Andre’s Reviews > "Denk nicht, wir bleiben hier" > Status Update

This book could really tug at your heart strings but it was also astounding how these families managed to pull themselves up from the bottom again.

Too bad that he couldn't get the picture of his grandfather as one of the strongest men in Bavaria. Funny how the girls abandoned the US soldiers to flirt with the Sinti boys.

So he is in Bergen Belsen... funny, I thought he was there already. Apparently it was all Ravensbrück.
Also, the scene of the dogs being let lose on the naked prisoners and mauling them reminds me of Haiti under the French.

So now he meets Mengele and no wonder his mother could not belief what the guy was capable of with such a boring face and a nice behavior.

Fascinating, not only did I learn that lubije means whore and latscho kil means good butter, but apparently there were Sinti among the Sonderkommando, something usually excluded and acted as if it consisted entirely of Jews.

I am currently in Auschwitz and about how his mother wrote an SS-approved letter in which she wrote "greetings to uncle Bock". "Bok" is the romanes Word for Hunger.

His uncle Eduard was not only at Verdun but also was among the only 3 survivors of almost 300. He got the 2nd class Iron Cross, Bavarian medal for bravery and promoted to Unteroffizier. Later under the national socialists he received The Honour Cross of the World War 1914/1918. Which saved him, his wife and children later.

The difference in writing to Jan Yoors book is stricking. While Yoors in the beginning used animal symbolism to describe the Rom, the book rather lets actions speak and portrays the family as individuals. Yoors book portrayed Rom as eternal outsiders while this focuses on integration, as well as putting the family in historical and geographical context, while Yoors' gypsies could have been anywhere and anytime.