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My Tainted Blood
Colby professor emeritus of German literature recounts surviving the Nazis and postwar racism. The half-Jewish teenager forages to feed family and friends. With humorous and picaresque adventures in school, sports, music, cooking (regional recipes included), romance, and intrigue, involving German, Russian, and African American soldiers, Kueter tells the multifaceted story of the German Jews and their unrequited love of Germany. With 53 illustrations.
"With a large dose of humor, Hubert Kueter has written a fascinating book that is hard to put down. The experience of people with mixed background in Nazi Germany is an area of great interest to historians, and this account will contribute to it. But the book offers much more. It is written with a wit and elegance that reveal a remarkable talent. Kueter relishes in his schemes to outwit the Nazis, and he takes every opportunity to reveal his passion for culinary intricacies, which he describes in vivid prose. The book is often so downright funny that it almost lets the reader forget the very serious context of persecution, war, and other direct threats." --Raffael Scheck, PhD, Chair, Department of History, Colby College
"This is what the novels of magic realism and Hubert Kueter's My Tainted Blood do to a high degree. They take their readers on wondrous journeys driven by myth and memory." --Peter Arnds, PhD, professor of German and Italian, Kansas State University
"Hubert Kueter's accomplishment in this memoir is a unique literary triumph, but it is as well a vivid account of the strength of the human spirit." --Ferdinand Jones, PhD, professor emeritus of Psychology, Brown University
"With a large dose of humor, Hubert Kueter has written a fascinating book that is hard to put down. The experience of people with mixed background in Nazi Germany is an area of great interest to historians, and this account will contribute to it. But the book offers much more. It is written with a wit and elegance that reveal a remarkable talent. Kueter relishes in his schemes to outwit the Nazis, and he takes every opportunity to reveal his passion for culinary intricacies, which he describes in vivid prose. The book is often so downright funny that it almost lets the reader forget the very serious context of persecution, war, and other direct threats." --Raffael Scheck, PhD, Chair, Department of History, Colby College
"This is what the novels of magic realism and Hubert Kueter's My Tainted Blood do to a high degree. They take their readers on wondrous journeys driven by myth and memory." --Peter Arnds, PhD, professor of German and Italian, Kansas State University
"Hubert Kueter's accomplishment in this memoir is a unique literary triumph, but it is as well a vivid account of the strength of the human spirit." --Ferdinand Jones, PhD, professor emeritus of Psychology, Brown University
400 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 10, 2015
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November 18, 2021
How I loved this book! What an unexpected joy to read my favorite genre and follow the escapades of this young teenage boy as he survives WWII with his tainted blood in Germany. Another review speaks of a Huckleberry Finn comparison and I think that is perfect. I’m so curious about his life once he arrived in the USA and of Brigitte’s arrival. So many questions. What a gift a great story is. Thank you Hubert Kueter.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews