The concept of "Heimat" has no adequate equivalent in English because German history has charged it with such disreputable connotations. The Nazis appropriated the word for ideological purposes…. The concept of a traditional, regional home was already strongly rooted in popular consciousness, and it was not long before the word "Heimat" no longer implied sentimental feelings towards one's own homeland, but rather patriotic feelings towards the "völkisch" element of the rural past, a reverence for all things that purported to be of ethnic German origin….

This atavistic "heimat" ideology was naturally of great significance in East Prussia, a province separated from the fatherland for a second time by the establishment of the Polish Corridor in 1919. It is East Prussia, more specifically the dreary swamps and lakes of Masuria, which provide the setting for Siegfried Lenz's historical novel [The Heritage]. The original title of the book was Heimatmuseum...