Andrea wrote to me:
"Yes, this sounds like a wonderful book ... It would be well received in the US I think, though I don't know in Germany. I am living in Germany as an ex-pat and they are very quick to say that this isn't Nazi-Germany and I don't think it's discussed at all here. Maybe a German blogger can offer an opinion. I for one would be interested in reading the book. It's a sensitive subject, but one that I don't think has been addressed much from this perspective."
I answered Andrea like this:
"I don't think "it" is discussed any more here than in Germany unless one brings it up. The movie industry, press, and the American penchant for simple pictures have cooperated in fixing the Nazi years in the American public mind as a stereotype in stark black and white. Part of my aim is to broaden our collective understanding of the time by showing that the Nazis, being German, put everybody into neat pigeon holes with graduated treatment. But they never quite figured out or agreed where to place (and how to treat) us mixed-race mongrels who had many friends and relatives in the "German" (or "Arian") population. Besides, in libraries full of books about the horrors of the Holocaust I have not found a single book that concentrated on the agony of the non-Jewish partner in "privileged" mixed marriages whose role it was to single-handedly act as the protector of their family. The "laws" and regulations were tightened and changed with regularity, and the protection could be taken away at any moment. For some people, years of protection were futile in the end."
Well, I think Andrea has a point. I know of course that today's Germany is a different country altogether from what it was under the Nazis. I have heard before, though, that foreigners sometimes have the feeling that many Germans today are hesitant to talk about Nazi history at all.
Ich würde gerne mal eine Stellungnahme aus Deutschland hören. Ist das Thema "Geschichte des Dritten Reichs" noch aktuell in Deutschland? Das wäre interesant, obwohl ich mein Buch für den amerikanischen Markt schreiben will. Kennt jemand ein Buch, das über oder vom Standpunkt des NICHT-jüdischen Ehegatten in "Privilegierter Mischehe" geschrieben ist?
Ich würde mich über einen Kommentar (egal - deutsch der englisch) freuen!
Mischling
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5 comments:
I've been living in Germany for just short of ten years now and my husband is a German. My mother in law was born in 1934 and willingly shares her memories of that time and what her world was like. She has older cousins who have also shared with me their memories and opinions regarding that time. One of my neighbors, who is a close friend of my mother in law's is 89 years old - a young woman during the Third Reich - and when asked she has never hesitated to tell me her memories. Maybe it's because I live in the former DDR that makes people here a bit more open about talking about the Third Reich but when I've asked I've never had one person who was alive during that time hesitate talking about their memories. I've been grateful for that because I've been able to learn a lot about how people then thought and what they experienced during and after the war.
It's been my experience that the German media isn't shy about talking about the Third Reich and I've seen literally dozens of documentaries in the past ten years on the topic of the Third Reich, the Holocaust and the period just after the war.
My husband doesn't blog so I'll just tell you about our discussion. I was telling my husband about your potential project and he found it to be very interesting. There may very well be no books or documentaries regarding this particular topic and the angle from which you want to present it and my husband thought the same as I did - it's important for you to write this. If you don't it's possible that no one will ever tell this story and it'll be lost forever. People need to know there are many facets to the history of Germany during that time and everything wasn't black or white.
Dixie – Thank you for your pertinent comments!
It is very well possible that people in the old DDR are more ready to talk about the past than in Westdeutschland. The West, like the US, seems more future-oriented, while the East always was more connected to the past. Even in 1953, when I last lived in München, the general attitude seemed to be “forget the past — let’s get going!” That brought with it material success, but at a price. It is good to hear that the media are still occupied with the decades-long job “mit der Vergangenheit fertigzuwerden.” It will still take a while.
The most poignant section of your comment concerns the need to write this book because it doesn’t seem to exist and may never be written if I, one of a shrinking number of eye witnesses, doesn’t do it. The very existence of “privileged mixed marriages” is of course well known, but perhaps not the human and emotional aspects of it. This nefarious aspect of the Nazi methodology has been widely overshadowed by their still hard-to-fathom barbarian cruelty.
“Mischling”
I really hope you write this book. The world needs to have as much information out there as possible about every aspect of that time in history.
And selfishly I'm looking forward to reading it because it's this sort of story that fascinates me. I enjoy reading history books and historical novels, not just for the facts and dates but to learn about the people who lived during that time...how life was for them. That's what makes history come alive.
