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My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me: A Black…
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My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me: A Black Woman Discovers Her Family's Nazi Past (original 2013; edition 2015)

by Jennifer Teege (Author)

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3302578,006 (3.98)15
When Jennifer Teege, a German-Nigerian woman, happened to pluck a library book from the shelf, she had no idea that her life would be irrevocably altered. Recognizing photos of her mother and grandmother in the book, she discovers a horrifying fact: her grandfather was Amon Goeth, the vicious Nazi commandant chillingly depicted by Ralph Fiennes in Schindler's List-a man known and reviled the world over. Although raised in an orphanage and eventually adopted, Teege had some contact with her biological mother and grandmother as a child. Yet neither revealed that Teege's grandfather was the Nazi "butcher of Plaszów," executed for crimes against humanity in 1946. The more Teege reads about Amon Goeth, the more certain she becomes: if her grandfather had met her-a black woman-he would have killed her. Teege's discovery sends her, at age thirty-eight, into a severe depression-and on a quest to unearth and fully comprehend her family's haunted history. Her research takes her to Krakow-to the sites of the Jewish ghetto her grandfather "cleared" in 1943 and the Plaszów concentration camp he then commanded-and back to Israel, where she herself once attended college, learned fluent Hebrew, and formed lasting friendships. Teege struggles to reconnect with her estranged mother, Monika, and to accept that her beloved grandmother once lived in luxury as Amon Goeth's mistress at Plaszów. Teege's story is cowritten by award-winning journalist Nikola Sellmair, who also contributes a second, interwoven narrative that draws on original interviews with Teege's family and friends and adds historical context. Ultimately, Teege's resolute search for the truth leads her, step by step, to the possibility of her own liber… (more)
Member:MHanover10
Title:My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me: A Black Woman Discovers Her Family's Nazi Past
Authors:Jennifer Teege (Author)
Info:Blackstone Audio, Inc. (2015), Edition: Unabridged MP3CD, 1 pages
Collections:Your library, Currently reading, Wishlist, To read, Read but unowned, Favorites
Rating:****
Tags:nonfiction-read

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My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me: A Black Woman Discovers Her Family's Nazi Past by Jennifer Teege (2013)

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» See also 15 mentions

English (21)  Italian (1)  Dutch (1)  German (1)  All languages (24)
Showing 1-5 of 21 (next | show all)
quite the family history ( )
  Moshepit20 | Nov 2, 2023 |
2.5 stars. The circumstances of Teege's life and family history are certainly fascinating, but the book was not so much. It felt slightly repetitive, and it was hard to relate to some of Teege's decisions. It all felt very surface-level. But it did make me consider how Germans post-World War II did (or didn't) deal with the ways their elder relatives dealt with their feelings about what they had done during the war. I hadn't really given that much thought before. ( )
  CarolHicksCase | Mar 12, 2023 |
Jennifer Teege spent her earliest years in a Catholic orphanage. Teege’s German mother had a brief relationship with Teege’s Nigerian father, but they were no longer together by the time Teege was born. At that time in Germany, it was common for single mothers who had to work to place their children in an orphanage. They still had visitation rights and often the children would spend weekends with their mothers or other family. When she was a toddler, Teege was taken in by a foster family. She still saw her mother and grandmother regularly until she was adopted by her foster family.

Teege’s sense of identity was upended at age 38 when she picked up a random book off of a library shelf. She found she was holding a book about her mother and her mother’s father, the Nazi war criminal Amon Goeth, the concentration camp commandant known to many from the film Schindler’s List. Teege sought out a therapist to help her deal with this new knowledge as well as the abandonment issues stemming from her relationships with her birth mother and grandmother. Also, Teege had lived and studied in Israel for several years in her twenties, and she didn’t know how to tell her Israeli friends that her grandfather had been a mass murderer of Jews.

