Strohmeyer, Dieter: The Ahronheims.
Simone Blaschka-Eick, edition DAH, 2014.
Prize: 10,80 €
When conversations turn to the topic of “National Socialism”, most people who have witnessed how Nazi terror affected daily life remain silent. Not so Dieter Strohmeyer, a former board member of the Friends of the German Emigration Center e.V. In his book “The Ahronheims – a Bremerhaven Family History from 1930 to the Present”, Dieter Strohmeyer embarks on a quest to uncover his own past and that of his neighbors, the Jewish Ahronheim family, which eventually led him to Florida. How was it possible that the Nazis initially discriminated against the Jewish population before the eyes of their neighbors, violently destroying their existences, and ultimately murdering millions? Many questions, some answers – and a shared exploration of the past – that is what connects Holocaust survivor Eric Ahronheim and Dieter Strohmeyer beyond their shared childhood in Bremerhaven.