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Belonging
Belonging: A German Reckons with History and Home | Nora Krug
28 posts | 30 read | 26 to read
A revelatory, visually stunning graphic memoir by award-winning artist Nora Krug, telling the story of her attempt to confront the hidden truths of her familys wartime past in Nazi Germany and to comprehend the forces that have shaped her life, her generation, and history. Nora Krug was born decades after the fall of the Nazi regime, but the Second World War cast a long shadow throughout her childhood and youth in the city of Karlsruhe, Germany. For Nora, the simple fact of her German citizenship bound her to the Holocaust and its unspeakable atrocities and left her without a sense of cultural belonging. Yet Nora knew little about her own familys involvement in the war: though all four grandparents lived through the war, they never spoke of it. In her late thirties, after twelve years in the US, Krug realizes that living abroad has only intensified her need to ask the questions she didnt dare to as a child and young adult. Returning to Germany, she visits archives, conducts research, and interviews family members, uncovering in the process the stories of her maternal grandfather, a driving teacher in Karlsruhe during the war, and her fathers brother Franz-Karl, who died as a teenage SS soldier in Italy. Her extraordinary quest, spanning continents and generations, pieces together her familys troubling story and reflects on what it means to be a German of her generation. Belonging wrestles with the idea of Heimat, the German word for the place that first forms us, where the sensibilities and identity of one generation pass on to the next. In this highly inventive visual memoirequal parts graphic novel, family scrapbook, and investigative narrativeNora Krug draws on letters, archival material, flea market finds, and photographs to attempt to understand what it means to belong to ones country and ones family. A wholly original record of a German womans struggle with the weight of catastrophic history, Belonging is also a reflection on the responsibility that we all have as inheritors of our countries pasts.
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KCofKaysville
Pickpick

Poignant graphic novel about author‘s digging up what happened with her uncle in Nazi Germany in the small town of Kuhlsheim and what Heimat means (sense of belonging.). Worthwhile if you are into Germany like me.

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KCofKaysville
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Started a graphic novel on reckoning with her German history.

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bibliothecarivs
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Recent acquisitions:

📖 Belonging: A German Reckons with History and Home by Nora Krug
📖 Bridgerland: Your Land and Mine by J. Arbon Chrustensen

#fREADom #UniteAgainstBookBans

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jlhammar
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📕 Belonging by Nora Krug
✍️ Berry, Wendell
📺 Broadchurch
🎙 Bon Iver
📻 Be Sweet - Japanese Breakfast

#ManicMonday #LetterB
@CBee

Leftcoastzen Love Wendell Berry! 2y
The_Penniless_Author Just listened to Be Sweet this morning! 2y
CBee Thanks for playing! 😊😊 2y
Suet624 Great choices! 2y
41 likes4 comments
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Twocougs
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Pickpick

Wow- a person trying to learn about her family‘s German history during WWII. Powerful and so very human.

jlhammar Yes! Such an amazing graphic memoir. One of my favorites. 3y
Twocougs @jlhammar ❤️❤️❤️ 3y
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willaful

#bookspin : A graphic novel.

A gripping personal story about a German emigre trying to discover the degree of guilt of her relatives who were Nazis. Illustrated with drawings and collage art of historical documents. I found it hard to follow at times, and had mixed feelings about discussions of how the German people suffered after the war. Her encounters with people who are basically Holocaust fans are also very unnerving.

TheAromaofBooks Great progress!!! 3y
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Adventures_of_a_French_Reader
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Pickpick

Nora Krug dives into her family history to uncover the degree of her family's involvement while Hitler was ruling Germany. It definitely offers food for thought.

This book is more like a scrapbook, with Nora Krug writing about her research, her feelings, her childhood, and adding illustrations and photographs of her family. I really liked this format, I felt it made it more personal, like having access to her feelings, thoughts, interrogations.

jlhammar Such a good book! Glad you enjoyed it. 3y
EvieBee This was so good, and eye opening for me. 3y
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TieDyeDude
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Bailedbailed

I just couldn't connect to this story. It was supposed to be a story of personal reckoning, but it was a little too methodical to connect to emotionally. There were insert pages placed right in the middle of a story instead of bookending chapters. Not for me 🤷

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Yahui07
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Pickpick

It takes bravery to complete this book!! Enjoy this book very much and glad I read it after several books related to WWII!

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Sharpeipup
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I wish I knew half this much about my ancestors... #endpapers #newyearwhodis @megnews @monalyisha

megnews Amateur genealogist here. I think that may be one reason I loved this book so much. Always happy to help others on their family tree if you‘re ever interested. 4y
Sharpeipup @megnews I might actually as I know so little about my family thanks to feuds & pettiness. 4y
megnews @Sharpeipup my email is megnewson @ Gmail.com. If you send what you know names, birthdates and birthplaces on your parents and/or grandparents I can work up a family tree with whatever details I can find. I have access to some resources where I may be able to find newspaper articles and military info as well. Since I was a kid Genealogy is my other big hobby next to reading but I haven‘t worked on my own in a few years. It‘s a lot of fun. 4y
megnews I think it‘s also one reason I love history so much 4y
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DrexEdit
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Good progress on February #bookspin selection, even though I won‘t finish it by Saturday; not much progress on anything else! Started Interesting Times for #OokBOokClub; Irretrievable for #nyrbbookclub. Still working on my poor #chunksters.
From the library list, Belonging. Sort of a graphic, illustrated, scrapbook design. Nonfiction. German American dealing with her possible Nazi ancestors. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

#BookReport #WeeklyForecast
@Cinfhen

Cinfhen Lots of good titles going on 💓💓💓 5y
Cinfhen Tagged book sounds super powerful!!!! #stacked 5y
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JSW
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Pickpick

Deeply moving and heartfelt memoir about the author's search for her German family's involvement in WW II. The scrapbook-like format keeps it personal and easy to read. Powerful book. "Even inherited memory hurts."

