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Let Me Go

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About this listen

When Helga Schneider was four, her mother, Traudi, abandoned her to pursue her career. In 1998, Helga received a letter asking her to visit Traudi, now 90-years old, before she dies. Mother and daughter have met only once after Traudi left, on a disastrous visit where Helga first learnt the terrible secret of her mother's past.

Traudi was as an extermination guard in Auschwitz and Ravensbruck and was involved in Nazi 'medical' experiments on prisoners. She has never expressed even the slightest remorse for her actions, yet Helga still hopes that at this final meeting she will find some way to forgive her mother.

 20th Century Historical Military Military & War Modern Politics & Government World War II War Scary Holocaust

Critic reviews

A powerful, painful book about moral responsibility
Remarkable... Helga Schneider's frank account is desperately sad and powerful. Unforgettable
Frightening and fascinating
Let Me Go grips the reader completely
The book evocatively portrays the deprivations of wartime Berlin and the devastating emotional impact of one evil individual
All stars
Most relevant

What made the experience of listening to Let Me Go the most enjoyable?

Although the subject matter is harrowing, this was not overdone. The author set just the right tone in exploring the relationship (or non-relationship) between mother and daughter and in the end is really a tale of someone getting their just desserts.

Who was your favorite character and why?

The narrator (first person)

Which character – as performed by Anne Dover – was your favourite?

The narrator (first person)

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Neither

Any additional comments?

No

A good listen

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After listening to Born Survivors and was left deeply moved and disgusted by the treatment of the people held in the camps. The same question ran through my head "why?" How could the guards treat another human so disgracefully after all they were someone's child or parent, loved one too. How could they leave home and become such monsters. Let me go didn't answer all of my questions by it gave me a glimpse into the mindset of an ss guard.

Interesting to hear the other side

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It was a good book but it was hard to listen to ar times with how the mother was. The narrator was good.

A good book

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excellent narration and well structured story about the holocaust and a key protaginist being confronted by their estranged daughter in here 50s.

We must never forget

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So her mother did bad things.. but her mother had got herself to believe that her family were dead because of what had happened, then Helga comes strolling back in 30years after the last time she had seen her mother.
by the end I actually felt sorry for the 90year old mother not because she had been an SS officer but because of the way her daughter treated her and lied to her, and give it the "ohh feel sorry for me my mother was a Nazi".
it is an interesting insight into the family dynamics around when someone had done something evil but she could have carried on ignoring her.

Oh woe is me!!!

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