Stories Survive: "The Innocents" Book Talk

It all started with the discovery of a manuscript, hidden away in a box in a house in Norfolk, England, unread for more than thirty years—a discovery that propelled journalist Sharon Ring to learn more about her relatives, including two young German children named Heini and Edie, and their past. Heini and Edie, aged 9 and 5, grew up in Berlin during the Third Reich. Though they were raised as Christians, under the Nuremberg Laws, the siblings were classified as “Mischlinge,” hybrid, mixed blood, mongrels, because they had two Jewish grandparents. As Mischlinge, they were subject to the same degradations and cruelties as other Jews and were eventually condemned to death. There were thousands of “Mischlinge” like Heini and Edie across Germany and Europe, yet their tragic experiences within the historical record of the Holocaust have largely remained untold.

Ring will discuss The Innocents with author Andrew  Nagorski.