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A review by brettcarl
An Underground Life: Memoirs of a Gay Jew in Nazi Berlin by Gad Beck
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
sad
tense
fast-paced
3.25
Unsurprisingly, An Underground Life is a emotional, tense, and heartbreaking read at times, but fortunately, there are also moments of humour, joy and hope which alleviate the understandable emotions we fell when reading about the horrific and sadly true events that Gad Beck, his family, friends, and other victims of the Nazis propaganda, anti-Semitism, and The Holocaust.
Overall, Beck does a good job at recounting his experiences during one of world history's most horrific and destructive chapter. Beck provides new information and knowledge about the period which at times is shocking and relevatory in understanding exactly how Germany and its citizens embraced fascism and genocide. Furthermore, Beck's candor about his own intimate and highly personal experiences - i.e. His sexual relationships with various men and boys, including his own uncle! - is admirable and illustrate not only what Beck had to do to survive, but signifies how sexuality and gender behaviour was viewed, treated and rationalised during this fraught, horrific period in world history.
In terms of criticism of Beck's memoir, I do think better editing would have improved the pacing and structure as while there was overall a chronological telling of events, there were many times when not only were certain events and information carelessly and chaotically placed/revealed - both events which had happened at different dates and times, but also information about certain people such as updates and revelations about them felt misplaced and would have been corrected with better editing. Also, I do think that Beck's could have mined his experiences more for more nuance and complexity, such as his morally and ethically challenging and questionable sexual encounters - how did these encounters effect him? Influence him? Change him? Etc.
Yet, it cannot be overstated how pivotal, vital and necessary Beck's memoir is in not only providing an account of the Nazi's barbarism and inhumanity, and importantly, their ascendence to power proves how dangerous ignorance and bigotry can be, but even more importantly, Gad's memoir is an invaluable account LGBTQ history too, specifically Gad's experiences as a gay boy/man during the period - both good and bad!
Overall, Beck does a good job at recounting his experiences during one of world history's most horrific and destructive chapter. Beck provides new information and knowledge about the period which at times is shocking and relevatory in understanding exactly how Germany and its citizens embraced fascism and genocide. Furthermore, Beck's candor about his own intimate and highly personal experiences - i.e. His sexual relationships with various men and boys, including his own uncle! - is admirable and illustrate not only what Beck had to do to survive, but signifies how sexuality and gender behaviour was viewed, treated and rationalised during this fraught, horrific period in world history.
In terms of criticism of Beck's memoir, I do think better editing would have improved the pacing and structure as while there was overall a chronological telling of events, there were many times when not only were certain events and information carelessly and chaotically placed/revealed - both events which had happened at different dates and times, but also information about certain people such as updates and revelations about them felt misplaced and would have been corrected with better editing. Also, I do think that Beck's could have mined his experiences more for more nuance and complexity, such as his morally and ethically challenging and questionable sexual encounters - how did these encounters effect him? Influence him? Change him? Etc.
Yet, it cannot be overstated how pivotal, vital and necessary Beck's memoir is in not only providing an account of the Nazi's barbarism and inhumanity, and importantly, their ascendence to power proves how dangerous ignorance and bigotry can be, but even more importantly, Gad's memoir is an invaluable account LGBTQ history too, specifically Gad's experiences as a gay boy/man during the period - both good and bad!