The Shame of Survival: Working Through a Nazi Childhood

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Condition
Very Good
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“Paperback book,”
ISBN
9780271034485
Category

About this product

Product Identifiers

Publisher
Pennsylvania STATE University Press
ISBN-10
0271034483
ISBN-13
9780271034485
eBay Product ID (ePID)
92336689

Product Key Features

Number of Pages
376 Pages
Publication Name
Shame of Survival : Working Through a Nazi Childhood
Language
English
Publication Year
2010
Subject
Women, Military / World War II, Personal Memoirs, General, Educators, Historical, Teaching Methods & Materials / General
Type
Textbook
Subject Area
Education, Biography & Autobiography, History
Author
Ursula Mahlendorf
Format
Trade Paperback

Dimensions

Item Height
0.9 in
Item Weight
18.4 Oz
Item Length
8.7 in
Item Width
6.2 in

Additional Product Features

Intended Audience
Scholarly & Professional
Dewey Edition
22
TitleLeading
The
Reviews
"Mahlendorf's book is an exacting self-examination, a sharply focused account of Nazi indoctrination and a scathing criticism of the failure of adults during the Third Reich to protect their children from the poison of this indoctrination. I can only recommend it." --Bill Niven, European History Quarterly, "Ursula Mahlendorf's The Shame of Survival is a beautifully written autobiographical account of a former BDM (League of German Girls) leader who was a loyal supporter of the Nazi regime until its demise, when she suffered a major crisis in her entire belief system. Such eloquent, thoughtful accounts of a German girl's experience during World War II have been rare, and Mahlendorf's incisive gender analysis provides a firsthand look at how women and girls were cynically co-opted by the Nazis. Mahlendorf contextualizes her experiences within the larger frame of German military aggression and the Holocaust, focusing not only on the brutal consequences of unquestioningly following the Nazis, but also on how her traumatic postwar expulsion from the East caused her to reevaluate everything she had been taught during the Third Reich." --Erin McGlothlin, Washington University in St. Louis, "This is a brave, honest account of a young girl's experience in Nazi Germany, and especially of how women and girls were exploited. There are many layers of story and meaning in this courageous and painful memoir." -- Jewish Book World, "As a young teen, she was a bystander; if she had been old enough, would she have been a perpetrator? It is that dual perspective that gives this memoir its power: the immediacy of her memoirs; the shame, remorse, and uncertainty of remembering. . . . The personal experience is haunting about then and now: how you can develop a shell of toughness and numbness and not know what is happening at Bergen-Belsen, only fifty miles away from where you live." --Hazel Rochman Booklist, "The Shame of Survival is a compelling memoir of a girl's experiences growing up in Nazi Germany that analyzes the lifelong implications of Nazi indoctrination on a sensitive, thoughtful young woman. It shows how a reluctant, shy, frightened, and nave BDM member becomes swept up in Nazi ideology and documents the lifelong psychic ramifications of living with that legacy: feelings of guilt and shame, a need to work through these experiences and to take responsibility for and mourn the past. Focusing on both class and gender, Mahlendorf's memoir offers a unique and valuable perspective on a growing body of emergent belated narratives on Nazi Germany by German migr academics." --Anna Kuhn, University of California, Davis, "[Ursula Mahlendorf's] autobiography is a journey of emotional loss and recovery, a model of critical introspection, and a rich exploration of place and memory." -Jacqueline Vansant, German Quarterly, &"Mahlendorf&'s book is an exacting self-examination, a sharply focused account of Nazi indoctrination and a scathing criticism of the failure of adults during the Third Reich to protect their children from the poison of this indoctrination. I can only recommend it.&" &-Bill Niven, European History Quarterly, "[Ursula Mahlendorf's] autobiography is a journey of emotional loss and recovery, a model of critical introspection, and a rich exploration of place and memory." --Jacqueline Vansant German Quarterly, &"As a young teen, she was a bystander; if she had been old enough, would she have been a perpetrator? It is that dual perspective that gives this memoir its power: the immediacy of her memoirs; the shame, remorse, and uncertainty of remembering. . . . The personal experience is haunting about then and now: how you can develop a shell of toughness and numbness and not know what is happening at Bergen-Belsen, only fifty miles away from where you live.