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Deviazione
“A volte quando si tocca il fondo di uno sviamento, si sbuca infine dall’altra parte” Luce d’EramoLucia è una giovane donna di origini borghesi, figlia di un sottosegretario della Repubblica di Salò, che è vissuta in Francia e ha alimentato, attraverso la lontananza, i miti del fascismo dentro i quali è cresciuta. Non solo, ora è convinta che fra le menzogne sul nazifascismo ci siano anche le crudeltà dei campi di lavoro. Decide di verificare in prima persona e si reca, come volontaria, nei Lager, sicura di poter smentire quelle che ritiene calunnie sulle modalità di trattamento dei “lavoratori” da parte del grande Reich di Hitler. È allora che comincia una discesa agli inferi, complessa, violenta, che legge l’orrore, lo assume in sé e sembra addirittura “scontarlo”. Luce d’Eramo ripercorre con Lucia un tracciato di formazione che è stato il suo, un tracciato che tuttora, soprattutto ora (accecati da ogni sorta di revisionismo), suona come avventura della coscienza, testimonianza e grido di allarme. Deviazione è una storia che ci parla dell’inaudita fatica che costa lo spogliarsi delle menzogne con cui la memoria (individuale e collettiva) si racconta il proprio passato. Un libro che con grande lucidità svela i meccanismi collettivi di rimozione del passato fascista e nazista, il raccontarseli come se non fossero mai avvenuti o come non potessero mai più avvenire. Uscito nel 1979, Deviazione ha conosciuto subito un grandissimo successo ed è stato pubblicato in tutto il mondo. Un capolavoro assoluto.
445 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1979
49 people are currently reading
882 people want to read
About the author
Luce D'Eramo
25 books14 followersLuce D’Eramo (1925–2001) was born in Reims, France, to Italian parents. She is the author of numerous works of fiction and nonfiction, including the novels Deviation (1979), a fictionalized account of her experiences during the Second World War and Nucleo Zero, (1981), about the polical terrorism in Italy of the Years of Lead.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews
May 28, 2018
Luce D'Eramo was born and educated in Reims, France until age fourteen when her bourgeois Fascist family moved back to Italy. At university, Lucia (Luce) was a member of GUF (Association of Fascist Students). Her ideology was put to the test when she decided to eyewitness labor camp life with the intention of disproving the so-called atrocities being alluded to about Nazi-Fascism. Running away from home, she discarded her identity documents and volunteered for camp labor in Germany. She secured a job in Munich as part of a work crew assigned to clean out waste pipes and empty cesspools.
The stark, brutal reality of camp life made Lucia determined to escape. The ideal escape window was during an air raid and enemy bombardment which created chaos where "every boom is (an) accomplice". Lucia found her way to a transit camp. Prior societal rules experienced by this nineteen year old college student were irrevocably altered. The norms of Nazi camp life created "deviations", conformity to an aberrant way of life. Lucia described the difficulty of trusting, indicating that it was safer to be unnoticed as if one did not exist. To stay alive, it would be better not to feel or love. Lucia no longer identified with her privileged upbringing. She was subjected to subhuman treatment that included running naked and barefoot behind a truck during a heavy rainstorm. She described being freezing on the outside and burning with fury and humiliation inside.
In recounting her memories, she found them to be fragmented. Many memories were repressed. At times, there might be a disconnect between what was remembered and what really was. "...memory proves to be fluid: shifting sands that constantly rearrange themselves".
"Deviation" by Luce D'Eramo is arguably one of the great Italian novels written in the twentieth century. It was written in four parts starting in 1945. It was not completed for over thirty years. As such, this reader found the work of Holocaust literature to be complex, but at times unclear and redundant. An important novel and testimonial, although for this reviewer, a 3 star read.
Thank you Farrar, Straus and Giroux and Net Galley for the opportunity to read and review "Deviation".
The stark, brutal reality of camp life made Lucia determined to escape. The ideal escape window was during an air raid and enemy bombardment which created chaos where "every boom is (an) accomplice". Lucia found her way to a transit camp. Prior societal rules experienced by this nineteen year old college student were irrevocably altered. The norms of Nazi camp life created "deviations", conformity to an aberrant way of life. Lucia described the difficulty of trusting, indicating that it was safer to be unnoticed as if one did not exist. To stay alive, it would be better not to feel or love. Lucia no longer identified with her privileged upbringing. She was subjected to subhuman treatment that included running naked and barefoot behind a truck during a heavy rainstorm. She described being freezing on the outside and burning with fury and humiliation inside.
In recounting her memories, she found them to be fragmented. Many memories were repressed. At times, there might be a disconnect between what was remembered and what really was. "...memory proves to be fluid: shifting sands that constantly rearrange themselves".
"Deviation" by Luce D'Eramo is arguably one of the great Italian novels written in the twentieth century. It was written in four parts starting in 1945. It was not completed for over thirty years. As such, this reader found the work of Holocaust literature to be complex, but at times unclear and redundant. An important novel and testimonial, although for this reviewer, a 3 star read.
Thank you Farrar, Straus and Giroux and Net Galley for the opportunity to read and review "Deviation".
Read
October 2, 2018DNF at a30%. The style is very different, very scattered. An important book but one I don't have the patience nor concentration for right now.
October 15, 2020
“Figuriamoci poi a quelli che non ci sono stati, cosa volete che li possa interessare. Non c’è niente d’universale nelle nostre sofferenze, c’è solo del parossistico, dell’inumano e del triviale. Io voglio dimenticare tutto al più presto, cancellare tutto.”
Ho odiato questo libro; tanto da volermene liberare la più presto...
Lo aprivo e mi dicevo:
«Ancora un paragrafo e lo abbandono…».
Poi, stranamente, continuavo imperterrita, macinando rabbia per quell’andamento saltellante, quella voce narrante che passava dalla prima alla terza persona, quell’atmosfera in bilico tra l’ironia e il patetico sentimentalismo.
Continuavo, fin quando, a tre quarti di lettura circa, il mio sguardo ha trovato nuove lenti, le mie orecchie hanno sentito altri suoni e il mio cuore si è emozionato per quello che prima non vedeva e sentiva.
Quella che mi era apparsa solo come un’adolescente viziata e vanitosa:
frutto acerbo che si crede maturo; un piccolo insetto che esce dal bozzolo ovattato dove è stato allevato.
Una classe privilegiata e l’enfasi della retorica fascista che illude di essere forti ed invincibili.
Quella che mi era apparsa come una sorta di goliardata di cattivo gusto, si è poi rivelata come qualcosa di profondamente diverso.
Si è vero: Lucia/Luce nasce e cresce attorniata da fini porcellane in una famiglia che si vanta di essere fascista fin dalla prima ora.
La classe sociale unita al credo politico le costruiscono attorno una gabbia fatta di regole e in cui la morale è la norma imperante per essere accettati.
E’ il 4 febbraio 1944 quando la diciannovenne Lucia lascia un biglietto e se ne va lasciando tutti gli agi.
Parte e stuzzicata dalle voci infamanti che circolano sul Terzo Reich decide di andare a verificare di persona offrendosi come operaia volontaria.
Questo auto- declassamento sarà il primo dei tradimenti verso la famiglia di origine e l’ambiente di appartenenza mentre nello zaino, una foto di Hitler ed una Mussolini testimoniano la fede ancora salda nei valori che le sono stati insegnati.
Lucia ancora non ne è cosciente ma la strada della deviazione è già intrapresa; la scelta di continuare su altri percorsi rispetto a quelli che le erano stati spianati, è già in corso d’opera.
Quella che inizialmente sembra essere una coraggiosa avventura, si rivela come determinante scelta di campo in un crescendo sempre più drammatico.
Questo,tuttavia, non è solo un racconto autobiografico ma un vero e proprio memoir, ossia quel tipo di scrittura che ricorda testimoniando attraverso il vissuto le proprie emozioni.
Operaia, fuggitiva, imprigionata, internata a Dachau:
un continuo movimento fisico e morale che spazia dallo spirito di solidarietà (”(…) solidarietà che è diversa dalla coralità fascista”) alla difesa della propria solitudine come arma di sopravvivenza.
Una corsa affannata che si arresta sotto il crollo di un muro a Magonza mentre con altri cerca di aiutare una famiglia finita sotto le macerie dei bombardamenti.
Tutto sembra fermarsi ma di fronte alla realtà di questo corpo spezzato («mezzo donna, mezzo sirena») si scateneranno forme ancora più travolgenti.
Quello che uno psicologo moderno chiamerebbe “resilienza” come bene dice la critica letteraria Nadia Fusini nella sua prefazione.
La struttura del testo è spiazzante e si comprende al meglio solo nell’ultima parte.
Gli scritti si susseguono in base alla cronologia di scrittura e non secondo alla successione dei fatti.
1953- “Thomasbräu”
1954- “Asilo a Dachau”
1961- “Finchè la testa vive”
1975- “Ch 89”
1977- “La deviazione”
I primi tre racconti utilizzano la prima persona.
Nel quarto c’è una svolta che porta l’autrice a prendere le distanze della Terza persona.
L’ultimo scritto è, di fatti, quello che tira le fila dando regione di questa scelta che mette in successione non i fatti ma il percorso di presa di coscienza della propria memoria.
” Con un paradosso che descrive in modo emblematico la sua esperienza, se fuggendo s’è imprigionata, ora, costretta al carcere duro del corpo spezzato, la donna “mezzo donna mezzo sirena” cerca la libertà del pensiero e la verità del ricordo. E della memoria scopre i trucchi, le omissioni, le reticenze; insomma, le “deviazioni”. Denuncia come i ricordi si possano falsificare, come si possano inventare quelli che servono, eliminare quelli che non servono a vivere nel presente. Nell’intreccio tra il presente quando è presente e il presente quando è passato, la fiction interviene a smussare, a rimuovere, a dimenticare... È questa deviazione che alla fine le interessa più di ogni altra.”
Un’opera che trova la sua completezza per valore storico e umano al tempo stesso.
Un dolore che si rinnova nel cercare razionali spiegazioni agli orrori della Storia e la fatica dello scavare dentro di sé per liberarsi dalle pastoie delle reticenze.
Ho odiato questo libro; tanto da volermene liberare la più presto...
