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Aimee & Jaguar: A Love Story, Berlin 1943 Kindle Edition

by Erica Fischer (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.4 169 ratings

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This powerful, poignant, and inspirational novel, a Lambda Literary Award winner, is the true story of two unlikely lovers set against World War II Berlin—a riveting chronicle of love, loyalty, and survival against all odds.

“A memorable, vivid, and intimate portrait.” — Entertainment Weekly

Berlin 1942. Lilly Wust, 29, married, four children, led a life as did millions of German women. But then she met the 21-year-old Felice Schragenheim.

It was love almost at first sight. Aimée and Jaguar started forging plans for the future. They composed poems and love letters to each other, and wrote their own marriage contract. When Jaguar-Felice admitted to her lover that she was Jewish, this dangerous secret drew the two women even closer to one another. But their luck didn’t last. On August 21, 1944, Felice was arrested and deported.

At the age of 80, Lilly Wust told her story to Erica Fischer, who turned it into a poignant testimony. After the book appeared in 1994 she was contacted by additional contemporaries of Aimée and Jaguar, who offered new material that has been integrated into the present edition.

The book, translated into twenty languages, and the film based on it—directed by Max Färberböck, with Juliane Köhler and Maria Schrader in the leading roles—have made Aimée and Jaguar’s story known around the world.

Print length

323 pages
Language

English
Sticky notes

On Kindle Scribe
Publisher

Harper Perennial
Publication date

April 12 2016
File size

8285 KB
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Jack Guinness
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Kindle Edition
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Product description

From Library Journal

Aimee was a housewife, mother of four, married to a Nazi officer. Jaguar was a Jewish woman living underground in Berlin during World War II. This is Aimee's remembrance of their unlikely romance. The account is based on interviews with Aimee, excerpts from her diary, letters and poems between the two women, and recollections of friends and family. A very poorly edited, disjointed narrative with little focus, the book fails in many ways. It is not an introspection on being or becoming lesbian. It is not the reminiscence of a woman who regrets not doing enough to save her lover from the Holocaust. It is not an inspirational memoir by an ordinary Berliner who learned great lessons from her experiences. Neither is it a compelling account of that dreadful time nor even much of a love story. Not recommended.?Jo McClamroch, Xavier Univ. Lib., Cincinnati
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

From Amazon

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 --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Review

“Vivid and compelling...As moving and inspiring as it is tragic.” — Lillian Faderman, author of Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers

--This text refers to the paperback edition.

About the Author

Erica Fischer was born in 1943 in England. Her parents were refugees there and returned to Austria with their two children in 1948. Erica Fischer studied at the Interpreting Institute of the University of Vienna, was a founding member of the second wave women's movement in Vienna, and started working there as a journalist in the mid-1970s. She has been living in Germany since 1988 as a freelance journalist, writer, and translator, residing in Berlin since 1994.

--This text refers to the paperback edition.

From Publishers Weekly

This book doesn't seem to realize it is less about lesbianism and love than it is a jolting social history?achtung. It purports to be a tender wartime memoir of two Berlin lesbian lovers, one of whom turns out to be perhaps the most ordinary woman in Nazi Germany. It is hard to put down. Our sympathy is tapped because one of the lovers, Felice Schragenheim (Jaguar), is a U-boat?a Jew living underground. Fischer, a Viennese feminist and journalist, pieces together diaries, interviews, reminiscences?sometimes self-serving in the extreme on the part of their authors. For instance, 80-year-old Elisabeth Wust (Aimee) swears in interviews with the dubious Fischer that she didn't now what the Nazis were doing to the Jews, yet the instant Soviet troops tramped into Berlin, she passed off herself and her four kids as Jewish. Her husband, a Nazi officer, was swallowed up on the eastern front while Aimee dallied with every Heinz, Dick and Harry who crossed her threshold, as well as women lovers. The diary entries of Elisabeth reflect the unreflective, self-centered musings of a hausfrau that are in their own way as revealing of the Gotterdammerung of Nazi Germany as any report by a minister of state. Tumbling into obscurity in the postwar years, Elisabeth hangs on to her love for the lost Felice, and all that spent passion comes across as simply obsession.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

From the Back Cover

Berlin 1942. Lilly Wust, twenty-nine, married, four children, led a life as did millions of German women. But then she met the twenty-one-year-old Felice Schragenheim.

