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Published Apr 2015
240 pages
Genre: Biography/Memoir
Publication Information
The internationally bestselling memoir hailed as "unforgettable" (Publishers Weekly) and "a stunning memoir of cultural trauma and personal identity" (Booklist).
When Jennifer Teege, a German-Nigerian woman, happened to pluck a library book from the shelf, she had no idea that her life would be irrevocably altered. Recognizing photos of her mother and grandmother in the book, she discovers a horrifying fact: Her grandfather was Amon Goeth, the vicious Nazi commandant chillingly depicted by Ralph Fiennes in Schindler's List—a man known and reviled the world over.
Although raised in an orphanage and eventually adopted, Teege had some contact with her biological mother and grandmother as a child. Yet neither revealed that Teege's grandfather was the Nazi "butcher of Plaszów," executed for crimes against humanity in 1946. The more Teege reads about Amon Goeth, the more certain she becomes: If her grandfather had met her—a black woman—he would have killed her.
Teege's discovery sends her, at age 38, into a severe depression—and on a quest to unearth and fully comprehend her family's haunted history. Her research takes her to Krakow—to the sites of the Jewish ghetto her grandfather "cleared" in 1943 and the Plaszów concentration camp he then commanded—and back to Israel, where she herself once attended college, learned fluent Hebrew, and formed lasting friendships. Teege struggles to reconnect with her estranged mother Monika, and to accept that her beloved grandmother once lived in luxury as Amon Goeth's mistress at Plaszów.
Teege's story is cowritten by award-winning journalist Nikola Sellmair, who also contributes a second, interwoven narrative that draws on original interviews with Teege's family and friends and adds historical context. Ultimately, Teege's resolute search for the truth leads her, step by step, to the possibility of her own liberation.
"Jennifer Teege's new memoir traces the pain of discovering her grandfather was the real-life 'Nazi butcher' from Schindler's List." - People magazine
"Haunting and unflinching... A memoir, an adoption story and a geopolitical history lesson, all blended seamlessly into an account of Teege's exploration of her roots." - Washington Post
"A stunning memoir of cultural trauma and personal identity." - Booklist, starred review
"Unforgettable... . Teege's quest to discover her personal history is empowering." - Publishers Weekly
"An important addition to narratives written by descendants of war criminals. A gripping read, highly recommended for anyone interested in history, memoirs, and biography." - Library Journal, starred review
"A powerful account of Teege's struggle for resolution and redemption, the book [is] itself a therapeutic working-through of her history, as well as a meditation on family." - The Independent (UK)
"Courageous... . the memoir invites rereading to fully absorb Teege's painful search for answers, for a sense of identity and belonging and for inner peace. Readers won't help but feel for her. Teege discovers, however, that history's shattering truths have the potential to make us more whole." - Seattle Times
"[Teege's] message is an important one - that we have the power to decide who we are." - Seattle Weekly
"In honest, direct, and absorbing prose, Teege and coauthor Nikola Sellmair confront highly personal repercussions of the Holocaust... . The book's real triumph is in its nuanced, universally appealing portrait of an individual searching for her place in the world. Just as Teege's chance encounter with a library book led her to question the fundamental assumptions of her life, so too the reader... will be forced to reconsider the wide-ranging impact of past injustices on present-day relationships." - The Jewish Book Council
This information about My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Jennifer Teege has worked in advertising since 1999. She lived for four years in Israel, where she became fluent in Hebrew. She holds a degree from Tel Aviv University in Middle Eastern and African studies. Teege lives in Germany with her husband and two sons. This is her first book.
Nikola Sellmair graduated from Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich and has worked in Hong Kong, Washington, D.C., Israel, and Palestine. She has been a reporter in Hamburg at Germany's Stern magazine since 2000. Her work has received many awards, including the German-Polish Journalist Award, for the first-ever article about Jennifer Teege's singular story.
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