Unforgotten by Franz Thaler
In this short and gripping memoir Franz Thaler describes his experience of unimaginable suffering at the hands of the Nazis. His father voted to let his family remain Italian citizens and not to become citizens of the German Reich. Franz Thaler, just a young man of nineteen, decided not to serve as a soldier in Hitler‘s army, and fled to the mountains. When his family was threatened by the Nazis with reprisals, he handed himself in, was arrested, put on trial and sent to the concentration camp in Dachau. When the American soldiers arrived in Dachau at the end of the war, he and some of his surviving inmates were not set free but remained prisoners. They were transported with others to a camp in France and forced to march during the final stage of the journey. There they were at last set free and allowed to return home. Franz Thaler describes all these appalling events with insight, clarity and passion, but also with a quite remarkable humanity and an astonishing lack of bitterness.
It was amazing to hear that Franz Thaler's UNFORGOTTEN is the first memoir about Dachau to be translated into English;Thaler's detailed experiences define what it was to be subjected to abuse and tyranny not only as a South Tyrolean conscientious objector in WW2 but as a displaced person in camps and during the long trek home post warAt the brunt of petty little officials - whether German, American, or Italian, Thaler continued to experience insulting behaviour from pro Nazi folks in his home town decades after the war. Thaler offers a sobering account of betrayal and bravery with lessons for anyone today who has the faith and strength to wage a solo stand against fascism;Pamela Ellen Ferguson
Franz Thaler was born in Reinswald in South Tyrol on 6 March 1925. In the referendum ("Option") in 1939 his father decided that the whole family should remain Italian citizens. Despite this Thaler was called up to do military service in the German Wehrmacht in 1944 at the age of 19. Instead of enlisting he fled to the mountains, but gave himself up when his family was threatened with reprisals. He was arrested and sent to Dachau where he spent about five months. When the Americans arrived in Dachau he became a prisoner-of-war of the Americans and was taken to a camp in France, where he was finally set free and allowed to return home. After the war he became a craftsman in quill embroidery, and continued to work until his recent retirement. After publishing his memoir of Dachau in 1988 ("Unvergessen", now available in Raetia Verlag, Bolzano), he did educational work with young people, which included accompanying them on trips to Dachau. In 1997 he received the Verdienstkreuz des Landes Tirol (Order of Merit of the Land of Tyrol) and in 2011 he was awarded the honorary citizenship of Bolzano. Franz Thaler died on 29. October 2015 in Sarnthein, South Tyrol.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9783943324952 |
| ISBN 10 | 3943324958 |
| Title | Unforgotten |
| Author | Franz Thaler |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Christl Kiener |
| Year published | 2013-09-13 |
| Number of pages | 184 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |