My Wounded Heart: The Life of Lilli Jahn, 1900- 1944
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Product Description
Sunday Telegraph
‘As heart-breaking as the diary of Anne Frank’
Review
'As heart-breaking, in its own way, as the diary of Anne Frank' Sunday Telegraph 'Martin Doerry has edited the letters with delicacy and skill ... It will be a hard-hearted reader who can finish this book dry-eyed' Sunday Times 'Though harrowing, her letters offer a moving portrait of resilience in the face of evil, and speak of a time when Germany had departed from the community of civilised human beings ... (it) is an essential document' Independent 'One of the fascinations of this remarkable, and heartbreaking, book is its presentation of history as it is authentically lived ... The intimacies and domesticities recorded in the book are enormously moving' Daily Telegraph
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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
"My Wounded Heart" is an edited collection of correspondence between a Jewish mother and her children, before and during the war. It depicts the disintegration of a happy family unit as Lilli, the mother of five, is arrested by the Gestapo on a trumped-up charge and sent to a labour camp. With a sense of appalling inevitability, her high hopes of an early release give way slowly to a dawning realisation of her ultimate fate at Auschwitz. For the sake of her estranged children, being brought up by the 12-year-old Ilse amidst the chaos and destruction of frequent air-raids, Lille maintains an optimism and cheerfulness in the face of all odds. The reader's understanding of the reality of the "Final Solution" - unheard of in 1943, of course, as Lilli patiently awaits her fate, give the book an acute sense of pathos, leading ultimately to the tragedy of her death, cynically managed and coldly reported by the authorities.
The impact of "My Wounded Heart" bears close similarity to that of "Diary of a Young Girl". The maturity of the letters, and our awareness of the agony of a mother's separation from her children, mean that the effect, if anything, is even more poignant. A personal memorial to Martin Doerry's grandmother, and a forceful insight into the human cost of the Nazi regime.
The impact of "My Wounded Heart" bears close similarity to that of "Diary of a Young Girl". The maturity of the letters, and our awareness of the agony of a mother's separation from her children, mean that the effect, if anything, is even more poignant. A personal memorial to Martin Doerry's grandmother, and a forceful insight into the human cost of the Nazi regime.
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I first came across the book on Radio 4, when excerpts were read in one of their book programmes last year. I should imagine that my reaction to the section when we learn that Lili Jahn's husband divorced her during the war to be with his (Aryan) mistress was the same as many other people: incredulity that in so doing he should deny his wife, the mother of his children, the protection she had enjoyed as the wife of a non-Jew. Doerry's book shows how her civil rights had already been stripped away after the Nazis came to power. Did her husband really think that was the end of the matter and they would not pursue her further in the darkening years of the Second World War?
This is probably a question that cannot be answered, though it is never far from the reader's mind. My Wounded Heart is a story of great courage and great compassion; of older children having to grow up literally overnight to give their younger siblings the care of an absent mother; of an enormous generosity of spirit; of a very moving determination by Lili and her children in their correspondence always to be optimistic and never to indulge in what must have been a temptation to be frank about their situation in case it would be upsetting.
This is a work on the same level as the other great Holocaust classics, along with Anne Frank's diary, Primo Levi and Victor Klemperer, a testimony to the unquenchability of the human spirit at a time of extreme barbarism.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I have read numerous varied different Holocaust books,this one,how can i say,is deeply intense.The letters written are heart wrenching,i went to bed with tears and awoke with tears.From a non survivors story this gives you a whole new perspective on the Natzi,s diabolic intent.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Heartbreaking
This was one of the first books I read about the Holocaust and I was moved beyond belief. The book is a biographical account based on letters written by Lilli Jahn - to her... Read more
Published 15 months ago by A. Mulhern
Anne Frank's diary doesn't even get close to this book!
I know that I will get the entire world against me when I say that this is much more touching and gripping than Anne Frank's diary. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Luthien Arnatuile
good
excellent service - fast delivery and packaged well - thanks
Published 19 months ago by T. Groom
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