When Time Stopped by Ariana Neumann

An Exceptional Memoir

This book exceeded all my expectations—an exceptional memoir!  A woman cobbles together her father’s enigmatic past to build a clear picture of the progression of restrictions and brutality against Jews in WWII.  

The author never even knew her father was Jewish when she began digging into his past after his death.  What she discovered was bone-chilling.  After years and years of research she learned the fate of her family members, the systematic oppression and obscure laws, and the extermination of loved ones.

“…the process of separation and dehumanization emerges. In dizzying increments, the rules become devastating in their absurdity, in their horror…They had to surrender their driving licenses—and, eventually, their cars and bicycles. Their radios. Their cameras. Their stamp collections. Their sewing machines. Their umbrellas. Their pets.”

(Ariana Neumann, When Time Stopped: A Memoir of My Father’s War and What Remains (Scribner, New York, 2020), 85.

It’s an astounding revelation of anguish and grasps of hope.

Annette