I sit here as I sit with you today in my favorite cafe on the square in the city of Netanya by the sea in the land of Israel, and an acquaintance stops to chat and says, "So tell us, Giveret Beer, what was it like then, during the war, living with a Nazi Party member inside Germany, pretending to be an Aryan, concealing your true identity, always fearing exposure?" I answer in a little voice that is dazed by its own ignorance, "Oh, but I do not know. I think I do not remember this anymore." My gaze wanders and loses focus, my voice turns dreamy, halting, soft. It is my voice from those days in Brandenburg, when I was a twenty-nine-year-old Jewish law student on the Gestapo's "Wanted" list, prentending to be an ignorant twenty-one-year-old nurse's aid.
You must forgive me when you hear this small voice from then fading and faltering. You must remind me: "Edith! Speak up! Tell the story."
It has been more than half a century.
I suppose it is time.
I have been meaning to read this book for a while now after a few recommendations. This is the autobiography of Edith Hahn Beer and her experiences as a Jew during the Holocaust. Her general tone is one of sorrow, bent pride, and bitterness. It is amazing what she went through and she is grateful for the life she was given afterward; but overall, as compared with other witnesses of this atrocity, she is not hopeful in her message, she is merely telling her story. I can understand why she suppressed the experiences for nearly 50 years. This is the only biography I have read that truly evoked some of the emotions and smells I experienced while visiting Dauchau and conversing with survivors.
Similar genre I have read:
The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom
Christian German sent to concentration camp for involvement in Resistance
The Diary of Anne Frank
Jewish girl's diary of hiding during the holocaust
Yearning for the Living God by Enzio Busche
German man and soldier who finds that God has never abandoned him
A Distant Prayer: Miracles of the 49th Combat Mission
American fighter pilots and their experiences as POW
1 comment:
I forgot to mention this book has an interesting contrast as Nazi focus on women as housewives: cooking, breeding, docile. Edith was a rare educated woman for her time. She was not a virgin at marriage and indeed was involved with 3 men in her life. She was outspoken and brandish.
Insights to why morality doctrine of conservative groups is outright rejected by European nations.
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