An Underground Life

Memoirs of a Gay Jew in Nazi Berlin

By: Frank Heibert

Narrated by: John Feather

That a Jew living in Nazi Berlin survived the Holocaust at all is surprising. That he was a homosexual and a teenage leader in the resistance and yet survived is amazing. But that he endured the ongoing horror with an open heart, with love and without vitriol, and has written about it so beautifully is truly miraculous. This is Gad Beck's story.

©1999 The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System (P)2014 Redwood Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"So intense and authentic that [the] narrative pulls you along." ( The New York Times)

"(Beck's) astute observations of daily life in Nazi Berlin, related in a chatty, humorous style, present a full, complex portrait of the times." ( Publishers Weekly)

Story isn’t bad the the reading is atrocious

The story isn’t the worst. The amount of people mentioned in this book without explanation makes it really tricky to follow. The pronunciation of German is poor. The reader did this book so much injustice. It sounds like one long run on sentence. Almost couldn’t get through the book. I would strongly consider just reading this yourself vs putting yourself through the audible version.

An Underground Life confusing but interesting.

So many names and places that the story became hard to follow. I had to look up some of the points made.

Fantastic story

Really enjoyable, detailed story of the author’s life in Nazi Germany. Looking forward to part two.

Great Story - Horrendous Reading

Gad's story is great.

The performer's voice is grating to the nth degree.

As a speaker of German, Hebrew, and French, it was excruciating to me
to encounter each new mispronunciation.

Frankly, a superb story was ruined for me.

When foreign words are so integral a part of the story, one would hope that a narrator with integrity and a modicum of
self-respect would be hired.