It was love almost at first sight. Aimée (Lilly) and Jaguar (Felice) started forging plans for the future. They composed poems and love letters to each other, and wrote their own marriage contract. When Jaguar admitted to her lover that she was Jewish, this dangerous secret drew the two women even closer to each other. But their luck didn't last. On August 21, 1944, Jaguar was arrested and deported.

At the age of eighty, Lilly Wust told her story to Erica Fischer, who turned it into a poignant testimony. After the book appeared in 1994 she was contacted by additional contemporaries of Aimée and Jaguar who offered new material that has been integrated into the present edition.

The book, translated into twenty languages, and the film based on it—directed by Max Färberböck, with Juliane Köhler and Maria Schrader in the leading roles—have made Aimée and Jaguar's story known around the world.

--This text refers to the paperback edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B01ARL3F94
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harper Perennial; Translation edition (April 12 2016)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 8285 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 323 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #447,323 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #44 in Lesbian Studies eBooks
- #53 in Third Reich
- #94 in Educator Biographies (Kindle Store)

Customer Reviews:
4.4 169 ratings

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Batya

Book

Reviewed in Canada on August 12, 2023

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Interesting story. Book arrived fast.

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Amazon Customer

Stranger than fiction . . .

Reviewed in Canada on May 10, 2017

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The true story of an unlikely love affair between a Nazi housewife and a Jewish woman in World War 2. Photographs, poems and excerpts from letters and interviews bring this remarkable story to life.

Reviewed in Canada on July 14, 2013

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The book arrived quickly and it was in great condition when I took it out of the package. I am very happy with it.

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emcentar

Not as romantic as the film, but a worthy read.

Reviewed in Canada on January 31, 2003

If, like me, you picked up "Aimee and Jaguar" because you enjoyed the film -- be prepared that the book is quite a different animal.
Rather than a straightforward narrative film, the book is a histography -- more like a documentary using letters and interviews to reconstruct the story of Lilly and Felice. While not terribly satisfying for those seeking an experience similar to the film, it is nonetheless a worthy read, and satisfying for those seeking to find out 'what is true' in the film as well as more information on what happened to Felice after she was captured by the Gestapo.
I tend to agree with the previous reviewers who were startled at the epilogue. I think information on her difficult relationship with Lilly would have been more honestly conveyed in a prologue and to simply denouce her simultaniously as Nazi sympathizer and Jew-wannabee seems unnecessarily harsh. As for her opinion that Felice would have likely left Lilly had she lived, there does seem some evidence that their relationship might not have had staying power (hinted at in the film as well), such as Felice's relative youth (21) and various attempted and successful daliances with other ladies while she and Lilly were together -- Lola for certain and quite possibly Inge as well. I don't think it's entirely unfair for the author to state her opinion on the longevity of their relationship, but it is in poor taste, particularly in the context of a general denoucement of Lilly's character.
Overall, a quite a good book. Recommended.

2 people found this helpful

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Elissa Altman (ema153@aol.com)