Lo aprivo e mi dicevo:
«Ancora un paragrafo e lo abbandono…».
Poi, stranamente, continuavo imperterrita, macinando rabbia per quell’andamento saltellante, quella voce narrante che passava dalla prima alla terza persona, quell’atmosfera in bilico tra l’ironia e il patetico sentimentalismo.
Continuavo, fin quando, a tre quarti di lettura circa, il mio sguardo ha trovato nuove lenti, le mie orecchie hanno sentito altri suoni e il mio cuore si è emozionato per quello che prima non vedeva e sentiva.
Quella che mi era apparsa solo come un’adolescente viziata e vanitosa:
frutto acerbo che si crede maturo; un piccolo insetto che esce dal bozzolo ovattato dove è stato allevato.
Una classe privilegiata e l’enfasi della retorica fascista che illude di essere forti ed invincibili.
Quella che mi era apparsa come una sorta di goliardata di cattivo gusto, si è poi rivelata come qualcosa di profondamente diverso.
Si è vero: Lucia/Luce nasce e cresce attorniata da fini porcellane in una famiglia che si vanta di essere fascista fin dalla prima ora.
La classe sociale unita al credo politico le costruiscono attorno una gabbia fatta di regole e in cui la morale è la norma imperante per essere accettati.
E’ il 4 febbraio 1944 quando la diciannovenne Lucia lascia un biglietto e se ne va lasciando tutti gli agi.
Parte e stuzzicata dalle voci infamanti che circolano sul Terzo Reich decide di andare a verificare di persona offrendosi come operaia volontaria.
Questo auto- declassamento sarà il primo dei tradimenti verso la famiglia di origine e l’ambiente di appartenenza mentre nello zaino, una foto di Hitler ed una Mussolini testimoniano la fede ancora salda nei valori che le sono stati insegnati.
Lucia ancora non ne è cosciente ma la strada della deviazione è già intrapresa; la scelta di continuare su altri percorsi rispetto a quelli che le erano stati spianati, è già in corso d’opera.
Quella che inizialmente sembra essere una coraggiosa avventura, si rivela come determinante scelta di campo in un crescendo sempre più drammatico.
Questo,tuttavia, non è solo un racconto autobiografico ma un vero e proprio memoir, ossia quel tipo di scrittura che ricorda testimoniando attraverso il vissuto le proprie emozioni.
Operaia, fuggitiva, imprigionata, internata a Dachau:
un continuo movimento fisico e morale che spazia dallo spirito di solidarietà (”(…) solidarietà che è diversa dalla coralità fascista”) alla difesa della propria solitudine come arma di sopravvivenza.
Una corsa affannata che si arresta sotto il crollo di un muro a Magonza mentre con altri cerca di aiutare una famiglia finita sotto le macerie dei bombardamenti.
Tutto sembra fermarsi ma di fronte alla realtà di questo corpo spezzato («mezzo donna, mezzo sirena») si scateneranno forme ancora più travolgenti.
Quello che uno psicologo moderno chiamerebbe “resilienza” come bene dice la critica letteraria Nadia Fusini nella sua prefazione.
La struttura del testo è spiazzante e si comprende al meglio solo nell’ultima parte.
Gli scritti si susseguono in base alla cronologia di scrittura e non secondo alla successione dei fatti.
1953- “Thomasbräu”
1954- “Asilo a Dachau”
1961- “Finchè la testa vive”
1975- “Ch 89”
1977- “La deviazione”
I primi tre racconti utilizzano la prima persona.
Nel quarto c’è una svolta che porta l’autrice a prendere le distanze della Terza persona.
L’ultimo scritto è, di fatti, quello che tira le fila dando regione di questa scelta che mette in successione non i fatti ma il percorso di presa di coscienza della propria memoria.
” Con un paradosso che descrive in modo emblematico la sua esperienza, se fuggendo s’è imprigionata, ora, costretta al carcere duro del corpo spezzato, la donna “mezzo donna mezzo sirena” cerca la libertà del pensiero e la verità del ricordo. E della memoria scopre i trucchi, le omissioni, le reticenze; insomma, le “deviazioni”. Denuncia come i ricordi si possano falsificare, come si possano inventare quelli che servono, eliminare quelli che non servono a vivere nel presente. Nell’intreccio tra il presente quando è presente e il presente quando è passato, la fiction interviene a smussare, a rimuovere, a dimenticare... È questa deviazione che alla fine le interessa più di ogni altra.”
Un’opera che trova la sua completezza per valore storico e umano al tempo stesso.
Un dolore che si rinnova nel cercare razionali spiegazioni agli orrori della Storia e la fatica dello scavare dentro di sé per liberarsi dalle pastoie delle reticenze.
May 22, 2019
The book is an account of a horrific chain of events that in fact happened to the author, who survived Dachau.
But it is also unabashedly subjective: part-memoir, part fiction, a mix of first- and third-person accounts, and in no way trying to hold itself up as 'the truth,' and it's told in a non-linear, fractured manner, in four broken parts where even the protagonist/author's name is different from one section to the next.
I realize that what I just wrote contradicts itself. If something "in fact happened," then it's not "subjective," or usually it isn't, anyway.
In fact, the author contradicts herself many times about what is true and not-true, right here in the text:
There is a fact that I evaded. By so often saying that i had been deported to Dachau, I ended up believing it. But it's not true. My companions were transferred to that Lager. Not me. I was repatriated.
As I read this book I began to think about how different it was from the shaped memory of Night by Elie Wiesel, a book in which each scene is written novelistically; a book that Wiesel called his true experience.
Wiesel's truth is presented in a more polished way for the reader than Deviation, though. Wiesel's people die in well-written ways, with the tools of fiction vivifying each scene, as in this passage about three Jews who are hanged:
Both adults were already dead. The noose had choked them at once. Instantly they expired. Their extended tongues were red as fire. Only the slight Jewish child with the lost dreamy eyes was still alive. His body weighed too little. Was too light. The noose didn't catch. The slow death of the little meshoresl took thirty-five minutes. And we saw him wobbling, swaying, on the rope, with his bluish-red tongue extended, with a prayer on his grey-white lips, a prayer to God...When we saw him like that, the hanged child, many of us didn't want to, couldn't keep from crying.
In Deviation there is no such scene-building, no use of metaphor, and very little reportage of how witnesses felt to see others brutalized and killed. There is a flatness in the storytelling, frequently to the point where I felt detached from the brutalizing deaths of victims portrayed. It could be that this detachment is closer to the "truth" of what survivors felt when they witnessed so much senseless death all around them. It could be that Wiesel's emotionally vivid scene-building where survivors cry and pray to God gives readers solace, though, and reminds readers of the truth that human lives were lost, and in that way Night provides another kind of truth--truth with a bit of hope in it, maybe.
In Deviation people come and go, events seem utterly random, and what is significant and what is meaningless blend together. By consistently calling attention to itself as subjective, and by refusing to mold itself into a narrative or to use Bildungsroman structural elements, it remains deeply unsatisfying in some ways. It's a lot of work to read this book. Without fictional and scenic props to pull me along, it could be tedious. I find Night much more heart-rending because it's full of the tools of fiction to drive its messages into our hearts. But D'Eramo's kind of storytelling offers an alternative that might bring us closer to the truth of an author's own experience.
But it is also unabashedly subjective: part-memoir, part fiction, a mix of first- and third-person accounts, and in no way trying to hold itself up as 'the truth,' and it's told in a non-linear, fractured manner, in four broken parts where even the protagonist/author's name is different from one section to the next.
I realize that what I just wrote contradicts itself. If something "in fact happened," then it's not "subjective," or usually it isn't, anyway.
In fact, the author contradicts herself many times about what is true and not-true, right here in the text:
There is a fact that I evaded. By so often saying that i had been deported to Dachau, I ended up believing it. But it's not true. My companions were transferred to that Lager. Not me. I was repatriated.
As I read this book I began to think about how different it was from the shaped memory of Night by Elie Wiesel, a book in which each scene is written novelistically; a book that Wiesel called his true experience.
Wiesel's truth is presented in a more polished way for the reader than Deviation, though. Wiesel's people die in well-written ways, with the tools of fiction vivifying each scene, as in this passage about three Jews who are hanged:
Both adults were already dead. The noose had choked them at once. Instantly they expired. Their extended tongues were red as fire. Only the slight Jewish child with the lost dreamy eyes was still alive. His body weighed too little. Was too light. The noose didn't catch. The slow death of the little meshoresl took thirty-five minutes. And we saw him wobbling, swaying, on the rope, with his bluish-red tongue extended, with a prayer on his grey-white lips, a prayer to God...When we saw him like that, the hanged child, many of us didn't want to, couldn't keep from crying.
In Deviation there is no such scene-building, no use of metaphor, and very little reportage of how witnesses felt to see others brutalized and killed. There is a flatness in the storytelling, frequently to the point where I felt detached from the brutalizing deaths of victims portrayed. It could be that this detachment is closer to the "truth" of what survivors felt when they witnessed so much senseless death all around them. It could be that Wiesel's emotionally vivid scene-building where survivors cry and pray to God gives readers solace, though, and reminds readers of the truth that human lives were lost, and in that way Night provides another kind of truth--truth with a bit of hope in it, maybe.
In Deviation people come and go, events seem utterly random, and what is significant and what is meaningless blend together. By consistently calling attention to itself as subjective, and by refusing to mold itself into a narrative or to use Bildungsroman structural elements, it remains deeply unsatisfying in some ways. It's a lot of work to read this book. Without fictional and scenic props to pull me along, it could be tedious. I find Night much more heart-rending because it's full of the tools of fiction to drive its messages into our hearts. But D'Eramo's kind of storytelling offers an alternative that might bring us closer to the truth of an author's own experience.
April 24, 2021
4.5/⭐
Η Luce D'Eramo μας διηγείται την ιστορία της. Πως μεγάλωσε μέχρι τα δεκατέσσερα της στην Γαλλία και την επιστροφή της αστικής οικογένειας της, στην χώρα καταγωγής τους Ιταλία. Μεγαλωμένη σε ένα καλά φυλαγμένο περιβάλλον, σε ένα γυαλινο κλουβί. Έρχεται σε επαφή μόνο με τον φασισμό! Πιστεύει σε αυτήν την ιδεολογία μιας και το κάνουν όλοι οι δικοί της ανθρωποι. Είναι το μόνο που ξέρει μιας και η κοινωνική της τάξη τάσσεται πολιτικά υπερ.
