Description
Book SynopsisThis gripping memoir traces Brazilian-born American Julie Lindahl’s journey to uncover her grandparents’ roles in the Third Reich as she is driven to understand how and why they became members of Hitler’s elite, the SS. Out of the unbearable heart of the story—the unclaimed guilt that devours a family through the generations—emerges an unflinching will to learn the truth. In a remarkable six-year journey through Germany, Poland, Paraguay, and Brazil, Julie uncovers, among many other discoveries, that her grandfather had been a fanatic member of the SS since 1934. During World War II, he was responsible for enslavement and torture and was complicit in the murder of the local population on the large estates he oversaw in occupied Poland. He eventually fled to South America to evade a new wave of war-crimes trials. The pendulum used by Julie’s grandmother to divine good from bad and true from false becomes a symbol for the elusiveness of truth and morality, but also for the false securities we cling to when we become unmoored. As Julie delves deeper into the abyss of her family’s secret, discovering history anew, one precarious step at a time, the compassion of strangers is a growing force that transforms her world and the way that she sees her family—and herself.
Trade ReviewIn this powerful and solemn memoir, Lindahl (Rose in the Sand), who was born in Brazil to a German family, recounts seeking the truth about her grandparents’ Nazi past, which her family hid from her. In prose that is formal, yet poetic and heartfelt (“While truth can be elusive, often staring at us from outside the rain-spattered window of our own perception, the failure to believe that it exists... is the seed of self-destruction”), Lindahl shares what she learned during seven years of research and travel. Many readers will be moved and find meaning in Lindahl’s journey to come to terms with her family’s past and process the guilt of inherited sins * Publishers Weekly, Starred Review *
In a work a lifetime in the making, [Lindahl] writes of her awakening to the pieces missing in her history and the drive that led her to ask difficult questions about her grandparents and their roles in the Nazi SS . . . From discovering unknown family in South America to accepting that wounds were necessary to open in order to heal, Lindahl shows how generations can suffer silence and shame throughout the years, and the importance of coming to terms with the truth in order to find closure. This powerful work reveals how people adversely impacted by the past persevere, even while living alongside the perpetrators who still carry prejudice. * Library Journal *
A sustained rumination on the morbid past and how vitally essential it is to confront this honestly. . . [Lindahl] has set an example we must hope her students and our society will follow.” * The Historian *
A book of immense courage, written with elegance and great power. -- Philippe Sands, author of East West Street, Professor at University College London
An extraordinary meditation on evil and complicity, and on the role future generations play when trying to uncover a perfidious past. With a brilliant prose that often reads as poetry, Julie Lindahl explores and discovers her family’s Nazi past. A narrative that is deeply moving as well as informative in its history. -- Marjorie Agosin, Wellesley College; author of I Lived in Butterfly Hill
Julie Lindahl has a kind of courage that is rarely found. Her truthfulness is a rigorous and raw inquiry into history through her own ancestry. She avoids the quick gloss and embraces the hard work of holding her family’s intergenerational traumas up to the light. What shines through is difficult, but loving. The story is horrible and yet filled with possibility. While her writing is beautiful and effortless, the subject she carries is anything but. I deeply respect her willingness to face the cultural complexity that lives in her own skin. -- Nora Bateson, author of Small Arcs of Larger Circles; award-winning filmmaker of “An Ecology of Mind”
I opened The Pendulum and immediately found myself drawn into it. As a historian, I often wondered how we could profit from the determined pursuit of haunted family stories by descendants of individual perpetrators. Here’s the breathtaking answer. -- Jochen Böhler, Friedrich-Schiller University, Jena
In the literature of the Holocaust, the story of the perpetrator is rarely told from ‘the inside.’ Julie Lindahl has taken on this painstaking task when she tells us the story of her family. It is written from the heart but has outstanding literary qualities—a rare but phenomenal combination. The result is a very important book that is difficult to put down before you reach the end. -- Stefan Einhorn, Karolinska Institute; author of The Art of Being Kind
Outstanding insights into the aftermath of World War II and the Holocaust—based on the perspective of both perpetrators and their descendants. The book is indispensable for anyone who wants to see the extent and complexity of the lasting influence of war, not only in its own time but also for future generations. -- Eskil Franck, Uppsala University; Former Director, The Living History Forum
A powerful book about good and evil that has become even more important in today’s climate of mounting far-right extremism and alternative facts. -- Hédi Fried, author, psychologist, and Holocaust survivor
I have never read a book as perceptive, intuitive, and courageous as Julie Lindahl’s memoir. She is the first of her generation to describe the reverberations of that terrible Darwinism, that ‘Herrenmensch’ orientation, and its overwhelming consequences so profoundly. I thank her with all my heart. -- Gerhard Hoch, theologian and historian of Nazism in Schleswig-Holstein
An intimate investigation into family truth and lies, shame and grief, anger and indignation. Unfolding like a mystery novel with the very highest stakes, it not only looks with honesty and wisdom at the past but purposefully asks what we're going to make of it for the future. The brilliance and novelty of Lindahl's courageous journey lies in situating her own family history within our collective experience and common pain, thereby reawakening our shared duty to break the silence and go make things better.