&" &-Hazel Rochman, Booklist, " The Shame of Survival is a compelling memoir of a girl's experiences growing up in Nazi Germany that analyzes the lifelong implications of Nazi indoctrination on a sensitive, thoughtful young woman. It shows how a reluctant, shy, frightened, and naïve BDM member becomes swept up in Nazi ideology and documents the lifelong psychic ramifications of living with that legacy: feelings of guilt and shame, a need to work through these experiences and to take responsibility for and mourn the past. Focusing on both class and gender, Mahlendorf's memoir offers a unique and valuable perspective on a growing body of emergent belated narratives on Nazi Germany by German émigré academics." --Anna Kuhn, University of California, Davis, "Ursula Mahlendorf's The Shame of Survival is a beautifully written autobiographical account of a former BDM (League of German Girls) leader who was a loyal supporter of the Nazi regime until its demise, when she suffered a major crisis in her entire belief system. Such eloquent, thoughtful accounts of a German girl's experience during World War II have been rare, and Mahlendorf's incisive gender analysis provides a firsthand look at how women and girls were cynically co-opted by the Nazis. Mahlendorf contextualizes her experiences within the larger frame of German military aggression and the Holocaust, focusing not only on the brutal consequences of unquestioningly following the Nazis, but also on how her traumatic postwar expulsion from the East caused her to reevaluate everything she had been taught during the Third Reich." --Erin McGlothlin,Washington University in St. Louis, "[Mahlendorf's] is a straightforward, honest, intelligent, and at times painful recollection of how a young and impressionable girl of ten years could fall victim to the propaganda of the local National Socialist establishment; how a community of adults, from her own mother to neighbors, relatives, teachers, and youth leaders, not only looked on but reinforced a worldview based on deception and lies; and ultimately how the author struggled for decades to come to terms with the lies that defined her childhood." --Petra Goedde Journal of Modern History, " The Shame of Survival is a compelling memoir of a girl's experiences growing up in Nazi Germany that analyzes the lifelong implications of Nazi indoctrination on a sensitive, thoughtful young woman. It shows how a reluctant, shy, frightened, and naïve BDM member becomes swept up in Nazi ideology and documents the lifelong psychic ramifications of living with that legacy: feelings of guilt and shame, a need to work through these experiences and to take responsibility for and mourn the past. Focusing on both class and gender, Mahlendorf's memoir offers a unique and valuable perspective on a growing body of emergent belated narratives on Nazi Germany by German émigré academics." -Anna Kuhn, University of California, Davis, "This is a brave, honest account of a young girl's experience in Nazi Germany, and especially of how women and girls were exploited. There are many layers of story and meaning in this courageous and painful memoir." -Jewish Book World, "[Mahlendorf's] is a straightforward, honest, intelligent, and at times painful recollection of how a young and impressionable girl of ten years could fall victim to the propaganda of the local National Socialist establishment; how a community of adults, from her own mother to neighbors, relatives, teachers, and youth leaders, not only looked on but reinforced a worldview based on deception and lies; and ultimately how the author struggled for decades to come to terms with the lies that defined her childhood." -Petra Goedde, Journal of Modern History, "This is a brave, honest account of a young girl's experience in Nazi Germany, and especially of how women and girls were exploited. There are many layers of story and meaning in this courageous and painful memoir." --Jewish Book World, "Mahlendorf's book is an exacting self-examination, a sharply focused account of Nazi indoctrination and a scathing criticism of the failure of adults during the Third Reich to protect their children from the poison of this indoctrination. I can only recommend it." --Bill Niven European History Quarterly, "This is a brave, honest account of a young girl's experience in Nazi Germany, and especially of how women and girls were exploited. There are many layers of story and meaning in this courageous and painful memoir." - Jewish Book World, "The Shame of Survival is a compelling memoir of a girl's experiences growing up in Nazi Germany that analyzes the lifelong implications of Nazi indoctrination on a sensitive, thoughtful young woman. It shows how a reluctant, shy, frightened, and naïve BDM member becomes swept up in Nazi ideology and documents the lifelong psychic ramifications of living with that legacy: feelings of guilt and shame, a need to work through these experiences and to take responsibility for and mourn the