Can We Talk… Will I Listen?

My book “Can we Talk… Will you Listen”? – is a non-fiction narrative. It describes my personal journey towards the healing power of dialogue, both as descendent of Nazi Germany and today as benefiting white in South Africa.
I describe how life in South Africa becomes increasingly challenging and leads to the realization that post-apartheid white society shows many of the same patterns as post Nazi German society: resistance with regard to facing and owning past destructive choices, defence mechanisms such as denial, blaming and self-victimizing; avoidance behaviour that divides rather than unites.
I share my experience of engaging in dialogue for several years with young South Africans of diverse backgrounds. The book captures moving testimony by participants in response to the open and intimate sharing of my life journey. Dialogue participants have often said that they felt encouraged by my narrative to touch their own anguish and confront conflicting feelings and challenges about their families and communities.
It is the purpose of this book to inspire open conversations about discrimination and stereotyping, racism, perpetrator – victim dynamics and the trans-generational impact of a traumatic or shameful history. The ‘Born Free’ in South Africa are born burdened by the trauma of their parents suffered during Apartheid, and by their white contemporaries repeating their parent’s apartheid attitudes and behaviour. ‘The Born into Peace’ (instead of war), young white ones, are shackled and psychologically imprisoned by their elder’s silence, denial and resentment.
My book offers opportunity and is an invitation to come together, talk, listen, acknowledge, make peace and build together as a constructive path for a healthy unfolding of the ‘Born After’.
As a descendent of parents who were swept up in Nazi ideology, and having become an adult during the height of silence about this past in Germany, Elke was conscious of the need for dialogue about the past in South Africa, especially at a time when issues of race are dominating public debate. She started an initiative in partnership with the education desk of the Cape Town Holocaust Centre to facilitate inter-racial dialogue sessions with school groups (teachers and scholars). She has also been involved in creating forums for dialogue outside the Holocaust centre.
How to Purchase


Healing Dialogue: Holocaust Foundation, Cape Town, 2012 – 2014