“The Nicest Nazi” book signing with Christiane Brandt Faris 6-8 p.m. Aug. 28 Full Circle Bookstore 1900 Northwest Expressway fullcirclebooks.com 842-2900 Free
It has been nearly 70 years since the end of World War II, but the stories of the people who lived through it remain at the forefront of modern history and interest.
Most of us are familiar with its most poignant voices; we have read memoirs written by Jewish men and women like Elie Wiesel and Anne Frank, who were children targeted and imprisoned by the Nazi regime. The most piercing stories are those of children like Wiesel and Frank, to whom the rigors of war seem most unfair. But we don’t often get to hear stories from the other side, from children growing up in Adolf Hitler’s Germany.
Midtown Oklahoma city resident Christiane Brandt Faris’ memoir “The Nicest Nazi”: Childhood Memories of World War II, her second book, offers readers a rare glimpse into childhood in a country that has declared war on the world. Faris, “The Nicest Nazi,” was born in Berlin during Hitler’s reign of terror and lived there during Kristallnacht (also known as the deadly Night of Broken Glass attacks of Nazi German and Austrian Jews who owned shops, synagogues and buildings Nov. 9-10, 1938) and throughout the beginning of the war.
She and her family sought refuge at her grandmother’s house in the somewhat remote village of Celle, Germany, and remained there throughout the decade or so it took to rebuild the country’s government, economy and infrastructure.
Faris’ vivid memories pull readers into her day-to-day life as a child in the midst of war. We follow her as she rushes underground during air raids, wonders what buildings will still be standing when the sirens stop, tries to distract herself from the bombing overhead, worries about family members who are away from home and walks to the grocery store with her aunt to trade ration tickets for small amounts of food. We travel with her on crowded trains that are never on time. We watch as family members are forced into serving the Nazi state through “youth programs” and compulsory military service — we come face-to-face with the permeation of Nazi propaganda into citizen’s everyday lives.
“The Nicest Nazi” also provides a snapshot of life in postwar Germany. We see life through Faris’ eyes as the war comes to an end and thousands of refugees are displaced by foreign occupation and bombings seek shelter wherever they can find it — more than 50 of them in Faris’ grandmother’s house — and try to establish even a slight sense of normalcy in the midst of housing, food, electricity and general supply shortages.
Perhaps most poignant is Faris’ memory of seeing “nightmarish figures in striped pajamas suddenly seeking their way through town” after being set free from the infamous Bergen-Belsen concentration camp less than 15 miles away.
Faris’ memoir is a well-written, absorbing tale of survival despite immeasurable hardship. And while the last few chapters might have provided a little too much personal information about Faris’ ancestors that added distance in a genre that demands writers make and keep a strong connection with readers, her story remained thoroughly captivating.
“The Nicest Nazi” helps readers realize that no one is unaffected by war and when you look closely, both sides — and, often, their experiences — aren’t really all that different.
The book is available at Full Circle Bookstore, 1900 Northwest Expressway.
This article appears in Jul 9-15, 2014.