An incredible experience

Reviewed in Canada on February 24, 1999

In 1995 when I worked for HarperCollins (the hardcover publisher of Aimee & Jaguar), I had the amazing experience of co-editing Edna McCown's brilliant translation of this book from the original German. In an industry rife with commercialism, at a time when the reasons why I became an editor were becoming murky, I found myself working on this book that would remain an enormous part of who I am both personally and professionally. The story of Felice Schragenheim and Lilly Wust is a time-honored classic tale of a love that defied all obstacles, from the horrific devastation of the Holocaust, to the proscribed confines of society, to the simple passage of time. I can think of no greater gift that any one lover can give another than to tell their story, the way Lilly Wust did, after more than half a century of silence. Although she died more than 50 years ago, Felice Schragenheim will always be alive in the hearts of readers of this book, and in the hearts of all those who see the movie when it comes out here in the US. Aimee & Jaguar is at once an inside look at "underground" life in Berlin during Nazi Germany, a look at two very different women who came together under the most bizarre of circumstances, and ultimately a testament to the strength of love in the face of adversity. And I'm sure that Lilly's "Rosenkavalier" is looking down, smiling at the fact that, as she predicted, they "would always be together." I hope this story moves other readers as much as it moved and continues to move me. There is nothing quite like it.

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Hugo Schwyzer

Moving, yet exasperating

Reviewed in Canada on August 9, 2000

Before the praise, the criticism. As someone who is perhaps overly fond of straightforward chronological narrative, I was quite frustrated with Fischer's inconsistencies. The story of Felice and Lily is told beautifully; I can only wish that she had invested an equal effort in constructing an intelligible parallel account of the destruction of the Jews. Some of the grand emotion of the story was spoilt for me by Fischer's inability to better integrate Nazi history into the text.
That said, it is a captivating, moving, heart-rending story that is a welcome addition to the still-growing number of Shoah narratives.

Reviewed in Canada on June 24, 2003

I bought this after seeing the film. I think the book does fill in a lot of the gaps that the film might leave a subtitle-reader such as myself.
I loved that there are actual photos inside the book. Well researched.
I don't share the shock of some of the previous reviewers about the epilogue written by the author. The author is a German Jew and is upset. Who wouldn't be?

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Carrie

Sorely disappointing....

Reviewed in Canada on July 7, 2001

I had heard a lot about this book on various lesbian websites, about how wonderful and affirming it was. Needless to say I was excited when my girlfriend gave me the book for my birthday. My excitement didn't last through the first twenty pages, however.
Someone else already stated earlier the problems I had with this book: poorly organized writing, too much emphasis on dates and names that aren't important to the story. The author paints the main lesbian characters in the book as sex-crazed women who are merely lesbians because they've been burned by men. She seems to think that a few paragraphs of a graphic sex scene between Aimee and Jaguar is enough to make us swoon at their apparent "love" for each other. I didn't swoon, I rolled my eyes. I am sure Ms. Fischer is a wonderful author, but I don't think this story is one suited for her. She breaks what I think is a cardinal rule of writing someone's biography: stay objective. It was obvious as I reached the end of the book - after some struggle - that Ms. Fischer thinks of Lilly's Jewish lover as a saint, while Lilly is portrayed as a spoiled little rich Nazi. Ms. Fischer's disdain for Lilly Wust is evident throughout the book, and she even goes so far as to say she doesn't believe that Lilly and her lover would have stayed together! She also states that she has much more sympathy for Lilly's lover than for Lilly herself. I would have thought that subjectivity had no place in Aimee & Jaguar. All in all, despite my respect for Ms. Fischer at attempting to tackle such a deep issue, this book was a profound disappointment. What should have been "A Love Story" instead comes off as a boring history lesson, and a platform for the author's grievances against the Nazis.

