Free Delivery Over $100
|
|
|||
|
||||
OverviewWhile we now have a great number of testimonials to the horrors of the Holocaust from survivors of that dark episode of twentieth-century history, rare are the accounts of what growing up in Nazi Germany was like for people who were reared to think of Adolf Hitler as the savior of his country, and rarer still are accounts written from a female perspective. Ursula Mahlendorf, born at the height of the Great Depression in 1929 to a middle-class family, was for a long while during her childhood a true believer in Nazism, the daughter of a man who was a member of the SS at the time of his early death in 1935 - and a leader in the Hitler Youth herself. This is her vivid and unflinchingly honest account of her indoctrination into Nazism and of her gradual awakening to all the damage that Nazism had done to her country. It reveals why Nazism initially appealed to people from her station in life and how Nazi ideology was inculcated into young people. The book recounts the increasing hardships of life under Nazism as the war progressed and the chaos and turmoil that followed Germany's defeat. In the first part of this absorbing narrative, we see the young Ursula as she becomes an enthusiastic member of the Hitler Youth and then goes on to a Nazi teacher training school at age 15. In the second part, which traces her growing disillusionment with and anger at the Nazi leadership, we follow her story as she flees from the Russian army's advance in the spring of 1945, works for a time in a hospital caring for the wounded, returns to Silesia when it is under Polish administration, and finally is evacuated to the West, where she begins a new life and pursues her dream of becoming a teacher. In a moving Epilogue, Mahlendorf discloses how she learned to accept and cope emotionally with the shame that haunted her from her childhood allegiance to Nazism and the self-doubts it generated. Full Product DetailsAuthor: Ursula Mahlendorf (UC Santa Barbara, Emeritus)Publisher: Pennsylvania State University Press Imprint: Pennsylvania State University Press Dimensions: Width: 15.60cm , Height: 3.30cm , Length: 21.90cm Weight: 0.594kg ISBN: 9780271034478ISBN 10: 0271034475 Pages: 376 Publication Date: 18 February 2009 Audience: General/trade , General Format: Hardback Publisher's Status: Out of Print Availability: Awaiting stock  Table of ContentsContents List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction 1. My Family and the Nazis, 1929–1936 2. A Small Quarry Town, 1936–1938 3. Kristallnacht and the Beginning of World War II, 1938–1940 4. Today Germany Belongs to Us—Tomorrow, the Whole World, 1940–1941 5. You Are the Future Leadership of the Hitler Youth, 1941–1942 6. Between Conformity and Rebellion, 1942–1944 7. In the Belly of the Beast: The Teacher Seminary, 1944–1945 8. The Big Wheels Are Leaving for the West, January–March 1945 9. We Don’t Kill, We Heal: The Russian Invasion, 1945 10. My Hometown Becomes Polish, 1945–1946 11. Refugee in the Promised Land of the West: Return to School, 1946–1948 12. Finding an Intellectual Home: University, 1949–1954 Epilogue Books Consulted IndexReviewsThe Shame of Survival is a compelling memoir of a girl's experiences growing up in Nazi Germany that analyzes the life-long implications of Nazi indoctrination on a sensitive, thoughtful young woman. It shows how a reluctant, shy, frightened, and naive BDM member becomes swept up in Nazi ideology and documents the life-long psychic ramifications of living with that legacy: feelings of guilt and shame, a need to work through these experiences and to take responsibility for and mourn the past. Focusing on both class and gender, Mahlendorf's memoir offers a unique and valuable perspective on a growing body of emergent belated narratives on Nazi Germany by German emigre academics. -- Anna Kuhn Author InformationUrsula Mahlendorf earned her Ph.D. in German Literature from Brown University in 1958 and spent the rest of her professional life teaching in the German Department and Women's Studies Program at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |
||||
