Aimée & Jaguar: A Love Story, Berlin 1943

Aimée & Jaguar: A Love Story, Berlin 1943
by Erica Fischer

Aimée & Jaguar: A Love Story, Berlin 1943
List Price: $15.95
Our Price: $9.74
You Save: $6.21 (39%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.69 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions


(Click here)
Buy this book at online book store in your country
Canada | UK | Germany | France

Book Summary Information

Author: Erica Fischer
Translator: Edna McCown
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1998-10-01
ISBN: 1555834507
Number of pages: 320
Publisher: Alyson Books

Book Reviews of Aimée & Jaguar: A Love Story, Berlin 1943

Book Review: An incredible experience
Summary: 5 Stars

In 1995 when I worked for HarperCollins (the hardcover publisher of Aimee & Jaguar), I had the amazing experience of co-editing Edna McCown's brilliant translation of this book from the original German. In an industry rife with commercialism, at a time when the reasons why I became an editor were becoming murky, I found myself working on this book that would remain an enormous part of who I am both personally and professionally. The story of Felice Schragenheim and Lilly Wust is a time-honored classic tale of a love that defied all obstacles, from the horrific devastation of the Holocaust, to the proscribed confines of society, to the simple passage of time. I can think of no greater gift that any one lover can give another than to tell their story, the way Lilly Wust did, after more than half a century of silence. Although she died more than 50 years ago, Felice Schragenheim will always be alive in the hearts of readers of this book, and in the hearts of all those who see the movie when it comes out here in the US. Aimee & Jaguar is at once an inside look at "underground" life in Berlin during Nazi Germany, a look at two very different women who came together under the most bizarre of circumstances, and ultimately a testament to the strength of love in the face of adversity. And I'm sure that Lilly's "Rosenkavalier" is looking down, smiling at the fact that, as she predicted, they "would always be together." I hope this story moves other readers as much as it moved and continues to move me. There is nothing quite like it.

Summary of Aimée & Jaguar: A Love Story, Berlin 1943

Excerpts

A letter from Lilly to Felice, March 31st, 1943

Felice, I love you! What a feeling it is to be able to say that! Oh, Felice, the nicest fate I could hope for is that of lasting happiness. I want to live with you for a long, a very long time, do you hear? And life is so beautiful, so wonderful. Felice, do you belong to me - without limit? To me only? Please say you do, at least for a very long time to come, please! Do you love me? I'm acting like a seventeen-year-old, arent't I?

Be good to me, Felice, please? And yet please don't hold back. I wanted to lure you out of your hiding place. I am like a child playing with fire; will I get burned? A little? Totally? Felice, stop me! Isn't it just a little bit your fault that I'm so crazy, so totally crazy?

A poem from Felice to Lilly, Christmas 1943

That there was a time before you - I can't believe!
To me, we've forever been this way,
Together, side by side in life and in dreams,
Surrounded both by darkness and the light of day.

You belong to me! Since you arrived,
And slowly at first, then full of trust,
Placed your heart in my hands, I have strived
For the strength to build a life for us.

So I have hope for days yet to come,
As this year nods and slips into air,
Because before me, like some emblem,
I carry the copper gleam of your hair.

Extract: "The Vow"

January 30th, 1943, the tenth anniversary of Hitler's seizure of power, Hermann Göring's speech to Berliners was delayed for two hours because British scout planes were flying over the city in broad daylight for the first time. Four days after Göring declared his certainty of victory, the remaining German troops trapped in Stalingrad capitulated. Accompanied by funereal music, the defeat was announced on the radio. On February 18th Reichspropaganda minister Goebbels spurred the German people to make a greater effort. In a "Declaration of fanatical Will" at the Berlin Sportpalast he announced the "Salvation of Germany and the whole of civilisation" through "total war". In memory of the victims of the Russian campaign, a three minute traffic stoppage was declared. At the Zoo station, people stood stock


Acclaimed in Germany and England, this tragic and remarkable real-life love story won a Lambda Literary Award when it was first published in America in 1995. Lilly Wust ("Aimée") was a conventional middle-class mother of four, estranged from her philandering husband, when she met Felice Schragenheim ("Jaguar") in 1941. Their passionate affair unfolded against the backdrop of the deportation of Jews from Berlin, but several months passed before Felice could even bring herself to tell Lilly that she was Jewish and living illegally on the streets. "I knew, of course, what it meant," Lilly recalled in old age. "Not for a moment did I think that I too could be in danger. On the contrary, all I wanted to do now was to save her." Lilly's heroic efforts to conceal and protect Felice through the next two years make for painful and inspiring reading. Felice was arrested in August 1944 and sent her last letter to Lilly four months later. In 1981 Lilly was awarded the German Federal Service Cross, though no one could read this as a happy ending. --Regina Marler

