Eyes Are Watching, Ears Are Listening

Book excerpt: With skill, sensitivity, and spirit, Eyes are Watching, Ears are Listening tells the story of Eycke Strickland's unusual childhood in the Third Reich. In beautiful prose, the author relates fascinating memories of a large, loving, and unconventional family in pre-war Germany and in war-time (German-annexed) Poland. Strickland's evocative anecdotes and candid commentary paint a richly-layered portrait of family ties and tensions, on the one hand, and of childhood adventures and anxieties, on the other. Simultaneously, the book contributes to our understanding of life and death under National Socialism. From the viewpoint of a young, but perceptive, daughter in an anti-Nazi family, we learn about relations between Germans and Jews, Germans and Poles, and ordinary Germans and Nazi officials in a Polish town located close to Auschwitz. Above all, we are introduced to a courageous family that resisted a criminal regime and survived total war. Strickland's father, Karl Laabs, rescued many Jews from deportation to Auschwitz. Her mother's civil treatment of Poles led to repeated threats from Nazi stalwarts. Their resilient children helped the family endure a terrible time. This poignant, informative memoir deserves a wide readership. -Donna Harsch, Ph.D., author of German Social Democracy and The Rise of Nazism, and Revenge of the Domestic: Women, the Family, and Communism in the German Democratic Republic.