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May 6, 2021
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Werner Gundersheimer

Werner Gundersheimer is director emeritus of the Folger Shakespeare Library.

Frankfurt, Farewell

Frankfurt, Farewell

A family escaped the Nazis in 1939, finding refuge in America, but its hardships were far from over

by Werner Gundersheimer | Monday, September 08, 2014
The Paper Chase

The Paper Chase

Years of tireless collecting led to one of the world’s great libraries

by Werner Gundersheimer | Monday, June 08, 2015
A Mother’s Secret

A Mother’s Secret

The images in a treasured photo album preserve an idealized past, while leaving out the painful story of a family torn apart by the Holocaust

by Werner Gundersheimer | Thursday, August 25, 2011

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2nd Look

A Mother’s Secret

by Werner Gundersheimer

In this 2011 essay, Werner Gundersheimer remembers his mother’s efforts to preserve a version of his childhood free of the Holocaust’s painful scars. “We all know that memory is selective, and that the mind blots out what it can’t bear to retain,” he writes. “For [Mom], the past was always present, and the only way to keep it at bay was to steer clear of it.”

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