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The author's mother is an absolutely unlikable human being.

Besides the horrible things she did to her family and with her life, she's just a nasty woman. I don't understand how the nursing home where she lived was so accepting of her, almost cherishing her. They put up wi I just had to read this book because the premise is so unbelievable.

They put up with her history, her irrational behavior; they even allowed her to keep her Nazi uniform in the closet! One thing that was missing from this book was history. Why did the author's mother turn to Nazism and desire to become an Auschwitz guard? Who may have influenced her to take this path in life?

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She alludes to a man but never develops that. What was the relationship like with her husband? Was there any indication that her mother might abandon her family? I know the author was young when her mother left but didn't she ever talk to her father about it? Ultimately this book left too many questions unanswered. Much of it seemed unbelievable.

Heike riprende a respirare

And it wasn't well-written. I guess it didn't need to be since the story is so incredible but it would have been nice.

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View all 3 comments. I forced myself to finish this catharsis of a book. I'm sure the author feels better for having written it,even if no one feels better for having read it. Now you don't have to read this book for yourself. It is another autobiographical text, one that probes the non- relationship between absent concentration camp guard and convicted and unrepentant war criminal mother, and angry, resentful and self-absorbed daughter.

Helga Schneider

Again, I understand that the concept of an autobiography is essentially a narcissistic one, when the two central figures in the piece are so loathsome — for very different reasons — it can be hard going making it all the way through. I am sure that reconciling your own life with the knowledge that your mother was not only unrepentant — but proud — about her past including stints in the most notorious extermination camps must be difficult, and it is clear that the author had a difficult and isolated childhood marked by rejection.

Give it a miss. There's something off about this whole story. It's either partially fabricated or completely fabricated. Not saying her mother wasn't in the SS but the meeting and conversation with her mother had to have been either recorded or this woman has a remarkable memory of every little gesture, sigh and tear her mother made that day.

Helga Schneider | LibraryThing

There's just something off about it. Would I recommend it? Nothing is uncovered that we didn't already know about what happened in the camps and unless you are interes There's something off about this whole story. Events on LibraryThing Local. You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data. Information from the German Common Knowledge.

Edit to localize it to your language. Helga Schneider was four years old in when she and her younger brother were abandoned by their mother, who walked out of their Berlin apartment during World War II. Their father was away fighting in the German Army. Helga was initially cared for by a loving grandmother, but then endured an unloving stepmother, boarding school, and the deprivations of postwar Germany.

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She ran away, made her own life, and married an Italian. Thirty years later, she met her mother again and learned that she had been a member of the Waffen SS who worked as a guard at Ravensbruck and Auschwitz-Birkenau death camps. Product details File Size: Salani Editore December 3, Publication Date: December 3, Sold by: Not Enabled Screen Reader: Enabled Amazon Best Sellers Rank: Share your thoughts with other customers.

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