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Leg dich, Zigeuner. Die Geschichte von Johann Trollmann und Tull Harder
»Leg dich, Zigeuner, oder wir holen dich!«, brüllen die Zuschauer, wenn Johann Trollmann in den frühen Dreißigerjahren boxt. Und sie holen ihn tatsächlich ins KZ Neuengamme. Einer der SS-Männer dort ist der ehemalige Fußballnationalspieler Tull Harder. In dem Lager sterben bis Kriegsende 55.000 Menschen, unter ihnen auch Trollmann, der 1944 ermordet wird.
Hardcover
First published March 12, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 14, 2014
This book was definitely an ambitious one. Writing a sort of fictional biography about two very different men who only met, more or less, casually and by coincidence, is quite a project.
I think for the most part the author did a good job. The writing is engaging, the characters come along as real people and I think it shows some attitudes of the times in question (it spans the time from before the 1st World war until technically the early 2000s).
Of course the fact that these are fictional biographies means that you cannot take it as written in stone what the characters think.
But still the book had its good points in regard to history and many things reminded me of other historical happenings and concepts, e.g. the attitude of Harder about why Germany lost World War I sounds to me very much like Vietnam Syndrome. And boy would some people not like what happened between the SS generals and their British and American counterparts after the war. Now another thing that was eerily reminiscent of modern practice to me was the fact that despite how many Sinti and Roma got killed the Nazi racial detectives, if you want to call them that, found more and more "gypsy mongrels" the more they looked (apparently in accordance with the rising demand for workers in the camps). Now this sort of "logic" for race reminds me very much of modern day practices where it's apparently cool to have some ancestors way back that was not … well usually its only cool if that person wasn't "white." But either way, it's similar: that little "drop of blood" counts more than everything else.
But back to the book: Now especially Trollmann's story is highly politically charged and you see the propaganda of the Nazi's take its toll. However I also noticed that the author did not include all information on him in this fictional biography. He never addressed that lack of information and I found that odd.
Now through the stories of Trollmann and Harder, pure irony a Nazi being named after Britain's first black officer, we get a lot of info about how concentration camps were run, e.g. using some inmates to do it thereby forcing them to mistreat fellow prisoners, well some were forced others just too happy to do it, is a truly insidious idea.
However as interesting as Trollmann's story was for me, Harder's was at first pretty boring; it only became interesting later when it was approach World War II. However via his story as a concentration camp leader we get a good glimpse into the psyche of the inmates at the time.
In Trollman's story we learn some more things many probably would not have known. Sure I knew there were Sinti in the Wehrmacht up to 1942/43 but not that some were in the NSDAP or the Jungvolk (a subgroup of the Hitler Youth) and also shouted the Anti-Jewish propaganda their superiors gave them without question. This makes the history of the Sinti much more interesting than what you usually get when they are just victims.
However I think the author messed it up towards the end. There was some earlier stuff that suggested he thought in some stereotypes as well. Since to him it was noteworthy that Trollman's mother had black hair, which is odd to me since then the village I grew up in must have been unusual since many had black hair. And it's not just the village, many people I knew through school days had black hair and my father's family all had black hair. Was Hannover back then so different from Western Pomerania today? Also he said as his last sentence that no houses stand in the small street that was named after Trollmann, but it is actually between several big houses. And with all respect towards the author but by the time this book was written many Sinti had outed themselves and had already come into the youtube generation, so the author's "Sinti are suspicious" does not seem to cover even half of the picture. Although this book was very good, the ending felt... pretty odd to be honest. I think a few more pages about the history of the Trollmann's and other Sinti would not have hurt to show that some progress since then has been made. For crying out loud several Sinti musicians have became nationally famous since then. Not to mention that in Germany they are probably the most maligned and at the same time most romanticized ethnicity.
At least he didn't act as though Sinti are not Germans, I can give him that.
So despite that ending this was a very well done book, albeit sadly only available in German and Italian as it seems.
I think for the most part the author did a good job. The writing is engaging, the characters come along as real people and I think it shows some attitudes of the times in question (it spans the time from before the 1st World war until technically the early 2000s).
Of course the fact that these are fictional biographies means that you cannot take it as written in stone what the characters think.
But still the book had its good points in regard to history and many things reminded me of other historical happenings and concepts, e.g. the attitude of Harder about why Germany lost World War I sounds to me very much like Vietnam Syndrome. And boy would some people not like what happened between the SS generals and their British and American counterparts after the war. Now another thing that was eerily reminiscent of modern practice to me was the fact that despite how many Sinti and Roma got killed the Nazi racial detectives, if you want to call them that, found more and more "gypsy mongrels" the more they looked (apparently in accordance with the rising demand for workers in the camps). Now this sort of "logic" for race reminds me very much of modern day practices where it's apparently cool to have some ancestors way back that was not … well usually its only cool if that person wasn't "white." But either way, it's similar: that little "drop of blood" counts more than everything else.
But back to the book: Now especially Trollmann's story is highly politically charged and you see the propaganda of the Nazi's take its toll. However I also noticed that the author did not include all information on him in this fictional biography. He never addressed that lack of information and I found that odd.
Now through the stories of Trollmann and Harder, pure irony a Nazi being named after Britain's first black officer, we get a lot of info about how concentration camps were run, e.g. using some inmates to do it thereby forcing them to mistreat fellow prisoners, well some were forced others just too happy to do it, is a truly insidious idea.
However as interesting as Trollmann's story was for me, Harder's was at first pretty boring; it only became interesting later when it was approach World War II. However via his story as a concentration camp leader we get a good glimpse into the psyche of the inmates at the time.
In Trollman's story we learn some more things many probably would not have known. Sure I knew there were Sinti in the Wehrmacht up to 1942/43 but not that some were in the NSDAP or the Jungvolk (a subgroup of the Hitler Youth) and also shouted the Anti-Jewish propaganda their superiors gave them without question. This makes the history of the Sinti much more interesting than what you usually get when they are just victims.
However I think the author messed it up towards the end. There was some earlier stuff that suggested he thought in some stereotypes as well. Since to him it was noteworthy that Trollman's mother had black hair, which is odd to me since then the village I grew up in must have been unusual since many had black hair. And it's not just the village, many people I knew through school days had black hair and my father's family all had black hair. Was Hannover back then so different from Western Pomerania today? Also he said as his last sentence that no houses stand in the small street that was named after Trollmann, but it is actually between several big houses. And with all respect towards the author but by the time this book was written many Sinti had outed themselves and had already come into the youtube generation, so the author's "Sinti are suspicious" does not seem to cover even half of the picture. Although this book was very good, the ending felt... pretty odd to be honest. I think a few more pages about the history of the Trollmann's and other Sinti would not have hurt to show that some progress since then has been made. For crying out loud several Sinti musicians have became nationally famous since then. Not to mention that in Germany they are probably the most maligned and at the same time most romanticized ethnicity.
At least he didn't act as though Sinti are not Germans, I can give him that.
So despite that ending this was a very well done book, albeit sadly only available in German and Italian as it seems.
September 15, 2015
Hannover Altstadt.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews