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Book Review
Europe: Early Modern and Modern
| Y. Michal Bodemann. A Jewish Family in Germany Today: An Intimate Portrait. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press. 2005. Pp. 280. $22.95.Tangled Roots: Struggling with a Legacy of War. Directed and written by Heidi Schmidt Emberling. 2004; color and black and white; 66 minutes. Distributed by New Day Films.
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| Y. Michal Bodemann's book follows the life and family of the Kalmans: four siblings from a prominent and religious family from Slawkusz in Polish Galicia who survived the Holocaust. Their parents, Jacob and Esther Kalman, had eight children, but only Albert, Itzhak, Jurek, and their sister, Gertrud escaped death. Bodemann's book consists of an amalgamation of interviews that he conducted with various members of the Kalman clan from the early 1990s to 2004, organized into four parts, each part devoted to one sibling. The strength of the book lies in the voices of the Kalmans themselves. |
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Since Albert was deceased when Bodemann began the project, we learn about him from his wife, Eva, and their five children: Berthold, Ronnie, Salek, Esther, and Gabriel. Albert, eldest of eight siblings, was a Zionist who in the 1930s planned to immigrate to Palestine, against his mother's wishes. Albert gave in to his mother and remained in Slawkusz. When the war began, he was recruited into the Judenrat but refused and was sent to a concentration camp. In 1941 he was transferred to Buchenwald, where his brothers Itzhak and Jurek had also been sent. His sister Gertrud was liberated from Bergen-Belsen, and at the war's end the British army brought her to Buchenwald. There she was reunited with her brothers, and they were all sent to the Landsberg Displaced Persons Camp near Munich, Germany. In Landsberg, Gertrud met and married Leon Guterman and subsequently emigrated to the United States. |
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The brothers remained in Germany and began a business buying and selling used appliances. Kalman Household Appliances grew into a large and successful firm, but the brothers became increasingly unable to manage it. Their arguments eventually led to the company's bankruptcy and the brothers' estrangement. This story is told and retold through the various interviews. Each sibling's children describe the trials and tribulations of growing up Kalman in Germany. Some have made successful lives and careers there; several immigrated to Israel. Those who remained in Germany either married or are living with non-Jewish mates. |
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Bodemann describes his study as a "biographical portrait of a family in many voices." Unfortunately, there are important voices missing, and some voices are louder than others. Albert, the eldest sibling, died before Bodemann began the project, and Itzhak, the second eldest, refused to be interviewed. Itzhak's wife Fela is also absent. Itzhak's story is told by his daughter Dina and includes a brief interview she conducted with her father. In addition, Bodemann interviews Dina's first and second husbands. Since Gertrud's health was deteriorating and her memory poor, her story is told solely through her son, Jerry, from New Jersey. Gertrud's husband, Leon, is also missing. Jurek's son Jonny reluctantly agreed to a thirty-minute telephone interview, described in another short chapter. |
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Bodemann fused together interviews he conducted at different times, and the research is sloppy. He interviewed some family members repeatedly, others not at all. Both the interviews and chapters vary in length and quality, the writing and translations are clumsy, and there are many typographical errors. The book is lopsided. Half the book is devoted to Albert's story, while the stories of his three surviving siblings comprise the second half. |
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