Customer Reviews

Aimee and Jaguar: A Love Story, Berlin 1943

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The most shocking-- and delightful-- aspect of this book is its refusal to sink into our notions of the conventional love story. While involving unconventional characters, I still expected it to be a 1943 Berlin version of _Love Story_. Thankfully, it is not. There are no happy endings in any sense, as Fischer does not deify either character and refuses to expunge parts of the story that sully either Lilly or Felice. There are problems, fights, questions of motivations. After reading this book, you will remain lost in a world of "why"s and "what if"s.

Fischer provides an historical account that, unlike many, is inhabited by multi-dimensional people that both intrigue and frustrate.

One of the best books I have ever read. I can not stop thinking about it.

In 1995 when I worked for HarperCollins (the hardcover publisher of Aimee & Jaguar), I had the amazing experience of co-editing Edna McCown's brilliant translation of this book from the original German. In an industry rife with commercialism, at a time when the reasons why I became an editor were becoming murky, I found myself working on this book that would remain an enormous part of who I am both personally and professionally. The story of Felice Schragenheim and Lilly Wust is a time-honored classic tale of a love that defied all obstacles, from the horrific devastation of the Holocaust, to the proscribed confines of society, to the simple passage of time. I can think of no greater gift that any one lover can give another than to tell their story, the way Lilly Wust did, after more than half a century of silence. Although she died more than 50 years ago, Felice Schragenheim will always be alive in the hearts of readers of this book, and in the hearts of all those who see the movie when it comes out here in the US. Aimee & Jaguar is at once an inside look at "underground" life in Berlin during Nazi Germany, a look at two very different women who came together under the most bizarre of circumstances, and ultimately a testament to the strength of love in the face of adversity. And I'm sure that Lilly's "Rosenkavalier" is looking down, smiling at the fact that, as she predicted, they "would always be together." I hope this story moves other readers as much as it moved and continues to move me. There is nothing quite like it.

If, like me, you picked up "Aimee and Jaguar" because you enjoyed the film -- be prepared that the book is quite a different animal.
Rather than a straightforward narrative film, the book is a histography -- more like a documentary using letters and interviews to reconstruct the story of Lilly and Felice. While not terribly satisfying for those seeking an experience similar to the film, it is nonetheless a worthy read, and satisfying for those seeking to find out 'what is true' in the film as well as more information on what happened to Felice after she was captured by the Gestapo.

I tend to agree with the previous reviewers who were startled at the epilogue. I think information on her difficult relationship with Lilly would have been more honestly conveyed in a prologue and to simply denouce her simultaniously as Nazi sympathizer and Jew-wannabee seems unnecessarily harsh. As for her opinion that Felice would have likely left Lilly had she lived, there does seem some evidence that their relationship might not have had staying power (hinted at in the film as well), such as Felice's relative youth (21) and various attempted and successful daliances with other ladies while she and Lilly were together -- Lola for certain and quite possibly Inge as well. I don't think it's entirely unfair for the author to state her opinion on the longevity of their relationship, but it is in poor taste, particularly in the context of a general denoucement of Lilly's character.

Overall, a quite a good book. Recommended.

I basically read through this book in one sitting - it is emotionally gripping and interesting from a historical standpoint as well. Though I am left with a few unanswered questions and am frustrated at certain blanks in the narrative, the sincerity of the story makes up for this (if the exact chronology were easier to follow, I would have given the book five stars). The format of the book also works well; the mix of diary entries, historical back-ground, poems, letters, and personal testimonies permits the reader to piece together herself the many elements of this touching story. Not only is _Aimee & Jaguar_ difficult to put down, it is also difficult to leave down: there is a strong temptation to pick up the story of Lilly and Felice again and re-read the lines of discovery, love, and loss.

