Solomon J. Brager's "HEAVYWEIGHT: A FAMILY STORY OF THE HOLOCAUST, EMPIRE, AND MEMORY"
Book review by Dennis D. McDonald
This disturbing graphic non-fiction book provides a personal and family perspective on one Jewish family’s growing up in pre-World War II Germany. It illustrates from the “inside” how the background of European racism, imperialism, and antisemitism converged in the Holocaust.
The author’s obsessive research into his family’s German background uncovers day to day details about how one wealthy Jewish German family thought at first they could be insulated from the increasingly government imposed anti-semisism.
They weren’t. They were eventually forced to flee, the details of which are heartbreaking as well as scary.
The steady drip drip drip of increasing antisemitism is effectively put into the context of Germany’s (and Europe’s) colonial past, but in a very personalized way.
Reading this graphic personal history puts a very recognizable spin on how memories alter over time and at least partially explains why some prefer to forget horrible details.
That we see such prejudices still on display throughout the world wherever an “other” can be identified and made the subject of fear and hate is one reason not only to remember but communicate such horrors to new generations.
Review copyright (c) 2025 by Dennis D. McDonald
