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Reading Harris while processing the books Hitler‘s People & Nazi Wives complicates for me the philosophical questions Harris is posing.All of the men explored & their wives did have a choice- yes, it was a life or death one , or at best a stripping of title, job, riches,etc.All were educated.Many of the wives did know what their husbands were doing, even the Final Solution. Historian & author Claudia Koonz included a chapter in her book about ⬇️

#wickedwhispers #unknown
This isn‘t spooky in the Halloween way, but it‘s haunting in its own way!
@Eggs @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

#aboutabook #shortbutpowerful

@Eggs @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

4⭐️ I was looking forward to reading this book because 1. It‘s Kempowski!, and 2. It‘s rare to have WWII story from Germany‘s POV. This is an autobiographical novel of a boy growing up under Nazi rule. Reading this book ~80 years after the actual event, I don‘t see anything ordinary about his childhood. I was fascinated by his bohemian family, and how they dealt with the disruption of war.

Alfred Rosenberg, one of the Nazi elite during WWII, was fascinated by the philosopher Spinoza, even though Spinoza was a Jew and Rosenberg a thorough anti-semite. Yalom describes the philosophical ideas of Spinoza in the 17th century and reflects ons the effect they had on Rosenberg in the 20th century. Fiction, of course, but super fascinating. Yalom makes philosophy sexy like no other author can imo.

I love an epistolary novel, and this one is a killer. A short, gut-punch of a story, written in 1938, about two friends whose relationship unravels as the Nazis rise to power. There's an abrupt shift in the tone and subject of the letters near the end, but the payoff is swift and mighty. I was taken by the story as whole, and even more so by the afterward which posits the idea of "using a letter as a weapon." Chilling and, unfortunately, timely.

Not the tagged book, but by the same author.

Barbara Yelin spent years talking to Emmie Arbel about her life. This GN shows the whole Emmie Arbel, not just the one who survived the Holocaust. Not just a victim, because Emmie Arbel is no victim. But we see how deep trauma runs, but also that it can be overcome. We have to listen to those voices. We should never forget.

This was a moving biography, told in strong, deep pictures.

A short novella in epistolary form. It's crazy that this was written in the 1930s without hindsight of what actually did transpire. Within this short book, it encapsulates the mood of the time.
#1938