A Past in Hiding

Marianne Strauss by Mark Roseman. This book is a true account of the survival of a young Jewish woman inside Germany from 1939 to 1945. Relying on her ability to pass as non Jewish thanks to an id card issued without the Jewish markings and on a small group of supporters, Marianne Strauss was able to remain in Germany throughout the Nazi period even as her family died. As remarkable as the story itself, the extremes to which the author goes to uncover the true events and chronology is what makes this book worth reading. Roseman is very sensitive to the problem of relying on faulty memories to get at the truth of events. He offers detailed explorations for how personal memories can be attached to famous events and thus distorted. He also explains how survival itself may depend of distorting history in ones memory. He goes to all lengths to interview everyone who might remember the event and uncovers everything that might have been written about that event. This diligence uncovers efforts by the Nazis to recruit Marianne’s father as an agent in return for an exit visa; efforts by a probable Nazi mechanic to send a receive letters from the camps and help her family with food and other goods. A remarkable story and a remarkable historical investigation.