'Exquisitely written... haunting... Few books, I think, capture so
well the sense of a life broken for ever by trauma and guilt' -
Sunday Times 'An unsparing, honest and insightful memoir, that
shows how private failure becomes national disaster' - Hilary
Mantel In 1965 the German journalist Horst Krüger attended the
Auschwitz trial in Frankfurt, where 22 former camp guards were put
on trial for the systematic murder of over 1 million men, women and
children. Twenty years after the end of the war, this was the first
time that the German people were confronted with the horrific
details of the Holocaust executed by 'ordinary men' still living in
their midst. The trial sent Krüger back to his childhood in the
1930s, in an attempt to understand 'how it really was, that
incomprehensible time'. He had grown up in a Berlin suburb, among a
community of decent, lower-middle-class homeowners. This was not
the world of torch-lit processions and endless ranks of marching SA
men. Here, people lived ordinary, non-political lives, believed in
God and obeyed the law, but were gradually seduced and intoxicated
by the promises of Nazism. He had been, Krüger realised, 'the
typical child of innocuous Germans who were never Nazis, and
without whom the Nazis would never have been able to do their
work'. This world of respectability, order and duty began to
crumble when tragedy struck. Krüger's older sister decided to take
her own life, leaving the parents struggling to come to terms with
the inexplicable. The author's teenage rebellion, his desire to
escape the stifling conformity of family life, made him join an
anti-Nazi resistance group. He narrowly escaped imprisonment only
to be sent to war as Hitler embarked on the conquest of Europe.
Step by step, a family that had fallen under the spell of Nazism
was being destroyed by it. Written in accomplished prose of
lingering beauty, The Broken House is a moving coming-of-age story
that provides an unforgettable portrait of life under the Nazis.
Yet the book's themes also chime with our own times - how the
promise of an 'era of greatness' by a populist leader intoxicates
an entire nation, how thin is the veneer of civilisation, and what
makes one person a collaborator and another a resister.
General
Imprint: |
The Bodley Head Ltd
|
Country of origin: |
United Kingdom |
Release date: |
June 2021 |
Authors: |
Horst Krüger
|
Translators: |
Shaun Whiteside
|
Dimensions: |
211 x 135 x 16mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Paperback - Trade
|
Pages: |
208 |
ISBN-13: |
978-1-84792-635-7 |
Subtitles: |
German
|
Categories: |
Books
|
LSN: |
1-84792-635-5 |
Barcode: |
9781847926357 |
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