I know that many of us have read and been moved by Hegi's fiction, such as Stones from the River and The Vision of Emma Blau. Tearing the Silence is nonfiction, consisting of 15 interviews that Hegi conducted with German-Americans (all of whom were born during the war or the few years immediately following it) who immigrated in the wake of World War II. I found it to be very thought-provoking, as it provides angles on the war, the Holocaust, and immigration that I had not considered before.

Amazon.com puts it more eloquently than I:
"...powerful nonfiction collection of interviews of first-generation German Americans. Herself a German-born American, Hegi aims to shatter the reluctance, even refusal, of Germans to mention the Holocaust other than to say, 'We suffered, too.'"

Mailing order: (red = currently has book, blue = read and passed on)
Sossap (Portugal)
bookmaniac70 (Bulgaria)
krin511 (Maryland)
Seferim (Maryland)
juliebarreto (Hawaii)
JDT (California)
PalmersPal (California) (skipped)
Marken (California)
spark (California) (skipped)
FifthElement (Missouri)
Amusedbythis (Illinois)
BigJohnLefty (Iowa)
MilenaBG (Bulgaria) (skipped)
ferengie (Germany)

PM me to join this perpetual ray. Please include shipping preference.

Arrive today. tnks illinichem :)

Finally will be on mail to bookmaniac70.
It's sad that the II W War is stil making victims, as all Wars do, as we cannot forget and forgiv. Hope a better future to all. But we must remember in order not to repeat the same mistakes. An evolving book. You will not be the same after. Tnks you all out for this.

Finally,after a long waiting,the book is here! And as it usually happens,it finds me in the middle of three other bookrings!So I will not be able to start reading it immediately,and I apologise for this!I promise I shall pick it once I`m finished with the books.
BTW,recently I got from relay "Stones from the River" by the same writer.It will give me a better picture,I suppose,of this author whom I don`t know yet.

Well,in fact I started reading the book yesterday.I picked it up just to look....and I got very interested and could not resist:-)).

The book is a valuable document beyond doubt.It comes to me right at a moment when I would like to know more about Holocaust and moral choices in that time.It happened that recently I saw (at last) "Schindler`s List" and Istvan Sabo`s movie about the moral choice of great German conductor Furtwangler who stayed in Germany during the war as chief conductor of Berlin Philharmonic.These two movies made me very sensitive about this topic.I`m very interested to see what are going to reveal to me the interviews in the book.

Several things I noticed so far: at firstI had difficulty identifying with the sense of guilt experienced by the post-war generation.I understood it mentally but could not identify emotionally.At the end,all those people were in the first years of their lives during the war,they were not guilty of any crime...But then I realised that they were probably paying for their parents` sins,allegorically said.Their parents were ordinary Germans who searched to live their lives quietest as possible,and didn`t do anything against the regime,on the contrary,many of them even approved of it! In the large part of the interviews I have read so far,people speak more about their parents than about Nazism,Holocaust and etc.They all elaborate on their relationship (often difficult,or almost non-existent)with parents,they often are angry at them.For those people,the war is the broken family,the passiveness of the previous generation.The family and social values once so much appreciated-discipline,order,duty,responsibility,obedience,turn to be seen as a source of evil.

A book like this places many questions.I look to find at least some answers here...,maybe...

I finished the book this evening.I`m grateful it came my way.It added to my knowledge and feeling about the Second World War and Holocaust.I found more questions than answers in it...but also hope to have learned a lot.It is a sad book.You just sit and read about all those ruined lives,scattered families,abuse,separation,and think "I cannot do anything, it already happened!".Now I understand that the most heavy burden for post-war generation was exactly the silence of their parents.The suspicion that maybe their parents approved of what was happening in Germany;the regret that none of them expressed an open stand;the terrible feeling of guilt "my parents were guilty,too!".It shows that Hitler left a terrible legacy not only to the Jews but also to his own.I saw a documentary on Discovery a month ago about rise and fall of fascism,and was very impressed that when Hitler knew that he was losing the war,he turned against his own nation and said Germans were not worthy, they failed and were responsible for the bad turn of events.

This book shows once more that war and genocide,seem to work far out the chronological limits of actual happening.They reverberate through generations.

Thank you,illinicheme,for starting this bookray.I already PM-ed *ferengie*from Germany and shall pass the book soon.

I received a PM from *ferengie* who is studying for exams right now and would not add another book to her TBR.She asked to be skipped,so it seems the book is going straight to America.I PM-ed already krin511 for his/her address.