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sa sewell

Heart-breaking story with a sad aftermath

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 11, 2018

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I came across a reference to this book in another I was reading. I have never before read a book on Jews in Germany, I know the Holocaust occurred, but I did not want to read about the horror. I found his book heart-breaking. It took me longer than normal to read a book of this size because I had to keep stopping. In the hardback the photos are in two sections in the book. One of the photographs was captioned that it was taken on day Felice was arrested and gave the date, before the text had reached the date. When I came to that date in the text I stopped for several days, I did not want to know about what happened. After I had read the pages on that I stopped again because I did not want to read what then happened to Felice. I have never read the Diary of Anne Frank, but I expect it would be the same. It is about individuals, not a ‘faceless’ mass of 6 million. In the epilogue of the hardback edition, which I understand was removed from the paperback, Erica Fischer says she cannot understand why Lilly was unable to move on with her life after the war. The photograph of Lilly taken in 1947 and another from 1948 in Das Kurze Leben der Jüdin Felice Schragenheim by the same author show the impact on Lilly of the loss of Felice.
In reading around the book I did not realise that it and the film have been the subject of chapters in books and research papers on the relationship between Lilly and Felice, and how National Socialism is portrayed in modern German culture.
It also been the subject of controversy which is distressing. Several years after the book was published Elenai made allegations which were then followed up by two German journalists in diatribes against the book, the author and Lilly. I apologise for the sarcasm which may be evident in the following comments.
It was alleged that it was Lilly that had gave Felice up to the Gestapo. The allegation was that Lilly thought Felice would leave her after the war and so if she could not have her then nobody would. The question arises as why didn’t Lilly wait until the Russians were are the gates of Berlin so she continue to ‘satisfy’ herself with Felice for a little longer before denouncing her? After Felice had been arrested why then did Lilly not walk around with a satisfied smile on her face instead of collapsing and then sobbing and screaming – as witnessed by Lola and the children? Who would be perhaps be most suspicious of betrayal by Lilly but Felice. The book states that Felice believed it was Potty who betrayed her. Potty had been captured with her girlfriend in Vienna and was in the same prison. I would have thought the Gestapo would take great delight in telling a captive who had revealed where they were. If Felice had any thoughts it may be Lilly who denounced then why keeping writing to her, seeing her?
As evidence of Lilly’s betrayal one of the journalists refers to the photograph taken on the final day. That Lilly’s arms hung limply by her sides as Felice kissed her. This was because Lilly knew the Gestapo would be waiting when they got back. What!?
It is stated that Lilly also wanted all of Felice’s belongings – rob the Jews! Read the description of Lilly’s flat, look at photographs of what the building looks like – now there is somebody who needed more money. Forget how she shared the meagre rations with Felice. It has been alleged that Lilly forged Felice’s will so she could collect her things stored with friends. Well, once that was done why carry on writing to Felice, sending her food and clothes. Was it not sensible that with Felice arrested both of them would want to secure her belongings. Lilly not for herself but for Felice when she came back. It would also give her comfort that she was doing something for Felice and give her a purpose after the horror of what had happened.
Elenai stated that Felice did not love Lilly. The result was the claim by a journalist that Felice ‘prostituted’ herself with Lilly so she could have a place to stay. So we now have denigration of Felice – remember, she was Jew who died! Speak no ill of the dead? In a TV documentary of the story Elenai stated, on camera, that at one point Felice did not join others who were escaping because she did not want to leave Lilly. So we have Felice in desperate danger, supposedly prostituting herself, and offered a chance to escape but not taking it. Also, all I can say is that for a ‘prostitute’ she wrote some remarkably touching and tender poems to Lilly, even when she was in the camps when it would be pretty pointless wouldn’t it?
The list of inconsistencies just carries on. I am not the only one to have commented on this in reviews of the book.
Elenai did not present any evidence for her allegations. Other writers have said there was no evidence. Could she not believe that Felice, a Jew, would lose her heart to an Aryan Nazi housewife? A Jewish girl (Potty) would never have denounced Felice, it must have been the Nazi housewife. Was it revenge that now in her 80s she had been outed as being part of a group of lesbians or having lesbian tendencies in her younger days? It should also be recognised that as they age the elderly can become very dogmatic and vindictive in their opinions. When talking about Lilly’s trip to Theriesenstadt she contradicts herself immediately in the interview. Again raising a question mark over her allegations. As for the journalists – I am not German, I do not know German newspapers. Are they journalists who think carefully about what they write or just dash off an article to meet a deadline so they get their monthly salary.

3 people found this helpful

Jack Ehlers

Primary source documents make "too colorful to be true" into "historical fact," and it's no less astonishing.

