Word Vancouver in Conversation with Heige S. Boehm
Heige S. Boehm’s writing is influenced by the stories of her parents who grew up in Nazi Germany and who, at the end of the war, found themselves in East Germany. They escaped with their first two children to West Berlin in 1961, and Heige was born in Euskirchen West Germany on November 11, 1964. Ten years later her family immigrated to Vancouver, Canada, where they lived at the Sylvia Hotel for the first few months. Heige spent 9 years researching and writing Secrets in the Shadows. Heige holds a creative writing certificate from The Writers’ Studio of Simon Fraser University and now lives on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia.
To see Heige read please register for the Word Vancouver event Surviving War on September 24th, 2020 at 9:30am.
Now lets get to know a little more about Heige!
Interview by Mary Duffy
Q: You came to Canada when you were just nine years old from Germany. How much of your childhood story/family history helped to inform and inspire Secrets in the Shadows?
A: My childhood for sure influenced me a lot. My early life was shrouded in war stories and because of that I have always been fascinated and desired to understand how and why a nation could have followed Hitler and the Nazi Ideology.
I didn’t grow up with storybooks I remember having two. I would read them over and over, they had a lasting impact on me. I guess not growing up with books provided a way for my imagination to bloom. However I did grow up hearing my mother’s war stories. And they fueled my imagination. In Germany there were reminders of WW2 all around me. I remember a war bunker across the street. The adults told us a boy had been playing in there, and he had died in the bunker. I think they wanted to scare us, so we wouldn’t go and play in there. But as a child I didn’t understand the finality of death, and I would think all the time about him, and wanted to rescue him. We lived on a main street, and at night American army tanks would rumble down our street, and I would watch them and thought that war was still raging on, but only at night. I would lay awake trying to figure out how to stop the War. Guess I’m still trying to figure it out.
In 1983 my Father was murdered in Texas, and it was my desire to know my father that inspired my novel. I wanted to know his stories, and to understand him. Guess that was the day I began questioning who my father was/ who I was…
Q: You have written that question–– how and why does a totalitarian government come to power and how and why do its citizens lose their moral compass and carry out the orders of a fascist government. Do you see any parallels in the world today to the rise of fascism that to the liking of Nazi Germany?
A: What I see is the selling of fascist ideology by some political powers. Those powers use fear tactics - inciting violence, sexism, racism, targeting minorities, striking down laws that protect the environment, not supporting science and having no regard for equality, or human life. All for personal power and financial gain.
Hitler, Goebbels, the Nazi regime figured out how to erode a democratic way of life. How to profit from it. They understood how to create a dictatorship. They wrote the play book on how to establish a totalitarian government; how to strike fear into a nation.
But I have hope that people will stand together and strike down governments, and their policies that keep people divided; policies that don’t support a green movement. Hitler was defeated, and yes hatred, racism, sexism still exist, but more people than not, are kind and loving. I like to believe that people will stand together and unite for the sake of our planet, one another and future generations, for a kinder world.
Q: Are Wolfie and Michael based on real characters?
A: Yes, well partially, a combination of people actually. Michael is based on parts of my father; the good parts of my father. Wolfe is based on my husband and my oldest sister. Michael and Wolfie’s close bond was inspired by the close bond I had with my youngest sister growing up. And both Wolfie and Michael are loosely based on Max and Moritz, a German black humor children’s book written in rhyming verse, illustrated and written in 1865 by Wilhelm Busch. I loved that story as child. Michael’s father Rudi is based on the shadow side of my father. Mama is based on my husband's kindness.
Q: Which character in the novel do you most identify with?
A: With Michael; there is a lot of me in him. Like wanting his father’s attention/love. Or how he is ready to fight for his friend, siblings and comrades, no matter what. His loyalty, and his love for adventure.
Q: It is unusual for a teen book featuring male protagonists to be written by a female- although the outsiders written by S.E. Hinton has become one of the classics in the YA genre how did you approach writing from the point of view and voice of a male character?
