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Let Me Go

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Let Me Go

By: Helga Schneider
Narrated by: Barbara Rosenblat
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Helga Schneider was four when her mother suddenly abandoned her family in Berlin in 1941. When she next saw her mother, 30 years later, she learned the shocking reason why. Her mother had joined the Nazi SS and had become a guard in the concentration camps, including Auschwitz, where she was in charge of a "correction" unit and responsible for untold acts of torture.

Nearly 30 more years would pass before their second and final reunion, an emotional encounter in Vienna, where her ailing mother, then 87 and unrepentant about her past, was living in a nursing home. Let Me Go is the extraordinary account of that meeting and of their conversation, which powerfully evokes the misery of obligation colliding with inescapable horror.

©2004 Helga Schneider (P)2004 Blackstone Audio Inc. World War II 20th Century Biographies & Memoirs Europe Germany Modern War Relationships Women Military & War Parenting & Families Wars & Conflicts Military

Critic reviews

"Rosenblat's narration captures the boastful, pitiable, and unrepentant mother in a matter-of-fact style that is both chilling and disturbing." (Booklist)

"The story will bring tears to most listeners' eyes.... Barbara Rosenblat's reading is astounding....the listener is chilled by the evil in her voice, and when she reads Schneider's words, the listener feels the anger and confusion that permeate the book." (AudioFile)

Profound Story • Engaging Narrative • First-class Actress • Different Holocaust Perspective • Detailed Storytelling

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I found this book because I was looking for books narrated by the great Barbara Rosenblatt. She's a national treasure.

This is one of the most profound books I've ever encountered. The balance of hatred and love. The longing for love. The unremitting digging by Helga at a mother who is both helpless and sadistic. As Helga is, too. I said "irritating," because I got really annoyed at the "why didn't you love me, mother?" repeated over and over in different ways. I wanted to say, "Oh, get a life." There was a certain amount of melodrama I got tired of. But the honesty was stunning and the ambiguity totally captivating. The descriptions of the people and places are marvelous.

Helga provides endless details and digs for more. Her obsessive research is one of the best things about this book. The factual info, in this context, is somehow even more horrible.

This is a picture, closeup, of a woman whose life lacked meaning (the mother) until she found a belief and a home in the SS and somebody to hate -- the Jews. It gives new meaning to the idea of a woman's leaving home to "find herself." She found herself quite contentedly in hell. And her daughter deals with it all both intellectually and emotionally with amazing insight.

Wow. This book is going to haunt me for a long time.

Stunning, Annoying, Haunting

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I found myself pulled into this book from the start. Barbara Rosenblat is a first class actress when it comes to reading. I think she has an amazing facility with nuance and emotion. The story is engaging, and all through the story, I felt that I was watching a play unfold on stage.

The story itself is interesting, giving a somewhat different view of the holocaust period. The story weaves personal tragedy with tragedy on a tremendous scale, and manages to hold its own. There are so many delicate touches and details in the story that it's easy to conjure the scene in the mind's eye, as if watching it on stage in front of you.

Highly recommended book.

Can't beat Rosenblat!

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great book. I've wanted to read this for years. I enjoyed the reader as well. she did a wonderful job!

gripping

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This is a chilling story... mostly because it is true. This would be a very difficult thing to live with. A story of forgiveness. If only we could all be so forgiving. I highly recommend.

Excellent...

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The Narrator of this story is great, as is the story itself. I couldn't imagine being left behind by a Mother who went onto evil, and left me with a person who didn't love me. Looking for closure, in a life with a gapping hole. Sad, but good.

Great Story

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