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Erica Fischer: Aimée & Jaguar (Paperback, German language, 1995, Kiepenheuer & Witsch) 5 stars

Berlin 1942. Lilly Wust, 29, verheiratet, vier Kinder, führt das Leben von Millionen deutscher Frauen. …

How a nazi woman fell in love with a jewish woman

5 stars

This book is important and details how a couple managed to fall in love in the most hostile place imaginable. Lily Wüst is a married woman with children living an unfullfilling live in the Nazi capital with her children. Felice Schragenheim is a young jewish woman living covertly to avoid deportation.

During a nazi program showing young woman how to have a family Felice meets Lily and slowly starts falling in love. Both of them get to know each other and eventually become a couple. Navigating the risks of daily bombardment and potential deportation the two try everything to stay together. Interviews with witnesses and Lily enable the reader to understand what life was like for an unwanted couple in the darkest times of humanity.

The author critically reflects Lilly and her political views and her antisemitism. Readers might get to understand what some people in Germany thought and did during the last years of the third reich.