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Daniel Half Human: And the Good Nazi (Richard Jackson Books (Atheneum Hardcover))

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DANIEL HALF HUMAN AND THE GOOD NAZI by David Chotjewitz, translated by Doris Orgel, Simon & Schuster/Atheneum/Richard Jackson, October 2004, ISBN: 0-689-85747-0

"It's interesting: On the street you know right away who's Jewish. I don't mean the Orthodox with their hats and curled sideburns. I mean the ones in normal clothes. I recognize them by how they walk. The Jews always stay close to the building walls. Or near the gutter. Even though it isn't written anywhere that they should. And they always look down. As though they are looking for something on the ground. And there's always this embarrassed smile. As if they wanted to beg pardon for something. No Germans walk in that crept-inside-themselves way."
--Daniel's cousin Miriam, writing a letter in 1935.

Two young friends in Hamburg, Germany become blood brothers while spending a night in jail. They've been caught painting swastikas in the Communist sector of town in 1933, shortly before the rise of Adolf Hitler. Daniel, the son of a wealthy attorney, and Armin, a poor scholarship student, attend an elite high school together. Little do either know, as the pair are first dabbling in hatred and imagining belonging to the HJ (Hitler Youth), that Daniel's parents will soon reveal to him that his mother is actually Jewish.

"Daniel looked at his father. 'Why did you do it?' he asked. 'Why did you marry a Jewess?'
Rheinhard stared at him. 'Why I did what?'
That's why I'm half Jewish now,' Daniel said. 'Because you married a Jewess.'
Rheinhard didn't answer. He gave David a look that hurt more than the smack in the face he gave him next."

Desperately trying to keep his horrible secret from everyone including Armin, Daniel is furious when his cousin Miriam shows up to live with them after her father (Daniel's mother's brother) is taken into custody. And although his father's honored position as a decorated German W.W.I veteran allows Daniel's tenuous continuation at school, Daniel slowly is forced to internalize the position in which he has found himself:

"I'm the lowest. That's how I felt. Someone you don't even greet. A nothing.
"And suddenly everything that I'd been keeping at a distance burst in on me: all the fear, all the shame, all the humiliation. I just stood there, on the sidewalk, in front of some store window as people walked by me. I stood in their way, got shoved, and a short man with a hat on said, 'Look out,' when it was he who should have looked out.
"And in that moment I knew hatred. I followed my erstwhile teammates with my eyes, and I hated every one of them. I imagined running up to the bunch, grabbing Klaus, spinning him around, letting him have it--in the face with my fist. Till the blood gushed out.
"But my hand didn't hurt him. Every blow I dealt him hurt him not at all, hurt only me. It hurt so much, I tried with all my might to obliterate this scene, erase it from my mind."

It is ultimately Armin's attraction to Miriam that threatens the lives of Daniel's extended family, because Armin is a rising star in the HJ--which he's joined against his father's wishes--and Armin is being carefully watched.

"Dr. Knoppe raised his eyes and voice. 'The dishonorable, dirty Jew looks with envy on the noble Nordic-German people. And inside every Jew there dwells a diabolic need to drag the noble race down into the muck with him. No reasonable farmer would ever allow such interbreeding of cattle! But among humans, to our shame, it happens every day.' "

An intimate perspective on the insanity faced by a young Jew during the rise of Hitler (1933-39), DANIEL HALF HUMAN AND THE GOOD NAZI also examines the dusky recesses of that long-term relationship between Daniel and Armin. What, for me, was a startling conclusion to the story will surely leave readers dwelling upon their own ideas of friendship.

I loved this book! The Nazi/WWII era is one I have always found interesting and have read many books about it. This is one of the best. It portrays the Nazis effect on Aryans, Jews, youth, poor, rich, and adults.
The story is about Daniel, a regular teenage boy, who admires and wants to be a Nazi. All that changes when he learns he is Jewish. He is then faced with tough realizations and new appreciations. He goes from having many friends and a lot of money, to being on the run from the Nazis, having hardly any friends, with little money. However, his best friend Armin continues to be his friend but also continues his Nazi career.
This book really makes you think and I definitely recommend it.
If you are really interested in this time period, as I am, I also suggest you read: Until We Meet Again by Michael Korenblit and Kathleen Janger , The Pianist by Wladyslaw Szpilman, Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally, and Night by Eli Wiesel.

A very interesting book. A good read.

Daniel is one-half Jewish.

Daniel's father is Aryan and a war hero from WWI.

Daniel's mother is a Jew.

Daniel's best friend, Armin, is a member of the Hitler youth. Armin, being a patriotic German, finds himself in the position of being a leader in the most anti-Jew government ever, and, having a Jew as a best friend.

