Memoir chronicles hidden heritage
German professor speaks about life during Holocaust
Suzanne Merkelson
Issue date: 4/9/08 Section: News
Professor emeritus of German Hubert C. Kueter will read from his recently released memoir, My Tainted Blood on April 14 at 7 p.m. in the Robinson room of Miller Library. The event is co-sponsored by the Department of German and Russian and the Jewish Studies Program and will be followed by a reception and book signing. My Tainted Blood discusses Kueter's childhood in Nazi Germany and departure from Germany in the years following World War II.
Kueter, whose mother was Jewish, was instructed to never reveal the fact that he was half-Jewish. She was only able to survive due to his existence; the Nazi administration believed Jewish mothers should be kept alive while their non-Jewish children were growing up. While this fact, along with the overall gravity of the situation in Nazi Germany overshadows the book, Kueter is able to reflect on the events of his life with the humor and light-heartedness of the adolescent narrator, who has a penchant for both food and mischief.
While the reader does hear about the atrocities of Nazi policy toward Jews and the racism in the war's aftermath, what makes this book stand out is Kueter's unique viewpoint. Kueter utilizes his own memories, which he says he achieved through "putting [him]self into that place and really reliving those years," in conjunction with entries from his mother's diary. His mother is both a central figure in the book, itself, as well as in Kueter's decision to write it. "We were a family, just the two of us, very isolated by the circumstances," Kueter said in an interview with the [Echo]. His mother would be "upset" to have learned that Kueter wrote this memoir. "It was always dangerous to have our background known," he said. However, as Kueter said of this first book, "I needed to get this fact of my Jewish blood out of the closet."
Kueter sprinkles in recipes for German delicacies throughout the book. Food (or perhaps the scarcity of it) figured tremendously in his childhood, and continues to do so; Kueter even owned and operated a German restaurant in Oakland for 20 years. He continues to feel a need to provide, through cooking, along with other hobbies such as mushrooming, fishing and gardening, interests cultivated during the deprivation of the war years. "All these things were important to me then, and have carried on to today," Kueter said.
Kueter, whose mother was Jewish, was instructed to never reveal the fact that he was half-Jewish. She was only able to survive due to his existence; the Nazi administration believed Jewish mothers should be kept alive while their non-Jewish children were growing up. While this fact, along with the overall gravity of the situation in Nazi Germany overshadows the book, Kueter is able to reflect on the events of his life with the humor and light-heartedness of the adolescent narrator, who has a penchant for both food and mischief.
While the reader does hear about the atrocities of Nazi policy toward Jews and the racism in the war's aftermath, what makes this book stand out is Kueter's unique viewpoint. Kueter utilizes his own memories, which he says he achieved through "putting [him]self into that place and really reliving those years," in conjunction with entries from his mother's diary. His mother is both a central figure in the book, itself, as well as in Kueter's decision to write it. "We were a family, just the two of us, very isolated by the circumstances," Kueter said in an interview with the [Echo]. His mother would be "upset" to have learned that Kueter wrote this memoir. "It was always dangerous to have our background known," he said. However, as Kueter said of this first book, "I needed to get this fact of my Jewish blood out of the closet."
Kueter sprinkles in recipes for German delicacies throughout the book. Food (or perhaps the scarcity of it) figured tremendously in his childhood, and continues to do so; Kueter even owned and operated a German restaurant in Oakland for 20 years. He continues to feel a need to provide, through cooking, along with other hobbies such as mushrooming, fishing and gardening, interests cultivated during the deprivation of the war years. "All these things were important to me then, and have carried on to today," Kueter said.
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