My Father's War: A True Story of Nazism and Treason (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780299343248)

My Father's War is simultaneously a history of the Nazi occupation of Norway in World War II and a son's sincere attempt to understand the silences, motivations, and experiences of an estranged father. In this carefully researched book, combining family memoir and historical retelling, Bj rn Westlie uncovers his father's actions as a volunteer soldier for the Waffen-SS, the military wing of the infamous Schutzstaffel (SS), in the invasion of the Soviet Union. Balancing his role as both son and critical investigator, Westlie unflinchingly interrogates his father's fascist convictions, which speak to the appeal Hitler's ideology held for a small, disgraced segment of Norway's mid-century population. A story of collaboration, tragedy, and treason, My Father's War reveals the little-known history of Norway's frontkjempere (front fighters), the atrocities the Waffen-SS committed against Ukrainian Jews, and the complex legacies of ethnonationalism in Norway.

With an insightful introduction from translator Dean Krouk, My Father's War is a contemporary classic of war literature. Committed to genuine understanding without falling into undue sympathizing, this sober and reflective book presents an eye-opening, moving, intense, and necessary account of the allure of fascism in a world at war--and its personal costs.

Author: Bjn Westlie
ISBN-10: 0299343243
ISBN-13: 9780299343248
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
Language: English
Published: 06/20/2023
Pages: 224
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.66lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.00w x 0.50d