A disappotgly lacklter memoir focg on the six boyhood years (1933—39) Gay spent Nazi Berl. All the tellectual and stylistic dimensns that make master historian and bgrapher Gay (thor of the five-volume The Bourgeois Experience, etc.) such a superb amic wrer—a somewhat tached, reflective, tellectually thorough and elegant approach’serve him ls well when wrg tobgraphilly. For example, even when scribg the November 1938 natnal pogrom known as Kristallnacht, he giv short shrift to his own observatns and reactns. Rather, he spends some time mentg upon psychohistorian Peter Loewenberg’s view of the event as a Nazi-anized “gradatn rual” agast the Jews. Perhaps bee he was a sometim doted-upon, only child an upper-middle-class, highly assiated Jewish fay whose members were able to leave before the “Fal Solutn,— Gay was partly sulated om some of the worst anti-Semic and other horrors of the Third Reich. But there are some passag when his wrg do have a certa crisp immediacy, as when he scrib a fay iend whom Gay enuntered a month after the iend was released om a ncentratn mp: “he had visibly aged, looked athly pale, seemed disoriented, I thought almost senile.— He also has some fe mi-profil of both dividuals who betrayed his fay and a few who, wh nsirable urage, assisted them. In general, his wrg more alive when he scrib his experienc as an adolcent refugee, first Havana, then Denver. In large part, however, while Gay repeatedly scrib Nazism as a “poison” om which his psyche has not to this day fully toxified, he don’t que succeed havg the rear really unrstand what the nox, totalarian, and ultimately murro ambience of the Third Reich felt like day-to-day. Perhaps this is bee, as Gay stat his acknowledgments, settg down this acunt proved “the least exhilaratg assignment I have ever given myself or received om others.” (50 b&w illtratns, not seen)
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The followg addrs was given Munich on November 22, 1999, by Mr. Gay, after he received the Gchwister-Scholl Prize for the German translatn of * peter gay my german question *
145 reviews34 followersSeptember 9, 2014This book is rather different om what I expected - what tak centre stage, or at least so felt, is Gay's practicg self-analysis, wh Nazi Germany the background.
For me felt que often as if I was arrivg the middle of a nversatn that he has been havg wh somebody else, and I uld not que get who or what he was gettg back Frölich (who will later change his fay name to Gay) was born Berl, and only jt managed to pe wh his fay before was too late - but he was there to wns the rise of Hler and the start of the war. This left me wonrg whether Gay's revellg his total lack of passn for Nazis (not the lack of passn self, jt the flntg of ) has somethg to do wh some ep unease at not really seeg nor unrstandg what was happeng. Agast the backdrop of the holot and Gay's stggle to unrstand and accept his feelgs about Germans and his own inty, is grippg.
* peter gay my german question *
Anyone who wants to unrstand anythg about morn Jewish culture, the holot or Germany simply mt read 6, 2021I'd read Profsor Gay's book, Weimar Culture, when I was llege the 1970s. In this book, Gay explas some of the mixed signals that were afloat that uld easily lead to a sense that the worst would soon pass. Gay giv a very personal and sightful history of his life which clus his relatnships wh his parents and relativ, some of whom did not leave Germany time to save their liv.
Peter Gay dwells on the emotnal and psychologil aftermath of his childhood Berl. 872 reviews4 followersNovember 27, 2022 Peter Gay's fay were secular Jews and patrtic Germans.
My German qutn by Peter Gay, 1998, Yale Universy Prs edn, English * peter gay my german question *
Gay's wrg is annoyg - too much psychoanalytic voodoo - although, havg read a uple dozen holot memoirs, I unrstand why, s later, he hat the Germans and is unable to be ol, lm, and llected about what he experienced boyhood. And then, safe on Amerin soil, Gay changed his name. Curly, Gay mentned several tim that his father didn't look Jewish, a statement that meant...
Mullg over, occurred to me that maybe Gay thought that not lookg Jewish was evince that he was not really a Jew, and therefore he and his fay should be exempt om the wrath brought upon the Jews by the Nazi regime. I wonr whether if Gay had been Aryan, would he have been that mory of Good Germans who helped the Jews go to hidg and/or flee the untry or would he have behaved like most German cizens did, who knew how dangero was to offer help, and done is also fur at Ameri and England and etal for not creasg the number of visas they issued.
By the end of 1939, 347K of the 537K Jews Germany 1933 had emigrated, cludg Gay's fay 1939. Dpe my cricisms, Gay's story is remend readg. It is tertg for a few reasons which may not be Gay’s own tent.
Buy a cheap py of My German Qutn: Growg Up Nazi... book by Peter Gay. In this book, an historian tells of his youth as an assiated, antirelig Jew Nazi Germany om 1933-1939 - the story says Peter Gay, of a poisong and how... Free Shippg on all orrs over $15. * peter gay my german question *
This is due large part to Gay’s father’s amazg efforts at subterfuge which got them to Havana before the mass murrs began; but ’s also thanks to lenient treatment at the hands of teachers and others posns of, Gay mentns --- almost cintally --- some very shameful acts on the part of the US ernment, such as banng Jews om the Olympic team Berl, or refg entry to mised refuge.
Third, spe Gay’s tn, and prumably ratnal outlook, he has a hard time rtrag his rage at Nazi sympathizers and ed, more unfairly, all Germany. On the whole, ’s a fairly untertg book, given the tumultuo era; Gay’s self-analysis is surprisgly c, nsirg his many books on Frd; and his life story is fairly tertg, but surely many other refuge have more to say of more import than this. 1, 787 reviews101 followersJune 12, 2010This is a memoir of noted historian Peter Gay who lived unr Hler as a signated Jew.
My German Qutn by Peter Gay, 2010, Yale Universy Prs edn, English * peter gay my german question *
By PETER GAY.
I had left Germany 1939 as Peter Joachim Israel Frohlich (the "Israel" urty of the Nazis); I returned as Peter Jack Gay, proud Amerin cizen sce 1946.