past. Focusing on both class and gender, Mahlendorf's memoir offers a unique and valuable perspective on a growing body of emergent belated narratives on Nazi Germany by German émigré academics." -Anna Kuhn, University of California, Davis, &"Ursula Mahlendorf&'s The Shame of Survival is a beautifully written autobiographical account of a former BDM (League of German Girls) leader who was a loyal supporter of the Nazi regime until its demise, when she suffered a major crisis in her entire belief system. Such eloquent, thoughtful accounts of a German girl&'s experience during World War II have been rare, and Mahlendorf&'s incisive gender analysis provides a firsthand look at how women and girls were cynically co-opted by the Nazis. Mahlendorf contextualizes her experiences within the larger frame of German military aggression and the Holocaust, focusing not only on the brutal consequences of unquestioningly following the Nazis, but also on how her traumatic postwar expulsion from the East caused her to reevaluate everything she had been taught during the Third Reich.&" &-Erin McGlothlin, Washington University in St. Louis, "[Mahlendorf's] is a straightforward, honest, intelligent, and at times painful recollection of how a young and impressionable girl of ten years could fall victim to the propaganda of the local National Socialist establishment; how a community of adults, from her own mother to neighbors, relatives, teachers, and youth leaders, not only looked on but reinforced a worldview based on deception and lies; and ultimately how the author struggled for decades to come to terms with the lies that defined her childhood." --Petra Goedde, Journal of Modern History, "Ursula Mahlendorf's The Shame of Survival is a beautifully written autobiographical account of a former BDM (League of German Girls) leader who was a loyal supporter of the Nazi regime until its demise, when she suffered a major crisis in her entire belief system. Such eloquent, thoughtful accounts of a German girl's experience during World War II have been rare, and Mahlendorf's incisive gender analysis provides a firsthand look at how women and girls were cynically co-opted by the Nazis. Mahlendorf contextualizes her experiences within the larger frame of German military aggression and the Holocaust, focusing not only on the brutal consequences of unquestioningly following the Nazis, but also on how her traumatic postwar expulsion from the East caused her to reevaluate everything she had been taught during the Third Reich." -Erin McGlothlin, Washington University in St. Louis, " The Shame of Survival is a compelling memoir of a girl's experiences growing up in Nazi Germany that analyzes the lifelong implications of Nazi indoctrination on a sensitive, thoughtful young woman. It shows how a reluctant, shy, frightened, and naïve BDM member becomes swept up in Nazi ideology and documents the lifelong psychic ramifications of living with that legacy: feelings of guilt and shame, a need to work through these experiences and to take responsibility for and mourn the past. Focusing on both class and gender, Mahlendorf's memoir offers a unique and valuable perspective on a growing body of emergent belated narratives on Nazi Germany by German émigré academics." --Anna Kuhn,University of California, Davis, &"The Shame of Survival is a compelling memoir of a girl&'s experiences growing up in Nazi Germany that analyzes the lifelong implications of Nazi indoctrination on a sensitive, thoughtful young woman. It shows how a reluctant, shy, frightened, and naïve BDM member becomes swept up in Nazi ideology and documents the lifelong psychic ramifications of living with that legacy: feelings of guilt and shame, a need to work through these experiences and to take responsibility for and mourn the past. Focusing on both class and gender, Mahlendorf&'s memoir offers a unique and valuable perspective on a growing body of emergent belated narratives on Nazi Germany by German émigré academics.&" &-Anna Kuhn, University of California, Davis, "As a young teen, she was a bystander; if she had been old enough, would she have been a perpetrator? It is that dual perspective that gives this memoir its power: the immediacy of her memoirs; the shame, remorse, and uncertainty of remembering. . . . The personal experience is haunting about then and now: how you can develop a shell of toughness and numbness and not know what is happening at Bergen-Belsen, only fifty miles away from where you live." --Hazel Rochman, Booklist, &"This is a brave, honest account of a young girl&'s experience in Nazi Germany, and especially of how women and girls were exploited. There are many layers of story and meaning in this courageous and painful memoir.