Jennifer Teege and Nikola Sellmair collaborated to write a riveting account of a black woman who discovers her grandfather’s chilling past. Part memoir and part interwoven narrative, My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me is a haunting, painful story of self-discovery, reconciliation and love.
Jennifer Teege, 38, made a horrifying discovery when she happened to select a book off a library shelf. While leafing through the book, she saw a familiar face, a photograph of her mother, Monika Goeth. Much to Jennifer’s shock, she learned that her mother was the daughter of infamous Amon Goeth, the commandant of a concentration camp responsible for the death of thousands of Jews.
As Jennifer digs into her ancestral past, she pieces together what she remembers of her mother and grandmother, Goeth’s mistress. The more she delves, the more depressed she becomes. Why was she never told about this? Why did her mother place her in an orphanage? Why was Jennifer dark-skinned, unlike other children she knew? The more Jennifer learned about her history, the more despondent she became.
Despite her depressing ancestral history, Jennifer was driven to face the past, to learn how generations of both holocaust victims and perpetrators have dealt with history’s truth, and to learn how to identify ourselves as individuals.
My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me: A Black Woman Discovers Her Family’s Nazi Past is a well-written account of a dark period of history, and of a woman’s determination to deal with the truth, and to be liberated from the past.