Author Archives: Alexandra Senfft

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Αλεξάνδρα Σενφτ: «Η σιωπή πονάει», Βερολίνο 2007. Στο εξώφυλλο εικονίζεται ο Χίτλερ με τον παππού της Χανς Λούντιν και τη μητέρα της Έρικα

Αλεξάνδρα Σενφτ: «Η σιωπή πονάει», Βερολίνο 2007. Στο εξώφυλλο εικονίζεται ο Χίτλερ με τον παππού της Χανς Λούντιν και τη μητέρα της Έρικα

Deutsche Welle

Για διαφορετικούς βεβαίως λόγους, ωστόσο η σιωπή φαίνεται να παίζει καταλυτικό ρόλο. Η σιωπή όμως πονάει, όπως γράφει η Αλεξάντρα Σενφτ στο βιβλίο για την αλκοολική και καταθλιπτική μητέρα της (Das Schweigen tut weh, εκδόσεις List), και η σιωπή θα πρέπει να σπάσει ώστε να επουλωθούν τα τραύματα του παρελθόντος.

Τέλος, τα θύματα και οι δράστες δεν ήταν αφηρημένοι αριθμοί. Υπήρξαν συγκεκριμένοι άνθρωποι με συγκεκριμένη συμπεριφορά. Οι απόγονοι των δραστών δεν ευθύνονται για τις πράξεις των προγόνων τους. Βαρύνονται όμως από αυτές.

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How the children of Nazi Germany remember World War Two

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A new book has gathered the memories of ‘Kriegskinder’, next to portraits of them as they are now. Photographer Frederike Helwig reveals how they remember childhoods in Nazi Germany. In her foreword, Senfft acknowledges how collective silence can infect wider groups. «Research … has shown that trauma and severe stress can be hereditary; that which is not dealt with can be passed on to the next generation.» And it leaches out beyond the family. «What is not brought to light and engaged with individually and within the family finds its way into society and politics.»
>> www.bbc.com/culture/story/20180123-how-the-children-of-nazi-germany-remember-world-war-two

The Long Shadow of the Past

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The Long Shadow of the Past
Descendants Face Their Nazi Family History
Alexandra Senfft
Language German
World Rights available
Hardcover, 336 pages, 2 May 2016
ISBN 978-3-492-05739-4
€ 22,00 [D], € 22,70 [A]
Paperback, 352 pages, 12 January 2018
ISBN: 978-3-492-31213-4
€ 11,00 [D], € 11,40 [A]

Also available as eBook
>> order now

 

«Even today, the trauma of the Second World war, the still-raw crimes committed by the Nazis and the silence of those responsible are making themselves felt.»
Alexandra Senfft

During numerous events for her previous book Schweigen tut weh (Silence Hurts), Alexandra Senfft witnessed, how children and grandchildren of Nazi perpetrators break their silence: Her conversations reveal long-kept family secrets with painful emotional effects. In this book, for the first time, the silence within the families is related to other traumas that were passed on through generations. Building on research on transgenerational transmission, she illustrates in 9 moving portraits how silence became a burden. The very personal point of view helps to break the ritualised patterns of narration, reveal identification with the perpetrators and point out ambivalences. Most protagonists have come to terms with their family past and are taking an active stance against Xenophia and radical right wing. The portraits do not deal with perpetrators from the first row but with blind followers and war profiteers who, after the war, were caring mothers and fathers – but have never been held to account and could settle in their silence.

Suppressed memories of war in Frederike Helwig’s Kriegskinder

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»Everyone portrayed [in Kriegskinder] had the courage to face the camera and tell his
or her story, to literally show him- or herself as Kriegskind,« writes Senfft.
»Their narratives are predominantly anecdotal, with different levels of reflection.
Traumas or transgenerational effects are rarely talked about, mirroring the silence
that is common til today. The readers and viewers are therefore asked to read between
the lines, to look the protagonists in the eye.«
British Journal of Photography 12/2017
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Alexandra Senfft, l’héritage du silence du Troisième Reich

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La Croix, France

Près de 70 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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Cemetery Spötting Landsberg am Lech © Maurice Weiss/Agentur Ostkreuz

Alexandra Senfft, l’héritage du silence

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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