I haven’t read this perspective yet. Ms. Koehn is a “mischling, second degree” [which is the Nazi designation for someone with one Jewish grandparent]. This impacts her profoundly because her maternal grandparents force her mother to divorce her father (who has a Jewish parent) and get sole custody of Ilse for the war. Ms. Koehn does not, however, seem to have understood the reasons at the time. This chronicles the life of a German child during the war: forced to join the Hitler Youth, sent away to work camps (under the pretense of safety), and ultimately sent away for the duration of the war. It’s a fascinated look at another side of the war.
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