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Let Me Go
- Narrated by: Anne Dover
- Length: 4 hrs and 45 mins
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Let Me Go
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Summary
In 1998, Helga Schneider, in her 60s, was summoned from Italy to the nursing home in Vienna in which her 90-year-old mother lived. The last time she had seen her mother was 27 years earlier, when her mother asked her daughter to try on the SS uniform which she treasures, and tried to give her several items of jewellery, the loot of Holocaust victims, which Schneider rejected. Prior to that, the last time they had seen each other was in 1941 (when Schneider was 4 and her brother 19 months old), when Fr Schneider abandoned her family in order to pursue her career as an SS officer.
As their conversation continues, Schneider establishes that from the Nazi women's camp at Ravensbruck, her mother moved to Auschwitz-Birkenau where she was in charge of a "correction" unit where brutal torture was administered. Her mother not only remains uncontrite, but continues to regard her former prisoners as the sub-human inferiors of Nazi ideology.
Helga Schneider's extraordinary, frank account is desperately sad and extremely powerful. She describes without sentimentality or self-pity her own difficult upbringing and the raising of her own child against the background of painful confrontation of the reality of her mother. She skillfully interweaves her family history the story of their final meeting and powerfully evokes the dreadful misery of Nazi and immediate post-war Berlin. This is an important document on many levels: as Holocaust history, as evidence of the power of political ideology, and as an exploration of moral responsibility.
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What listeners say about Let Me Go
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Laura
- 17-11-13
A good listen
What made the experience of listening to Let Me Go the most enjoyable?
Although the subject matter is harrowing, this was not overdone. The author set just the right tone in exploring the relationship (or non-relationship) between mother and daughter and in the end is really a tale of someone getting their just desserts.
Who was your favorite character and why?
The narrator (first person)
Which character – as performed by Anne Dover – was your favourite?
The narrator (first person)
Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
Neither
Any additional comments?
No
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Janet Jones
- 03-10-20
A good book
It was a good book but it was hard to listen to ar times with how the mother was. The narrator was good.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- ICAJ
- 08-08-21
We must never forget
excellent narration and well structured story about the holocaust and a key protaginist being confronted by their estranged daughter in here 50s.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Vonny Milonny
- 18-12-16
Interesting to hear the other side
After listening to Born Survivors and was left deeply moved and disgusted by the treatment of the people held in the camps. The same question ran through my head "why?" How could the guards treat another human so disgracefully after all they were someone's child or parent, loved one too. How could they leave home and become such monsters. Let me go didn't answer all of my questions by it gave me a glimpse into the mindset of an ss guard.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Dr McKirdy
- 04-04-18
Oh woe is me!!!
So her mother did bad things.. but her mother had got herself to believe that her family were dead because of what had happened, then Helga comes strolling back in 30years after the last time she had seen her mother.
by the end I actually felt sorry for the 90year old mother not because she had been an SS officer but because of the way her daughter treated her and lied to her, and give it the "ohh feel sorry for me my mother was a Nazi".
it is an interesting insight into the family dynamics around when someone had done something evil but she could have carried on ignoring her.
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1 person found this helpful