Let Me Go

By: Helga Schneider, Shaun Whiteside - translator

Narrated by: Anne Dover

When Helga Schneider was four, her mother, Traudi, abandoned her to pursue her career. In 1998, Helga received a letter asking her to visit Traudi, now 90-years old, before she dies. Mother and daughter have met only once after Traudi left, on a disastrous visit where Helga first learnt the terrible secret of her mother's past.

Traudi was as an extermination guard in Auschwitz and Ravensbruck and was involved in Nazi 'medical' experiments on prisoners. She has never expressed even the slightest remorse for her actions, yet Helga still hopes that at this final meeting she will find some way to forgive her mother.

Critic reviews

A powerful, painful book about moral responsibility

Remarkable... Helga Schneider's frank account is desperately sad and powerful. Unforgettable

Frightening and fascinating

Let Me Go grips the reader completely

The book evocatively portrays the deprivations of wartime Berlin and the devastating emotional impact of one evil individual

Intense

This story is about a woman's intense need to have her mother in her life despite the atrocities do has committed.