My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me: a Black Woman Discovers Her Family S Nazi Past

Publisher Marketing: The internationally bestselling memoir hailed as authentically shocking ("Library Journal") and an important document proof that history never ends ("Profil") When Jennifer Teege, a German-Nigerian woman, happened to pluck a library book from the shelf, she had no idea that her life would be irrevocably altered. Recognizing photos of her mother and grandmother in the book, she discovers a horrifying fact: her grandfather was Amon Goeth, the vicious Nazi commandant chillingly depicted by Ralph Fiennes in "Schindler s List" a man known and reviled the world over. Although raised in an orphanage and eventually adopted, Teege had some contact with her biological mother and grandmother as a child. Yet neither revealed that Teege s grandfather was the Nazi butcher of Plaszow, executed for crimes against humanity in 1946. The more Teege reads about Amon Goeth, the more certain she becomes: if her grandfather had met her a black woman he would have killed her. Teege s discovery sends her, at age thirty-eight, into a severe depression and on a quest to unearth and fully comprehend her family s haunted history. Her research takes her to Krakow to the sites of the Jewish ghetto her grandfather cleared in 1943 and the Plaszow concentration camp he then commanded and back to Israel, where she herself once attended college, learned fluent Hebrew, and formed lasting friendships. Teege struggles to reconnect with her estranged mother, Monika, and to accept that her beloved grandmother once lived in luxury as Amon Goeth s mistress at Plaszow. Teege s story is cowritten by award-winning journalist Nikola Sellmair, who also contributes a second, interwoven narrative that draws on original interviews with Teege s family and friends and adds historical context. Ultimately, Teege s resolute search for the truth leads her, step by step, to the possibility of her own liberation." Review Citations: Booklist 03/15/2015 pg. 42 (EAN 9781615192533, Hardcover) - *Starred Review Publishers Weekly 03/30/2015 (EAN 9781615192533, Hardcover) People Weekly 04/06/2015 pg. 52 (EAN 9781615192533, Hardcover) Library Journal 05/15/2015 pg. 89 (EAN 9781615192533, Hardcover) - *Starred Review Contributor Bio:  Teege, Jennifer Jennifer Teege has worked in advertising since 1999. She lived for four years in Israel, where she became fluent in Hebrew. She holds a degree from Tel Aviv University in Middle Eastern and African studies. Teege lives in Germany with her husband and two sons. This is her first book. Contributor Bio:  Sellmair, Nikola Nikola Sellmair graduated from Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich and has worked in Hong Kong, Washington, D. C., Israel, and Palestine. She has been a reporter in Hamburg at Germany s "Stern" magazine since 2000. Her work has received many awards, including the German-Polish Journalist Award, for the first-ever article about Jennifer Teege s singular story.