A Fairy Tale Unmasked The Teacher and the Nazi Slaves

by Vaupel, Dieter; Stone, D.Z.

• ISBN13: 9781912676569
• ISBN10: 1912676567
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2021-02-17
• Publisher: Vallentine Mitchell

Summary

A Fairy Tale Unmasked is two books in one. Part One is the story of Dieter Vaupel, a German high school teacher who, in 1983, uncovered a hidden past when he and his students began researching what happened in their town during the Nazi regime. The picturesque town of Hessisch Lichtenau was where thousands of slave laborers, including 1,000 women and girls from Auschwitz, were forced to work in one of the largest munitions factories in all of Europe. Vaupel and his students broke through the wall of silence surrounding this history and stood up to threats to leave the past alone. Then, amid further controversy, Vaupel and a group of townspeople contacted former forced workers and invited them to come back to Hessisch Lichtenau. In 1986, Blanka Pudler, who as a 15-year-old girl was sent from Auschwitz as a slave laborer, was one of those who returned. Part Two of A Fairy Tale Unmasked is Pudler’s account of her enslavement, a story she would go on to tell to thousands of German schoolchildren. In honor of her efforts, in 2012 she was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. Part One is written by journalist D.Z. Stone with the cooperation of Dieter Vaupel. Part Two is by Dieter Vaupel, based on his interviews with Blanka Pudler. This is an extraordinary collaboration that makes for compelling and captivating reading.

Author Biography

Dieter Vaupel, born 1950, is a teacher and political scientist. He studied at the universities of Gießen and Kassel and has a doctorate on forced labor and compensation. He worked at various schools, lastly as a high school principal. He is now a History lecturer at Kassel University. He is the author of several books and articles on history and teaching topics. In addition to collaborating on A Fairy Tale Unmasked, D. Z. Stone, a journalist trained in cultural anthropology, has authored No Past Tense (Vallentine Mitchell), and reported for The New York Times and Newsday. A graduate of the College of William and Mary, she holds a master’s from Columbia University.