Daniel Half Human : And the Good Nazi (Richard Jackson Books (Atheneum Hardcover))

Rating:
Summary: Richie's Picks: DANIEL HALF HUMAN AND THE GOOD NAZI
Review: DANIEL HALF HUMAN AND THE GOOD NAZI by David Chotjewitz, translated by Doris Orgel, Simon & Schuster/Atheneum/Richard Jackson, October 2004, ISBN: 0-689-85747-0

"It's interesting: On the street you know right away who's Jewish. I don't mean the Orthodox with their hats and curled sideburns. I mean the ones in normal clothes. I recognize them by how they walk. The Jews always stay close to the building walls. Or near the gutter. Even though it isn't written anywhere that they should. And they always look down. As though they are looking for something on the ground. And there's always this embarrassed smile. As if they wanted to beg pardon for something. No Germans walk in that crept-inside-themselves way."
--Daniel's cousin Miriam, writing a letter in 1935.

Two young friends in Hamburg, Germany become blood brothers while spending a night in jail. They've been caught painting swastikas in the Communist sector of town in 1933, shortly before the rise of Adolf Hitler. Daniel, the son of a wealthy attorney, and Armin, a poor scholarship student, attend an elite high school together. Little do either know, as the pair are first dabbling in hatred and imagining belonging to the HJ (Hitler Youth), that Daniel's parents will soon reveal to him that his mother is actually Jewish.

"Daniel looked at his father. 'Why did you do it?' he asked. 'Why did you marry a Jewess?'
Rheinhard stared at him. 'Why I did what?'
That's why I'm half Jewish now,' Daniel said. 'Because you married a Jewess.'
Rheinhard didn't answer. He gave David a look that hurt more than the smack in the face he gave him next."

Desperately trying to keep his horrible secret from everyone including Armin, Daniel is furious when his cousin Miriam shows up to live with them after her father (Daniel's mother's brother) is taken into custody. And although his father's honored position as a decorated German W.W.I veteran allows Daniel's tenuous continuation at school, Daniel slowly is forced to internalize the position in which he has found himself:

"I'm the lowest. That's how I felt. Someone you don't even greet. A nothing.
"And suddenly everything that I'd been keeping at a distance burst in on me: all the fear, all the shame, all the humiliation. I just stood there, on the sidewalk, in front of some store window as people walked by me. I stood in their way, got shoved, and a short man with a hat on said, 'Look out,' when it was he who should have looked out.
"And in that moment I knew hatred. I followed my erstwhile teammates with my eyes, and I hated every one of them. I imagined running up to the bunch, grabbing Klaus, spinning him around, letting him have it--in the face with my fist. Till the blood gushed out.
"But my hand didn't hurt him. Every blow I dealt him hurt him not at all, hurt only me. It hurt so much, I tried with all my might to obliterate this scene, erase it from my mind."

It is ultimately Armin's attraction to Miriam that threatens the lives of Daniel's extended family, because Armin is a rising star in the HJ--which he's joined against his father's wishes--and Armin is being carefully watched.

"Dr. Knoppe raised his eyes and voice. 'The dishonorable, dirty Jew looks with envy on the noble Nordic-German people. And inside every Jew there dwells a diabolic need to drag the noble race down into the muck with him. No reasonable farmer would ever allow such interbreeding of cattle! But among humans, to our shame, it happens every day.' "

An intimate perspective on the insanity faced by a young Jew during the rise of Hitler (1933-39), DANIEL HALF HUMAN AND THE GOOD NAZI also examines the dusky recesses of that long-term relationship between Daniel and Armin. What, for me, was a startling conclusion to the story will surely leave readers dwelling upon their own ideas of friendship.


Rating:
Summary: Award winner from the Association of Jewish Libraries!
Review: This title was named a 2004 Sydney Taylor Honor Book by the Association of Jewish Libraries.

Daniel lives an ordinary, comfortable life in 1930's Germany. With the rise of Hitler, his mother's formerly insignificant Jewish identity (of which Daniel had not even known) becomes important, and Daniel finds himself designated a "mischling" (half-Jew). This complicates but does not end his friendship with Armin, a prominent member of Hitler Youth.

The story is framed by "flash forwards" of Daniel as an Allied soldier in 1945 Germany, exploring the wreckage and the memories invoked by it. This keeps the story moving forward and provides Daniel with the context to make meaning of the events of his youth. The well-written (and clearly translated by Doris Orgel, author of The Devil in Vienna) story is compelling and realistic, emotionally stirring and psychologically believable. Characters are multifacted and well-rounded. The tale is told from multiple points of view, giving readers an inside perspective on the experiences of Hitlers victims AND followers.

The book is a fascinating study of human relationships as well as of Holocaust history. It will provide a rich experience for mature readers, and would be an excellent choice for discussion groups.