Received in today's mail and have started reading it - very good so far

Very moving book - I read "Stones from the River" a while ago, and this book helped put that story in perspective.

Mailed today to Seferim

Received this book today with two other ring/rays. I will get to it as soon as possible. Thanks for passing it along!

APRIL 1st, 2004--
Ursula Hegi moved to the US from Germany at the age of 18. She was born one year after the war ended, and she remembers vividly what her elders told her about those years. In her Introduction to _Tearing the Silence_, she states why she wrote this book, and how it helped her identify with her cultural heritage. With the title _Tearing the Silence_ she makes her point very clear: Post-war German immigrants have stories to tell.

Hegi conducted interviews with post-war German immigrants in the US. Most of the stories were similar to her own: born and raised in Germany during, or after, World War II, and immigration to the United States before age 20. Some are children of SS officers, others are children of privates. Some live happy lives and do not focus on the past, others are haunted by what happened.

There are some great stories in the book--very thought-provoking. I was amazed at how some of the same phrases were repeated in all of the stories--even though the interviewees never met each other. Many were told that there parents "...never knew about the Holocaust", and others said "Germans suffered too..."

With _Tearing the Silence_, Hegi provided a much-needed contribution to World War II history, and biography.

Will pass on to juliebaretto this week.

Came in today's mail. I'll dive right in. Thanks.

May 24, 2004 - I'm fascinated by the whole "good German" stereotype and how it applies to what's going on right here in the U.S. in terms of following orders and demonization of the "other," and how nationalism and "patriotism" can be used to unethical ends. The German-Americans interviewed by Hegi have had to confront this dilemma personally; the rest of us should undertake a similar inquiry.

Will send off to JDT in Pleasanton, CA tomorrow, media mail.

Received this intriguing-looking, thought-provoking book today from juliebarreto.
I've enjoyed 2 novels by Ursula Hegi - and look forward to this very different book of hers.
Maybe Memorial Day weekend is an appropriate time to start...

Red-faced to find this book in my TBR stack - forgotten as a book ray!

I will read it right away and mail to palmerspal as soon as I get an address.

PalmersPal asked to be skipped, so I'm sending this book on to Marken.
I've really appreciated the chance to read this compelling, comfort-disturbing book.

A very compelling, thought provoking book. Ursula Hegi has a way of drawing her readers into the story.
Sent in todays mail to Fifth Element as the next person on the list for this bookray. Unable to locate Spark and did not want to hold it up longer.

Just got in the mail. Looking forward to reading it and thanks for sending it out illinicheme.

Just finished. Great book and very insightful. On it's way to the next in line as soon as I get the address.

I received this book today. I am looking forward to reading it. I am in the midst of a longish book and have another ring before it. I will get to it soon, however. Thanks for sharing Illinicheme. (And I love the chief, chief, chief sticker next to the bcid number!)

Tearing the Silence: On Being German in America by Ursula Hegi was excellent. I had heard about Hegi and knew that she was a good writer. This book is of the genre of Studs Terkel and describes the feelings of Germans who were too young to particpate in WWII (or not alive) and their feelings re Germany, their adopted American homeland, the Holocaust etc. Some of the stronger interviews are in the first half of the book. I became a tad frustrated at the denial of many of the German-Americans near the end but Hegi ties everything together in the end. For each of the interviewees grew up dealing with the silence of their elders about the Holocaust and any possible knowledge of it.
I have pmed the next in line and will send this out as soon as I get an address.

RELEASE NOTES:

Sending this book along on its journey!

Received in the mail today... plan to read soon...

Speaking as an American of German ancestry with memories of a grandfather who still spoke his native tongue, this one was very interesting. I found a lot of commonalities in the the 15 or so people interviewed - mainly that they virtually all were against the Vietnam war.
A former German professor of mine (who emigrated from East Germany following the war, at 15) puts an added perspective on this for me - many of these people said some of the same things he did.
Most of all, the book points out the need to have dialogue on all the atrocities during the history of the world.

RELEASE NOTES:

sending to Germany

When it rains it pours, the book had a looong journey but arrived save and sound with another bookring on my doorstep today...

Really interesting to read, I enjoyed it greatly...
it'll travel to maprem next...

Here it is back in the US again. Looks really interesting.

This is a powerful book. It was especially valuable to me as my husband is German and has a similar story to some of the ones in the book. It really shines a light on the "things we don't talk about" (indivually and as a society), and the family and culture he grew up in. I'll mark it as available although I'm waiting for him to read it.