Overview

On a cold January morning, thirteen-year-old Karl Zimmer awakens to find the public square of his city draped in crimson-colored flags. Hitler has been named Chancellor. Karl doesn't know what this means but he understands danger is in the air. Narrated in the first person, What the Living Remember is the story of Karl's coming of age during the pre-war Nazi period. Karl must navigate adolescence amidst mounting anti-Semitism, his mother's wish to flee the country, and his father's opposition. Ultimately, Karl learns that those who survive trauma and genocide confront the responsibility of remembering those who are gone.

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9781627202725

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In What the Living Remember, Nancy Gerber gives us a coming-of-age story of a German Jewish boy who turns thirteen in 1933, the year Adolf Hitler assumes full control of the German government. Karl Walter faces typical adolescent crises first puppy love; trying to figure out who he is; loneliness; defining his masculinity. But all these are textured by the increasing aggression against Jews (boycotts of Jewish businesses; assaults by Hitler Youth; the Nuremberg Laws) and the ambivalence of highly assimilated, middle class German Jews which prevents many from recognizing what is unfolding before their very eyes. This is an important story that brings the reader into the psychological world of these Jews as they grapple with the social death they experience in the pre-war years. It is also a form of Kaddish for the many who found themselves ensnared in the Nazi death trap, unable to escape, and who ultimately perished. --Ann L. Saltzman, Professor Emerita of Psychology, Director Emerita, Center for Holocaust/Genocide Study, Drew University

"""In What the Living Remember, Nancy Gerber gives us a coming-of-age story of a German Jewish boy who turns thirteen in 1933, the year Adolf Hitler assumes full control of the German government. Karl Walter faces typical adolescent ""crises"" first puppy love; trying to figure out who he is; loneliness; defining his masculinity. But all these are textured by the increasing aggression against Jews (boycotts of Jewish businesses; assaults by Hitler Youth; the Nuremberg Laws) and the ambivalence of highly assimilated, middle class German Jews which prevents many from recognizing what is unfolding before their very eyes. This is an important story that brings the reader into the psychological world of these Jews as they grapple with the ""social death"" they experience in the pre-war years. It is also a form of Kaddish for the many who found themselves ensnared in the Nazi death trap, unable to escape, and who ultimately perished."" --Ann L. Saltzman, Professor Emerita of Psychology, Director Emerita, Center for Holocaust/Genocide Study, Drew University"

Author Information

Nancy Gerber, Ph.D., is the author of five books, including A Way Out of Nowhere: Stories and The Dancing Clock: Reflections on Family, Love, and Loss. She has also published a chapbook of poems illustrated with family photographs entitled We Are All Refugees, which explores the effects of trauma and exile on her father and family. She maintains a private psychoanalytic practice in New Jersey.

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