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Edith Hahn Beer
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Book
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Publisher | Abacus | ||
ISBN | 978-068817776 | ||
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Reviewer
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Vicky
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Synopsis
Edith Hahn was a young law student in Vienna when Hitler absorbed Austria in 1938. Madly in love with a young man called Pepi who was half-Jewish, she was separated from him and sent to a forced labour camp. So began the extraordinary chain of events that led to her return to Vienna, her life as a 'hidden' Jew with an identity given to her by a German girlfriend, her marriage to a Nazi who knew she was Jewish and protected her, her intervention through her husband on behalf of Pepi, and her life at the end of the war in Eastern Germany where she was appointed a judge over the persecutors of her people. She fled the Communist regime there because of the conflicting emotions she felt for these who had NOT informed on her. She settled and married in London, and now lives in Israel, aged 84.
Angela Schluter & Edith Hahn Beer 2008
Review
Susan Dworkin has done a brilliant job of bringing to life Edith Hahn Beer's story of what it was like to be a Jew left behing in Vienna during WW2. It is an extraordinary story that had me gripped from the first paragraph because I, like many others I suspect, have had no idea as to what happened to these people and how they survived.
Life was not easy - infact it was tougher than tough and Susan Dworkin's skill as a writer creates incredible pictures in the mind of the physical, mental and emotional terrors that befell Edith Hahn Beer and her friends and relatives. Having to keep your wits about you all the time. Who do you trust - how do survive day to day - practically and emotionally.
How did Edith forgive those who had hurt her the most! This is very definitely a must read book that also gives us hope in the end and one we can all learn from. I highly recommend it.
Edith Now lives in England not far from her daughter Angela Schluter.
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