The Healing Wound: Experiences and Reflections, Germany, 1938-2001 [Hardcover]

Gitta Sereny (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2001

A mesmerizing reappraisal of twentieth-century Germany by one of our most courageous writers. Few individuals have written about the evil forces of Hitler's Germany with the immediacy and urgency of Gitta Sereny. She first encountered the Nazis in 1934 at age eleven when she witnessed a Nuremberg rally, and in 1940 she was in Paris when the Blitzkrieg overran the Allied armies. In 1942, warned of impending arrest for having hidden British pilots, she fled across the Pyrenees. In The Healing Wound Sereny presents a vital historical account of Germany in the twentieth century, exploring the guilt which is in many ways the legacy of Nazism. She argues that despite the remarkable achievements of Germany since 1945, the awareness of the horrors committed in their name remains in the minds of Germans to this day—an open wound of historical culpability. The Healing Wound combines political statement with the haunting personal memories of one of the twentieth century's most relentless witnesses. 32 b/w photographs.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Reminiscent of the thoughtful writings of Elie Wiesel and Viktor Frankl, these essays by Austrian-born Sereny (Into That Darkness) read at times like short stories connected by the author's quest to comprehend the phenomenon that was German National Socialism. Sereny was a member of the French resistance during World War II, and when she tells a story whether her own or that of one of the many historical figures she has interviewed the work is compelling and thought-provoking. When she philosophizes, however, as she does in one long section on the effect of Nazism on German youth, the work stalls. The writing would have benefited from simplification; many of the sentences are long and complex and are fractured by a profusion of dashes and commas, which endangers their clarity. Still, Sereny writes with insight, passion, and understanding of Hitler's servants and their lingering impact on Germany today. Highly recommended for academic libraries. Michael F. Russo, Louisiana State Univ. Libs., Baton Rouge
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

When Sereny witnessed the 1934 Nuremberg rally as a child, she was intoxicated by the energy and symmetry with which the men of the SS moved. She would see the horror beneath their veneer when Hitler and his troops invaded her beloved Austria to disseminate their odious vision of racial perfection. Hungarian by birth, Sereny did not suffer the fate of the camps, but as a firsthand witness to this abomination, she became immersed in a lifelong commitment to unveiling the vileness of Hitler's Germany. A renowned journalist and an author of several books, she explores the effect that Germany's past has had on its present-day youth and the toll it has taken on their national pride. She fearlessly probes the mind of Franz Stangl, an SS guard at Sobibor, and she interviews the children of the Third Reich who struggle to cope with their fathers' crimes against humanity. This very cerebral memoir is an encyclopedia of information on the aftermath of the Nazi era. Elsa Gaztambide
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 1st American ed edition (October 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393044289
• ISBN-13: 978-0393044287
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,384,230 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WWII and how it haunts us still., October 25, 2001

By 

Maureen Ogorman "leneker" (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Healing Wound: Experiences and Reflections, Germany, 1938-2001 (Hardcover)

This book mostly contains a collection of previously published pieces written over a thirty-year period. each is given a new introduction and some also update the information. Included in the articles are autobiographical anecdotes about Ms Sereny's event filled life.

It deals with some of the infamous participants of World War II (such as Speer and Stengle of Trablinka) as well as with some of the after effects that the conflict has wrought the world. Also appearing are the stories of those whose lives as members of the Third Reich did not being until after May 1945. The forger of the Hitler diaries (and Sereny's sinister take on them), the man who owns the copyright on "Mein Kampf", and the youth of Germany in the 1960s.

If you have read her other books some material here will be repetitive, however, the collection allows readers to gain a much broader perspective on how the war has shaped and continues to shape our world.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing, July 11, 2002

By 

Fred M. Blum - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Healing Wound: Experiences and Reflections, Germany, 1938-2001 (Hardcover)

Ms. Sereny is one of the true gifts to the literary world and as each of her books is published I relish the chance to read it. That is what was so disappointing about The Healing Wound: Experiences and Reflections, Germany, 1938-2001. The stated purpose of the book was to discuss the effect of the Nazis and the war on Germans, both during and after the conflict. Whilet the writing is as usual top flight and each of the chapters engrossing, as a whole the book fails in its essential task.

The book is a collection of decades of Ms. Sereny's writing, edited and updated. Two of the chapters are derived from her earlier books on Stangl and Speer, and for those who have read the books, there is very little added. The other chapters are engrossing in their own right. They range from the Nazi's stealing of children to be raised as Aryans, Ms. Sereny's experiences in pre-war Germany, to the falsification of Hitler's diaries, and the trial of John Demjanjuk. What is missing is a universal current that brings together each of the chapters together. At times the book seems to be as much about the United States or Israel as Germany.

When Ms. Sereny does discuss the attitudes of current Germans and the evolutionary process that they have taken part in the discussion is riveting. Focusing on those sections, one firmly believes that there is no comparison between the German that grew up in what was West Germany and the German who lived in Germany in the early 1930's. That whatever else might be said, that the German government and people have taken their recent history to heart with the firm desire to insure that it will not be repeated. This is encouraging given the discussion about the racist problems arising in the former East German states. I only wish that more of the book had been devoted to this subject.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Review, November 23, 2007

By 

Stephen Campbell "Author" (Washington, D.C.) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Healing Wound: Experiences and Reflections, Germany, 1938-2001 (Paperback)

Gitta Sereny is an excellent author. Yes, as mentioned in the other reviews this is a collection of her work. What I enjoyed about this book is that it touches so many different facets of the Third Reich and how it still resonates in society today.

Reading this for someone who is interested in this period is an excellent way to end up going off on different tangents from the mainstream books on the subject. I ended up reading books on what it was like growing up as a child of the Reich. From there I went on to read about the effects of the post-war population movements had on the demographic makeup of Europe. Read it and see what you never thought of before.