I think it is a deeply moving and well written book. It is a book which shows the complexity of human relations under very unfavorable circumstances, to say the least. Although I have read many books dealing with the holocost and WWII this one has made me aware for the first time that there were good Germans too. We have the rare opportunity to get an insight into the life and heart of a woman who tried to save a person she loved and some others too, regardless of the inevitable terrible consequences it would have on her life. It among other issues rises the issue of relations between the people who risked their lives to save others and the saved. This is all very relevant in my country where a boody civil war had put love and friendship to a great test.

I'm not entirely sure what the author's purpose was in writing this book, because it certainly wasn't approached with any objectivity. The story is a touching one, very moving and ultimately heartbreaking, and the love Lili and Felice shared seemed to me intense and sincere. But in the epilogue the author admits she dislikes Lili, and feels she can more easily identify with Felice, basically because they are both Jewish. She feels somehow insulted that Lili aligned herself more closely with Jewish people after the war, and it is here that the author's attitude really left a bad taste in my mouth. In the book Lili relates that after the war other Germans distanced themselves from her because she had helped Felice and others. By looking askance on Lili because she was a German woman married to a Nazi and who could therefore never really have been a victim is showing exactly the same kind of prejudice, just in a different form. As far as Fischer self-righteously refusing to recognize Lili as a victim, all I can say to that is that Lili lost the woman she loved, so I'd have to disagree. Also, by taking Felice into her home, and later sheltering other Jewish women, Lili did much more than most people during that time, people who in most cases simply chose to look the other way.

In sum I'd say this book is definitely worth seeking out - but I'd rather it had been written by someone without an obviously prejudicial axe to grind.

I came to the book after seeing the film a few times since it's release. Erica Fischer is not a lesbian and indeed her angle on the book is more historical. There is a distance the author keeps in reporting their feelings for one another. I got the feeling from reading the book that to focus more on the passion would perhaps trivialize the plight of Jews for Erica Fischer. The letters and quotes held great interest for me. And after adjusting to the fact that the narrative would feel a little cold and dry, I also found the backround information quite interesting. I did feel that there was a lack of objectivity on the authors part. But then we all have our particular perspective through which we see the world. Hers is as a Berlin heterosexual Jew. If you are a lesbian who has assumed the author is a lesbian and came to the book looking for a full bodied love story, there is an adjustment to make. You might want to skip the epilouge or at least brace yourself. This is the part of the book that I felt was inappropriate. Erica Fischer told me that more information has come forward since this English translation, and can be found in the later German version. This information helps further explain some of the obvious distaste she still holds for Lili. All said, this is a thought provoking book, though not a scintillating love story. I am thankful to the author for the enormous amount of research that went into this book and do recommend it.

I enjoyed the film version of "Aimee & Jaguar", but I think the book tells a much deeper story. We get to know the characters on a more profound level: I was especially charmed by the poems both women wrote, especially Jaguar's rhymed comments on her everyday life experiences. The book provides astonishing details about life for Jews who went "underground" in Berlin; somehow, the picture of the slow tightening of the Nazi noose was clearer to me from this book than from the many other works I've read on the period. And Aimee's fate after the war was unexpected--messy, frustrating, and human. A more timid author might have left some of this information out.

I do have a few complaints about Fischer's approach to writing history: I agree with some other reviewers that the story tended to get muddled in the constant mention of unimportant names and dates, and it's difficult to keep track of the minor characters. An index would have helped with this. The author included loads of love letters, which get a little repetitive. I also would have liked to see more photos of Aimee & Jaguar's friends, rather than so many pictures of just the two of them.

