A Frightening Reality

I found this week’s reading to be an incredibly insightful story of what it must have been like not only to have been Jewish in Germany, especially in such a prominent city like Berlin, but also it provided a view into the journey that many Jewish people were forced to embark on: assumption of a new identity, the continuous/unrelenting fear, and most odd of all, having to proclaim ‘Heil Hitler’ even if such a proclamation went against everything you stood for. Moreover, her story gave perspective on how the German people were dealing with Hitler, it highlighted the notion that many Germans did not understand the extent of Hitler’s solution to the Jewish problem. The author notes how when wearing the Jewish insignia became compulsory many Germans would avert their eyes when they saw it, almost as if they were embarrassed by what it meant. In another instance, she shares how a German expressed her fear about how if Germany should lose the war, they would all be treated as Nazis even if they had been so against everything the Nazis stood for.

All in all, I was captivated by her journey. It was a firsthand account of what it meant to survive, the lengths she and her mother, a journey many Jewish people presumably assumed as well, went to keep themselves safe. Also, it was intriguing to see how they had immersed themselves into the new Nazi Germany and had to pretend not to be Jewish, how they had to endure the prejudices and yet be almost on the other side of it (at least to all around them). There’s an instance where the author notes how some Germans still believed in Hitler despite the ongoing reports that the war was going awry, “When do you think the Fuhrer is finally going to use his miracle weapon?” Such questions highlight the immensity of Hitler’s hold on the people and uphold the idea we have recently been discussing: that Hitler was a charismatic authority.

Her account gave us a look into what life was like for Germans during the war, how many were terribly affected. I think that’s something many of us forget sometimes. We focus on the atrocities the Jewish populous faced in concentration camps and almost pass over the horrors the Germans endured, granted the horrors faced in the camps are in no way comparable, I think acknowledging how grave the circumstances were all throughout is essential to fully grasping the situation. It was also refreshing to read an account of what life was like after the war, how it was still hard and how they had to deal with the Russians and how persecution still reigned (in the sense that although they were Jewish, some didn’t believe it). At the book’s closing, the author notes how many were quick to distance themselves from the horrors of the war and how those who risked their lives to help many Jewish people were unacknowledged, “The fact that they personified the survival of decency in a time of inhumanity was scarcely acknowledge,” (261). She notes how many suggested she let go of the past and move on. I, too, share in her view and astonishment in regard to moving on, I don’t think I would be okay with simply moving on after enduring all she endured, to have all that forgotten would be the gravest thing.