This book is an odd mix of memoir and biography, with parts written by Teege interspersed with more objective commentary by her co-author, Nikola Sellmair. Teege contextualizes her individual psychological trauma with that of other descendants of Nazi war criminals, descendants of average Germans who sympathized with the Nazi party, and descendants of Holocaust survivors. She also reflects on generational differences between the children and the grandchildren of war criminals and Holocaust survivors. Teege’s personal journey is an example of how one reckons with one’s past and the weight of family secrets in order to contribute to a better future. ( )
  cbl_tn | Apr 24, 2022 |
This memoir is a very important book because Jennifer Teege's story is very unique and has great historical and philosophical consequence. A person of color, she was raised in Germany and adopted at age 7 and sent to school in Israel for years, where she learned Hebrew. At age 38, she learns that her grandfather was a famous Nazi. How history has affected her life, both before she knew the truth and afterward, makes for a fascinating read.
I give the book 4 stars because it didn't have the greatest structure, but it's a book that should affect every reader in profound ways. ( )
  LuanneCastle | Mar 5, 2022 |
Jennifer Teege was in her late thirties when she discovered that she was the grandfather was Amon Goeth, the Nazi Commandant depicted in the film Schindler's List. Jennifer's birth mother was born to Goeth's girlfriend after Goeth was executed for crimes against humanity. Monica, Jennifer's mother, gave her up for adoption a few weeks after she was born. Her birth father was a Nigerian man who was studying in Germany at the time. A German family adopted her and she grew up along with her parents two birth children. While Jennifer was the only dark skinned child in her elementary school she did not feel rejected because of her differences. Jennifer met her birth mother and birth grandmother as a child but she never knew about her family's Nazi past. She even spent four years living and studying in Israel without knowing those things. It came as a huge shock when she learned
whose DNA she inherited. This book tells of Ms. Teege's quest to discover the meaning of her family's hidden past. She visited the sites portrayed in Schindler's List and struggled to find a way to tell her friends in Israel what she had discovered. I listened to this book as an audio book. ( )
  MMc009 | Jan 30, 2022 |
Showing 1-5 of 21 (next | show all)
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Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Jennifer Teegeprimary authorall editionscalculated
Sellmair, Nikolamain authorall editionsconfirmed
Miles, RobinNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Sommer, CarolinTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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Epigraph
It is the look on the woman’s face that seems familiar. I’m standing in the central library in Hamburg, and in my hands I’m holding a red book that I’ve just picked up from the shelf. The spine reads: I Have to Love My Father, Don’t I? On the front cover is a small black-and-white photograph of a middle-aged woman. She looks deep in thought, and there is something strained and joyless about her. The corners of her mouth are turned down; she looks unhappy. I glance quickly at the subtitle: The Life Story of Monika Goeth, Daughter of the Concentration Camp Commandant from “Schindler’s List.” Monika Goeth! I know that name; it’s my mother’s name. My mother, who put me in an orphanage when I was little and whom I haven’t seen in many years.
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Wikipedia in English (4)

When Jennifer Teege, a German-Nigerian woman, happened to pluck a library book from the shelf, she had no idea that her life would be irrevocably altered. Recognizing photos of her mother and grandmother in the book, she discovers a horrifying fact: her grandfather was Amon Goeth, the vicious Nazi commandant chillingly depicted by Ralph Fiennes in Schindler's List-a man known and reviled the world over. Although raised in an orphanage and eventually adopted, Teege had some contact with her biological mother and grandmother as a child. Yet neither revealed that Teege's grandfather was the Nazi "butcher of Plaszów," executed for crimes against humanity in 1946. The more Teege reads about Amon Goeth, the more certain she becomes: if her grandfather had met her-a black woman-he would have killed her. Teege's discovery sends her, at age thirty-eight, into a severe depression-and on a quest to unearth and fully comprehend her family's haunted history. Her research takes her to Krakow-to the sites of the Jewish ghetto her grandfather "cleared" in 1943 and the Plaszów concentration camp he then commanded-and back to Israel, where she herself once attended college, learned fluent Hebrew, and formed lasting friendships. Teege struggles to reconnect with her estranged mother, Monika, and to accept that her beloved grandmother once lived in luxury as Amon Goeth's mistress at Plaszów. Teege's story is cowritten by award-winning journalist Nikola Sellmair, who also contributes a second, interwoven narrative that draws on original interviews with Teege's family and friends and adds historical context. Ultimately, Teege's resolute search for the truth leads her, step by step, to the possibility of her own liber

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Book description
Jennifer's memoir co-written with Nikola Sellmair, translated into English by Carolin Sommer chronicles her discovery that her birth mother's father was Amon Goeth, the convicted and executed Nazi commandant of Plaszów Concentration Camp.
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