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Aimée & Jaguar: A Love Story, Berlin 1943 | 
 enlarge | Author: Erica Fischer
Publisher: Alyson Books
Category: Book
List Price: $15.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  22 reviews
Sales Rank: 359854
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.8 x 5.5 x 0.8
ISBN: 1555834507
Dewey Decimal Number: 943.1550860922
EAN: 9781555834500
ASIN: 1555834507
Publication Date: October 1, 1998
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Amazon.com Review
Acclaimed in Germany and England, this tragic and remarkable real-life love story won a Lambda Literary Award when it was first published in America in 1995. Lilly Wust ("Aimée") was a conventional middle-class mother of four, estranged from her philandering husband, when she met Felice Schragenheim ("Jaguar") in 1941. Their passionate affair unfolded against the backdrop of the deportation of Jews from Berlin, but several months passed before Felice could even bring herself to tell Lilly that she was Jewish and living illegally on the streets. "I knew, of course, what it meant," Lilly recalled in old age. "Not for a moment did I think that I too could be in danger. On the contrary, all I wanted to do now was to save her." Lilly's heroic efforts to conceal and protect Felice through the next two years make for painful and inspiring reading. Felice was arrested in August 1944 and sent her last letter to Lilly four months later. In 1981 Lilly was awarded the German Federal Service Cross, though no one could read this as a happy ending. --Regina Marler
Product Description
ExcerptsA letter from Lilly to Felice, March 31st, 1943 Felice, I love you! What a feeling it is to be able to say that! Oh, Felice, the nicest fate I could hope for is that of lasting happiness. I want to live with you for a long, a very long time, do you hear? And life is so beautiful, so wonderful. Felice, do you belong to me - without limit? To me only? Please say you do, at least for a very long time to come, please! Do you love me? I'm acting like a seventeen-year-old, arent't I? Be good to me, Felice, please? And yet please don't hold back. I wanted to lure you out of your hiding place. I am like a child playing with fire; will I get burned? A little? Totally? Felice, stop me! Isn't it just a little bit your fault that I'm so crazy, so totally crazy? A poem from Felice to Lilly, Christmas 1943 That there was a time before you - I can't believe!
To me, we've forever been this way,
Together, side by side in life and in dreams,
Surrounded both by darkness and the light of day.
You belong to me! Since you arrived,
And slowly at first, then full of trust,
Placed your heart in my hands, I have strived
For the strength to build a life for us.
So I have hope for days yet to come,
As this year nods and slips into air,
Because before me, like some emblem,
I carry the copper gleam of your hair. Extract: "The Vow" January 30th, 1943, the tenth anniversary of Hitler's seizure of power, Hermann Gring's speech to Berliners was delayed for two hours because British scout planes were flying over the city in broad daylight for the first time. Four days after Gring declared his certainty of victory, the remaining German troops trapped in Stalingrad capitulated. Accompanied by funereal music, the defeat was announced on the radio. On February 18th Reichspropaganda minister Goebbels spurred the German people to make a greater effort. In a "Declaration of fanatical Will" at the Berlin Sportpalast he announced the "Salvation of Germany and the whole of civilisation" through "total war". In memory of the victims of the Russian campaign, a three minute traffic stoppage was declared. At the Zoo station, people stood stock
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| Customer Reviews: Read 17 more reviews...
 An excellent read September 25, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book is the very first book to ever make me cry, and I'm one of those people who've read all types of genres. It was captivating and compelling. Like many, I saw the movie first, but when I saw it was a true story, I simply had to have the book as well. I am glad I did. The book provided the background and meaning that the movie left out. Because of the book, I will probably have to rewatch the movie again.
The courage, bravery, and love shown in this novel is beyond compare. It's a read worth reading slowly.
 an unorthodox but gripping book August 14, 2007
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I enjoyed the film version of "Aimee & Jaguar", but I think the book tells a much deeper story. We get to know the characters on a more profound level: I was especially charmed by the poems both women wrote, especially Jaguar's rhymed comments on her everyday life experiences. The book provides astonishing details about life for Jews who went "underground" in Berlin; somehow, the picture of the slow tightening of the Nazi noose was clearer to me from this book than from the many other works I've read on the period. And Aimee's fate after the war was unexpected--messy, frustrating, and human. A more timid author might have left some of this information out.
I do have a few complaints about Fischer's approach to writing history: I agree with some other reviewers that the story tended to get muddled in the constant mention of unimportant names and dates, and it's difficult to keep track of the minor characters. An index would have helped with this. The author included loads of love letters, which get a little repetitive. I also would have liked to see more photos of Aimee & Jaguar's friends, rather than so many pictures of just the two of them.
I don't have the knowledge to assess how successful Fischer was at capturing lesbian feelings: the love between the characters seemed believable to me, and there was one fairly explicit scene that many historians would not have dared to write, but which I think added to the emotion of the story. I did think it was odd--bordering on irresponsible, for a historian--that Fischer stated in an epilogue that she thought Jaguar would have left Aimee if they had been together longer. This is pure speculation. Though I appreciated Fischer's honest confession of her feelings about Aimee, it might have been fairer to the reader if the author had put this at the beginning of the book. After reading the epilogue, I remembered a number of incidents in the story that portrayed Aimee in a negative light, and I couldn't help but think that Fischer's personal attitude may have colored her telling of those events. For example, when Jaguar is sent to a concentration camp, Aimee tries unsuccessfully to demand her release from the camp authorities. This action is described as "irrational", and one onlooker comments that it may have even harmed Jaguar. But no evidence for this is given--letters from Jaguar after Aimee's visit say nothing about it. Aimee's attempt might just as easily have been described as a sign of her great love for Jaguar, or of her bravery in confronting the Nazis, but instead, a picture is painted of a woman behaving irrationally, a standard sexist stereotype.
I can understand why Fischer was offended that Aimee appropriated Jaguar's Jewish background after the war. I think some of Aimee's attitude might have come from the role of German women in the time that she lived: she would have expected to take on some of the attributes and beliefs of her "husband." Plus, she was disgusted at the system that had robbed her of her lover. And her action can also be looked at in a positive way: one of Aimee's sons became very interested in the Hebrew language, and ended up emigrating to Israel. Is that a bad thing? I thought it was strange that Fischer gave so little credit to Aimee for the risks she took to try and help Jaguar and a number of other Jews. It is true that Aimee was not always on "the good side", and Fischer did some hard work investigating her background. But shouldn't people who learn and change be given some respect?
Fischer closes the book with a description of her own husband's work, which will probably make every reader feel immensely guilty. Again, not something most historians would do, but it is another sign of Fischer's brave, though not always successful, attempts to get to the heart of humanity's struggle with its own dark side.
A great book! November 20, 2005
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
It is a great book about a love affair during the war. I love how it tells about how the continued writing to eachother even when apart. This story will make you cry but is very beautiful in many ways.
Flawed real females makes compelling reading September 24, 2005
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I liked this book. Some of the pictures, I really wish I could blow up and have as prints in my room. The story gives a lot of insight into that era. The Amazon criticism is that the author really doesn't focus much on the lesbian aspect, instead focusing more on the era, the World War II Jewish persecution, etc. Given the setting and the individuals involved, this seems understandable. I really, really enjoyed this story. The problems and personality flaws of the women aren't glossed over either which is nice.
A facsinating book about that time January 27, 2004
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
I am responding to previous reviews - I do not think this book is about romance, and I did not feel lack of personal "data".
This is an incredible documentry book that document a time (1943) and place (Berlin). Yes, it is about love story. More so, it is about the human tendency to except the current situation and ignore warning bells, the systematic Nazi optression etc.
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