviews