Invisible Walls (Paperback)

Ingeborg Hecht

ISBN 10: 0810113716 / ISBN 13: 9780810113718

Published by Northwestern University Press, Evanston, 1999

About this Item

Paperback. Ingeborg Hecht's father, a prosperous Jewish attorney, was divorced from his titled German wife in 1933 - two years before the promulgation of the Nurmberg laws - and so was deprived of what these laws termed ""privileged mixed matrimony"". He died in Auschwitz. His two children, called ""half-Jews,"" were stripped of their rights, prevented from earning a living and forbidden to marry. Hecht writes of what it was like to live under these circumstances, sharing heartbreaking details of her personal life, including the death of her daughter's father, who was killed on the Russian front; the death of her own father - who had been forbidden all contact with his family - after he was deported in 1944; her own fears of dying, and her feelings of shame at faring better than most of her family and friends. Hecht also offers a description of life after the war, when the government attempted ""restitution"" to the survivors. As a ""Half-Jew"", Hecht shares details of her personal life during the war, including the death of her own father, family, her own fears of dying, and her feelings of shame at faring better than most of her family and friends. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9780810113718

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Invisible Walls (Paperback)
• Publisher: Northwestern University Press, Evanston
• Publication Date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0810113716
• ISBN 13: 9780810113718
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

Ingeborg Hecht's father, a prosperous Jewish attorney, was divorced from his titled German wife in 1933—two years before the promulgation of the Nuremberg Laws—and so was deprived of what these laws termed "privileged mixed matrimony." He died in Auschwitz. His two children, called "half-Jews," were stripped of their rights, prevented from earning a living, and forbidden to marry.

In Invisible Walls, Hecht writes of what it was like to live under these circumstances, sharing heartbreaking details of her personal life, including the loss of her daughter's father on the Russian front; the death of her own father after his deportation in 1944; and her fears of perishing coupled with the shame of faring better than most of her family and friends. This new volume adds the first translation of part of Hecht's second book, To Remember is to Heal, a collection of vignettes of encounters and experiences that resulted from the publication of the first.

About the Author

INGEBORG HECHT is the author of many works of German history and is a regular contributor to the German press and radio.

JOHN BROWN was awarded the 1998 Helen and Kurt Wolff Translation Prize.