Acknowledgments Prologue Part I: "Quiet Is Best"Chapter 1: Sweden, 2015 Chapter 2: West Germany, 1989 Chapter 3: The United Kingdom, 1990 Chapter 4: Germany, 1997 Chapter 5: Germany, 2010 Chapter 6: Germany, 2012 Chapter 7: Germany, 2012 Chapter 8: Poland, 2012 Chapter 9: Germany, 2013 Chapter 10: Germany, 2013 Chapter 11: Poland, 2013 Chapter 12: Auschwitz, 2013 Chapter 13: Bosnia Herzegovina, 2014Part II: The Red DustChapter 14: Sweden, June 2015Chapter 15: Latin America, February 2016 Chapter 16: Asuncion, February 2016 Chapter 17: Asuncion, February 2016 Chapter 18: Asuncion, March 2016 Chapter 19: Asuncion, March 2016 Chapter 20: Sao Paulo, March 2016 Chapter 21: Campo Grande, March 2016 Chapter 22: Campo Grande, March 2016 Chapter 23: Maracaju, March 2016 Chapter 24: Maracaju, March 2016 Chapter 25: Brasilia, March 2016 Chapter 26: Stockholm, May 2017 Suggested Reading About the Author
Summary:
This gripping memoir traces Brazilian-born American Julie Lindahl's journey to uncover her grandparents' role in WWII as she is driven to understand why they became members of Hitler's elite. Out of the unbearable heart of the story - the unclaimed guilt that devours a family through generations - emerges an unflinching will to learn the truth. This gripping memoir traces Brazilian-born American Julie Lindahl's journey to uncover her grandparents' roles in the Third Reich as she is driven to understand how and why they became members of Hitler's elite, the SS. Out of the unbearable heart of the story-the unclaimed guilt that devours a family through the generations-emerges an unflinching will to learn the truth. In a remarkable six-year journey through Germany, Poland, Paraguay, and Brazil, Julie uncovers, among many other discoveries, that her grandfather had been a fanatic member of the SS since 1934. During World War II, he was responsible for enslavement and torture and was complicit in the murder of the local population on the large estates he oversaw in occupied Poland. He eventually fled to South America to evade a new wave of war-crimes trials. The pendulum used by Julie's grandmother to divine good from bad and true from false becomes a symbol for the elusiveness of truth and morality, but also for the false securities we cling to when we become unmoored. As Julie delves deeper into the abyss of her family's secret, discovering history anew, one precarious step at a time, the compassion of strangers is a growing force that transforms her world and the way that she sees her family-and herself.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.