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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Coming out of hiding., March 30, 2002
A Past in Hiding is the story of Marianne Strauss-Ellenbogen and her extraordinary survival during the Holocaust. Presenting us with one young woman's real life story, Roseman does not paint a picture of a saint but that of a real flesh and blood person who, like us all, had great strengths and also weaknesses. She was, after all, in her teens when she was confronted with events too difficult for her to comprehend. She was only a couple of years older than Anne Frank, but what a different reality! Roseman's investigation into Marianne's history engages us deeply in the day-to-day life of herself, her family and friends. We can follow how and why they misjudged the increasingly dangerous environment they lived in. The book has a lot more to offer than that. Given Roseman's extensive knowledge of modern German history, he is able to draw a multi-layered picture of every day life for the Jewish community in Germany during the Nazi period. The investigation into the role of the Abwehr in protecting selected Jewish Germans is pertinent for the recent debate around the complicity of the regular army with the SS and Gestapo. Moving between historical chronology and present day commentary and personal reflection on Marianne, the author pieces together a mosaic like a jigsaw puzzle. For most readers it will shed new light on the complexities of this period in recent history like very few other books I have read. Roseman writes in a style that combines the historical with the intimate personal. He conveys his assessment of the characters and situations with empathy for their situation and struggles. At the time he reflects on discrepancies in their statements and recollections of the past. One of the most dramatic documents in the book is the diary of Marianne's fiancé, Ernst. He was able to smuggle it out of the concentration camp Izbica thanks to an unconventional courier. One of the family acquaintances with probable links to the Gestapo, was nevertheless willing to act as courier for parcels from Marianne to Ernst; he also brought back this very rare contemporary account of life in the camp. Roseman digs into historical records to verify and complement the description. As part of his investigation, he interviewed the courier's widow as well as others who could add to the story. I started reading A Past in Hiding primarily because, as a child growing up after the war, I knew some of the people connected with Marianne and the "Bund". It was Bund members who provided shelter to Marianne while she was on the run from 1943 to 1945, thus risking their own lives and security. The Bund was a small but committed group of humanitarians and socialists who helped numerous victims of the Holocaust. One of the survivors protected by the Bund, Lisa Jacob, became a friend of my family. She influenced my life more than she ever knew and also much more than even I understood for many years while growing up. However, my interest in this extraordinary book grew with each page that I was reading. It was difficult to put down. A Past in Hiding has a lot to offer to the reader. Roseman's research into the life and times of Marianne brought him together with her and her family members as recent as the late 1990s. He also interviewed numerous other "witnesses" of her life and survival during the Nazi period. It was fortuitous that so many family documents as well as official records survived. Roseman studied diaries, correspondence and countless historical documents. His notes and the comprehensive bibliography reflect the thorough research that has gone into the book. As a result, at some level A Past in Hiding reads like a detective story, fully absorbing and dramatic. At another level, it is a very personal and critical account of Marianne and her contemporaries. At a third level, it is a study into the changed memory phenomenon, which can occur as a result of traumatic experiences. Last but not least, Roseman introduces the reader to the almost unknown movement of the "Bund" and their role in supporting victims of the Holocaust. An extraordinary book that should have a place in the mind and heart of many people.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Past in Hiding by Mark Roseman, February 18, 2001
This review is from: A Past in Hiding: Memory and Survival in Nazi Germany (Hardcover)
This 491 page biography describes the survival of Marianne Strauss, daughter of well-to-do Jews of Essen during the Nazi years. Born in 1923, and with a brother Richard three years younger, Marianne grew up under the antiJewish laws and increasing persecution culminating in Krystalnacht of November 1938. With the outbreak of the war, conditions for Marianne and her family deteriorated rapidly. She escaped deportation by fleeing the house when her parents and brother were rounded up by the Gestapo and sent to Theresienstadt and then Auschwitz. From 1943 to 1945, Marianne lived as a fugitive, helped by a leftwing German organization, the Bund. She was liberated by the American Army in 1945, married a British Army medical officer and made her home in England. Mark Roseman, a professor of modern history at the University of Southampton in England, has created in a vivid way Marianne's life as a "U-boat" in wartime Germany. He has obtained Marianne's letters, private diaries, and archival materials from Essen, Dusseldorf, Yad Vashem and many other sources. He interviewed Marianne many times almost up to her death in 1996 in Liverpool. He also contacted surviving members of her family and friends. The book is distinguished by poignant descriptions of Marianne's feelings, her struggles to deal with the deaths of her fiance Ernst Krombach, murdered by the Nazis in Izbica, and of her parents and younger brother who perished in Auschwitz. Professor Roseman recreates Marianne's contacts with helpers as well as with enemies who would denounce her, and analyzes her memory distortions and failures. Subtitled "Memory and Survival in Nazi Germany" "A Past in Hiding" like Victor Klemperer's "I Will Bear Witness", reveals the inhuman face of Nazi Germany in its persecution and mass murder of its Jewish citizens.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Extraordinary archives well assembled, September 25, 2001
This review is from: A Past in Hiding: Memory and Survival in Nazi Germany (Hardcover)
More than the focus on Marianne, I came away from this book thinking about Ernest. Marianne's story is better than most fiction in it's ability to illustrate a time and place gone, to breathe life into people we've never met and to serve as a larger parable for the history surrounding her. Ernest has his own place in this narrative. He is a look at the soul of a loving person trying desperatly to remain himself in impossible times. Both people of extreme character, Marianne and Ernest are worth knowing. Far beyond that, is the author's exploration of oral history and the pitfalls it contains. (That alone recommends this book to the casual family historian.) The inadequately documented actions of ordinary Germans of decency is given a boost by Marianne's papers and shines deserved light on many. If you've read several dozen testimonies already, this book still offers a great deal of new information to consider.
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