Shared Sorrows: A Gypsy Family Remembers the HolocaustOn the morning after Kristallnacht, Toby Sonneman’s father walked through broken glass to apply for the visa that saved him from the fate of so many during the Third Reich. In examining her own family history, the author discovered the similarities between the fate of the Jews and the Gypsies in the Holocaust, both peoples selected on racial grounds for extermination by the Nazis. She traveled with an American Gypsy survivor to Munich, where she stayed with the formidable Rosa Mettbach. This is the story of Rosa and other members of an extended family who survived the Holocaust. Shared Sorrows tells the story of a Gypsy family against the backdrop of a Jewish one, detailing and examining their shared sufferings under the Nazis. My father brought a spool of thread with him from Germany when he came to America in 1939. And another spool of thread, one in my imagination, unwinds slowly and unpredictably, sometimes fraying or tangling. It's a thin and delicate thread that leads me to the Gypsies, to the family that I meet in Germany, the country of so many tangled memories and emotions. And as I talk to them and I listen, following the threads of their stories backwards in time to the 1930s and 40s and before, their memories start to become mine as well. |
Contents
Chronology of Two Families | 7 |
A bit of sweetness | 15 |
3 | 38 |
Copyright | |
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American arrested arrived Auschwitz Austria baby barracks bitter bread brother brought called child concentration camp Dachau dark dead death deported died doctor door escape Europe experiments explains eyes face father forced gave German girls give guards Gypsies hands happened heard Höllenreiner Holocaust Hugo husband Italy Jewish Jews killed knew later leave lived look Mannheim Mano March memory morning mother Munich murdered Nazis never night officer once ordered parents past perhaps persecution police prisoners question racial Ravensbrück Reili relatives remember Roma Romani Rosa Rosa's says sent served Shukar Sinti sister Sophie stay sterilization story Stramsee survivors talk tell thing tion told took train turned United victims walk woman women young