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A review by alundeberg
A Bookshop in Berlin: The Rediscovered Memoir of One Woman's Harrowing Escape from the Nazis by Françoise Frenkel
4.0
There seems to be a prevalent idea in America that what happened in Europe during the Holocaust somehow cannot happen here-- that our democracy and being a leader of the world and shouting about liberty and freedom shields us from the horror of the gas chambers and crematoriums. This is nonsense. It has happened here and still happens. We are a nation that systematically slaughtered and displaced the native people; we are a nation that systematically displaced, dehumanized, and enslaved entire African populations and part of our country went to war to keep them enslaved; we are a country that systematically displaces and rips apart families seeking refuge at the border. Yet, it cannot happen here. Yet, when Hitler was looking for a model of how best to systemically persecute Jews, he looked to America's segregationist policies as a blueprint for his own. To believe it cannot happen here reaches the level of ignorance non grata.
Anyone who has been paying any attention to the news knows where this country is headed as our leader continues to play at being an autocrat and if he gets four more years to put his play into practice. It was with an eerie feeling as I read Françoise Frenkel's memoir "A Bookshop in Berlin" about her escape from Berlin and odyssey through France to find safety behind the Swiss border. Throughout she meets soldiers, gendarmes, regular people who have bought into Nazi hate and support it at the expense of other's lives. There was a rise of baseless conspiracy theories that promoted not only the destruction of Jews, but many other innocent people, too. People gave into their basest desires and needs to allow the Holocaust to happen. One anecdote she shared is how she met a crying woman, devastated that her own son reported her to his class where he was treated as a hero for doing so. Today that moment echoes in the Right's elevation of Kyle Rittenhouse who killed two protestors in Kenosha, WI. Frenkel's recounting of her experience reads like a thriller; it is powerful and terrifying. The fact that millions of people lost their lives to hate is incomprehensible, but it doesn't matter if we can comprehend it or not: it still happened. And it can happen here.
When all is bleak, there is one glimmer of hope: those who do not give up their humanity and who provide safety and hiding for those being pursued. Against all odds and at great risk to themselves, they worked tirelessly to save others, even when it meant less food on their own tables during a time when food was already scarce. Frenkel's story is as much as their story as it is hers. Through the kindness of strangers who made her family, she survives. This is what sustains me: the power of love and goodness that transcends religion, politics, and beliefs.
Anyone who has been paying any attention to the news knows where this country is headed as our leader continues to play at being an autocrat and if he gets four more years to put his play into practice. It was with an eerie feeling as I read Françoise Frenkel's memoir "A Bookshop in Berlin" about her escape from Berlin and odyssey through France to find safety behind the Swiss border. Throughout she meets soldiers, gendarmes, regular people who have bought into Nazi hate and support it at the expense of other's lives. There was a rise of baseless conspiracy theories that promoted not only the destruction of Jews, but many other innocent people, too. People gave into their basest desires and needs to allow the Holocaust to happen. One anecdote she shared is how she met a crying woman, devastated that her own son reported her to his class where he was treated as a hero for doing so. Today that moment echoes in the Right's elevation of Kyle Rittenhouse who killed two protestors in Kenosha, WI. Frenkel's recounting of her experience reads like a thriller; it is powerful and terrifying. The fact that millions of people lost their lives to hate is incomprehensible, but it doesn't matter if we can comprehend it or not: it still happened. And it can happen here.
When all is bleak, there is one glimmer of hope: those who do not give up their humanity and who provide safety and hiding for those being pursued. Against all odds and at great risk to themselves, they worked tirelessly to save others, even when it meant less food on their own tables during a time when food was already scarce. Frenkel's story is as much as their story as it is hers. Through the kindness of strangers who made her family, she survives. This is what sustains me: the power of love and goodness that transcends religion, politics, and beliefs.