Reviewed in the United States on February 10, 2014

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Every film critic remarks of Aimee and Jaguar that the story is too strange for fiction: the Nazi housewife in love with the ultra-spunky Jewish lesbian journalist/underground resistance fighter. If, like me, you walked away from the film with an uneasy sense that some of the story's more astonishing turns and fantastic characters were merely the products of stellar film-making, this book is for you. Ms. Fischer treats her text as an honest-to-goodness historian should and provides a wealth of primary source documents -- interviews, letters, post cards, receipts -- to support every anecdote.

It differs in from the film in that it is less a story of dramatic seduction (although that certainly figures in; you could hardly tell the story without it) and more about the larger narrative of how one short life and one long life intersected. The nuts and bolts of Lily's character remain a subject for valid debate, although it is worth noting that Ms. Fischer makes no secret of her intention to portray the troubled woman in a less than flattering light.

Felice Schraggenheim continues to be the real too-colorful-to-be-true scene-stealer, as she was in the film and, apparently, in life. It is neither cinematic genius nor the flair of a novelist that exaggerate her character into something larger than life; primary source documents confirm that this remarkable young woman built that pedestal herself and unabashedly climbed on top of it. Up to the very last, her letters were eloquent, warm, loving, brave, and -- impossibly! -- funny.

Caveat: if you are looking for an unblemished love story, you will have to willfully ignore a lot in order to find it here. Lily and Felice were real people, and they had accrued some serious psychological issues before they met. The film relies on viewers to infer that by 1944, both women -- like most Berliners -- were carrying far too much baggage to be genuinely well-adjusted. Ms. Fischer is more frank about it. For my ten bucks, that makes for a richer and more compelling tale in which two profoundly imperfect people find a dangerous and unsustainable comfort in each other's arms. But if you were looking for a romance so flawless that only the Holocaust could ruin it, best stick to fiction.

10 people found this helpful

bookishmama

If we don't learn from history...

Reviewed in the United States on February 15, 2017

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This is such a powerful book. It lays out an incredibly chilling chapter in history in such a plainspoken, personal way. This is a beautiful love story. The two main characters are fascinating and dynamic, so the relationship that unfolds between personal letters and meticulous research has a great chemistry. Maybe because I read it now -- during the first two weeks of the Trump presidency -- I found it gut-wrenching, heartbreaking, and all too real. The march of bureaucracy might be dry if not for the context. Suddenly, reading this book at this moment in America, I can totally see how the good people of Germany were sucked into the quicksand of a fascist regime. Tiny details brought me to tears. Like one of the earliest actions of the Third Reich: removing Jews from the national healthcare system as a first step toward exterminating them. Because I was diagnosed with blood cancer in my early 30s, Obamacare was my only hope for having insurance. It's paperwork to most people, but to those who are affected by that small, cold stroke of the pen -- they feel it like a knife in the back. I really applaud Erica Fischer for the extraordinary job she did on the research and writing of this important book. I found it profoundly moving. Unforgettable. Highly, highly, highly recommending, especially for book clubs, historical fiction readers, and high school libraries.

7 people found this helpful

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Bellissimo

Reviewed in Italy on December 28, 2021

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Arrivato ieri! In ottime condizioni e veloce nella consegna. Non vedo l'ora di iniziarlo

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Maria K

The total experience of human pain, captured in a book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 9, 2014

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This book is extremely dramatic to a depressive point, but nevertheless, worth reading every single word of it.
The characters are described in every human detail, even the minor ones. So, what can be said about the main two characters, Aimee and Jaguar-the reader, enters the land of the women's thoughts, feelings, fears, in a so painful, but true way. I read the 300 pages in two and a half day, but i kept thinking about them, for weeks after finishing the book. God, some peoples life-stories, just HAVE TO be told! And Erica Fischer is a great storyteller. She actually invades to the psyche of the people she talks about, she psycho analyses them. By finishing this book, i feel more rich inside, it's like i have suffered a small share of someone else's pain- and somehow this is owed, to Aimee and Jaguar, for what they had been through. Read it.

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Aimee & Jaguar: A Love Story, Berlin 1943 Kindle Edition

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