Holocaust survivors for his father's cruelty, and Polish Gov-
ernor General Hans Frank's son, Norman, decided not to
have children so his family's tainted name would not con-
tinue. Most also considered it their "special obligation" to
prevent another Adolf Hitler from rising to power.
Children of the most prominent Nazis, such as Mengele,
were subjected to the worst public stigmas. Rolf Mengele de-
scribed being taunted in school as "the little Nazi" and "SS
Mengele" and wishing he had another father. But Mr. Pos-
ner concluded the offspring of less well-known criminals,
like Liesel Appel, were not at all spared the inner torment
that came with their heritage.
"(Holocaust survivors and their families) should know that
we, the children of these men who are guilty of crimes, that
we don't just forget about the Holocaust," Dagmar. Drexel,
daughter of convicted Nazi war criminal Max Drexel, told
Mr. Posner. "Instead, we try to do our little part to prevent
it from happening ever again."

`I Was Surrounded By Evil'

U

nfortunately, in 1951 Liesel did not realize others were
having the same reactions. For her, life in Germany
was unbearable. She spent endless hours alone in her
room studying books about the Holocaust or writing in her
diary. She was horrified to be part of the nation that carried
out the crimes she read about.
"I was surrounded by evil," she said. "I would look at people
I saw in school or the streets and wonder what they had
done during the war. I wouldn't let anyone reach me. I knew
exactly how to hurt my mother and I made life very un-
comfortable for her."
Else Steffens was convinced her sweet little girl would
forget her anger, but the situation only got worse. Soon Liesel
took to running away to the forest. The happy hours she
had spent there with her father seemed like another life-
time. Now, she would sleep in old cars and ignore the sharp
hunger pangs for as long as she was able.
When she was 10 years old, she swallowed most of a bot-
tle of rat poison. "Why did you do it?" her mother begged
when Liesel reluctantly opened her eyes days later in the
hospital. But Liesel just gave her a withering look before
she turned her face to the wall.
Else Steffens was determined to repair her relationship
with her daughter. But after many frustrated attempts, she
finally agreed to enroll her in an expensive Dusseldorf all-
girls boarding school. While Liesel was there, a friend
chopped off her fingefs and two cousins committed sui-
cide out of shame over their families' Nazi history.
"Many of us felt the burden," Ms. Appel said. "But no one
talked about it. For many years it was like it had never hap-
pened at all."
As she grew older, Liesel briefly found happiness with a
German boy she met in Dusseldorf. But when he proposed
to her when she was 17, she fled in the middle of the night
with a small suitcase and $20.
"I suppose I would have had an easier life if I had married
him," Ms. Appel reflected. "I still keep in touch with him —
he's very well-to-do. But I couldn't get serious with a German.
I always knew I had to get away at the earliest opportunity"
Liesel arrived at Victoria Station in London and spent
the night alone in a cheap hotel. She drifted penniless from
place to place, refusing to touch the large inheritance her
father had left her. She changed her name to Lisa Scotland
and spoke only English to obliterate the last of her German
ties.
Soon she met George Browne, a local black musician.
Liesel felt she had found a kindred soul and they were mar-
ried shortly after.
"The one thing we had in common was we were both run-
ning from our identities," Ms. Appel said. "He didn't like be-

ing black, and I didn't like being German. There was this
tremendous void in our lives."
Through George, Liesel became deeply involved in
Amnesty International and the anti-apartheid movement.
She fought for racial equality in the growing African na-
tions and became one of the few white people the black lead-
ers trusted. She spent months living among African tribes
and even financed the education of a young member with
some of her savings.
"I thought of myself as a free-spirited human being with
no prejudices whatsoever," Ms. Appel said. "I tried to make
up for what happened in Germany by helping as many oth-
er people as possible. I thought I had to be outspoken on the
right side of things and I could never let up."
She even became a vegetarian because she could not bear
the thought of another living being suffering because of her.
For awhile, Liesel's life once again seemed charmed. She
and George owned several successful health food restau-
rants in England and mixed in prominent social circles. She
gave birth to a son, Hugh, in 1964 and a daughter, Annette,
in 1970.

Occasionally Liesel returned to Germany to visit her moth-
er, but almost always with a taxi waiting outside. She rarely When she was
brought her children with her, and she made up fantastic
young, Liesel
stories about her parents' heroic past to anyone who asked.
idolized
Once Else Steffens read about Liesel's human rights en-
her father.
deavors in a German newspaper. Although she could bare-
ly walk, she traveled for an entire day to see her beloved "My father was
my hero.
daughter change planes for Kenya at the Frankfurt airport.
Liesel barely glanced in her direction.
He made me
"I thought I was doing the right thing," Ms. Appel said. feel so special."
"But now I realize I had become what I despised. I hated all
intolerance, but I was very intolerant. Forgiveness and fac-
ing the truth about others is what really sets us free."
In 1980 Liesel moved her family to Palm Beach, Fla. She
was ready for a change, and she thought the warm Florida
sunshine would be good for her sickly daughter.
Unfortunately, the Brownes smacked into the heart of the
racial prejudice still common in the United States. People
boycotted the restaurant she and her husband opened and
garbage men left their trash lying in the street. Their black
cook was shot as he left work late one night.
"When I look up from my dinner, I don't want to see a nig-
ger," one man told her coldly.
Ever the social activist, Liesel wanted to fight the injus-
tice her family suffered. But George had other ideas. Divided
over whether to battle the prejudice, their 20-year marriage
crumbled. Liesel fled to California with her daughter and