Στο πανεπιστήμιο η Λουτσία είναι μέλος της GUF (Ένωση Φασιστικών Φοιτητών). Μέχρι που ξεκινάνε κάποιες τρομερές φήμες για το Νταχάου και τα στρατόπεδα συγκέντρωσης. Τότε αποφασίζει να αφήσεις τις πλούσιες ανέσεις της, και με ένα σακίδιο στην πλάτη και την φωτογραφία του Χίτλερ στο στήθος της - πιστεύοντας ακόμη στο πρόσωπο του - ξεκινάει το προσωπικό της ταξίδι και η δοκιμασία όλων των πιστεύων της.
Και αυτό που αρχικά στο μυαλό της είναι μια θαρραλέα περιπέτεια αποδεικνύεται το σημείο καμπής όλης της, της ζωής. Η Λουτσία μας περιγράφει ότι αποτρόπαιο βλέπει να διαδραματίζεται μπροστά της και εκεί θα αποφασίσει να χαράξει ένα διαφορετικό δρόμο. Θα γίνει φυγάς, θα προσπαθήσει να σώσει οικογένειες κάτω από βομβαρδισμένα τοπία, θα νιώσει την ταπείνωση σε όλο της το κορμή και την ψυχή.
Καταλαβαίνεις διαβάζοντας το βιβλίο πόσο δύσκολο της είναι να αφηγηθεί κάποια γεγονότα και να γυρίσει πίσω στις μνήμες τους. Η δομή του κειμένου είναι αρκετά ασύνδετη και κατανοείται κυρίως στο τέλος. Τα κείμενα ακολουθούν χρονολογικά όχι τα γεγονότα όπως έγιναν αλλά την σειρά που γράφτηκαν. Το τελευταίο κομμάτι ήταν το αγαπημένο μου γιατί βλέπεις μέσα από το κείμενο της συγγραφεως την συνειδητοποίηση ό��ων των γεγονότων.
Η Εκτροπή είναι ένα σπουδαίο βιβλίο, διαφορικό από τα συνηθισμένα για το ΒΠΠ. Και μόνο για την ιστορική του υπόσταση, ότι εξιστορεί τα γεγονότα από έναν άνθρωπο που τα βίωσε, που άνηκε τουλάχιστον αρχικά στην αντίθετη παράταξη. Για μένα το κάνει διαφορετικό και ξεχωριστό!
Η Luce D'Eramo μας διηγείται την ιστορία της. Πως μεγάλωσε μέχρι τα δεκατέσσερα της στην Γαλλία και την επιστροφή της αστικής οικογένειας της, στην χώρα καταγωγής τους Ιταλία. Μεγαλωμένη σε ένα καλά φυλαγμένο περιβάλλον, σε ένα γυαλινο κλουβί. Έρχεται σε επαφή μόνο με τον φασισμό! Πιστεύει σε αυτήν την ιδεολογία μιας και το κάνουν όλοι οι δικοί της ανθρωποι. Είναι το μόνο που ξέρει μιας και η κοινωνική της τάξη τάσσεται πολιτικά υπερ.
Στο πανεπιστήμιο η Λουτσία είναι μέλος της GUF (Ένωση Φασιστικών Φοιτητών). Μέχρι που ξεκινάνε κάποιες τρομερές φήμες για το Νταχάου και τα στρατόπεδα συγκέντρωσης. Τότε αποφασίζει να αφήσεις τις πλούσιες ανέσεις της, και με ένα σακίδιο στην πλάτη και την φωτογραφία του Χίτλερ στο στήθος της - πιστεύοντας ακόμη στο πρόσωπο του - ξεκινάει το προσωπικό της ταξίδι και η δοκιμασία όλων των πιστεύων της.
Και αυτό που αρχικά στο μυαλό της είναι μια θαρραλέα περιπέτεια αποδεικνύεται το σημείο καμπής όλης της, της ζωής. Η Λουτσία μας περιγράφει ότι αποτρόπαιο βλέπει να διαδραματίζεται μπροστά της και εκεί θα αποφασίσει να χαράξει ένα διαφορετικό δρόμο. Θα γίνει φυγάς, θα προσπαθήσει να σώσει οικογένειες κάτω από βομβαρδισμένα τοπία, θα νιώσει την ταπείνωση σε όλο της το κορμή και την ψυχή.
Καταλαβαίνεις διαβάζοντας το βιβλίο πόσο δύσκολο της είναι να αφηγηθεί κάποια γεγονότα και να γυρίσει πίσω στις μνήμες τους. Η δομή του κειμένου είναι αρκετά ασύνδετη και κατανοείται κυρίως στο τέλος. Τα κείμενα ακολουθούν χρονολογικά όχι τα γεγονότα όπως έγιναν αλλά την σειρά που γράφτηκαν. Το τελευταίο κομμάτι ήταν το αγαπημένο μου γιατί βλέπεις μέσα από το κείμενο της συγγραφεως την συνειδητοποίηση ό��ων των γεγονότων.
Η Εκτροπή είναι ένα σπουδαίο βιβλίο, διαφορικό από τα συνηθισμένα για το ΒΠΠ. Και μόνο για την ιστορική του υπόσταση, ότι εξιστορεί τα γεγονότα από έναν άνθρωπο που τα βίωσε, που άνηκε τουλάχιστον αρχικά στην αντίθετη παράταξη. Για μένα το κάνει διαφορετικό και ξεχωριστό!
August 30, 2018
Deviation begins with a woman’s escape from a Nazi labor camp. As an Italian bourgeois Fascist, she originally volunteered to disprove the rumors of horrifying acts committed by Hitler’s army only to discover the reality to be even worse.
After escaping during an air raid, she arrives at a transit camp surrounded by people from all walks of life and yet completely alone because she cannot trust anyone. Her entire world view has been irrevocably changed by what she has experienced and she cannot identify with who she was before the war. With all of her papers destroyed, she creates a new identity for herself.
Tragedy finds Lucia again when she is in an accident that leaves her paralyzed when attempting to rescue people trapped under a collapsing building. What follows is a harrowing ordeal of hospitals, surgeries, and even an emotionally abusive relationship. Coming to terms with her body adds more trauma and Lucia finds herself in one dangerous situation after another with her reckless behavior. Getting away from Nazi rule may not be as easy as getting in was but now she doesn’t know where she belongs.
Written in several parts over the course of many years, Deviation is complicated. The first half of the book seems to be stream of thought written in first person by a survivor still in shock and far removed from the account described. The second half is written in third person by an older, wiser Luce who is coming to terms with events and attempting to piece together repressed memories; it’s much more personal and emotional and shares details of her life after escaping Hitler’s Reich and its lasting effects.
Many readers may have trouble determining truth from fiction as this is an autofiction novel with complex emotion but confusing and sometimes conflicting thoughts/memories. While I have no doubt this is a valuable and powerful piece of Holocaust literature, I was never able to immerse myself in this story. The change from first to third person was necessary for the writer but left a large disconnect for me and so many details were unclear or seemed to be missing altogether. I respect the author for her willingness to share this incredible testimonial and I’m glad that I read it but it was hard to make a connection to the story with so many missing pieces.
Thanks to FSG and NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for my honest review.
After escaping during an air raid, she arrives at a transit camp surrounded by people from all walks of life and yet completely alone because she cannot trust anyone. Her entire world view has been irrevocably changed by what she has experienced and she cannot identify with who she was before the war. With all of her papers destroyed, she creates a new identity for herself.
Tragedy finds Lucia again when she is in an accident that leaves her paralyzed when attempting to rescue people trapped under a collapsing building. What follows is a harrowing ordeal of hospitals, surgeries, and even an emotionally abusive relationship. Coming to terms with her body adds more trauma and Lucia finds herself in one dangerous situation after another with her reckless behavior. Getting away from Nazi rule may not be as easy as getting in was but now she doesn’t know where she belongs.
Written in several parts over the course of many years, Deviation is complicated. The first half of the book seems to be stream of thought written in first person by a survivor still in shock and far removed from the account described. The second half is written in third person by an older, wiser Luce who is coming to terms with events and attempting to piece together repressed memories; it’s much more personal and emotional and shares details of her life after escaping Hitler’s Reich and its lasting effects.
Many readers may have trouble determining truth from fiction as this is an autofiction novel with complex emotion but confusing and sometimes conflicting thoughts/memories. While I have no doubt this is a valuable and powerful piece of Holocaust literature, I was never able to immerse myself in this story. The change from first to third person was necessary for the writer but left a large disconnect for me and so many details were unclear or seemed to be missing altogether. I respect the author for her willingness to share this incredible testimonial and I’m glad that I read it but it was hard to make a connection to the story with so many missing pieces.
Thanks to FSG and NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for my honest review.
July 11, 2019
This is a hard book to read, both emotionally and just in terms of following the narrative and the ideas. It's good to know going into it that this will not be a straightforward memoir of experiences during and after World War II; it does contain very precisely observed events and people from Lucette Mangione's experiences between 1944 and 1979, but at the same time it's extremely subjective and introspective. The author is trying to understand not only what happened to and around her, but why she did the things she did, and even why she's writing the book the way she is. If that makes it sound like navel-gazing: first, if you'd lived through these things you'd probably need to spend a lot of time sorting out your thoughts too, and second, reality in this book is very immediate, more solid than the narrator. You could say that this is someone gazing at where their navel would be, except a huge hole has been blasted through their body so they're looking through it at the world.
The short(?) version is this. Luce, a wealthy teenage half-hearted Fascist in Italy, travels to Germany to become a volunteer factory worker (alongside prisoners), to see what Nazis are really like. She quickly becomes disgusted and radicalized but has no idea what she's doing, gets in trouble but is protected by her family connections, becomes obsessed with escaping her privileged identity, attempts suicide, is sent back to Italy, and then impulsively throws away her documentation and gets herself deported to Dachau. Those last five words, and the question of whether she did it deliberately and why, will haunt the author later in life but she can't afford to think about it now—she's in survival mode for the next two years or so—first in the camp, then escaping and living with displaced people and ex-prisoners in the margins of a crumbling Germany. Two months before the fall of Berlin she's nearly killed in an accident, becomes paraplegic, spends a long time convalescing, is stalked by her ex-lover, and tries to become a refugee again before finally accepting that she has to go back to Italy. Years go by, she marries and separates, she starts trying to write autobiographical fiction, and then her other troubles begin as she realizes that she's been lying to herself about parts of her life for years.
