Almost a Childhood: Growing Up Among the Nazis (平装) 1862078661

在线阅读本书 Hans Georg-Behr's remarkable account of a childhood spent in Nazi Austria is a powerful indictment of the toll that war takes on children, whichever side they find themselves on. To a five-year-old boy, having a high ranking Nazi for a father means the horror of having his chin pinched by Goring, playing doctors and nurses with Goebbels' daughters, and on one occasion being taken to a grand reception to meet the Fuhrer himself. It also means trying to come to terms with his bizarre family - his kindly, liberal grandparents whose estate provides wartime refuge for all manner of unlikely visitors; his cold-hearted mother, once a famous opera singer, now reduced to running an inn; and his older brother, who struts around in his Hitler Youth uniform, shooting squirrels and practising runic writing, convinced of imminent Nazi victory. When that victory does not come, all the Nazi flags in the house are hastily cut up to make new Austrian ones and the swastikas are turned into shoe-cleaning rags, but Behr shows war's legacy is not so easily discarded. 'Extraordinary memoir... [Behr] feels his way through the pitfalls of childhood while the world of his aristocratic Nazi family falls apart' The Scotsman'A sophisticated literary performance, with a war memoir only at its core... a fascinating book' Literary Review'This is a definite page- turner that will appeal to a wide' The Big Issue'A daring literary achievement... Honest, ironic and very moving, Hans-Georg Behr goes to the heart of moral chaos with a great eye for the truth' Hugo Hamilton'Haunting to read' Good Book GuideTranslated from the German by prize-winning translator, Anthea Bell