Jennifer Teege (born 29 June 1970) is a German writer. Her maternal grandfather was German Nazi concentration camp commander and war criminal

Amon Göth Amon Leopold Göth (; alternative spelling ''Goeth''; 11 December 1908 – 13 September 1946) was an Austrian SS functionary and war criminal. He served as the commandant of the Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp in Płaszów in Germa ...

. Her 2015 book '' My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me: A Black Woman Discovers Her Family's Nazi Past'' was a ''New York Times'' bestseller.

Life

Teege, who was born Jennifer Göth to a

Nigerian Nigerians or the Nigerian people are citizens of Nigeria or people with ancestry from Nigeria. The name Nigeria was taken from the Niger River running through the country. This name was allegedly coined in the late 19th century by British jour ...

father and an Austrian-

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

mother, grew up in foster care. She was adopted at the age of seven. Her grandmother was , who had a two-year relationship with

until the end of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, and with whom she had a daughter, , who was born in November 1945 and whom he never met. Teege studied at the

Sorbonne Sorbonne may refer to: * Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities. *the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970) *one of its components or linked institution, ...

, and learned

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

in Israel where she studied for five years. At the age of 38, Teege unexpectedly found out about her family history, by picking up a book in a Hamburg library that happened to be her mother Monika Hertwig's biography and where she discovered that

was her grandfather, which caused her to plunge into a severe depression. She decided to combat her depression and come to terms with this revelation by writing her book ''

My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me ''My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me: A Black Woman Discovers Her Family's Nazi Past'' (German release title: ''Amon. Mein Großvater hätte mich erschossen'') is a memoir by German writer Jennifer Teege. It covers her discovery that her grandfather ...

''. Her book was a success and became a ''New York Times'' bestseller. Translations of the book, which was originally published in Teege's native language, German, have been made into Danish, English, French, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish.

Works

* Jennifer Teege, Nikola Sellmair: ''Amon.'' ''Mein Großvater hätte mich erschossen''. Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg, 2013, . **English edition:

References

External links

Neo-Griot interview with Jennifer Teege, author of ‘My grandfather would have shot me’. Q&A with Jennifer Teege (August 12, 2015), Jennifer Teege talked about her book.''Jennifer Teege, granddaughter of a Nazi war criminal''
– interview at Deutsche Welle English (video, 29 mins) {{DEFAULTSORT:Teege, Jennifer 1970 births Living people Writers from Munich German people of Austrian descent German people of Nigerian descent German women writers German expatriates in France German expatriates in Israel Amon Göth

Life

Works

See also

References

External links