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underground_bks
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Pickpick

I found this graphic memoir about facing one‘s problematic history fascinating. Nora Krug is a German woman who over time gathers the courage to interrogate her simultaneous love of and anxiety about her country and investigate her family‘s involvement with the Nazi Party in World War II. This is a visually beautiful and incredibly nuanced examination of one woman‘s reckoning with history and her homeland.

charl08 I enjoyed this too - fascinating history. 5y
underground_bks @charl08 it is so relevant and such a fresh approach both in subject and medium 5y
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ralexist
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Pickpick

Do you dig into your family history when there might be something dark lurking? For those of German ancestry, WWII can be tricky. Told in art journal form, this was an interesting read. I loved the journey Nora took, not only within her history but within what it means to be German with the stain of the Nazi party casting a shadow over the entirety of your heritage. Can she be a proud German citizen with that darkness in her country's history?

ShyBookOwl I've often considered that patriotism in Germany must be an incredibly complex thing. I should read this! 5y
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Kazzie
Pickpick

So good! Nostalgia and truth together

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Nitpickyabouttrains
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Pickpick

A super interesting graphic novel about a German woman who looks into the past of her family. She does research, meets people, and learns about her country.

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Erynecki
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Pickpick

In Belonging, Krug prods her relatives‘ stories from the time of Nazi Germany to better understand her own sense of self and responsibility to history.Her longing to know the truth, and to understand how it shapes her and her relationship to Germany, is searingly honest and poignant.Told in a scrapbook format, this visual memoir puts readers into the heart of the difficulties one encounters when facing historical, political,and personal histories.

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catiewithac
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Pickpick

A German emigre reconciles with her family‘s past in this tender graphic-novel style autobiography. The author confronts her grandparents‘ involvement in WWII. She unflinchingly asks “were my family members Nazis?” This is a bold and beautiful book. Throughout the author creates a pastiche of things German, Nazi, and personal. It‘s a very moving read, and one I highly recommend!

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megnews
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How did I miss #WondrousWednesday? @Eggs
1. 🍓 has always been but 🥭 is making its way in
2. The Gilded Hour
3. Favorite #graphicnovel tagged. Hard choice but it‘s an important read and beautifully done.
4. Hmmmm....

Eggs Thanks for joining in 😍😍 6y
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RowReads1
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megnews
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Pickpick

“How do you know who you are if you don‘t understand where you came from?”
“Belonging” is an incredible journey with the author to finally know and find a way to come to terms with whatever role she finds her grandparents had in Nazi Germany.
It got a little long at the end but all in all a page-turner. This would be a fine addition to a middle school or high school curriculum.

Book 70/90 1/20/19

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megnews
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“This is the original form, the exact piece of paper my grandfather once held in his hands.”

As an amateur genealogist, I know the emotion experienced when you hold in your hands something an ancestor has held. I can‘t imagine her emotion and trepidation as she finally prepares to learn the truth about her grandfather‘s participation in the Nazi party. You can‘t un -know something once you know it.

Cinfhen Looks really intense and absolutely fascinating. 6y
megnews @Cinfhen very intense and it was time for me to go back from lunch. Huge cliffhanger! Hoping to finish up this evening. 6y
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megnews
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In 1993, my family hosted a German foreign exchange student who became like a sister to me. In May 2014, shortly before the World Cup, we visited her for the first time. At Brandenburg Gate, we saw the German flag flying and thought nothing of it, considering the prevalence of the American flag everywhere at home. My “sister” explained it was only recently being flown and there was a big debate about it. She seemed uncomfortable. (Cont below)

megnews In a drive to Koln her sister hesitatingly asked me what Americans think of Germans. The question was confusing. In school we learned about the Holocaust. It was horrific and should never happen again. But it seemed distant, remote. We didn‘t blame today‘s Germans for something 2 generations old. (Perhaps it‘s easier for Americans to do that because we‘ve never experienced vergangenheitsbewältigung regarding our own history of slavery... 6y
megnews ...if we had would we be in a different place today?) Reading Belonging, by a German author our age, is helping me understand my friend‘s question better. 6y
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mcctrish
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Pickpick

This gorgeous visual memoir tells how an American woman looks back into her German ancestry and tries to understand the question “how do you live with the weight of history ?” She visits her ‘Heimat‘ and meets family for the first time. She hopes to find the smallest trace of resistance in her relatives so she herself won‘t be ‘bad‘. It‘s eye opening and amazing.

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mcctrish
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This is the most beautiful book to look at

BookishMarginalia We bought it mostly for that reason, though the topic grabbed us too. 6y
mcctrish @BookishMarginalia my husband bought this for me for Christmas. We went to Germany, Munich, over the holidays ( my first time to Germany) and some of these thoughts, ideas occurred to us ( for the first time really) while we were there. We are guilty of thinking “not the Germans” during world sporting events because of history classes so why we can‘t turn around and see how education was used against German youth back in the day isn‘t fair 6y
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BookishShelly
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Pickpick

Belonging by Nora Krug is a fantastic graphic memoir. It‘s a personal story, one about her family, about Germany‘s ugly Nazi history, and what it means to be German today. #nonfiction #graphicmemoir

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charl08
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Great graphic memoir look at growing up German a generation after the war.

Reviewsbylola This looks very interesting. 6y
charl08 @Reviewsbylola Definitely worth a read. 6y
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DReadsBooks
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Pickpick

This was an awesome non-fiction graphic memoir about finding your history to understand yourself.

Full review on my blog: https://deannareadsbooks.blogspot.com/2018/08/arc-review-belonging-german-reckon...