BookBlog

A record of my thoughts on the books I've read.

Saturday, September 11, 2004

True to Both My Selves: One family torn between Germany and England in two word wars by Katrin FitzHerbert

Katrin Fitzherbert grew up as Katrin Thiede in Berlin, living in a National Socialist neighbourhood, with her Father a good Nazi. Her mother, however, was born in England, to an English mother and a German father. After the war Katrin's mother moved the whole family to England, abandoning Eberhard Thiede in prison. In the process all three generations gave up their German identity completely, and became completely British. Katrin describes here the inner non-transformation, the continued belief in the pure ideals of Nazism.

All's well that end well.

Katrin Thiede's grandmother describes their month-long journey on foot to join her children:
We had found packets of tea in a spot where the fighting had only recently stopped and dead soldiers were lying about. We often found things like that where there had just been a battle.

Recommended to anyone caught between two cultures.