That's not how the book is written. We get pieces out of context—after the escape, in the camp, in the factory, in the hospital—each written at a different time of her life, in a different style, and sometimes with crucial differences in events (usually trying to make them sound more logical than they really were). Luce in the camp—and after escaping the camp, living in the underground-but-not-really world of people the Nazis simply lost track of or couldn't be bothered with—is an observer with almost no personality, totally devoted to staying alive and figuring out what's going on with all the people she meets. Luzia in the factory, written about in the third person, is a very specific character: an angry adolescent simultaneously learning to care about other people and hating them for not immediately accepting her. The narrator of the hospital story is literally feverish, emotionally all over the place (but discovering that compared to some people she's resilient—she gets called upon to cheer up other patients), and alienated from her body. Later she's alienated from her mind too, obsessed with sorting out the difference between choice and fate and which one of the many social identities she's had is real.
Through the whole thing, we meet a lot of people and they all feel very real. The prisoners and refugees aren't romanticized at all, they're constantly making horrible compromises and selfish decisions, but with very few exceptions the author doesn't analyze or judge them and the clarity of her descriptions has a loving quality. Nazis are a less immediate presence just because she usually doesn't have that much time to observe them, but she does have some thoughts about them, often from odd angles: for instance, she believes that when the agents of a cruel and insane regime go above and beyond their duty to be extra cruel and insane, it's because they desperately want to think they have free will, and also because making the prisoners not only fear but hate them helps to clarify their role. For obvious reasons, those parts of the book particularly feel like food for thought in 2019. There are also some more specifically political thoughts in her telling of the labor walkout she took part in with the prisoners at IG Farben, an action that required secretly organizing a huge number of people who in most cases didn't trust each other at all.
The last quarter of the book is relatively slow and repetitive, as the author has fewer external problems to deal with and more time to think. I still found it surprisingly dramatic just to see this person growing up and pulling together the pieces, watching Italy try to forget about the nightmare, and figuring out how to communicate with other people who lived through the same period in totally different ways and who don't see things as she does at all. I don't know if it could have been written any other way.
The short(?) version is this. Luce, a wealthy teenage half-hearted Fascist in Italy, travels to Germany to become a volunteer factory worker (alongside prisoners), to see what Nazis are really like. She quickly becomes disgusted and radicalized but has no idea what she's doing, gets in trouble but is protected by her family connections, becomes obsessed with escaping her privileged identity, attempts suicide, is sent back to Italy, and then impulsively throws away her documentation and gets herself deported to Dachau. Those last five words, and the question of whether she did it deliberately and why, will haunt the author later in life but she can't afford to think about it now—she's in survival mode for the next two years or so—first in the camp, then escaping and living with displaced people and ex-prisoners in the margins of a crumbling Germany. Two months before the fall of Berlin she's nearly killed in an accident, becomes paraplegic, spends a long time convalescing, is stalked by her ex-lover, and tries to become a refugee again before finally accepting that she has to go back to Italy. Years go by, she marries and separates, she starts trying to write autobiographical fiction, and then her other troubles begin as she realizes that she's been lying to herself about parts of her life for years.
That's not how the book is written. We get pieces out of context—after the escape, in the camp, in the factory, in the hospital—each written at a different time of her life, in a different style, and sometimes with crucial differences in events (usually trying to make them sound more logical than they really were). Luce in the camp—and after escaping the camp, living in the underground-but-not-really world of people the Nazis simply lost track of or couldn't be bothered with—is an observer with almost no personality, totally devoted to staying alive and figuring out what's going on with all the people she meets. Luzia in the factory, written about in the third person, is a very specific character: an angry adolescent simultaneously learning to care about other people and hating them for not immediately accepting her. The narrator of the hospital story is literally feverish, emotionally all over the place (but discovering that compared to some people she's resilient—she gets called upon to cheer up other patients), and alienated from her body. Later she's alienated from her mind too, obsessed with sorting out the difference between choice and fate and which one of the many social identities she's had is real.
Through the whole thing, we meet a lot of people and they all feel very real. The prisoners and refugees aren't romanticized at all, they're constantly making horrible compromises and selfish decisions, but with very few exceptions the author doesn't analyze or judge them and the clarity of her descriptions has a loving quality. Nazis are a less immediate presence just because she usually doesn't have that much time to observe them, but she does have some thoughts about them, often from odd angles: for instance, she believes that when the agents of a cruel and insane regime go above and beyond their duty to be extra cruel and insane, it's because they desperately want to think they have free will, and also because making the prisoners not only fear but hate them helps to clarify their role. For obvious reasons, those parts of the book particularly feel like food for thought in 2019. There are also some more specifically political thoughts in her telling of the labor walkout she took part in with the prisoners at IG Farben, an action that required secretly organizing a huge number of people who in most cases didn't trust each other at all.
The last quarter of the book is relatively slow and repetitive, as the author has fewer external problems to deal with and more time to think. I still found it surprisingly dramatic just to see this person growing up and pulling together the pieces, watching Italy try to forget about the nightmare, and figuring out how to communicate with other people who lived through the same period in totally different ways and who don't see things as she does at all. I don't know if it could have been written any other way.
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April 3, 2021Un libro denso! Merece tiempo, pero a la vez es muy interesante.
Una joven italiana fascista que decide ir a los lager nazis (campos de trabajo-concentración) para desmentir los rumores que había escuchado, sobre la brutalidad y tortura que había en ellos.
Les recomiendo tener un conocimiento previo! Al menos conocer la diferencia entre campo de trabajo, de concentración y de extermino.
Sin puntuación porque es un libro muy personal.
Una joven italiana fascista que decide ir a los lager nazis (campos de trabajo-concentración) para desmentir los rumores que había escuchado, sobre la brutalidad y tortura que había en ellos.
Les recomiendo tener un conocimiento previo! Al menos conocer la diferencia entre campo de trabajo, de concentración y de extermino.
Sin puntuación porque es un libro muy personal.
October 18, 2018
We have received access from Farrar, Straus and Giroux on Netgalley, to read an amazing book, “Deviation”, and I want to start this article by thanking them for this opportunity. Even though this novel was written in 1979, last month was published the first edition of its English version.
“Deviation”, which is considered the most important work of Luce d’Eramo, is a combination of autobiographical fiction and memoir. Because of this, the book is written in both first and third person. The author probably decided on writing it this way because she wanted to draw a clear line between the young version and the more mature version of herself. To be honest, I cannot say if I liked this part or not. I found a little bit confusing and in some way felt like some sections were either missing or lost in translation.
You can read the full review in the link below
https://readingbadger.club/2018/10/18...
However, I do recommend this novel. It had an impact on me and is a book that is worth reading once in a lifetime (especially if you are being drawn to books that have as a subject WWII or biographies)
“Deviation”, which is considered the most important work of Luce d’Eramo, is a combination of autobiographical fiction and memoir. Because of this, the book is written in both first and third person. The author probably decided on writing it this way because she wanted to draw a clear line between the young version and the more mature version of herself. To be honest, I cannot say if I liked this part or not. I found a little bit confusing and in some way felt like some sections were either missing or lost in translation.
You can read the full review in the link below
https://readingbadger.club/2018/10/18...
However, I do recommend this novel. It had an impact on me and is a book that is worth reading once in a lifetime (especially if you are being drawn to books that have as a subject WWII or biographies)
January 29, 2024
un libro sorprendente, ma bisogna fare come con Il nome della rosa: superare le prime cento pagine.
September 18, 2018
Don’t get me wrong: Deviation is a powerful autobiographical novel, with descriptions of injuries, paralysis, and Nazi slave labor camps that will sock you in all your senses. It is also a fascinating exploration of the tricks that memory plays.
But it is NOT what it is promoted to be: a rare look inside the mind of a teenage true believer in fascism -- in this case, author Luce D’Eramo, who was raised in a family of Italian fascist functionaries before and during World War II. (D’Eramo wrote the book in Italian over a period of 30 years, ending in 1979; she died in 2001, and the book has just been translated into English.)
The novel weaves back and forth in time to tell D’Eramo’s story basically after she has already lost much of her faith. At age 18, she left her privileged life in Italy to volunteer at the Nazi work camp at Siemens, assuming that she would disprove the “rumors” of slave-labor conditions. Indeed, as a fascist volunteer, she was treated better than the other inmates, who were largely political, religious, ethnic and war prisoners, and for a while she naively did things like request more wash basins from the camp director.
Eventually, though, she realized how horrible conditions were at Siemens, then I.G. Farben, then Dachau (which was a slave-labor camp, not an extermination camp, contrary to some common misunderstandings). Escaping from Dachau, she wandered through the frozen German wasteland of the final winter of the war, befriending various other escapees, until a wall fell on her in a freak accident and she was permanently paralyzed from the waist down.
With its brutally frank descriptions, its time shifts, and its heavy philosophizing, Deviation is not an easy read. Its insights are not unique, but they are important nevertheless.
But it is NOT what it is promoted to be: a rare look inside the mind of a teenage true believer in fascism -- in this case, author Luce D’Eramo, who was raised in a family of Italian fascist functionaries before and during World War II. (D’Eramo wrote the book in Italian over a period of 30 years, ending in 1979; she died in 2001, and the book has just been translated into English.)
The novel weaves back and forth in time to tell D’Eramo’s story basically after she has already lost much of her faith. At age 18, she left her privileged life in Italy to volunteer at the Nazi work camp at Siemens, assuming that she would disprove the “rumors” of slave-labor conditions. Indeed, as a fascist volunteer, she was treated better than the other inmates, who were largely political, religious, ethnic and war prisoners, and for a while she naively did things like request more wash basins from the camp director.
