All through this book I wanted to say, "WHINER!"

Don't get me wrong, people endured terrible suffering I'll never understand or be able to relate to during WWII. And, when reading what she actually went through it seemed even worse than Anne Frank (up until the time she and her family were discovered and taken to the concentration camp, of course). At least Anne was with her family that loved her, and there seemed to be a bit more food as I recall, water was not such an issue. Just the basics. What I think it has to be is the way in which Schneider tells her story. Sometimes it feels like simply a listing of every miserable thing she can remember.

An example of what I am talking about, from her post war chapters at the end:

"Peter was enrolled in the first year, and he gave himself such airs about it that it damaged my health for a week."

Come on, really? Admittedly, her little brother sounded like a total brat and I'm sure he was a pain. But, damaged her health? Whatever.

She seems to just take it that step too far. In her listing of the sufferings of those left in Berlin at the end of the war she carries on until she adds that one or two things that are just plain silly in comparison.

She does, once, note that their situation was nothing compared to the Jews in the concentration camps, but it felt a bit like an after thought...like she was supposed to say something like that, so she did.

Then, there was the feeling I got regarding her family's ties to the Nazis, and her own opinions in regard to the Fuhrer. You know, the whole, "Me thinks she doth protest too much"? She MET the man, she tells about meeting him, about her brother's worship of him and her serious dislike of him. I don't mean she was in a crowd of thousand of people so brain washed by his speeches to be giving the Hitler salute in unison. I mean she met the man, shook his hand and received a bar of marzipan. The range of emotion from her brother's to hers were set at such extremes that it served only to further paint her brother as the bad guy and distanced herself as much as possible from the Third Reich.

The underlying war with her stepmother may just have been exactly as she portrays it, however, I have to wonder what the other side would say? Did she really never love Helga? Was she unable to? Did it have anything to do with Helga herself? There are people who you would love, if they would let you. But, they are never willing to let you in, finding fault with you wherever they can. With those people, one might be inclined to have a little less patience. Just a thought.

I have to wonder if her brother has read this book, and how he feels about it?

All in all, her writing style just didn't suit me. I came away feeling more irritated by it, suspicious of her exaggerated attempt to distance herself from anything controversial, to vilify everyone around her apart from Opa. Literally, everyone in her family, other than Opa. ( )

All through this book I wanted to say, "WHINER!"

Don't get me wrong, people endured terrible suffering I'll never understand or be able to relate to during WWII. And, when reading what she actually went through it seemed even worse than Anne Frank (up until the time she and her family were discovered and taken to the concentration camp, of course). At least Anne was with her family that loved her, and there seemed to be a bit more food as I recall, water was not such an issue. Just the basics. What I think it has to be is the way in which Schneider tells her story. Sometimes it feels like simply a listing of every miserable thing she can remember.

An example of what I am talking about, from her post war chapters at the end:

"Peter was enrolled in the first year, and he gave himself such airs about it that it damaged my health for a week."

Come on, really? Admittedly, her little brother sounded like a total brat and I'm sure he was a pain. But, damaged her health? Whatever.

She seems to just take it that step too far. In her listing of the sufferings of those left in Berlin at the end of the war she carries on until she adds that one or two things that are just plain silly in comparison.

She does, once, note that their situation was nothing compared to the Jews in the concentration camps, but it felt a bit like an after thought...like she was supposed to say something like that, so she did.

Then, there was the feeling I got regarding her families ties to the Nazis, and her own opinions in regard to the Fuhrer. You know, the whole, "Me thinks she doth protest too much"? She MET the man, she tells about meeting him, about her brother's worship of him and her serious dislike of him. I don't mean she was in a crowd of thousand of people so brain washed by his speeches to be giving the Hitler salute in unison. I mean she met the man, shook his hand and received a bar of marzipan. The range of emotion from her brother's to hers were set at such extremes that it served only to further paint her brother as the bad guy and distanced herself as much as possible from the Third Reich.

The underlying war with her stepmother may just have been exactly as she portrays it, however, I have to wonder what the other side would say? Did she really never love Helga? Was she unable to? Did it have anything to do with Helga herself? There are people who you would love, if they would let you. But, they are never willing to let you in, finding fault with you wherever they can. With those people, one might be inclined to have a little less patience. Just a thought.

I have to wonder if her brother has read this book, and how he feels about it?

All in all, her writing style just didn't suit me. I came away feeling more irritated by it, suspicious of her exaggerated attempt to distance herself from anything controversial, to vilify everyone around her apart from Opa. Literally, everyone in her family, other than Opa. ( )

Make no mistake: this is NOT a children's book. It may have a child on the cover, it may be narrated by a child, but this is the kind of book that will give your children nightmares. I've read many bad things in my time but I was still horrified by the suffering in Helga Schneider's environment, not so much in the first part of the book as in the last, when she and her entire apartment building waited out the conquest of Berlin. Starvation, death, suicides and rapes abounded, and the only character who was really "there" for Helga was her step-grandfather, himself very sick from old age and the privations they went through.

This is a beautifully written memoir, and powerful. Too powerful, perhaps, for many people's stomachs.

Fun fact: due to her step-aunt's connections, the author actually met Hitler and stayed for a time in his bunker during the final days of the war. She recalls him as a scrawny, sickly-looking man. ( )

Le vicende sono assolutamente coinvolgenti nella loro drammaticità; lo stile, invece, lascia molto a desiderare. ( )

Shocking and gripping. ( )