-- Derek B. Miller, internationally bestselling author of Norwegian by Night
As we travel with Julie Lindahl, we gain a deeper capacity for justice, compassion and commitment to confront today’s unthinkable evils. Her investigation and the publication of her excruciating family history have come at a high personal cost—but also with the joy of discovering long-lost relatives and building a global family of survivors and readers. We all are now deeply indebted to her.
-- Piroska Nagy-Mohacsi, Institute of Global Affairs, London School of Economics
The Nazi past casts long shadows and leaves many traumatized to this day. Julie Lindahl digs deep into her own family history to uncover dark secrets dating back to the Holocaust. The Pendulum is a deeply engaging and captivating human search for answers, atonement, and closure. -- Gerald J. Steinacher, University of Nebraska, author of Nazis on the Run
A powerful, painfully human, and honest work of words and heart...Beautiful in the writing sense, horrific in reflection upon all the lives. -- James Wine, American poet, writer, and filmmaker
The Pendulum is an extraordinary and very timely book. Julie Lindahl keeps the reader deeply engaged with her clear and poetic voice. Reading this book is like reading a mystery story as the reader is experiencing the urgency of the search for truth; we are with her as she is turning over one stone after another, each revealing the undeniable cruelty that had torn her family apart. This is a journey in which every subtle emotional shift is described with great fidelity. The reader will have great appreciation for Lindahl’s fearless introspection and her most engaging way of sharing her insights with us. -- Anna Ornstein, M. D. Professor of child psychiatry (retired), University of Cincinnati
This deeply impressive book is relentlessly honest and raises many pertinent questions about the aftermath of trauma, who we are in relation to the past, and the ways in which destructive ideologies and bigotry can affect the next generation and must be dealt with. It gave my students an understanding of shame legacies and how they can be unpacked with sincerity and compassion. -- Nancy Harrowitz, Director of Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights Studies, Boston University
A clear-sighted and courageous reckoning with a family's problematic legacy and the trauma that has affected it for generations. The story raises interesting questions about memory, legacy and reconciliation. The language is well crafted with compelling momentum, and the personal portraits are nuanced and credible. The Pendulum is a worthy, at times challenging, read about guilt, trauma, and the difficulty of reconciling with the past. -- BTJ (Swedish Library Service)
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Prologue
Part I: “Quiet Is Best”
Chapter 1: Sweden, 2015
Chapter 2: West Germany, 1989
Chapter 3: The United Kingdom, 1990
Chapter 4: Germany, 1997
Chapter 5: Germany, 2010
Chapter 6: Germany, 2012
Chapter 7: Germany, 2012
Chapter 8: Poland, 2012
Chapter 9: Germany, 2013
Chapter 10: Germany, 2013
Chapter 11: Poland, 2013
Chapter 12: Auschwitz, 2013
Chapter 13: Bosnia Herzegovina, 2014
Part II: The Red Dust
Chapter 14: Sweden, June 2015
Chapter 15: Latin America, February 2016
Chapter 16: Asuncion, February 2016
Chapter 17: Asuncion, February 2016
Chapter 18: Asuncion, March 2016
Chapter 19: Asuncion, March 2016
Chapter 20: Sao Paulo, March 2016
Chapter 21: Campo Grande, March 2016
Chapter 22: Campo Grande, March 2016
Chapter 23: Maracaju, March 2016
Chapter 24: Maracaju, March 2016
Chapter 25: Brasilia, March 2016
Chapter 26: Stockholm, May 2017
Suggested Reading
About the Author
