youth book
Effects of the war – Kirsten Boie wants to shake things up
The writer Kirsten Boie wants to thematize the consequences of National Socialism with her new book. Photo: Markus Scholz / dpa / archive
© dpa-infocom GmbH
Kirsten Boie has written a book that aims to show young people how terrible the consequences of National Socialism were. For all. Their hope: prevent the teenagers from drifting to the right.
Dealing with war is seldom easy. And yet it is necessary. The Hamburg author Kirsten Boie (“Sommerby”, “Möwenweg”) now wants to add another facet to her new youth book “Don’t cry, you’re still alive”.
“When we talk about war, we are mainly talking about the guilt of Germany, which started the war and committed terrible atrocities, and about the Shoah. And that is also good and correct and we should continue to do so, ”said Boie of the German Press Agency in Hamburg.
“But nothing turns up about the fact that the German population that was not persecuted also suffered terribly.” It was time to “describe how terrible the outcome of National Socialism was for everyone”.
Boie wants to make the effects clear
That is important at the moment, “in connection with young people who are currently migrating to the right”. That is why she wrote a book for young people that looks at the effects of the Nazi regime and the terrible everyday experiences of all Germans.
Her story, published by Oetinger-Verlag (publication date January 8), revolves around three young teenagers shortly after the end of the Second World War. They play in the ruins of Hamburg, are hungry, hide in the ruins, trade on the black market, have to share their living space with strangers, and have crippled fathers. Every family and every child has had a hard time bearing on the past and the present. They are all united by loss.
Perspective of three young people
Boie tells the story set in Hamburg from the perspective of one of the three young people. It was important for Boie to take on different aspects of life. The daughter of a family of bakers who have to take in a family from East Prussia. The son of a soldier who is deeply frustrated, still believing in the regime and without legs, sits in the kitchen and bullies the family. And the son of a non-Jewish German and a Jew who, for fear of the Germans, is still hiding in the rubble and pretends to be a non-Jewish child in order to make friends.
Boie describes the thoughts of the young people in a complex way and allows for twists and turns. “It is always important to me that things are not so clear-cut. We’re all not that clear. People are much more complex. “
Remembering childhood stories
For the book, Boie drew a lot from her memories. She herself wasn’t born at the end of the war. “But the stories and tales from that time shaped my entire childhood. I also played in the rubble myself, and teachers with prostheses were almost the rule. ” At the same time, she also researched the Neuengamme concentration camp memorial in Hamburg and the literature on the situation of the Jews in the Hanseatic city. “It was horrible. Everything becomes very, very much more concrete and really shocking. “
The 177-page book reverberates. It works. It releases thoughts and creates space for discussion – internal and with others. Boie hopes that her book will reach the children before they idealize Nazism in right-wing groups. “As a rule, the young people between the ages of 12 and 15 slip away, and that is exactly the target group that the book is aimed at.” At this age, the girls and boys should definitely get the full picture of the consequences of the war of National Socialism.
“It’s also a little bit my generation’s fault because we never told the full story. We necessarily always spoke of guilt, never of suffering. But that also shortens the picture a lot and that is not always good for young people. ” Boie thinks it would be nice if her book became part of the class. «As a former German teacher, that’s what I wish for. But I’m afraid it’s too long for that. “