Divided Lives: The Untold Stories of Jewish-Christian Women in Nazi Germany [Paperback]

Cynthia A. Crane (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 5, 2003

This book brings together the horrifying real life stories of women who woke up one day and were not who they thought they were. The government changed and they suddenly no longer had the right kind of blood, the right name, the right family background, the right physical features to be considered a member of society, city, or state. These stories are from German women who were a part of a Jewish-Christian "mixed marriage" and were subsequently persecuted under the Nuremberg laws. Hitler called them "mischling"- half-breeds, however, they have often been passed over in studies of the Holocaust--perhaps because they are often not considered "real Jews." But these women are still struggling with the nightmares of the Third Reich and the Holocaust, the loss of family in concentration camps, and with their own identity-divided between their Jewish and Christian roots. Often their Jewish background was revealed to them only after Hitler's laws were passed. These are the narratives of eight women who remained in Germany, struggling to reclaim their German heritage and their cultural and religious identity. The narratives are compelling and sensitively written, addressing questions of cultural and ethnic identity.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In recent years, Holocaust scholarship has begun to uncover many little-known tragedies, such as the persecutions of homosexuals and Gypsies under German national socialism. Crane (an assistant professor of English at Raymond Waters College in Ohio) focuses on the persecution of "mischlings," children of mixed Jewish and Christian marriagesAspecifically, 10 women whose racial identity was frequently unclear, as some were not practicing Jews and some did not even regard themselves as Jewish. Supplemented by an overview of the history and details of the intricate laws that determined which German citizens were to be classified as Jews or mischlings (literally "half-breeds"), the interviews offer the reader a precise and often frightening inside look at life for mischlings under the Third Reich. In each of the 10 transcribed monologues, each woman's cadences, complexities and individuality come through, along with startling details. For example, Ilsa B, who was born to an "Aryan" father and Jewish mother and who lost relatives in the Holocaust, is able to say of the attention that has been paid to the Nazi persecution of Jews, "'I don't know why this Jewish thing stands out so much." Most powerful is the sheer repetition of everyday details and incidents, such as the observance of Christmas in a mixed marriage, a child's walk to school past "Hitler" oaks and swastika flags, and the ways that natural quarreling among family members became frighteningly loaded under Nazi repression. While none of the historical material is new and Crane makes no pretense to original interpretations, the voices and stories she collects have not been heard in such detail before and are a welcome addition to Holocaust and Jewish studies. (Dec. 1)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

These tales of "mixed families," considered "non-Aryan" by the Third Reich, bring home the awful discrimination of that time. In some cases, Aryans were pressured to divorce their non-Aryan spouses; children from these families were denied educational opportunities and barred from prestigious careers. Crane (English, Raymond Walters Coll.) was naturally drawn to these stories, as her grandparents were such a mixed couple who left Europe in 1938. Her interest lies in the uses of autobiography to heal such trauma. For this book, she has interviewed ten now-elderly women about their wartime experiences. After a brief introduction to each chapter, she lets each woman tell her story in her own way. Although none had previously identified with the Jewish tradition, each experienced the loss of family and friends in the camps. All remained in Germany after World War II or returned after living abroad and now think of themselves as German, despite their ordeals. Crane has succeeded in telling new stories on an old theme. Recommended for Holocaust and women's studies collections.DMarcia L. Sprules, Council on Foreign Relations Lib., New York
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan (March 5, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1403961557
• ISBN-13: 978-1403961556
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,137,179 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brings Jewish persecution to life., March 6, 2001

By 

Julie Lovisa (Indiana USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Divided Lives: The Untold Stories of Jewish-Christian Women in Nazi Germany (Hardcover)

Many of the mischling women interviewed in this book state that the young people of today, especially Americans don't have any feeling whatsoever for what happened in WWII. Sadly, they are correct in that we learn about the war, but we don't learn about real life during the war. Facts and technical outlines of battles can only give one the surface of the struggle. To dig deeper, you need to read first person accounts such as the ones given in this book...stories of persecution and oppression that will make the war seem all too real. The paper thin line of distinction between Germans and Jews comes to life here with the children of Jewish/Christian parents who are ranked according to the amount of Jewish blood they carry...first degree half-Jew or second degree quarter-Jew. Most are saved from the concentration camps by their affiliation with their Aryan (German) family, but all suffer some amount of anti-semitism and persecution under the Third Reich. This is a revealing portrait of the fate of the mischlinge, a people who are often forgotten in the gruesome and humiliating saga of the holocaust.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Divided Lives" is beautiful and thought-provoking., November 27, 2000

By 

F. Anderson (Cincinnati) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Divided Lives: The Untold Stories of Jewish-Christian Women in Nazi Germany (Hardcover)

Cynthia Crane is to be congratulated for writing a wonderful book about love, courage, faith and family in Nazi Germany. "Divided Lives" does an excellent job of educating the reader that not all victims of the Holocaust were in concentration camps. The Mischlinge (half-breed children), were caught in a political and sociological limbo that was, for many, quite terrifying. The true stories, told in first-person, are captivating. I felt that I was in these women's homes, eavesdropping on their conversations with the author. I highly recommend "Divided Lives" to anyone who is interested in learning more about the history of Nazi Germany, and how ten courageous women managed to endure the nightmare that was the Third Reich.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One Heart at a Time, January 22, 2001

By 

"barrymds" (Memphis, TN USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Divided Lives: The Untold Stories of Jewish-Christian Women in Nazi Germany (Hardcover)

I was sincerely moved by the personal, touching images of such a horrible time in history. So many of us who grew up after the War know this time only from a panoramic, impersonal view: newsreels, Hitler, Nazis, trains, faces, bodies, battles, movies, history books, all of it frightening and sad; stark images we can never forget or want to forget. But to hear these women tell the intimate stories of their lives, of their struggles, of their dealings with terror and the deaths of their loved ones, brings history into the heart. It's the first time I ever felt that I could, in whatever meager way, understand and perhaps sympathize with how these innocent people, one person at a time, one day at a time, one heart at a time, tried to survive this horrendous nightmare. More of us in this world today should know these stories. We should truly understand how living people were affected, not just how the images of their suffering were presented to us. We should want to give some love back in time, somehow, to help them live their time. We should want to share their heartbreak and their pain. As I read this book I wanted to do these things.