Underground in Berlin

Starred review from July 20, 2015
In this captivating story, Simon tells of her years in hiding as a Jewish woman during WWII. While still a teenager, she works as forced labor in a factory, leaving her middle-class life behind. Before Jalowicz is 20, she’s orphaned, losing both parents to illness, and must grow up fast. Having decided she won’t voluntarily submit to the Nazis, she’s even more determined after her aunt receives deportation papers in late 1941. She arranges to get herself fired from a factory and then convinces the authorities she’s already been sent away. She utilizes her time to walk different neighborhoods in Berlin, testing whether she will be harassed by police for not wearing the Jewish star and gaining the confidence she needs to mask her fear in encounters with Nazis or anyone suspicious of her. Jalowicz gets by on her wits, able to lie her way out of trouble when she’s threatened with arrest, and, amazingly, is never “denounced” by those who know the truth. Even more critically, she’s aided by family and friends, Jews and not, who give her food, money and most importantly, refuge. When friends learn of a foreign worker in need of a “wife”, she has the great fortune of being able to live in relative safety for the last two years of the war. Jalowicz’s story is unquestionably tragic in so many ways, but is also full of miracles, hope, and a future. Agent: George Lucas, Inkwell.

July 1, 2015
Simon's son gave her a tape recorder, and the result is a crisp, detailed memoir of her years as a U-Boat ("those who had gone underground in the Nazi period") in World War II-era Berlin. A Berlin-born, comfortably raised Jew, the author at first tried to cooperate, working as forced labor at Siemens. However, she well understood that for a Jew in Germany, there was no future. Her stories of sabotage of the nuts and bolts they built for Siemens show a people strong and clever enough to fool their captors. From the beginning, Simon relied on the help of Dr. Benno Heller, a gynecologist who connected her with those who would hide her. (Heller was imprisoned in Berlin, deported to Auschwitz, and ended up in Lieberose-Jamlitz, where he was last seen in early 1945.) The author's story of sitting quietly in a wicker chair so as not to alert neighbors to her presence was not a one-time thing but rather a constant as she hid in attics and half rooms. A large part of her story is hunger. Nearly everyone in Berlin was hungry, and Simon stayed with people who couldn't, or wouldn't, give her food. Her story is emotional, but her narrative is not. She discusses rapes, whether by a "protector" or Russian liberator, almost as asides or inevitabilities. One small ray of hope was her attempt to immigrate to Bulgaria with false papers to marry, though she eventually ran into the ubiquitous Nazi bureaucracy. She did have luck, especially with the Koch family, who supplied her with food and support throughout, and during a two-year respite in 1943, when she stayed with a woman named Luise Blase. The book also includes a helpful "Index of Names." A coolly told story of a harrowing time and a young woman's struggle to survive.

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April 15, 2015

In this book, a major best seller in Germany that has just received rave reviews in the UK, Simon tells how, as a 19-year-old Berliner, she pulled off her yellow star, changed her identity, and disappeared into the city in 1941.

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2015

Simon's memoir poignantly demonstrates the moral ambiguity characterizing Germany during World War II. The author "went to ground" in 1942 after being a forced laborer for engineering company Siemens, narrowly eluding arrest and deportation. She attempted to escape fascist Europe but spent most of the remaining three years in Berlin. Many of her "rescuers" brutally exploited her for labor and sex. However, Simon was surprised by the genuine kindness and humanity even among hardened Nazis. The author dictated her story to her son, Hermann Simon, who then edited it for publication after verifying as much as he could through archives and other records. He was startled by his mother's accuracy as she relied on her memory entirely. The younger Simon provides footnotes in places where he discovered discrepancies between his mother's account and the historical record but otherwise lets the survivor speak for herself in her matter-of-fact style. VERDICT This book will appeal greatly to those who appreciate other Holocaust survival memoirs such as Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl. [See Prepub Alert, 3/23/15.]--Michael Farrell, Reformed Theological Seminary, Orlando, FL

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.