&" &-Jewish Book World, "[Ursula Mahlendorf's] autobiography is a journey of emotional loss and recovery, a model of critical introspection, and a rich exploration of place and memory." --Jacqueline Vansant, German Quarterly, "The Shame of Survival is a compelling memoir of a girl's experiences growing up in Nazi Germany that analyzes the lifelong implications of Nazi indoctrination on a sensitive, thoughtful young woman. It shows how a reluctant, shy, frightened, and nave BDM member becomes swept up in Nazi ideology and documents the lifelong psychic ramifications of living with that legacy: feelings of guilt and shame, a need to work through these experiences and to take responsibility for and mourn the past. Focusing on both class and gender, Mahlendorf's memoir offers a unique and valuable perspective on a growing body of emergent belated narratives on Nazi Germany by German migr academics." -Anna Kuhn, University of California, Davis, "As a young teen, she was a bystander; if she had been old enough, would she have been a perpetrator? It is that dual perspective that gives this memoir its power: the immediacy of her memoirs; the shame, remorse, and uncertainty of remembering. . . . The personal experience is haunting about then and now: how you can develop a shell of toughness and numbness and not know what is happening at Bergen-Belsen, only fifty miles away from where you live." -Hazel Rochman, Booklist, &"[Ursula Mahlendorf&'s] autobiography is a journey of emotional loss and recovery, a model of critical introspection, and a rich exploration of place and memory.&" &-Jacqueline Vansant, German Quarterly, "Mahlendorf's book is an exacting self-examination, a sharply focused account of Nazi indoctrination and a scathing criticism of the failure of adults during the Third Reich to protect their children from the poison of this indoctrination. I can only recommend it." -Bill Niven, European History Quarterly
Illustrated
Yes
Dewey Decimal
943.086092
Table Of Content
Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction 1. My Family and the Nazis, 1929-1936 2. A Small Quarry Town, 1936-1938 3. Kristallnacht and the Beginning of World War II, 1938-1940 4. Today Germany Belongs to Us--Tomorrow, the Whole World, 1940-1941 5. You Are the Future Leadership of the Hitler Youth, 1941-1942 6. Between Conformity and Rebellion, 1942-1944 7. In the Belly of the Beast: The Teacher Seminary, 1944-1945 8. The Big Wheels Are Leaving for the West, January-March 1945 9. We Don't Kill, We Heal: The Russian Invasion, 1945 10. My Hometown Becomes Polish, 1945-1946 11. Refugee in the Promised Land of the West: Return to School, 1946-1948 12. Finding an Intellectual Home: University, 1949-1954 Epilogue Books Consulted Index
Synopsis
While we now have a great number of testimonials to the horrors of the Holocaust from survivors of that dark episode of twentieth-century history, rare are the accounts of what growing up in Nazi Germany was like for people who were reared to think of Adolf Hitler as the savior of his country, and rarer still are accounts written from a female perspective. Ursula Mahlendorf, born to a middle-class family in 1929, at the start of the Great Depression, was the daughter of a man who was a member of the SS at the time of his early death in 1935. For a long while during her childhood she was a true believer in Nazism--and a leader in the Hitler Youth herself. This is her vivid and unflinchingly honest account of her indoctrination into Nazism and of her gradual awakening to all the damage that Nazism had done to her country. It reveals why Nazism initially appealed to people from her station in life and how Nazi ideology was inculcated into young people. The book recounts the increasing hardships of life under Nazism as the war progressed and the chaos and turmoil that followed Germany's defeat. In the first part of this absorbing narrative, we see the young Ursula as she becomes an enthusiastic member of the Hitler Youth and then goes on to a Nazi teacher-training school at fifteen. In the second part, which traces her growing disillusionment with and anger at the Nazi leadership, we follow her story as she flees from the Russian army's advance in the spring of 1945, works for a time in a hospital caring for the wounded, returns to Silesia when it is under Polish administration, and finally is evacuated to the West, where she begins a new life and pursues her dream of becoming a teacher. In a moving Epilogue, Mahlendorf discloses how she learned to accept and cope emotionally with the shame that haunted her from her childhood allegiance to Nazism and the self-doubts it generated., An autobiographical account of the author's childhood and young adulthood in Nazi Germany, the postwar occupation, and her eventual relocation to the West. Contributes to current debates on history and memory, and on everyday and women's history from a feminist, psychoanalytically informed perspective.
LC Classification Number
D811.5.M25165 2010

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