Tuesday, 25 October 2022

Where We Feel at Home

 ´Die Geschichte meiner Familie scheint wie ein Pendel zu sein, das langsam zurückschwingt´.

Through personal accounts and family stories, writer and journalist Maxim Leo recreated the history of his family, spread all over the world, as they escaped Nazi Germany. Wo wir zu Hause sind is a (auto)biographical account tracing his family members and their longing for the home they lost.

His parents returned to Germany after the war, in the Eastern part of Berlin, in Lichtenberg, dreaming - as many others - of building the communism. Some of his relatives were involved in building the state of Israel. Other made career and fortune in France or London. All stories are unique as sharing particular experiences. In addition to the content of the stories though, the methods used for the research can be used as an inspiration to anyone looking to remake their family tree, Jewish or not. It relates particularly to third or second generation researches, when part of the archives and testimonies were obliterated for physical and age-related reasons.

The book is rich in details about the Jewish life in Germany before and after the war and the longing of many of the German Jews for the home they were expelled from against their own will. 

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