The Hands of War: A Tale of Endurance and Hope, from a Survivor of the Holocaust

Description

Marione Ingram grew up in Hamburg, Germany, in the late 1930s and early 1940s. She was German. She was Jewish. She was a survivor. This is her story. As a young girl, Marione was aware that people of the Jewish faith were regarded as outsiders, the supposed root of Germany's many problems. She grew up in an apartment building where neighbors were more than happy to report Jews to the Gestapo. Marione's mother attempted suicide after receiving a deportation notice-Marione revived her, but then the bombs started to fall, as the Allies leveled the city in eight straight days of bombings. Somehow Marione and her mother and sister survived the devastating firestorms-more than 40,000 perished, and almost the same numbered were wounded. Marione and her family miraculously escaped and sought shelter with a contact in the countryside who grudgingly agreed to house them in a shed for more than a year. With the war drawing to a close, they went west, back to Hamburg. There they encountered Allied troops, who reinstalled the local government (made up of ex-Nazis) in order to keep order in the country. Life took on the air of what it used to be. Jews were still second-class citizens. Marione eventually took shelter at a children's home in a mansion once owned by wealthy Jewish bankers. There she met Uri, a troubled orphan and another one of the "Children of Blankenese." Uri's story, a bleak tale of life in the concentration camps, explores a different side of the Nazi terror in Germany. In this stirring account of World War II through the eyes of a child, the author's eloquent narrative elicits compassion from readers.

Marione Ingram is a writer, artist, and civil rights activist who survived the Holocaust, the fire- bombing of Hamburg, Germany, and the incendiary efforts of Mississippi's Ku Klux Klan. She immigrated to the United States and, having experienced racial discrimination in Europe, became engaged in the civil rights movement. Excerpts of her work have been published in The Best American Essays of 2007 anthology, Granta, and Women Writers: A Zine.

[Ingram s] memoir is extremely well developed, well researched, and delivered with vivid, animated description. She induces a depth of passion into her childhood memories, an aspect lacking in many memoirs. --New York Journal of Books [Ingram's] memoir is extremely well developed, well researched, and delivered with vivid, animated description. She induces a depth of passion into her childhood memories, an aspect lacking in many memoirs. --New York Journal of Books Finely delineated details distinguish this memoir by Hamburg native Ingram, now an artist living in Washington, D.C. Ingram inserts some staggering details . . . A well-honed tale of momentous courage and strength. --Kirkus Reviews