Norwegian title: Gestaposjefens datter
Hi guys!
So we keep moving towards Christmas and more and more often Christmas countdowns keep popping up on my Facebook wall and it kind of freaks me out. At least I’m all done with my Christmas presents so that isn’t an issue, but it’s more the fact that time goes by so fast. I’ve been in London a month already, which I can’t quite believe, but that’s how it goes. At the moment I’m in my bed, so sore from cheerleading practice yesterday that I can barely move. It’s like I’m 90, not 23, haha.
Born in the winter of 1945, Venke was the daughter of a Norwegian girl and the Gestapo boss in Oslo, Heinrich Fehlis. He had had several Norwegians tortured and killed and he was famous for it. Venke wasn’t alone in her situation. During the war, several kids were born where the father was a part of the enemy forces. Venke’s parents loved each other very much and her father went to extreme lengths to get Venke and her mother out of Norway when the war ended and the Nazis surrendered. Venke had a difficult childhood. Her mom was put in a mental hospital, she moved around between family members and she felt a shame and fear that she knew was connected to her heritage, though she did not quite know why. Her mother would never tell. This is Venke’s story; a story about self-acknowledgement and how to keep your head above the water when all you want to do is drown.
This is quite a story. Venke knows fairly little about her father until she is a grown up. All her mother ever told her as he was a Nazi general, but due to the different military rankings in Norway and The Third Reich, this isn’t quite true. Venke’s birth certificate says nothing about her father being a part of the Gestapo. Living with a mother who was an alcoholic and disillusioned most of her life must have been a true struggle that I can only try to imagine. Venke’s mother never says a bad word about her father, because she experienced the man outside of work.I like how Venke tells her story without any secrets. She invites us into her life, all of her mistakes and all her failures and we can see the mistakes in the book as clear as day, although it takes some time for Venke herself to realize them. I think this is my favourite part of this whole story; the open honesty about who she truly is. She is well into her adult years before she learns the true history of her father.
Published: 2012
Genre: Biography
Theme: World war 2, history, family, life, USA
– The Book Reader
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