Eventually, though, she realized how horrible conditions were at Siemens, then I.G. Farben, then Dachau (which was a slave-labor camp, not an extermination camp, contrary to some common misunderstandings). Escaping from Dachau, she wandered through the frozen German wasteland of the final winter of the war, befriending various other escapees, until a wall fell on her in a freak accident and she was permanently paralyzed from the waist down.
With its brutally frank descriptions, its time shifts, and its heavy philosophizing, Deviation is not an easy read. Its insights are not unique, but they are important nevertheless.
December 31, 2018
Whew. That was a wild ride. Luce D'Eramo was young, impulsive and a fascist when she first volunteered to go to Germany as a worker to learn "the truth". She remained impulsive and reckless and ended the war paralyzed because a wall had fallen on her. Her body and life were shattered. Yet she continued to push for her truth. She had repressed memories that resurfaced in the 50s then the 60s and more in the 70s. The book is in the ordered of her memories rather than chronological order. It is very different from other books I've read by people who survived the concentration camps. It is amazing that she lived. It is amazing that she continued to mine her memory to write this book. It is not a pleasant read but I think it may be necessary to understand some of the nuances of living through WWII in Europe.
June 29, 2021
L'histoire contée, la forme du roman, la personnalité de l'autrice : tout est exceptionnel et unique dans Le Détour. Si vous croyez avoir tout lu sur la Seconde Guerre Mondiale, ce récit vous fera très vite changer d'avis. Qui plus est, si la guerre est évidemment centrale dans ce roman, elle est surtout la base à partir de laquelle s'élabore le portrait d'une femme incroyable.
Luce d'Eramo porte un regard neuf sur le nazisme et le fascisme qui, plus qu'une lutte des races, est pour elle une véritable lutte des classes et une gloire au capitalisme. Toutes ses expériences offrent de nouveaux axes de réflexion et un point de vue absolument unique sur la réalité des différents Lager ("camps"). Le Détour est véritablement une œuvre hors norme, fascinante, qui nous remplit d'humilité.
Luce d'Eramo porte un regard neuf sur le nazisme et le fascisme qui, plus qu'une lutte des races, est pour elle une véritable lutte des classes et une gloire au capitalisme. Toutes ses expériences offrent de nouveaux axes de réflexion et un point de vue absolument unique sur la réalité des différents Lager ("camps"). Le Détour est véritablement une œuvre hors norme, fascinante, qui nous remplit d'humilité.
June 29, 2025
Un libro non molto conosciuto che merita di essere letto: è il racconto di una vita che è un continuo deviare e lo stesso libro è una deviazione (Luce D'Eramo è capace di giocare con il lettore, con i suoi sottesi e il suo peregrinare da un tempo all'altro della storia).
Luce è una ragazzina coraggiosa e forse a tratti presuntuosa, ma estremamente consapevole dei propri privilegi, che decide di entrare in un campo di lavoro e provare sulla propria pelle quello che gli ebrei provano. Luce, figlia di un comandante fascista, vuole sondare la verità, o meglio, cerca di farlo. E da questo proposito la sua vita cambierà totalmente e seguirà degli sviluppi inimmaginabili.
Una volta appresa la veridicità della storia narrata, si resta letteralmente senza parole davanti a una vita del genere.
Luce è una ragazzina coraggiosa e forse a tratti presuntuosa, ma estremamente consapevole dei propri privilegi, che decide di entrare in un campo di lavoro e provare sulla propria pelle quello che gli ebrei provano. Luce, figlia di un comandante fascista, vuole sondare la verità, o meglio, cerca di farlo. E da questo proposito la sua vita cambierà totalmente e seguirà degli sviluppi inimmaginabili.
Una volta appresa la veridicità della storia narrata, si resta letteralmente senza parole davanti a una vita del genere.
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December 20, 2021Όσα βιβλία και αν διαβάσει κανείς για το Ολοκαύτωμα πάντα θα ανακαλύπτει κάτι καινούργιο στο καθένα από αυτά. Υπάρχουν τόσες πολλές ιστορίες που δεν έχουν καταγραφεί που σίγουρα έχουν χαθεί μέσα στη δίνη της λήθης στο πέρασμα των χρόνων. Κάποιες φορές είναι ενδιαφέρον να παρακολουθείς και την απέναντι πλευρά, όχι μόνο εκείνων που υπέφεραν στα χέρια των ναζί, αλλά εκείνων που ήθελαν να ικανοποιήσουν την περιέργεια τους σχετικά με τα όσα ακούγονταν για τα περίφημα στρατόπεδα συγκέντρωσης.
Για πολύ κόσμο, που δεν ζούσε από πρώτο χέρι τις θηριωδίες των ναζί, οι πληροφορίες που έφταναν στα αυτιά τους ήταν κάτι που τους έκανε να πέφτουν από το μαλακό ροζ συννεφάκι τους. Δεν μπορούσαν να πιστέψουν ότι ένας άνθρωπος μπορούσε να φερθεί με τόσο κτηνώδη τρόπο σε συνανθρώπους του. Και διαβάζοντας το βιβλίο της Luce D’ Eramo «Εκτροπή» δεν θα πιστέψετε με τη σειρά σας ότι υπήρχαν άνθρωποι που δήλωναν εθελοντές στα στρατόπεδα εργασίας των ναζί προκειμένου να διασταυρώσουν ιδίοις όμμασοι όσα έφταναν στα αυτιά τους.
Μια από αυτούς του εθελοντές ήταν και η ίδια η Luce D’ Eramo, φανατική φασίστρια, από μια ευυπόληπτη Ιταλική οικογένεια που βρέθηκε σε ναζιστικό στρατόπεδο εργασίας στη Γερμανία λίγα χιλιόμετρα μακριά από το Νταχάου. Μέσα από όσα έζησε η ίδια ως «εργάτρια» σε εκείνο το Κ-Λάγκερ όπως ονόμαζαν τα στρατόπεδα τους οι ναζί αποφασίζει μετά από χρόνια, καθηλωμένη στο αναπηρικό της καροτσάκι, να ανασυγκροτήσει τις μνήμες που έχει θάψει βαθιά μέσα της, φέρνοντας στην επιφάνεια ίσως άγνωστες πτυχές του εσωτερικού αυτών των στρατοπέδων. Στην αρχή του βιβλίου μάλιστα αναφέρεται και στο πόσα τελικά ήταν αυτά τα στρατόπεδα συγκέντρωσης και τις διάφορες κατηγορίες που τα είχαν χωρίσει οι ναζί.
Η «Εκτροπή» εκδόθηκε για πρώτη φορά στα Ιταλικά το 1979 και έγινε αμέσως γνωστό σε όλο τον κόσμο. Παρόλο που θεωρείται μυθιστόρημα στο πάνω μέρος του εξωφύλλου φέρει τη φράση «Ένα αυτοβιογραφικό ντοκουμέντο διείσδυσης στο Νταχάου». Και ακριβώς αυτό είναι. Μέσα από τις σκόρπιες σκέψεις της D’ Eramo οι αναγνώστες ακολουθούν τα βήματα της από τη στιγμή που αποφασίζει να εγκαταλείψει την ασφαλή αγκαλιά της οικογένειας της και να βρεθεί αντιμέτωπη με τη σκληρότητα όχι μόνο των ναζί αλλά και των συγκατοίκων της στα παραπήγματα που λόγω της φασιστικής ταυτότητας που δηλώνει τη θεωρούν κατάσκοπο και καταδότη των ναζί αφήνοντας της στο περιθώριο.
Η πραγματικότητα μπλέκεται με τη μυθιστοριογραφία αποκαλύπτοντας στα μάτια των αναγνωστών άγνωστες πτυχές των στρατοπέδων συγκέντρωσης των ναζί αλλά και των ανθρώπων που είχαν αιχμαλωτιστεί σε αυτά. Η Luce D’ Eramo καταγράφει στο χαρτί τις συνθήκες διαβίωσης των αιχμάλωτων στα στρατόπεδα εργασίας, συγκέντρωσης, διαλογής και εξόντωσης όπως τα ονομάζει η ίδια στις σελίδες του βιβλίου της. Συνθήκες κάθε άλλο παρά ιδανικές αφού και μόνο στη σκέψη ότι απλά από αυτούς τους ανθρώπους στερείται η ελευθερία του να είναι ακόμα και άνθρωποι συνειδητοποιεί και η ίδια η συγγραφέας ότι ακόμα και οι εθελοντές δεν έχουν υπόσταση μπροστά στα κτηνώδη ένστικτα των ναζί.
Οι φήμες, λοιπόν, για τις αγριότητες στα στρατόπεδα συγκέντρωσης βγαίνουν αληθινές και η αυτοκυριαρχία της D’ Eramo κλονίζεται συθέμελα κάνοντας την ορισμένες φορές έναν παθητικό παρατηρητή των γεγονότων ακόμα και αν πρωταγωνιστεί και η ίδια σε αυτά. Η φασιστική της ιδεολογία θα γκρεμιστεί σαν χάρτινος πύργος αφού θέτει η ίδια τον εαυτό της σε κίνδυνο διεισδύοντας στο Νταχάου εθελοντικά ζώντας από πρώτο χέρι τη φρίκη το Ολοκαυτώματος. Είναι φοβερό το πως καταφέρνει η πρόζα της να καθηλώνει τους αναγνώστες ακόμα και όταν περιγράφει μια από τις λιγοστές ευχάριστες στιγμές των αιχμαλώτων μέσα στην καθημερινότητα τους στα στρατόπεδα συγκέντρωσης.
Διαβάζοντας την «Εκτροπή» ο αναγνώστης πολλές φορές θα βρεθεί αντιμέτωπος με τις κατακερματισμένες μνήμες της Luce D’ Eramo, σαν να παλεύει και ο ίδιος μαζί της προκειμένου να τις βάλει σε μια σειρά, που παίρνουν σάρκα και οστά ακολουθώντας τη ρευστή μεταβαλόμμενη σαν άμμο μνήμη της που αναδιατάσσεται συνεχώς όσο περνούν οι σελίδες του βιβλίου. Είναι μνήμες που την πονούν, που της θυμίζουν τη ζωή που έχασε, τη ζωή που θα μπορούσε να έχει αν δεν ήταν τόσο ξεροκέφαλη όπως αφήνει να εννοηθεί σε κάποιο σημείο της αφήγησης της. Παρόλα αυτά η ίδια δεν μετάνιωσε ούτε μια στιγμή για όσα πρόσφερε, για όσα άντεξε, για όσα πάλεψε, για όσα άφησε πίσω της, για όσα έχασε, για όσα βασανίστηκε, για όσα υπέφερε το σώμα και η ψυχή της.
