My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me

A Black Woman Discovers Her Family's Nazi Past

By: Jennifer Teege, Nikola Sellmair

Narrated by: Robin Miles

The internationally best-selling memoir hailed as "authentically shocking" (Library Journal) and "an important document - proof that history never ends" (Profil).

When Jennifer Teege, a German-Nigerian woman, happens to pluck a library book from the shelf, she has no idea that her life will 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 Plaszów", executed for crimes against humanity in 1946. The more Teege reads about Amon Goeth, the more certain she becomes: If her grandfather met her - a black woman - he would have killed her.

Teege's discovery sends her, at age 38, 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 Plaszów 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 Plaszów.

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.

©2013, 2015 Rowohlt Verlag GmbH, Reinbek bei Hamburg. © 2013, 2015 by Jennifer Teege and Nikola Sellmair. Translation © 2015 by Carolin Sommer (P)2015 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

A very moving personal story with historical value

Being a white, of Polish background, and father of 2 adopted multiracial children, the author's story definitely hit home. My family and I also had the opportunity to visit Auschwitz as my father had supposedly spent time there as a Polish prisoner. The author does a great job of trying to convey the feelings that go with the discovery of her biological heritage.

The performance was not quite up to par, as the narrator was clearly struggling very much with the pronouncing of any kind of foreign names and words, which really did not go over well. Secondly, the transitions from the narration of the author to the narration of others were not very clear.

Raw From the Heart

I appreciated the views she shared from all those she loved, as well as the raw emotion she showed.

Very moving

Very moving, thought-provoking story ... the person reading the book is somewhat distracting from the story, however.

Listen to the end

In the beginning it was hard to listen to, as I wondered why She would take on so much guilt, after all She is not her grandfather. It seemed that the sins of the father had been laid at the feet of the granddaughter.
I am glad I listened all the way through.

Past

My interest in this was peaked by having relatives who had dead in the camps and also that I had met a former German POW who was interned in England