Your daughter recently told me that you're looking for comments about your plans to write a book. You also asked for comments from a German's point of view, so here it is (in German):
Um es vorweg zu nehmen: Schreiben Sie dieses Buch! Aus meiner Sicht, hört sich das Thema nicht nur sehr interessant an, sondern vielmehr nehme ich an, dass es für Sie selbst wichtig ist, diese Erfahrungen mit anderen zu teilen bzw. anderen, in diesem Fall dem amerikanischen Leser, nahezubringen. Ich persönlich kenne kein Buch (oder ähnliches), das direkten Bezug auf diese "spezielle" Situation ("privileged mixed marriages") nimmt. Die Bücher, Filme und Dokumentationen, die ich kenne, spiegeln in der Regel das Leben aus Sicht der "direkten" Opfer wider (und kürzlich wurde auch ein sehenswerter (autobiographischer) Film im deutschen Fernsehen ausgestrahlt).
Nun zur Ihrer Frage, ob das Thema "NS-Deutschland" noch aktuell ist und ob dieses immer noch diskutiert wird. Die schrecklichen Ereignisse dieser Zeit sind immer noch aktuell, und es gibt zahlreiche Dokumentationen und Filme, die sich dieses Themas annehmen. Ich selber "kenne" diese Zeit nur aus dem Geschichtsunterricht in der Schule und - zumindest - in meinen Schulen wurde großen Wert auf das Thema gelegt. Ich muss allerdings soeben feststellen, dass ich nie die Gelegenheit hatte, dieses Thema mit meinen Großeltern, die beide Kriege erlebt hatten, zu erörtern, weil ich zu jung war um überhaupt über dieses Thema sprechen zu können.
Ob das Thema immer noch (aktiv) diskutiert wird, hängt sicherlich auch davon ab, wenn Sie fragen und, vorallem, wann. Es ist wohl nicht so, dass es jederzeit und überall diskutiert wird. Allerdings erscheint das Thema immer wieder in den Medien, z.B. bei aktuellen Anlässen, die immer wieder Gelegenheit geben, darüber nachzudenken und mit anderen darüber zu sprechen. Einer dieser Anlässe ist derzeit z.B. die höchst fragwürdige Rede des amtierenden Ministerpräsidenten von Baden-Würtemberg, der in seiner Rede anlässlich des Begräbnisses eines ehemaligen Ministerpräsidenten, der damals NS-Richter war, von seiner Vergangenheit explizit (!) freigesprochen hat (siehe auch [1]). Weitere Anlässe sind Gedenktage und -veranstaltungen. Leider sind dies nicht die einzigen Anlässe, die das Thema immer wieder erscheinen lassen. So wurde z.B. in Potsdam ein Mann vor einigen Monaten von Neo-Nazis überfallen; der Mann sitzt, nachdem er wochenlang im Komma lag, querschnittsgelähmt im Rollstuhl. Ferner treten (potenziell) rechtsradikale Parteien immer wieder bei Wahlen in den Vordergrund, vorallem bei den Landtagswahlen im "Osten"; zum Glück spielen diese Parteien bei Bundestagswahlen keine Rolle (gleiches gilt übrigens auch für die SED-Nachfolge aus DDR-Zeiten, die PDS, die sich jetzt "Die Linke" nennt).
Also, schreiben Sie dieses Buch. Mich, zumindest, haben Sie bereits von Ihrer Idee und Ihren Plänen überzeugt und somit als potenziellen Leser gewonnen. Berichte und/oder Geschichten dieser Zeit aus Sicht von Augenzeugen werden irgendwann rar werden und, so denke ich, sind immer lesenswert (und werden es auch bleiben).
Summarizing the above paragraphs for those who would like to participate the discussion and don't speak German, I would encourage you to write such a book since it sounds very interesting. Personally, I don't know any books, films, or other documentaries that cover this specific subject about "privileged mixed marriages". The subject about "Nazi-Germany" isn't discussed everyday but occasionally, particularly, when there are certain occasions, this subject is indeed addressed; unfortuantely, these "certain occasions" are, sometimes, rather appalling or even worrying. I do think that such a book could find its audience in Germany, whether or not it could be suitable for the US market, I can't figure out. Finally, a book written by an eye witness is always worth reading, isn't it? As far as your approach to the book and its organization is concerned, I think that it's quite interesting.
I always enjoy to read, hear, or watch media appearances of Germany-related (or Europe-related in general) subjects from outside, and if you don't mind, I'd like to know how the modern post-war-"Old Europe"-Germany is seen from Americans' point of view and in particular from you, an American who was born and grew up in Germany.
[1] http://www.swr.de/nachrichten/bw/-/id=1622/nid=1622/did=2086954/mpdid=2090316/w9an8e/index.html (German)
sorry, apparently, the above mentioned link isn't displayed properly.
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