Και πάντα, μα πάντα, στις μνήμες της, όσο θολές και αν είναι, όσο και αν προσπαθεί να τις κρατήσει κλεισμένες καλά μέσα σε ένα κουτάκι στο πίσω μέρος του μυαλού της, θα έρχονται να της κρατήσουν συντροφιά η Γκρούσενγκα, η Μαρτίν, ο Γιοχάν και όσοι βρέθηκαν δίπλα της μετά τον σοβαρό τραυματισμό της που την άφησε παράλυτη. Η «Εκτροπή» είναι ένα οδοιπορικό ζωής μέσα από τα μάτια μιας κοπέλας που μάταια πάσχιζε να κατανοήσει όσα συνέβαιναν γύρω της στην τρυφερή ηλικία των 18 ετών πιστεύοντας ότι είναι ανίκητη και τίποτα δεν μπορεί να την αγγίξει.
Η Luce D’ Eramo στήνει ένα εξομολογητικό κείμενο, αρκετά ασύνδετο μεταξύ του, σαν να διηγείται στους αναγνώστες τα όσα έζησε το 1944 στο Νταχάου θέλοντας να αφουγκραστεί και η ίδια ώστε να δώσει την ευκαιρία στον εαυτό της να συνειδητοποιήσει τι ακριβώς έζησε. Μνήμες που θάφτηκαν από την ίδια τη συγγραφέα έρχονται στην επιφάνεια για να δημιουργήσουν ένα μνημειώδες και διαφορετικό λογοτεχνικό διαμάντι που θα έπρεπε να ανήκει πλέον στη σύγχρονη κλασική λογοτεχνία. Η «Εκτροπή» είναι μια δυνατή αυτοβιογραφία για την αναζήτηση της αλήθειας και πως μπορούμε να συμβιβαστούμε με τις τρομερές της αποκαλύψεις παλεύοντας να επιβιώσουμε από εκείνο που φαινομενικά μοιάζει εντελώς αδύνατο.
Για πολύ κόσμο, που δεν ζούσε από πρώτο χέρι τις θηριωδίες των ναζί, οι πληροφορίες που έφταναν στα αυτιά τους ήταν κάτι που τους έκανε να πέφτουν από το μαλακό ροζ συννεφάκι τους. Δεν μπορούσαν να πιστέψουν ότι ένας άνθρωπος μπορούσε να φερθεί με τόσο κτηνώδη τρόπο σε συνανθρώπους του. Και διαβάζοντας το βιβλίο της Luce D’ Eramo «Εκτροπή» δεν θα πιστέψετε με τη σειρά σας ότι υπήρχαν άνθρωποι που δήλωναν εθελοντές στα στρατόπεδα εργασίας των ναζί προκειμένου να διασταυρώσουν ιδίοις όμμασοι όσα έφταναν στα αυτιά τους.
Μια από αυτούς του εθελοντές ήταν και η ίδια η Luce D’ Eramo, φανατική φασίστρια, από μια ευυπόληπτη Ιταλική οικογένεια που βρέθηκε σε ναζιστικό στρατόπεδο εργασίας στη Γερμανία λίγα χιλιόμετρα μακριά από το Νταχάου. Μέσα από όσα έζησε η ίδια ως «εργάτρια» σε εκείνο το Κ-Λάγκερ όπως ονόμαζαν τα στρατόπεδα τους οι ναζί αποφασίζει μετά από χρόνια, καθηλωμένη στο αναπηρικό της καροτσάκι, να ανασυγκροτήσει τις μνήμες που έχει θάψει βαθιά μέσα της, φέρνοντας στην επιφάνεια ίσως άγνωστες πτυχές του εσωτερικού αυτών των στρατοπέδων. Στην αρχή του βιβλίου μάλιστα αναφέρεται και στο πόσα τελικά ήταν αυτά τα στρατόπεδα συγκέντρωσης και τις διάφορες κατηγορίες που τα είχαν χωρίσει οι ναζί.
Η «Εκτροπή» εκδόθηκε για πρώτη φορά στα Ιταλικά το 1979 και έγινε αμέσως γνωστό σε όλο τον κόσμο. Παρόλο που θεωρείται μυθιστόρημα στο πάνω μέρος του εξωφύλλου φέρει τη φράση «Ένα αυτοβιογραφικό ντοκουμέντο διείσδυσης στο Νταχάου». Και ακριβώς αυτό είναι. Μέσα από τις σκόρπιες σκέψεις της D’ Eramo οι αναγνώστες ακολουθούν τα βήματα της από τη στιγμή που αποφασίζει να εγκαταλείψει την ασφαλή αγκαλιά της οικογένειας της και να βρεθεί αντιμέτωπη με τη σκληρότητα όχι μόνο των ναζί αλλά και των συγκατοίκων της στα παραπήγματα που λόγω της φασιστικής ταυτότητας που δηλώνει τη θεωρούν κατάσκοπο και καταδότη των ναζί αφήνοντας της στο περιθώριο.
Η πραγματικότητα μπλέκεται με τη μυθιστοριογραφία αποκαλύπτοντας στα μάτια των αναγνωστών άγνωστες πτυχές των στρατοπέδων συγκέντρωσης των ναζί αλλά και των ανθρώπων που είχαν αιχμαλωτιστεί σε αυτά. Η Luce D’ Eramo καταγράφει στο χαρτί τις συνθήκες διαβίωσης των αιχμάλωτων στα στρατόπεδα εργασίας, συγκέντρωσης, διαλογής και εξόντωσης όπως τα ονομάζει η ίδια στις σελίδες του βιβλίου της. Συνθήκες κάθε άλλο παρά ιδανικές αφού και μόνο στη σκέψη ότι απλά από αυτούς τους ανθρώπους στερείται η ελευθερία του να είναι ακόμα και άνθρωποι συνειδητοποιεί και η ίδια η συγγραφέας ότι ακόμα και οι εθελοντές δεν έχουν υπόσταση μπροστά στα κτηνώδη ένστικτα των ναζί.
Οι φήμες, λοιπόν, για τις αγριότητες στα στρατόπεδα συγκέντρωσης βγαίνουν αληθινές και η αυτοκυριαρχία της D’ Eramo κλονίζεται συθέμελα κάνοντας την ορισμένες φορές έναν παθητικό παρατηρητή των γεγονότων ακόμα και αν πρωταγωνιστεί και η ίδια σε αυτά. Η φασιστική της ιδεολογία θα γκρεμιστεί σαν χάρτινος πύργος αφού θέτει η ίδια τον εαυτό της σε κίνδυνο διεισδύοντας στο Νταχάου εθελοντικά ζώντας από πρώτο χέρι τη φρίκη το Ολοκαυτώματος. Είναι φοβερό το πως καταφέρνει η πρόζα της να καθηλώνει τους αναγνώστες ακόμα και όταν περιγράφει μια από τις λιγοστές ευχάριστες στιγμές των αιχμαλώτων μέσα στην καθημερινότητα τους στα στρατόπεδα συγκέντρωσης.
Διαβάζοντας την «Εκτροπή» ο αναγνώστης πολλές φορές θα βρεθεί αντιμέτωπος με τις κατακερματισμένες μνήμες της Luce D’ Eramo, σαν να παλεύει και ο ίδιος μαζί της προκειμένου να τις βάλει σε μια σειρά, που παίρνουν σάρκα και οστά ακολουθώντας τη ρευστή μεταβαλόμμενη σαν άμμο μνήμη της που αναδιατάσσεται συνεχώς όσο περνούν οι σελίδες του βιβλίου. Είναι μνήμες που την πονούν, που της θυμίζουν τη ζωή που έχασε, τη ζωή που θα μπορούσε να έχει αν δεν ήταν τόσο ξεροκέφαλη όπως αφήνει να εννοηθεί σε κάποιο σημείο της αφήγησης της. Παρόλα αυτά η ίδια δεν μετάνιωσε ούτε μια στιγμή για όσα πρόσφερε, για όσα άντεξε, για όσα πάλεψε, για όσα άφησε πίσω της, για όσα έχασε, για όσα βασανίστηκε, για όσα υπέφερε το σώμα και η ψυχή της.
Και πάντα, μα πάντα, στις μνήμες της, όσο θολές και αν είναι, όσο και αν προσπαθεί να τις κρατήσει κλεισμένες καλά μέσα σε ένα κουτάκι στο πίσω μέρος του μυαλού της, θα έρχονται να της κρατήσουν συντροφιά η Γκρούσενγκα, η Μαρτίν, ο Γιοχάν και όσοι βρέθηκαν δίπλα της μετά τον σοβαρό τραυματισμό της που την άφησε παράλυτη. Η «Εκτροπή» είναι ένα οδοιπορικό ζωής μέσα από τα μάτια μιας κοπέλας που μάταια πάσχιζε να κατανοήσει όσα συνέβαιναν γύρω της στην τρυφερή ηλικία των 18 ετών πιστεύοντας ότι είναι ανίκητη και τίποτα δεν μπορεί να την αγγίξει.
Η Luce D’ Eramo στήνει ένα εξομολογητικό κείμενο, αρκετά ασύνδετο μεταξύ του, σαν να διηγείται στους αναγνώστες τα όσα έζησε το 1944 στο Νταχάου θέλοντας να αφουγκραστεί και η ίδια ώστε να δώσει την ευκαιρία στον εαυτό της να συνειδητοποιήσει τι ακριβώς έζησε. Μνήμες που θάφτηκαν από την ίδια τη συγγραφέα έρχονται στην επιφάνεια για να δημιουργήσουν ένα μνημειώδες και διαφορετικό λογοτεχνικό διαμάντι που θα έπρεπε να ανήκει πλέον στη σύγχρονη κλασική λογοτεχνία. Η «Εκτροπή» είναι μια δυνατή αυτοβιογραφία για την αναζήτηση της αλήθειας και πως μπορούμε να συμβιβαστούμε με τις τρομερές της αποκαλύψεις παλεύοντας να επιβιώσουμε από εκείνο που φαινομενικά μοιάζει εντελώς αδύνατο.
