In My Brother’s Shadow

In this novel Uwe Timm writes about his older brother who became a SS soldier during World War II and died in 1943 in an Ukranian hospital at the age of nineteen. It was not until his mother’s death that Timm was finally able to come to terms with the painful past. After nearly a century has passed, the author illuminates a certain part of family history: the short life of his brother Karl-Heinz, who had lived on in his parents’ memories, their mourning and in their dreams. His reflections enable Timm to find out more about his own biography at the same time. What were the family virtues and values during the NS era? What was his brother’s motivation to join the SS voluntarily? This is far more than a moving family portrait. Questions on how the Nazi regime could be established lead to the complex problem of guilt and memory and therefore remind us of our own responsibility. Both a beautiful and sad book that captivates the reader with its intensity.