Frauen: German women recall the Third Reich - Softcover

Alison Owings

Softcover

ISBN 10: 014023733X ISBN 13: 9780140237337

Publisher: PENGUIN BOOKS LTD, 1995

Synopsis

Twenty-nine German women recall memories of the Third Reich. What they have to say will surprise Americans, just as they surprised the women themselves.

About this title

About the Author:

Alison Owings is a freelance journalist who has contributed regularly major television network news broadcasts. She is author of Indian Voices: Listening to Native Americans (Rutgers University Press, 2011) and Hey, Waitress!: The USA from the Other Side of the Tray.. She lives in the San Francisco Bay area with her husband.

Review:

"A remarkable work of history that stands out from the vast library of World War II studies for its sheer intimacy and its sometimes startling perspectives... Frauen transcends the genre of oral history and turns into something more elaborate and accomplished and memorable." - Los Angeles Times Book Review -- (Los Angeles Times Book Review)

"An engaging book... this is oral history as it should be done." -- Chicago Tribune

"In vivid and often poignant portraits-cum-interviews of 29 {German} women in their 70's and older, {Ms. Owings} has captured the extraordinary diversity of their experiences. They had in common that they were caught up in a political system and a war designed by men. Unlike many fathers, husbands and brothers, they also survived the war. But in the end, their memories form no single image. . . . In their different ways, . . . each portrait, each interview, provides a valuable insight into what happened to half the German population between 1933 and 1945. Yet in the end the book seems to suggest that Germany's women reacted little differently from its men." -- Alan Riding - The New York Times Book Review

"Owings, a freelance television writer who is neither a German nor a Jew, has compiled and edited a groundbreaking set of oral histories. She interviews women from many spectrums of the Third Reich: Germans, Jews, individuals of ``mixed'' parentage, a countess, a camp guard, women who hid Jews, Nazi supporters, Communists, and other women who witnessed and participated in everyday and extraordinary events. Owings has tried, as much as possible, to quote her interviewees directly yet still manages to create an even and engaging text. This volume is an excellent companion to Claudia Koonz's Mothers in the Fatherland: Women, Family Life, and Nazi Ideology , 1919-1945 ( LJ 11/1/86). Highly recommended." -- Jenny Presnell, Miami Univ. Libs., Oxford, Ohio

"This is at times a strangely funny book, telling of human foibles. But at all times, it's a cautionary tale. It could happen here, to women as well as men. A revelatory and exciting book." -- Studs Terkel - author of RACE

"This} is an extraordinarily rich historical source, both exhilarating and exasperating, moving and, occasionally, hilarious. Owings asks tough questions, has a fine eye for telling gestures, and chooses her subjects from all walks of life. . . . The women's responses to probings about the Holocaust, membership in the {Nazi} party or its auxiliary organizations, and treatment at the hands of the Russians and Americans are full of surprises. Unregenerate anti-Semites, self-effacing heroines of the resistance, and everything in between make their appearances in lengthy, sometimes multiple, sessions. This book enriches readers' understanding of what it was like to be alive in Hitler's Germany and how some Germans have come to terms with their past. An excellent work." --R.S. Levy - Choice

About this edition

• Publisher: PENGUIN BOOKS LTD
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 014023733X
• ISBN 13: 9780140237337
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 544