June 28, 2025
Luce d’Eramo racconta (e si racconta) la propria esperienza nei lager nazisti; esperienza difficile da mettere sulla carta, quando occorre scavare nella memoria alla ricerca di ricordi spesso dolorosi, tanto che il libro si compone di più parti scritte in anni diversi e alcune già pubblicate autonomamente.
Fascista convinta fino almeno al 25 luglio 43 e figlia di un sottosegretario del governo repubblichino di Salò, nel 1944 a diciotto anni, si offre volontaria per andare a lavorare come operaia nel Reich per verificare con mano la situazione nei lager tedeschi. Trascorre alcuni mesi presso una fabbrica della I.G.Farben dove è coinvolta attivamente nell’organizzazione di uno sciopero poi fallito. Rimpatriata senza troppe conseguenze, grazie alla carica ricoperta dal padre, si fa arrestare una volta giunta a Verona per essere deportata nel campo di concentramento di Dachau. Riesce a fuggire nel 1945, facendosi assegnare a un servizio esterno di pulitura delle fogne, vaga per un po' di tempo nascondendosi sotto falso nome nei posti più disparati (anche i campi di smistamento) fino a che il 27 Febbraio del 45 a Magonza, mentre aiuta a rimuovere le macerie di un bombardamento rimane schiacciata da un muro: paralizzata fino alla vita su una sedia a rotelle, un lungo calvario tra vari ospedali e operazioni dolorose che si conclude con il rientro in Italia nel 1946 (dopo che aveva seriamente pensato a trasferirsi in Russia…
Una storia incredibile di una ragazza tenace e anticonformista (anche troppo!), una ribelle nata che anche se in più di una occasione cede allo sconforto, non si da mai per vinta; quando rimane paralizzata uno dei suoi motti è “Finché la testa viva”.
Il racconto è un brulichio di eventi, di personaggi, vicende impossibili da elencare o riassumere; Luce d’Eramo non usa giri di parole in una narrazione sempre molto schietta e diretta tanto nel narrare le brutalità dei campi, la realtà degli ospedali, il caos in cui era sprofondata la Germania nell’ultimo periodo del conflitto come nel trattare i problemi del proprio corpo una volta rimasta paralizzata. E’ anche tanta la solidarietà trovata con lei sempre pronta a spendersi per gli altri, anche se non è sempre facile farsi accettare, quando, specie nei primi tempi, traspaiono troppo spesso quelle origini borghese che insospettiscono gli “umiliati e offesi” di cui vorrebbe far parte.
L’ultima parte, che dà il titolo al libro, è più intima: qui si affrontano gli anni in Italia dopo la guerra, il matrimonio (poi fallito), il rapporto col figlio, i problemi economici, le difficoltà a non essere considerata solo una paralitica ma anche il parallelo lungo processo di rielaborazione dei ricordi, delle scelte fatte e delle motivazioni sottostanti.
Non è un romanzo perfetto, tutt’altro, anzi è spesso frammentario, se non ripetitivo e la suddivisione in parti non in ordine cronologico degli avvenimenti, ma di stesura nel tempo, non aiuta certamente. Rimane il valore indubbio di testimonianza, di un punto di vista su realtà poco conosciute (almeno per me) da affiancare a quelle ben più note sui campi di sterminio. Tre stelle e mezzo.
Fascista convinta fino almeno al 25 luglio 43 e figlia di un sottosegretario del governo repubblichino di Salò, nel 1944 a diciotto anni, si offre volontaria per andare a lavorare come operaia nel Reich per verificare con mano la situazione nei lager tedeschi. Trascorre alcuni mesi presso una fabbrica della I.G.Farben dove è coinvolta attivamente nell’organizzazione di uno sciopero poi fallito. Rimpatriata senza troppe conseguenze, grazie alla carica ricoperta dal padre, si fa arrestare una volta giunta a Verona per essere deportata nel campo di concentramento di Dachau. Riesce a fuggire nel 1945, facendosi assegnare a un servizio esterno di pulitura delle fogne, vaga per un po' di tempo nascondendosi sotto falso nome nei posti più disparati (anche i campi di smistamento) fino a che il 27 Febbraio del 45 a Magonza, mentre aiuta a rimuovere le macerie di un bombardamento rimane schiacciata da un muro: paralizzata fino alla vita su una sedia a rotelle, un lungo calvario tra vari ospedali e operazioni dolorose che si conclude con il rientro in Italia nel 1946 (dopo che aveva seriamente pensato a trasferirsi in Russia…
Una storia incredibile di una ragazza tenace e anticonformista (anche troppo!), una ribelle nata che anche se in più di una occasione cede allo sconforto, non si da mai per vinta; quando rimane paralizzata uno dei suoi motti è “Finché la testa viva”.
Il racconto è un brulichio di eventi, di personaggi, vicende impossibili da elencare o riassumere; Luce d’Eramo non usa giri di parole in una narrazione sempre molto schietta e diretta tanto nel narrare le brutalità dei campi, la realtà degli ospedali, il caos in cui era sprofondata la Germania nell’ultimo periodo del conflitto come nel trattare i problemi del proprio corpo una volta rimasta paralizzata. E’ anche tanta la solidarietà trovata con lei sempre pronta a spendersi per gli altri, anche se non è sempre facile farsi accettare, quando, specie nei primi tempi, traspaiono troppo spesso quelle origini borghese che insospettiscono gli “umiliati e offesi” di cui vorrebbe far parte.
L’ultima parte, che dà il titolo al libro, è più intima: qui si affrontano gli anni in Italia dopo la guerra, il matrimonio (poi fallito), il rapporto col figlio, i problemi economici, le difficoltà a non essere considerata solo una paralitica ma anche il parallelo lungo processo di rielaborazione dei ricordi, delle scelte fatte e delle motivazioni sottostanti.
Non è un romanzo perfetto, tutt’altro, anzi è spesso frammentario, se non ripetitivo e la suddivisione in parti non in ordine cronologico degli avvenimenti, ma di stesura nel tempo, non aiuta certamente. Rimane il valore indubbio di testimonianza, di un punto di vista su realtà poco conosciute (almeno per me) da affiancare a quelle ben più note sui campi di sterminio. Tre stelle e mezzo.
June 21, 2019
Lucie D’Eramo’s Deviation — first published in Italy in 1979, but now only getting an English translation — is a harrowing work. It is a fiction, but it is based in fact — so much so that it reads as both an autobiography and a Bildungsroman. The story concerns a woman named Lucia, the daughter of Fascist parents in Italy, who decides to work as a volunteer in the Nazi labour camps of Germany. There, she organizes a strike and is then sent to another camp as a prisoner. She escapes, but in the twilight of World War II, she is crushed by a wall that falls on her, rendering her paralyzed. It’s a frightening, sad story to be sure — but it is unique in that it paints a different picture of the Holocaust that didn’t impact Jewish peoples, and is just as nightmarish. When the novel opens with a scene of Lucia walking into cesspools of human feces to be later spread onto a nearby field as fertilizer, you know that this will be a journey into the abyss.
What’s exceptionally noteworthy is that this is a novel that took about 25 years to write, coming to the author in fits and spurts. Events are not arranged chronologically, but, rather, chosen to be written about when the author feels the need to confront them. The novel holds together surprisingly well having been sewn together into a patchwork. All in all, this is the story of a young woman who moves through all of the hells of Dante’s Inferno, only to come out of it through the other side. Not unscathed, but perhaps better put together — especially after her body has been broken and shattered into a million tiny pieces.
Read the rest of the review here: https://medium.com/@zachary_houle/a-r...
What’s exceptionally noteworthy is that this is a novel that took about 25 years to write, coming to the author in fits and spurts. Events are not arranged chronologically, but, rather, chosen to be written about when the author feels the need to confront them. The novel holds together surprisingly well having been sewn together into a patchwork. All in all, this is the story of a young woman who moves through all of the hells of Dante’s Inferno, only to come out of it through the other side. Not unscathed, but perhaps better put together — especially after her body has been broken and shattered into a million tiny pieces.
Read the rest of the review here: https://medium.com/@zachary_houle/a-r...
April 6, 2021
Le détour était un livre unique, par son autrice, par ses décisions, son vécu, et son travail d'introspection. Si vous avez l'impression d'avoir lu déjà trop de choses sur la seconde guerre mondiale, vous ne serez pas déçus : vraiment personne n'a raconté cette période comme cette femme.
Simplement, issue de la bourgeoisie fasciste Italienne, Lucia s'enrôle volontairement dans un camp de travail Allemand. Fruit multiple d'une volonté de vérifier, d'expérimenter, de fuir et de s'aligner avec ses idéaux, cette décision va la malmener ses idées et son corps. On perçoit dans l'autrice cette volonté de fuir mélangée à un courage immense, ce qui peut paraitre parfois incompréhensible. L'autrice a toujours refusé les étiquettes et s'analyse de manière critique au fur et à mesure des âges, car en refusant d'être enfermée dans une boite, on recule en fait vers une autre étiquette.
Le style est immersif, descriptif, très prenant. La dernière partie du livre est plus ardue puisqu'elle consiste en un dialogue entre l'autrice, elle même et le lecteur, dans la recherche de la vérité. En effet, certains souvenirs étant été occultés par sa mémoire, l'exercice de démêler le faux du vrai est ardu.
L'édition du tripode contient une interview de la traductrice, connaissance de Luce d'Eramo, et m'a fourni de bonnes clés de compréhension, ainsi que l'envie de lire plus de livres de cet esprit éclectique.
Simplement, issue de la bourgeoisie fasciste Italienne, Lucia s'enrôle volontairement dans un camp de travail Allemand. Fruit multiple d'une volonté de vérifier, d'expérimenter, de fuir et de s'aligner avec ses idéaux, cette décision va la malmener ses idées et son corps. On perçoit dans l'autrice cette volonté de fuir mélangée à un courage immense, ce qui peut paraitre parfois incompréhensible. L'autrice a toujours refusé les étiquettes et s'analyse de manière critique au fur et à mesure des âges, car en refusant d'être enfermée dans une boite, on recule en fait vers une autre étiquette.
