On a simple level, this is the story of a woman's visit with her elderly mother in a nursing home. On a deep level it is that woman's effort to come to terms with a mother who abandoned her children in order to become a guard in a Nazi extermination camp. Compelling. Disturbing. ( )

It's hard to tell who this is about. As it was an autobiography I expected to read more about Helga's life; instead the focus is on her mother Traudi, making it more of a biography of her life.

Very interesting to read and at times it makes for uncomfortable reading. Nevertheless this is a worthwhile experience. I had expected it to be even more detailed that it is actually is, so it was somewhat of an easier experience than anticipated.

Overall it is well written but occasionally it drifts and it can be confusing as to whether you are reading the present or the recent past. The setting for the book is a visit to where Traudi is staying. She is 90 years old and it's just before she dies. Traudi left Helga and her brother Peter when she was 4; choosing her job for the SS over her children. Helga then met up with her again only once more before this visit. The relationship between mother and daughter is fascinating. I don't know if I hated her as much as Helga kept saying she did whether I would have stayed and suffered the abuse she was still dealing out at 90.

It is both fascinating yet frank. Helga takes her cousin Eva with her on the visit and facts are revealed that Eva finds distressing; adding to Helga's discomfort and concerns. Being quite short at 149 pages it means you can read it in one sitting which might be better as there no actual chapters. Instead there are suitable places to stop reading should you need to.

Worth a read but I don't know if I'll read the prequel 'The Bonfire of Berlin'. ( )

This is a facinating, sad, and painful rendering of a German family torn apart by political alliances during Hitlers reign. The author paints a vivid picture of the forgotten victims of this era. Helga was abused and then abandoned by her mother who had ties to the Nazi party and was dedicated to the Nazi agenda. Helga grew up with the legacy of a mother who was a guard at Auschwitz and participated in subjecting prisoners to unimaginable experiments, and killed untold numbers of people. This book tells the story of her final visit to her mother after a lifetime of separation and decribes the raw emotion, disappointment, and saddness involved. There is no happy ending here, only reality told from a point of view that we don't often get to experience. ( )

A disturbing book of memoirs by the daughter of a female guard at Auschwitz - I kept hoping for just a glimmer of a happy ending but there was none. ( )