The book focuses on a villa in Wernigerode from the late19th century its builders owners and
inhabitants. It offersa view of over 120 years of German history: the pride ofan entrepreneur
the success of the industrial production ofHarz cheese and its abrupt end with the seizure of
power ofthe National Socialists in the 1930s. The villa's Jewish owners Benno and Clara Russo
are terrorised deported and violentlykilled in a concentration camp while a local Nazi
takespossession of the house.Under East-German rule the villa became a vocational schoolfor
children with special needs.With German unification the ownership question arose anew.The
Russo descendants offered to give the school and factorybuildings to the municipality provided
it stayed as a school but this was blocked by an opaque administrative act.This process
exemplifies difficulties that occurred withunification. Political-historical facts and
social-moral principleswere often disregarded. A fortunate turn meant that thevilla and
outbuildings became a musical-artistic meeting place radiating new life while also serving as
a memorial to theHolocaust.»A work of tremendous force and emotion beautifully written an
important and original contribution to our understandingof the impact of malevolence on a
family and its home. A bookfor our times sadly.«Philippe Sands QC Director of the Centre on
InternationalCourts and Tribunals at University College LondonDr. Julia Nelki grandniece of
the owners Benno and Clara Russo describes in empathic detail this German-Jewish family
history.