Le style est immersif, descriptif, très prenant. La dernière partie du livre est plus ardue puisqu'elle consiste en un dialogue entre l'autrice, elle même et le lecteur, dans la recherche de la vérité. En effet, certains souvenirs étant été occultés par sa mémoire, l'exercice de démêler le faux du vrai est ardu.
L'édition du tripode contient une interview de la traductrice, connaissance de Luce d'Eramo, et m'a fourni de bonnes clés de compréhension, ainsi que l'envie de lire plus de livres de cet esprit éclectique.
September 12, 2018
Deviation book review - no spoilers -
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This one had such promise but for me I think the beauty was lost in the translation. I've read translated books before and some have been done wonderfully, keeping the full experience intact but unfortunately sometimes it just doesn't work out. This is the case for me.
Deviation, first published in Italian in 1979, is part memoir and part historical fiction. The author begins as a devoted fascist who after hearing of the atrocities being committed in the concentration camps decides to volunteer at one to see for herself. Because for her, it couldn't be as horrific as they are saying it is... Can it? As we all know yes, yes it can and was. The novel follows her journey in and after Nazi Germany and shows how she has to come to terms with what she experienced and saw.
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I really wish the translation had been more fluid and I wasn't exactly a fan of the POV jumping from first to third person. I'm glad I tried it though, the topic is incredibly important.
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Thanks to Netgalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for the advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
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#deviation #netgalley #bookreview #holocaust #nazigermany #memoir #historicalfiction
.
.
This one had such promise but for me I think the beauty was lost in the translation. I've read translated books before and some have been done wonderfully, keeping the full experience intact but unfortunately sometimes it just doesn't work out. This is the case for me.
Deviation, first published in Italian in 1979, is part memoir and part historical fiction. The author begins as a devoted fascist who after hearing of the atrocities being committed in the concentration camps decides to volunteer at one to see for herself. Because for her, it couldn't be as horrific as they are saying it is... Can it? As we all know yes, yes it can and was. The novel follows her journey in and after Nazi Germany and shows how she has to come to terms with what she experienced and saw.
.
I really wish the translation had been more fluid and I wasn't exactly a fan of the POV jumping from first to third person. I'm glad I tried it though, the topic is incredibly important.
.
.
Thanks to Netgalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for the advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
.
#deviation #netgalley #bookreview #holocaust #nazigermany #memoir #historicalfiction
April 1, 2021
"Deviazione" è un romanzo pseudo-autobiografico di Lucette (Luce) D'Eramo.
Il racconto, che evoca gli avvenimenti grossomodo dagli ultimi anni della Seconda Guerra Mondiale ai primi anni '70, è suddiviso in episodi non ordinati cronologicamente, tanto da rendere difficile ricostruirne il corretto svolgimento.
Il linguaggio è a tratti ricercato, non banale, altre volte più semplice, colloquiale, persino volgare.
Non per azzardare paragoni, ma può ricordare il gioco linguistico dantesco nella Commedia. E, a modo suo, Luce compie un viaggio nel suo inferno personale, a più livelli: l'esperienza come volontaria in un campo di lavoro tedesco, lei che era italiana e nata in seno a una famiglia fascista, il rimpatrio italiano brevissimo e la retata a Verona che la porta a Dachau, la fuga dal lager e il successivo periodo tedesco, liberata, almeno in apparenza dalla classe sociale d'origine, quella borghese, il crollo di un muro a Magonza e il cambiamento drastico alla sua vita...
Insomma, un romanzo che vuole fare chiarezza su tante cose e che si rivela inaspettatamente interessante anche dal punto di vista psicologico. Da leggere almeno una volta nella vita.
Il racconto, che evoca gli avvenimenti grossomodo dagli ultimi anni della Seconda Guerra Mondiale ai primi anni '70, è suddiviso in episodi non ordinati cronologicamente, tanto da rendere difficile ricostruirne il corretto svolgimento.
Il linguaggio è a tratti ricercato, non banale, altre volte più semplice, colloquiale, persino volgare.
Non per azzardare paragoni, ma può ricordare il gioco linguistico dantesco nella Commedia. E, a modo suo, Luce compie un viaggio nel suo inferno personale, a più livelli: l'esperienza come volontaria in un campo di lavoro tedesco, lei che era italiana e nata in seno a una famiglia fascista, il rimpatrio italiano brevissimo e la retata a Verona che la porta a Dachau, la fuga dal lager e il successivo periodo tedesco, liberata, almeno in apparenza dalla classe sociale d'origine, quella borghese, il crollo di un muro a Magonza e il cambiamento drastico alla sua vita...
Insomma, un romanzo che vuole fare chiarezza su tante cose e che si rivela inaspettatamente interessante anche dal punto di vista psicologico. Da leggere almeno una volta nella vita.
January 25, 2019
First of all, this book needs some explanation. A blend of fiction/memoir, it’s based on the true story of an author who as a teen leaves her Facist Italian family to volunteer for the Nazi Labor Camps. After opening her eyes to the horrors of these camps, she joins the resistance and is paralyzed during a bombing in the last months of the war. So it’s a different story of the Holocaust but is no less a scream into the void of humanity’s bottomless potential for evil. This book was published in the 70’s, written over several decades, and only now translated in English.
What stands out about this book is it’s complexity. It’s main focus is memory, specifically how it’s mutated after trauma. What compelled me was that at points the author could not grapple with the choices she made, more so than what had been done to her.
A note: it’s obviously a deeply upsetting book, even though it is starkly original. I had nightmares until I finished it.
What stands out about this book is it’s complexity. It’s main focus is memory, specifically how it’s mutated after trauma. What compelled me was that at points the author could not grapple with the choices she made, more so than what had been done to her.
A note: it’s obviously a deeply upsetting book, even though it is starkly original. I had nightmares until I finished it.
February 18, 2021
Remarquable récit. Très différent des nombreux témoignages déjà lus sur les camps nazis. Je découvre les innombrables travailleurs étrangers plus ou moins volontaires asservis par l’état nazi et les premiers mois après la fin de la guerre en Allemagne.
La transformation des individus en êtres soumis à la loi du plus fort, les actes lâches, mauvais ou carrément ignobles réalisés par l’auteure, la transformation du normal, tout cela est raconté sans jugement, comme c’était.
Et puis cette analyse de la mémoire. Et une très belle écriture.
La transformation des individus en êtres soumis à la loi du plus fort, les actes lâches, mauvais ou carrément ignobles réalisés par l’auteure, la transformation du normal, tout cela est raconté sans jugement, comme c’était.
Et puis cette analyse de la mémoire. Et une très belle écriture.
January 29, 2020
I recently read this in translation. It is a fascinating account of one woman's journey through an incredibly difficult life. She addresses the question of how our memory works, how we can repress some memories and foreground others. All of these weighty topics are explored in an account of her early years as a young daughter of prominent Fascists in Mussolini's Italy who enters the world of the Nazi camps to see for herself if the rumours she had heard were true.
August 26, 2020
Although the subject matter and historical perspective is very intruiging, the way the book is cobbled together with different perspectives and timelines is confusing in places. Although it states that this is a novel, well actually it isn't and is largely autobiographic. The last 30 pages are largely self indulgent and are of little interest.
The book could have been so much and it is slightly frustrating that such a unique story is being told in such a way, a real missed opportunity.
The book could have been so much and it is slightly frustrating that such a unique story is being told in such a way, a real missed opportunity.
August 21, 2023
I found this rather hard going, but probably worth the struggle. Described as a novel, this is actually an autobiography. Although it is predominantly the story of an Italian Fascist in labour camps (and also in a concentration camp) in Nazi Germany, it is also the story of someone struggling hard to identify who and what she actually is. That latter struggle, towards the end of the book, I found rather too long and repetitive.
April 27, 2025
3.5
A tratti veramente avvincente, sempre saggio e profondo ma verso la fine troppo lungo. Ho apprezzato molto la tematica di voler strappare il proprio privilegio per poter veramente vivere come i disperati, la metafora del serpente che tradisce lo sviluppo del personaggio da fascista a non, il cambio di prospettiva dalla prima persona presente alla terza passato poi alla seconda presente con questo serpente, facendo i conti col lavoro difficile della memoria traumatica.
A tratti veramente avvincente, sempre saggio e profondo ma verso la fine troppo lungo. Ho apprezzato molto la tematica di voler strappare il proprio privilegio per poter veramente vivere come i disperati, la metafora del serpente che tradisce lo sviluppo del personaggio da fascista a non, il cambio di prospettiva dalla prima persona presente alla terza passato poi alla seconda presente con questo serpente, facendo i conti col lavoro difficile della memoria traumatica.
November 26, 2018
A different Holocaust story, certainly, but one that may be too easy to dismiss as hard to engage with. In the right frame of mind, its literary merits are more than evident, though.
For my full review, please click on the following link:-
http://www.thebookbag.co.uk/reviews/i...
For my full review, please click on the following link:-
http://www.thebookbag.co.uk/reviews/i...
February 14, 2019
A difficult read, not only because of the brutality of the experiences of the protagonist, but also because of the manner in which the tale is told. All told, however, worth the effort. Autobiographical survival story with many twists. Whenever you begin to believe there are no new angles on the Holocaust, you are proven wrong.
August 31, 2020
Incroyable histoire d'une jeune fasciste italienne qui s'engage dans un lager allemand pour savoir qui a raison, entre fasciste et anti-fasciste. Récit formidable d'abord sur ses souvenirs de 43 à 45 puis sur la manière dont ses souvenirs sont revenus les uns après les autres, sans logique et parfois avec des oublis bien organisés.
A lire absolument.
A lire absolument.
January 2, 2021
A talented writing style still doesn’t help the lackluster characters and story.
Setting the action in WW2 Germany is the only aspect that creates any tension. Otherwise, in another situation, these quirky characters would be obviously unrealistic and thinly detailed. I slog my way about 1/3 into this novel before deciding it is simply too derivative.
Setting the action in WW2 Germany is the only aspect that creates any tension. Otherwise, in another situation, these quirky characters would be obviously unrealistic and thinly detailed. I slog my way about 1/3 into this novel before deciding it is simply too derivative.
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