Jewish Books

Book Subjects
Most talked about in Jewish Books
Fighting Back: A Memoir of Jewish Resistance in World War II ImageFighting Back: A Memoir of Jewish Resistance in World War II
by Harold Werner
Columbia University Press; Published: 1992-10; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $40.00
Price in other shops: $47.00
Ethics and Teaching: A Religious Perspective on Revitalizing Education ImageEthics and Teaching: A Religious Perspective on Revitalizing Education
by Alan A. Block
Palgrave Macmillan; Published: 2009-02-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $89.17
Price in other shops: $95.00
Missing Men: A Memoir ImageMissing Men: A Memoir
by Joyce Johnson
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2005-07-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.74
Price in other shops: $15.00
The House of Rothschild: Volume 1: Money's Prophets: 1798-1848 ImageThe House of Rothschild: Volume 1: Money's Prophets: 1798-1848
by Niall Ferguson
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1999-11-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $13.39
Price in other shops: $25.00
Square of Sky ImageSquare of Sky
by Janina David
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1981-07-30; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $173.53
Escape to Shanghai: A Jewish Community in China ImageEscape to Shanghai: A Jewish Community in China
by Alex Ross
Free Press; Published: 1993-12-27; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $34.95
An Eye for an Eye: The Untold Story of Jewish Revenge Against Germans in 1945 ImageAn Eye for an Eye: The Untold Story of Jewish Revenge Against Germans in 1945
by John Sack
Basic Books; Published: 1995-05; Paperback; Book
Price in other shops: $13.00
A Quiet American: The Secret War of Varian Fry ImageA Quiet American: The Secret War of Varian Fry
by Andy Marino
St. Martin's Press; Published: 1999-10-29; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $11.76
Price in other shops: $23.95
Eva's Story: A Survivor's Tale by the Step-Sister of Anne Frank ImageEva's Story: A Survivor's Tale by the Step-Sister of Anne Frank
by Eva Schloss, Evelyn Julia Kent
St Martins Pr; Published: 1989-04; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $40.00
Anne Frank: A Hidden Life ImageAnne Frank: A Hidden Life
by Mirjam Pressler
Puffin; Published: 2001-08-27; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.50
Price in other shops: $7.99
Similar Books and other products
Layer Cake ImageLayer Cake
by J. J. Connolly
Grove Press, Black Cat; Published: 2004-08-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.00
Price in other shops: $12.00
Short Guide to Writing about Film, A (7th Edition) ImageShort Guide to Writing about Film, A (7th Edition)
by Timothy Corrigan
Longman; Published: 2009-02-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $31.95
Price in other shops: $45.67
The Diary of Dawid Sierakowiak: Five Notebooks from the Lodz Ghetto ImageThe Diary of Dawid Sierakowiak: Five Notebooks from the Lodz Ghetto
by Dawid Sierakowiak
Oxford University Press; Published: 1998-01-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $13.49
Price in other shops: $17.95
Shedding and Literally Dreaming ImageShedding and Literally Dreaming
by Verena Stefan
The Feminist Press at CUNY; Published: 1994-11-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.95
Price in other shops: $14.95
War and Genocide: A Concise History of the Holocaust (Critical Issues in World and International History) ImageWar and Genocide: A Concise History of the Holocaust (Critical Issues in World and International History)
by Doris L. Bergen
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers; Published: 2009-02-16; Paperback; Book
Best price: $17.27
Price in other shops: $24.95
The Holocaust: Problems and Perspectives of Interpretation (Problems in European Civilization Series) ImageThe Holocaust: Problems and Perspectives of Interpretation (Problems in European Civilization Series)
by Donald Niewyk
Wadsworth Publishing; Published: 2010-01-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $39.56
Price in other shops: $56.95
Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow ImageKiffe Kiffe Tomorrow
by Faiza Guene
Mariner Books; Published: 2006-07-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.65
Price in other shops: $13.00
Love Of Worker Bees ImageLove Of Worker Bees
by Alexandra Kollontai KOLLONTAI
Academy Chicago Publishers; Published: 2005-08-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $25.98
Not So Quiet...: Stepdaughters of War (Women & Peace) ImageNot So Quiet...: Stepdaughters of War (Women & Peace)
by Helen Zenna Smith
The Feminist Press at CUNY; Published: 1993-01-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $13.57
Price in other shops: $15.95
Aimee and Jaguar ImageAimee and Jaguar
Release date: 2001-10-30; DVD
Best price: $16.43
Price in other shops: $29.95
Book store. Illustrated catalog of books on different categories