A: I get asked that question a lot. Growing up, I didn't have women role models that I identified with; none that I wanted to emulate. As a child I viewed my mom and women around me as being controlled by their husbands, burdened with too many children, housework and no income of their own. I didn’t understand the emotions of women, to me they were mostly sad, or angry. I always felt sorry for them because to me they had to follow the wishes of men. Growing up in the 60s &70s, I didn’t see or know women that had power or were in charge of their lives. And they most certainly didn't have adventures, except for Pipi Longstocking.
My father on the other hand had all the power and freedom he wanted, and I was attracted to that. My heroes growing up were: Tarzan, Robin Hood, Captain Kirk, Jacques Cousteau and Pipi Longstocking. They had the freedom and power to control their lives; they displayed their emotions by their actions. My heroes had adventures, and I wanted to be like them, because I identified with them. That is why it is easy and natural for me to write through the eyes of boys. I was molded by my heroes, and tapping into my masculine side was easy for me, natural. I find women much harder to write.
Q: Teen/YA novels are not just read by teens anymore. Books like The Hunger Games and others also have a large adult audience. Do you see Secrets in the Shadows as a crossover novel?
A: It is a crossover novel.
Q: It is evident that a great deal of both academic and personal research has gone into your book. Can you tell us about your journey/process?
A: I spent ten years researching and writing Secrets in the Shadows. I loved everything about that journey. I actually had to learn how to write, and how to do research. I sought out a mentor; I was connected with Betty Keller, and she has been instrumental in my writing journey. I watched countless documentaries and read numerous non fiction books on WW2. When I had finished writing my novel, I wanted a WW2 historian to vet it. I came across a German film, Our Mothers our Fathers, directed by Philipp Kadelbach, and I contacted the war historian that worked on that film. He put me in touch with Roman Töppel who had interviewed eighty SS soldiers, twelve of which were Hitler youth boy soldiers; he had a lot of information for me. I also was put into contact with Edmund Krawinkel, whose first-hand account of service at age sixteen as an SS Paratrooper and a sniper provided a wealth of information. I read a plethora of research books, and asked a lot of questions. I took three trips back to Germany and interviewed my relatives and visited historical landmarks. I accidentally came upon, The Sonnenstein Euthanasia Center in Pirna. Over 14,000 people were murdered there between 1940-1941, with poison gas as part of “Operation T4”. Mostly physically and intellectually disabled persons along with prisoners from concentration camps and seniors’ homes. Being there and seeing that place haunts me to this day.
Q: What are some of the struggles and barriers that you faced as a teen.
A: I didn’t speak English when I came to Canada and in the 70s being taught English as a second language, wasn’t really a thing. My teacher didn’t know what to do with me, for almost a year she only had me write out numbers and copy English words, but I had no idea what the words meant because I couldn’t understand or read English. I never learned how to spell or the grammar rules. Not in school anyways. I was too embarrassed to ask for help, so I hid my lack of understanding. Routinely I encountered prejudice for being German. Home life was hard too, my father was abusive. Eventually my parents separated, and my world fell apart. By the time I was in high school I had built up so much shame about myself that I began smoking drugs, and drinking. I quit school at sixteen and moved out of home.
Q: What books did you read as a teen? What authors are you reading now?
A: Actually, I loved S. E. Hinton -The Outsiders, That was Then, This is Now. Rumble Fish, JD Salinger – The Catcher in the Rye, Kurt Vonnegut - Slaughterhouse Five, V.C Andrews -Flowers in the Attic, Anne Frank - The Diary of a Young Girl.
At the moment I’m mostly reading research books, about the Holocaust in the Ukraine, but I did just finish reading White Rose by Kip Wilson - it’s a novel in verse that tells the story of Sophie Scholl.
Q: What projects are you currently working on?
A: Oh so many - My second novel, Black Earth. An audio book for Secrets in the Shadows. I’m also working on a screenplay and trying to launch a podcast: ‘Short Stories and More with Heige S. Boehm.’
You can find more about Heige here:
https://www.heigeboehm.ca/
Twitter @HeigeBoehm
Instagram @heigeboehm
