Mitzi’s Wedding (Hochzeit)
A young German aristocrat defies convention to become a musician in the heady days of Berlin in the 1920s and ‘30s. Charming and exuberant, she braves the mesmerising ascent of Nazi Germany to marry one of the three men who love her. She is betrayed by the second who cowers before the voice of popular racism. Finally, continents away, she is revenged by the third. This novel considers how racism impacts the intertwined, families of victims and oppressors and the everyday voices of silence and dissent.
Judenweg
“Judenweg” is the fictional account of a young Jew turned robber out of anger and defiance against 17th century anti-Jewish laws. These laws forced thousands into homelessness, wandering along unmarked paths, unable to remain anywhere for longer than two days. The aimless walk from Fürth to Frankfurt took two weeks.
A Path Through Hard Grass:
A Journalist’s Memories of Exile and Apartheid
A child of a Jewish family fleeing Nazi-Germany and settling in apartheid South Africa in the 1930s, Ruth Weiss’ journalistic career starts in Johannesburg of the 1950s. In 1968 banned from her home country, and then also from Rhodesia for her critical investigative journalism, she starts reporting from Lusaka, London and Cologne on virtually all issues which affect the newly independent African countries. Peasants and national leaders in southern Africa – Ruth Weiss met them all, traveling through Africa at a time when it was neither usual for a woman to do so, nor to report for economic media as she did. Her writing gained her the friendship of diverse and interesting people. In this book she offers us glimpses into some of her many long-nurtured friendships, with Kenneth Kaunda or Nadine Gordimer and many others. Her life-long quest for tolerance and understanding of different cultures shines through the many personalized stories which her astute eye and pen reveals in this book. As she put it, one never sheds the cultural vest donned at birth, but this should never stop one learning about and accepting other cultures.
Blutsteine (Bloodstones)
Is a thriller set in Africa in the 90s, when diamonds were used in three-corner barter deals for weapons and drugs.
The Women of Zimbabwe
The role of women in revolution is reflected, courageously and brutally, in The Women of Zimbabwe, where Weiss often cites the women’s narratives directly. One woman’s description of avoiding a massacre by hiding in a pit latrine for four days is particularly heart-wrenching.
