A Bookshop in Berlin: The Rediscovered Memoir of One Woman's Harrowing Escape from the Nazis

by Francoise Frenkel

Patrick Modiano (Preface)

• ISBN10: 1501199846
• ISBN13: 9781501199844
• Publish Date: 3 December 2019
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Simon & Schuster
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 288
• Language: English

Reviews

[Beth C.]

This was an interesting read, though probably not one I will keep on my bookshelves. Certainly another view into the carnage and chaos that was Hitler's regime cannot go amiss, particularly at this time in our country.

I did find myself reading it less as though I was reading a specific person's story, and more from the lens of just how many people suffered through the same - or similar - fates. I think, because there is so little information about the author, it's hard to make that story just about her. I also think that it works for the best that way. It was whole swathes of people who were affected, massive groups sent to be tortured and to die - all because one man thought he was the only right one, and promoted an irrational hatred and fear of one group of people.

With so many out there these days looking to deny the Holocaust ever happened, the more materials we can put out there, the better. This was an interesting story, and one that should be read by many. It shows even the most well-respected people don't get a pass when hatred and fear are the driving forces.

[elysium]

In 1921 Françoise Frenkel, Polish-born Jew, opened the first French-language bookstore in Berlin. After Kristallnacht, she fled Berlin to France. She went to school in Paris and lived there before moving to Berlin so it must have felt like a safe place for her.

We see her difficulties with bureaucracy when starting her bookstore and the danger of being a Jew in Germany. Many advised her not to open a French-language bookstore in Germany in the aftermath of WWI.

What was strange, was her omission of her husband from the book. It is mentioned in the preface by Patrick Modiano that Françoise opened the bookstore together with her husband. In the book, it is never mentioned that she was married. Simon Raichenstein was born in Russia and died in Auschwitz. She writes about wanting to see her mother but not much about other relatives.