cover image A JEWISH FAMILY IN GERMANY TODAY: An Intimate Portrait

A JEWISH FAMILY IN GERMANY TODAY: An Intimate Portrait

Y. Michal Bodemann, Y. Michalbodemann, Bodemann, . . Duke Univ., $22.95 (296pp) ISBN 978-0-8223-3421-7

The German Jewish community was decimated after Hitler came to power in 1933, reduced from 600,000 to less than 10,000 by the end of WWII. Now, there are well over 100,000 Jews in Germany, and the number continues to increase. Bodemann, a sociology professor at the University of Toronto, has written one book (Out of the Ashes ) and edited another (Jews, Germans, Memory ) dealing with contemporary German Jewry. His new book approaches the same subject by examining the experiences of one Jewish family consisting of four concentration camp survivors and their ten children. The one female survivor and her husband moved to the United States with their young son, who went on to become a successful financial analyst with little relationship to his cousins. The male survivors remained in Germany, where they established a large kitchen appliance business. Three cousins moved to Israel, and the rest remained in Germany, where Bodemann began interviewing them in 1990. Although the stories have considerable human interest, they represent raw data that require interpretation and analysis. Bodemann gives verbatim accounts of the interviews without regard to the repetitious content. Readers will come away frustrated if they seek clear answers to the questions of why Jews remain in Germany and why so many are attracted to the land that once fostered Nazism. (Jan.)