Germany’s Traumatized Kriegskinder Speak Out

The New Yorker Radio Hour

WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

News, David, Books, Arts, Storytelling, Wnyc, New, Remnick, News Commentary, Yorker, Politics

4.2 • 5.5K Ratings

🗓️ 9 May 2023

⏱️ 20 minutes

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Summary

A troubling question looms over the Kriegskinder, Germans who were children during the Second World War: Was my father a mass murderer? These innocent Germans carried the guilt of their nation while their families often remained silent. The New Yorker’s Burkhard Bilger, whose grandfather was a Nazi, speaks with Sabine Bode, a journalist who encourages the now-elderly Kriegskinder to speak about their unacknowledged trauma. Bilger’s new book, “Fatherland: A Memoir of War, Conscience, and Family Secrets,” chronicles his years-long quest to understand the truth behind his family history.

This segment originally aired October 14, 2016.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is the New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNWC Studios and the New Yorker.
0:10.0	This is the New Yorker Radio Hour, I'm David Remnick.
0:13.6	Burkard Billger's writing for the New Yorker has covered a wide, wide landscape from
0:18.9	rodeos to cave exploration, from Mars to southern food, music, neuroscience, almost everything.
0:25.4	And Burk's long list of stories, every page contains a kind of universe.
0:31.3	But over the last few years, nearly a decade, Burk has been researching a subject much closer
0:36.9	to home.
0:37.9	He's been looking at the history of his own family.
0:40.5	He grew up in Oklahoma, the child of German immigrants, and his new book is about their generation,
0:46.3	and it's called Fatherland, a memoir of war, conscience, and family secrets.
0:53.1	Well my parents are both what you call creeks, can I, as you say.
0:56.8	So they were born in 1935.
0:58.8	What does that mean?
0:59.8	Keys, children.
1:00.8	Keys, that means children of war.
1:03.4	And that means that they're in an interesting spot psychologically.
1:07.4	They were very young children during the war.
1:11.0	And they carry, I think, the guilt of the war within them, and at the same time, they
1:16.3	aren't responsible for anything.
1:17.8	So this is kind of your in-between two-
1:19.8	There's no question of age.
1:21.4	There's no question of agency.
	...

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