![]() ![]() And she wanted to explain how it was possible that she could have been swept up in a movement that later became synonymous with evil. As I knew her, she was not a racist or an anti-Semite. The grandmother was very open about her history and attitudes, as Shattuck wrote: "Unlike many Germans her age, including my grandfather, she did not want to sweep these subjects under the carpet. ![]() She grew more interested in her family history after her mother's death, and spent a summer during college in Germany interviewing her grandmother. When she married, they were not invited.Īs an adult, Shattuck began to make sense of her complex emotions, and develop curiosity as to the experiences of "ordinary" Germans of the Nazi era. ![]() The mother had been born during the war, Germany's ugliest episode, and her parents had been Nazis. She inherited this shame and hatred of Germany from her mother, who had arrived in the United States at age 16 to work as an au pair, and remained on an academic scholarship. She was embarrassed by her mother's accent, and avoided family tree projects at school. The three are widows of conspirators involved in the assassination attempt on Hitler, and each deals with the fallout of her personal life and the devastation around her differently.Īccording to the author, she grew up with a deep sense of shame for being half-German. The book, which became a New York Times Bestseller, is about three German women during and after World War II. The Women in the Castle is a 2017 novel by Jessica Shattuck. ![]()
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