You can easily put yourself in any of the characters' positions, wondering what you would do if you were them. I am blue-eyed with a fair complexion and thus would have been considered a perfect Aryan. What would I have done if I had been Armin? What would I have done if my beloved wife was a Jew - not care about her anymore because the government says she's half-human?

We would all like to say that we would have stood up to the Hitler government and resisted.

It's hard to describe the feelings you'll have after reading this book, but if you're like me, you'll think about it long after you've finished the book.

Daniel and his best friend Armin, students at an exclusive high school, are excited when Hitler comes to power, even painting swastikas in a pro-communist neighborhood in Hamburg. When Daniel learns that his mother, who was raised Christian, had Jewish parents and is therefore a Jew under Nazi law, he is devastated. He too, is a half-Jew, and therefore half-human. He knows now that his dreams of joining the Hitler Youth are finished, and although he manages to keep his ancestry secret for a while, the truth eventually comes out. Daniel's best friend joins Hitler Youth although his socialist father forbids it. The situation comes to a head on the terrible night of Kristallnacht. Part of this story takes place in 1945, with Daniel coming back to Germany and serving as an interpreter for the Royal British Army after the war. This novel is a riveting fictional account of a friendship between two boys changing under the ever-increasing restrictions of the anti-Jewish laws of the Nazi government. I liked the way that these are not "black and white" characters; for example, the young Nazi, Armin, falls in love with Daniel's visiting Jewish cousin, Miriam, although he knows it is forbidden. We see in this story how the life of non-Jews like Daniel's father falls apart as he loses everything from his very successful career because of being married to a Jew.

When I was going through this book, the above mentioned song by Kinky Friedman was the thing that recurringly kept coming to my mind, because "Daniel Half Human and the Good Nazi" would tell us the events that would precede the Holocaust, in which 6 million members of the European Jewry would eventually perish. (Of course, Kinky's song generated enough storm in its day, because most people took it to be insulting to the memory of the Holocaust victims.).

I, for myself, as someone who for a few years lived in Jerusalem, had the chance to learn about the Jewish history and the atrocities on the Jews in Europe; visiting the Yad Vashem (Holocaust Memorial Museum) was both shocking and an eye opener; it showed what should never happen in this world. But I did not read many a book of fiction that described the years before the 2nd World War in Germany (Perhaps one such book that I read was "Father of a Murderer").

There are many books that give us graphic details of the Holocaust era atrocities, but there are not so many works of fiction that dicuss the preceding years and the eventual spiraling of that era to the concentration camps and the "final solution". "Daniel Half human and the Good Nazi" concerns itself with 1933-1940, perhaps the most defining period for the 20th century history and politics.

The irony of the book lies in the friendship of two teenagers, who are extremely devoted to the Nazi party and Hitler and both of whom aim to join the Hitler Youth. They even get arrested one night drawing Swastika in the city square.

But then things suddenly change: Daniel finds out that his mother was the daughter of a couple who converted from Judaism, thus making her Jewish, and thereby making himself half Jewish, or half-human. And from that moment onwards, life for Daniel and his family members goes down in a spiral and destroys most of the things that Daniel had taken for granted for so long.

It's a good read. And equally interesting is the sudden twist in the Epilogue of the book. Don't forget to read those few pages carefully.

'Daniel Half Human: And the Good Nazi' by David Chotjewitz was good book, and it's very interesting.

It is about a young teenager who lives in Germany named Daniel. He has always thought himself to be German, and supported Hitler's views, but when he founds out that his mother is a Jewess, his world changes.

That means he is half-German, half-Aryan, half-human in the eyes of most.

How will he cope, and how can he continue to live his life as before?

This title was named a 2004 Sydney Taylor Honor Book by the Association of Jewish Libraries.

Daniel lives an ordinary, comfortable life in 1930's Germany. With the rise of Hitler, his mother's formerly insignificant Jewish identity (of which Daniel had not even known) becomes important, and Daniel finds himself designated a "mischling" (half-Jew). This complicates but does not end his friendship with Armin, a prominent member of Hitler Youth.

The story is framed by "flash forwards" of Daniel as an Allied soldier in 1945 Germany, exploring the wreckage and the memories invoked by it. This keeps the story moving forward and provides Daniel with the context to make meaning of the events of his youth. The well-written (and clearly translated by Doris Orgel, author of The Devil in Vienna) story is compelling and realistic, emotionally stirring and psychologically believable. Characters are multifacted and well-rounded. The tale is told from multiple points of view, giving readers an inside perspective on the experiences of Hitlers victims AND followers.

The book is a fascinating study of human relationships as well as of Holocaust history. It will provide a rich experience for mature readers, and would be an excellent choice for discussion groups.