Veronica Frenzel: "My day begins in your shadow"

In her book "My day begins in your shadow", Veronica Frenzel describes how her family's Nazi past has shaped her to this day.

My book tip.

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This changes nothing for you

A book that is quite heavy fare and makes you think painfully.

To this day, this formative time has been processed only with difficulty.

Veronica Frenzel writes in her book how she dealt with it.

How my family's Nazi past has had a racist impact on me to this day

It's a touchy subject, even after more than 70 years.

The self-critical processing in which the author lets us participate is impressive.

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Cover Veronica Frenzel "My day begins in your shadow"

© IMAGO / Cola Images/Goldmann Verlag

Even as a child, Veronica Frenzel suspected that there was something threatening in her family history.

She picked it up casually, rhyming it together from scraps of conversation.

But nobody has ever spoken openly about what their grandparents had done during the Nazi era.

When she catches herself having racist thoughts in an anti-racism workshop of all places, she is flabbergasted.

How can that be?

She had always seen herself as an ally of Black people and People of Color, always striving to be open to everyone.

Where do these thoughts come from and how does she get rid of them?

Veronica Frenzel researches, talks to her relatives, psychologists and Nazi victims, dissects her family biography, her thoughts and feelings, her white German identity.

The journalist ruthlessly reveals

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Veronica Frenzel "My day begins in your shadow": My conclusion

This book made me swallow hard many times.

I also found it impressive that Veronica Frenzel changed in her book.

This has no effect on the reading flow.

A very exciting topic that unfortunately is not dealt with in school.

Absolute reading recommendation for all interested people who want to inform themselves.

Veronica Frenzel "My day begins in your shadow"

2022, Goldmann Verlag, ISBN 13-

Price: paperback €17, e-book €14.99, number of pages: 320 (deviating from the format)

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Veronica Frenzel

Veronica Frenzel is a freelance radio and print journalist in Berlin and works for 

, the ARD broadcasters, the 

and others.

Her texts have received multiple awards, including the Axel Springer Prize, and have been nominated for the Theodor Wolff Prize and the Reporter Prize.

For her research she lived for several months in Kenya, Mozambique and Uganda.

Most recently, Frenzel was a scholarship holder of the 

and the Robert Bosch Foundation's cross-border commuter program.

List of rubrics: © IMAGO / Cola Images/Goldmann Verlag