New Book, appearing March 2024 – Großonkel Pauls Geigenbogen

The family history of a Prussian Sinto
Alexandra Senfft
Romeo Franz

ca. 304 Seiten
Hardcover mit Schutzumschlag
inkl. Abbildungen
24,- € [D] │24,70 € [A] │CHF 32,90
ISBN: 978-3-442-31707-3
March 2024
Randomhouse/Penguin
>> see announcement

Romeo Franz is the first Romani person (Sinto) in the European Parliament. In Great-Uncle Paul’s Violin Bow, Alexandra Senfft tells the story of his family from the end of the 19th century through the Nazi era up to the present day. 

Characterised by the love of music, great solidarity in the family and resilience, the book is a gripping historical chronicle of the Romani people. With great narrative power this book informs about the resistance, self-determination and success of the Franz family. It is an impressive plea against discrimination and racism.



Verlust, Verleugnung, Verschweigen in Zerrbilder

Verlust, Verleugnung, Verschweigen
Reflexionen über die Mechanismen familiärer Erinnerungen – ein Prozess
Alexandra Senfft
in: Gross, Ulrich, Schuck (Hg.) Zerrbilder. Zum Wirken und Fortwirken nationalsozialistischer Mentalität
April 2024

Ch. Links, Aufbau Verlage, Berlin 2024

https://www.aufbau-verlage.de/ch-links-verlag/zerrbilder/978-3-96289-211-1



Holocaust horror can yield deeper insight into dealing with other dilemmas of history

Sympathy for victims and survivors of atrocity only goes so far: we must empathise with people who need help now

Derek Scally, The Irish Times, October 31, 2022

“Through her pioneering work, Senfft explores questions of identity and trauma among perpetrator descendants. That work has brought her into contact with survivors and their families and she has appeared in two documentaries with Tomi Reichental…

“I bear no guilt but have taken on the responsibility to face the past,” she says. “We must break the silence in order to restore the victim and survivors’ dignity and to break the spell of the victimisers.”
>> read

The Long Shadow of the Perpetrators

This article addresses the transgenerational consequences of the Second World War and the Holocaust for the descendants of the Nazi perpetrators and bystanders. Using the example of her own family, the author traces the external obstacles and the psychological difficulties arising from working through a legacy of crime, compounded by the fact that an atmosphere of taboos, silence and denial has persisted within German families – in spite of all the research and enlightenment in the academic and political spheres. The author argues that the patterns of feeling, thinking and action are often passed down when they are not scrutinised. Meaningful dialogues with the survivors and their descendants, as well as authentic remembrance, the author claims, can only take place if descendants of the victimisers break away from those generationally transmitted narratives which continue to evade the entire truth about the crimes committed by the Nazis and their accomplices in Europe.
European Judaism, Volume 53, September 2020
read/purchase

Streitfall Antisemitismus

Anspruch auf Deutungsmacht und politische Interessen
Ein Sammelband zur Orientierung in der Debatte

Wolfgang Benz (Hrsg.)
Mit Beiträgen von: Shimon Stein/Moshe Zimmermann, Daniel Cil Brecher, Juliane Wetzel, Wolfgang Benz, Daniel Bax, Michael Kohlstruck, Peter Widmann, Micha Brumlik, Thomas Knieper, Dervis Hızarcı, Katajun Amirpur, Alexandra Senfft, Muriel Asseburg, Gert Krell

Metropol Verlag, Juli 2020
ISBN: 978-3-86331-532-0
Hardcover, 328 Seiten, 24,– €
ISBN E-Book/pdf:
978-3-86331-981-6, 19,– €

Continue reading

Senfft in Deutsche Welle Greece

Αλεξάνδρα Σενφτ: «Φοβόμουν πολύ την αλήθεια για το ναζιστικό παρελθόν»

Η Αλεξάνδρα Σενφτ είναι εγγονή του Χανς Λούντιν, πρεσβευτή του Γ´Ράιχ στη Σλοβακία και συνυπεύθυνου για την εξόντωση 60.000 Εβραίων. «Η καταβολή αποζημιώσεων στην Ελλάδα είναι μια ελάχιστη χειρονομία» δηλώνει.

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Alexandra Senfft, l’héritage du silence


Près de soixante-dix ans après sa condamnation à mort et son exécution comme criminel de guerre, la mémoire de Hanns Ludin, ambassadeur du Troisième Reich en Slovaquie, continue à peser sur ses descendants. Alexandra Senfft, sa petite-fille, a brisé le déni familial.
La Croix, François d’Alançon, 14/08/2017
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21.Juin 2017, Allemagne, Landsberg am Lech, Baviere, Alexandra Senfft, auteur , photographier sur la cimetire de Spšttingen, avec des tombes de la deuxime guerre mondiale Cemetery Spötting Landsberg am Lech © Maurice Weiss/Agentur Ostkreuz

«Living with the Dead: Sharing the Truth and the Pain of the Past»

in: Clio’s Psyche: Understanding the “Why” of Culture, Current Events, History, and Society
Special Issue on Psychology and the Holocaust: Part II
Meeting Report, Volume 21, Number 2, New York, September 2014, Pages 210 ff
excerpt:
Tomi, my grandfather is dead, but you are alive,” I say. Tomi agrees with a sense of relief as we hold on to each other, somewhat lost and yet not alone. We still have a long way to go in order to come to terms with a past that is haunting most of us up to this day. Sharing this experience with Tomi was the right thing to do. My daughter and the film team were with us and wrapped us in cotton wool, supporting us in our shared sorrow. We weren’t alone at all. Dan Bar-On once said to me “Alexandra, you might lose some of your family over working through the past, but you will find others to fill their place.” “It couldn’t be truer,” I think gratefully, as Tomi and I leave the cemetery arm in arm, nestled by a cocoon. In the face of the rising populist, right-winged develop-ments in Europe, I wonder though if all our efforts are too late.»
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