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      Indiana University Press

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      © 2020 by Lina Jakob

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      ISBN 978-0-253-04824-0 (hardback)

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       Meinen Eltern, in Liebe und Dankbarkeit

      CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Between “Mastering” and “Silencing” the Past: Public Commemorations of World War II

2. “Why Do You Have to Dig Around in the Past?”: Conversations about World War II in German Families

       3. Better “Sick” Than “Strange”: The Kriegsenkel Movement and the Desire to Legitimize Suffering

       4. “Hooray, I Am a Kriegsenkel!”: Suffering and Liberation in the Age of Therapy

       5. The Invisible Wounds of War: Kriegsenkel Accounts of Transgenerational Transmission

       6. The Losses and the Shame of War: Absence in Kriegsenkel Narratives

       Conclusion

       Appendix: Interview Structure and Sample Questions

       Bibliography

       Index

       ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

      I HAD AN ENORMOUS AMOUNT of support in researching and writing this book. I am incredibly grateful in particular to the following:

      To all my German Kriegsenkel interview partners for spending time with me and for trusting me with your stories. I hope I did them justice.

      To the anthropologists at the Australian National University, in particular to Francesca Merlan for her unwavering enthusiasm and intellectual support from the very first to the very last minute, and to Ana Dragojlovic and Carly Schuster for taking the time to comment on my work.

      To Jennika Baines and Allison Chaplin from Indiana University Press for their encouragement and expert guidance through the publication process, and to the two anonymous reviewers for their kind and constructive comments, which greatly helped to improve the final manuscript.

      To Ben Hillman for convincing me that giving up a steady job to pursue a PhD was a good idea, and to Lee-Anne Henfry, Soraya, and Lucia for distracting me with pedicures and Peppa Pig stories when I desperately needed a break.

      To my meditation friends Catherine Sinclair, Wilhelmina von Buellen, Karen O’Connell, and Anne Beyers for reminding me that there was a higher inspiration behind my quest; and to Eva-Marie Matuschka and Verena Flück for faithfully cheering me on from a distance.

      To Louisa Cass for proofreading my draft thesis and for caring enough to challenge some of my views.

      To my parents, Katrin and Richard Jakob, and my brothers, Jens and Lars, for sharing this journey with love, curiosity, and interest; and my sister Micha, for making this time into so much more of an adventure than I could ever have imagined.

      To my husband, Luigi Tomba, for the encouragement, patience, and enormous emotional, financial, and practical support, and for taking me out for peppermint tea to reassure me that all my ups and downs were “perfectly normal” for an insecure scholar; to Jack, the cat, for keeping me company on lonely winter days; and to Tom Cliff, Lina Tan, and later Abraham for looking after Jack—and us.

      Lastly, to my grandparents, Hedwig and Sigismund Jakob and Hilde and Josef Schaefer, for inspiring me to start this quest with your stories as much as with your silences and secrets. Grandpa Jupp, I know you would have loved to talk to me about my research over a glass of grappa—or two.