I don't have the knowledge to assess how successful Fischer was at capturing lesbian feelings: the love between the characters seemed believable to me, and there was one fairly explicit scene that many historians would not have dared to write, but which I think added to the emotion of the story. I did think it was odd--bordering on irresponsible, for a historian--that Fischer stated in an epilogue that she thought Jaguar would have left Aimee if they had been together longer. This is pure speculation. Though I appreciated Fischer's honest confession of her feelings about Aimee, it might have been fairer to the reader if the author had put this at the beginning of the book. After reading the epilogue, I remembered a number of incidents in the story that portrayed Aimee in a negative light, and I couldn't help but think that Fischer's personal attitude may have colored her telling of those events. For example, when Jaguar is sent to a concentration camp, Aimee tries unsuccessfully to demand her release from the camp authorities. This action is described as "irrational", and one onlooker comments that it may have even harmed Jaguar. But no evidence for this is given--letters from Jaguar after Aimee's visit say nothing about it. Aimee's attempt might just as easily have been described as a sign of her great love for Jaguar, or of her bravery in confronting the Nazis, but instead, a picture is painted of a woman behaving irrationally, a standard sexist stereotype.

I can understand why Fischer was offended that Aimee appropriated Jaguar's Jewish background after the war. I think some of Aimee's attitude might have come from the role of German women in the time that she lived: she would have expected to take on some of the attributes and beliefs of her "husband." Plus, she was disgusted at the system that had robbed her of her lover. And her action can also be looked at in a positive way: one of Aimee's sons became very interested in the Hebrew language, and ended up emigrating to Israel. Is that a bad thing? I thought it was strange that Fischer gave so little credit to Aimee for the risks she took to try and help Jaguar and a number of other Jews. It is true that Aimee was not always on "the good side", and Fischer did some hard work investigating her background. But shouldn't people who learn and change be given some respect?

Fischer closes the book with a description of her own husband's work, which will probably make every reader feel immensely guilty. Again, not something most historians would do, but it is another sign of Fischer's brave, though not always successful, attempts to get to the heart of humanity's struggle with its own dark side.

I found this a difficult book to read on several levels. All books that parallel the Holocaust and depths of brutality told in such personal ways communicate a hurt that makes one want to turn away. The book was recommended to me by a colleague and I have just finished the library copy. The closing pages of the book are unfortunate because the author Erica Fischer reveals the depth of her own biases and judgments; I could have lived without reading them. First though the main story.

The temptation to portray this as a lesbian love story are strong but to do so would somehow slightly reduce the humanity of the two main protagonists. That an obviously lesbian Jewish woman tried her best to stay alive in Berlin at a time when the Final Solution was sweeping Jews into the fires of the crematoria and nightmares of the camps is puzzling enough. Felice's choices beg many questions, none of which we will ever have an answer to. As an articulate woman why did she wait until it was too late to flee Germany and join her sister in England? Did she succumb to cloudy feelings that a loving but very dangerous relationship gave? I have to ask if she was fully aware of how dangerous her choice to align herself with a Christian woman whose husband was a member of the Nazi party? In what became a self destructive choice, she lingered and attached herself to a woman without much thought of how the entrapment she was setting for herself could be escaped. Living a life at first somewhat in secret from her lover, hiding her Jewish background, living eventually as a "u-boat" underground does not answer the question of why she would put herself in such peril by openly taunting the Nazis, walking around in broad daylight with her lover, as if to thumb her nose at the tyranny she knew was out to destroy her and all other Jews. Was she being childish and foolish? What then of Lily, who was equally as capable of putting herself and her 4 children at great peril by housing a Jew in her apartment? Was she so blind to the risks?

While too late Felice did try to flee from Germany and by the quirky hand of fate she like many others was trapped behind closed borders after war erupted and England and the United States entered. Now, unable to adequately save herself she decided it would be better to hide in plain sight, putting her fate in the hands of some other power. The more I think about it the more confusing their choices together were. It is clear that Elizabeth had a very unhappy marriage, that her husband was not shy about keeping a mistress. Fine, it happens. She is at first not even aware that Felice and several other ladies in her circle were Jews, lesbians, some well educated and sophisticated. Elizabeth seems oblivious to many realities and somehow only has part of her eyes open to one reality when she and Felice unite sexually. All of a sudden her love of life has returned, perhaps asleep for most of her married life. Fine as well, this too happens in new relationships. What the two of these lovers shared was a tendency to take extreme risks without much thought about the consequences. In this the two of them were equally self indulgent, only wanting and then wanting more self gratification. For Aimee it was to have someone adore and fill her heart up with undivided and complete affection. For Jaguar it was someone that would not only love her but who would protect her physically in the sense of keeping her alive.

