Belonging: A German Reckons with History and Home

How does Krug use artistic expression, scrapbooking, and photography in combination to help process the emotional and intellectual ramifications of this journey of discovery? How can art be used as a tool for engaging with one’s personal connections to history?

What is Krug’s lived experience of the inner conflict she feels regarding her German heritage and culture? How does she depict this dichotomy both visually and through her writing? Why is finding a sense of belonging such a complex journey for her?

What answers does Krug find through the photographs she discovers? In what ways do the photos raise more questions than they answer, and how do they lend themselves to ambiguous interpretation?

How did the war, the Holocaust, and all the surrounding events affect Krug’s family on a direct and personal level? Why is she left wondering what might have been if not for these dark events in Germany’s past?

Why is Krug so eager to determine the extent of Willi’s involvement with the Nazi party? What does it mean for her today, and what personal and moral implications of her inherited history must she grapple with to accept this part of her family’s past?

What does Krug discover about collective and personal memory as she talks to various relatives, friends, and historians? How does she treat the memories of others like an excavation of herself?

Why in Krug’s experience do Germans continue to struggle with opening up about the war and the Nazi regime? What does the way she refuses to accept this silence about history suggest about her personality and inner struggles?

What is the responsibility of newer generations to remember, teach, and understand the history that shaped their modern world? How does Krug’s memoir emphasize this responsibility?