A bestseller in Germany, Michael Wieck’s account of his childhood in Konigsberg recalls a German city obliterated by fire-bombing during the Second World War. As the child of a Jewish mother and Gentile father, Wieck was percecuted first as a ‘‘certified Jew’’ by the Nazis, then as a German by the Russian occupiers, including horrifie internment in the Rothenstein concentration camp. In the midst of privation, savagery, and death, there were moments of absurdity, and Wieck powerfully depicts them in this unforgettable memoir.