On the surface Elizabeth Wust had fallen in love with a woman who happened to be a fearless and lively Jew. That they had naively taken for granted that they could carry on with their relationship without being caught, not thinking deeply enough that prying eyes amongst the very Nazi neighborhood that they lived in would somehow turn against them shows the degrees in which they both ignored the warnings all around. If Elizabeth had not considered how brutal the Gestapo could be then they put all of that to an end when they stormed into her apartment and took Felice away.

Further along in the story Elizabeth showed another extreme side to her personality by insisting that she see Felice in person, first at the Jewish detention center in Berlin and then much later when she had been transferred to the concentration camp at the distant Theresienstadt. At enormous risks to herself and against the strong advise of her friends to not risk the journey, incredibly she manages to get herself to the camp and with courage bordering on insanity she barges in and demands to see Felice? She was lucky that the camp commandant didn't take out his pistol and shoot her right on the spot. In what became a tendency for the remainder of her life she became detached from any realistic perspective on what had become of her lover. We could argue that the bonds of love can inflame anyone and who are we to judge? Good question, but by then Elizabeth was well on the way to suffering the psychic breakdown that took over her life once it became clear that her beloved Jaguar had not survived the war. I was quite surprised that she was able to successfully send parcels and letters to Felice when she was at various camps. I had no idea that such mail and parcels would get delivered to Jewish woman under those circumstances.

The end of the war brought no relief to Elizabeth as it only reinforced what she could not accept, that the love of her life was not coming home and that she could not be replaced. What remains of the story is how Elizabeth withdrew into herself, taking upon herself to preserve the memory of their short but deeply felt relationship, kept hidden in a private sanctuary in her heart where she would not allow any healing light to disturb the always broken soul. What became of her 4 children who witnessed first hand their mother fall apart, having their favorite Jaguar snatched by the Gestapo? One of her children ended up being closely aligned with Jews to such an extent that he emigrated to Israel. After the war, strangely, Elizabeth tried to become a Jew herself, this coming at a time when almost no Jews remained in the burned out husk of Nazi Germany.

The author's bitterness in the closing pages does ask hard questions about Elizabeth. Was she as blind and as oblivious as she wanted others to think of her? Many books portray common Germans as not knowing what was going on from Kristallnacht onwards. Some would say that this is nothing more than a national refusal to acknowledge what everyone knew. The most haunting of questions to that generation would come sometimes from their own children: "What did you do to stop it"? For Elizabeth it was a question that she used against herself in a never ending guilt ridden emptiness. The author finds her hard to like and prefers Felice, who appears more human and vital. This is something we can not judge. The author assumes that Felice would have eventually rejected her Aimee had she been reunited with her. How can we know this? What remains is a heart breaking story of how two lives intersected each other, transformed each other and then were torn apart. We are left with many questions but this too is part of the mystery of all of our motivations, both in war and in peace time. Why do we do what we do? How do we explain to ourselves the choices we make, the entanglements we find ourselves in, the heartbreaks we do not allow to heal? This is a very sad story. The rich details of life in Berlin as the war winds up and down are very informative. I closed the book with a sense of compassion for both of them, both victims on so many levels. A love story indeed.

This book is the very first book to ever make me cry, and I'm one of those people who've read all types of genres. It was captivating and compelling. Like many, I saw the movie first, but when I saw it was a true story, I simply had to have the book as well. I am glad I did. The book provided the background and meaning that the movie left out. Because of the book, I will probably have to rewatch the movie again.

The courage, bravery, and love shown in this novel is beyond compare. It's a read worth reading slowly.