February 23, 2004
By the time the Gestapo arrested Dr. Lilli Jahn in 1943, she had been forced to stop practicing medicine, ostracized by her German neighbors in Immenhausen and divorced by her non-Jewish husband, Ernst, after he'd had a child with a fellow doctor whom he subsequently married. Confined to her home, Lilli found joy in her five children until her deportation. One of the most unusual stories to come out of the Holocaust, Lilli's tale is told largely through letters she wrote, dating from her courtship with Ernst in 1923 through her final 1944 letter from Auschwitz ("I'm well, I'm working at my profession," she writes in the censored message), and from more than 250 letters from her children between 1943 and 1944, when Lilli was incarcerated at a forced labor camp in Breitenau. Its graphic depiction of the fate of Jews in so-called "privileged" mixed marriages and the way national politics affected domestic life make this a valuable addition to the Holocaust canon. The children's letters detail their daily activities. For her part, Lilli had only one goal: "I'm being careful and my one thought is to come back to you fit and well and, I hope, soon." Doerry, Lilli's grandson and editor of the German magazine Der Spiegel
, could easily have turned this into a maudlin and melodramatic story. Instead, he has wisely chosen to let the letters speak for themselves, confining himself to inserting details and filling in historical information where necessary. The result is a heartbreaking story that powerfully illustrates love's power to wound—and to heal. 16 pages of b&w photos not seen by PW
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January 1, 2004
Of the many Holocaust memoirs published today, this book differs in that it is about a woman who did not survive. Doerry, deputy editor in chief of Der Spiegel and grandson of Lili Jahn, weaves together over 300 letters between Lili and her friends, husband, and children over a period of 25 years. These letters show a vibrant intellectual who struggled to keep her family together through political and personal tragedy. In the introduction the author asks why, with the many Holocaust memoirs already published, Lili's story should be told at all. In fact, the letters offer a view into everyday life in Germany both before and during the war, including the effect of German racial laws on individuals and their families. Most important, this book puts a human face on what many of those in the German-Jewish bourgeoisie experienced during the Nazi regime; loss of profession, freedom, identity, hope, and finally life itself. An essential purchase for all Holocaust collections in public and academic libraries.-Maria C. Bagshaw, Lake Erie Coll., Painesville, OH
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
February 15, 2004
Lilli Jahn, a German Jewish doctor, was arrested by the Gestapo in 1943 and sent to the Breitenau Corrective Labor Camp; she died in Auschwitz in 1944. This book isa collection of 300 letters between Lilli, her four daughters, her son, and a few of their friends from the mid-1930s to just before her death. About 250 of the letters were written by Lilli's children to her in 1943 and 1944. Other letters in the collection were written by Lilli to the children, most of them mailed illicitly. The children were compelled to witness their mother's slow and agonizing degradation. They sent her parcels of whatever they managed to scrape together in the way of food and clothes. The letters convey a graphic picture of the stigmatization, isolation, and persecution to which she and her children were gradually subjected. Their correspondence also reveals the human indifference in wartime and bears witness to devotion and the courage of one's convictions. A chilling reminder of Jewish suffering at the hands of the Nazis.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2004, American Library Association.)