Summary Of My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me

The relatives of Notorious Nazi Leaders

In the book My Grandfather would have Shot Me, we see Jennifer Teege find and come to terms with the fact that her grandfather was the commandant of the Plaszow concentration camp, where he was nicknamed the butcher of Plaszow for his inhumane treatment of Jewish people. (Teege 9). Amon Goeth was responsible for the death of thousands of Jewish people and the liquidation of more than two million polish Jews beginning in the year of 1942(“Amon Goeth, Hitlers nazi butcher” 1). He was later hanged for his actions leaving behind a daughter who would later have Jennifer Teege. Harald Welzer was the author and responsible for the research study labeled Grandpa was a Nazi where he found the generation of Grandchildren

He stated that it was the way history is interpreted by the subsequent generations and how the general knowledge of historical facts, such as the Holocaust, is understood, depends hugely on the social context and images formed within the family framework. What this means with regards to this particular time in history is, that no matter how much the next generation is taught about the facts of the horrors caused by the Third Reich, the way these are interpreted depend on what and how family stories are passed down (Heddakraker 1). When World War II was over Otto Von Wachter fled with his son to Rome and was sheltered by the pro-Nazi church (Walters 1). Because Horst was able to grow up with Otto as his father there is no surprise that he saw his father as a normal innocent man. He most likely learned about the Holocaust from his father, who painted a much different picture for him than many other children. Welzer used and analogy of a child learning shapes to help explain his theory. He stated that if you teach a child that a circle is a square from a young age, the child will always think a circle is a square. If you teach a child that his father’s actions were justified, he will believe that his father’s actions were justified and that he did nothing wrong. This also feeds into Welzer’s research because the comparison could be made between Horst, Niklas and Jennifer and how the holocaust was portrayed to them. Niklas and Jennifer both grew up without knowing their grandparents so they had little influence on them when learning the about holocaust. In Jennifer’s case she did not even know about her grandfather until she was thirty-one. Niklas Frank never met us father because he was executed after the war but was well educated on what he did and condemned him for it. Since Horst grew up with his father it is no surprise that he