A Childhood under Hitler and Stalin: Memoirs of a "Certified Jew" [Paperback]

Michael Wieck (Author), Siegfried Lenz (Author), Penny Milbouer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 26, 2003

A bestseller in  Germany, Michael Wieck’s account of his childhood in Königsberg recalls a German city obliterated by fire-bombing during the Second World War. As the child of a Jewish mother and Gentile father, Wieck was persecuted first as a "certified Jew" by the Nazis, then as a German by the Russian occupiers, including horrific internment in the Rothenstein concentration camp. His emigration to the West in 1948 marked the end of the 408-year history of the Jewish community in Königsberg.
    From the earliest delights of a childhood filled with music, family, and the smell of pines and the sea, Wieck retraces his life. He tells of his school days and their sudden end, the shock of Kristallnacht, his Aunt Fanny being sent by train to a destination unknown, the chemical factory where Jewish workers gradually disappeared, the bombs falling on Königsberg. The Russian occupation was anything but the expected delivery from the horrors of the war.
            In the midst of privation, savagery, and death, there were moments of absurdity, and Wieck powerfully depicts them in this unforgettable memoir.
 

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

"I have never read more impressive testimony about the fate that befell people-especially Jews in this century-and I have never met anyone who so ably survived all this."-Marion Countess Dönhoff, Hamburger Morgenpost

About the Author

Michael Wieck eventually returned to Germany and became concertmaster of the renowned Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra. He is now retired and lives in Stuttgart.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 328 pages
• Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press; 1 edition (June 26, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0299185443
• ISBN-13: 978-0299185442
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #458,847 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #92 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Historical > Holocaust

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Stunning Account, March 22, 2004

By 

K. Patterson (Berkeley, California United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Childhood under Hitler and Stalin: Memoirs of a "Certified Jew" (Paperback)

This is a superb translation by Penny Milbouer of an important book for today. Wieck's harrowing account of his life under both Nazi and Soviet domination illuminates a dark tale that reaches far beyond the immediate stories told of WWII to the years of Stalin's occupation of the Eastern reaches of Prussia.

Thoughtful, beautiful, terrible, a book well worth reading despite enduring horrors.

5.0 out of 5 stars A Harrowing Story, January 8, 2011

By 

G. M. Bassin (Cincinnati, OH USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Childhood under Hitler and Stalin: Memoirs of a "Certified Jew" (Paperback)

This memoir starts out a little slow, but is increasing harrowing as the author's situation gets worse and worse. Just when you think it couldn't get any worse under Hitler, Konigsberg falls to the Russians and then things get even more horrible. An important story, should be required reading.