QUESTIONS FOR BOOK GROUPS AND TEACHERS

1. If Ilse (Ettlinger) Walker had reappeared in Kurt’s life in America, what would the consequences have been?
2. In Heinz’s letter to Kurt dated July 30, 1946, he writes in part, “…our dear father…” Why did Heinz refer to their father as “dear”?
3. How would Kurt’s life have been different had I.J. Wagner not died in 1950?
4. Why did Kurt feel it necessary in 1978 to tell Heinz, “Your father was a son of a bitch!” And, what was meant by Heinz’s response, “You don’t know everything”.
5. Why did Heinrich appear to abandon Kurt’s family in Camp de Gurs and Kurt in Chicago?
6. Why didn’t Kurt and Heinz discuss their past with each other? If they had, would their relationship have been different?
7. When Sitting on Top of the World ended, what emotion(s) did you feel? What different emotion(s) if any, did you feel after you read the epilogue?
8. If you had one question each for Kurt and Heinz, what would it be?
9. What passage from the book stood out to you?
10. Did you learn something from a historical perspective that you did not know before reading Sitting on Top of the World?
11. What major emotion did Sitting on Top of the World evoke in you?
12. If you consider yourself to be a faith based person, how would your faith have been affected if you had lived Kurt’s life?
13. Why wasn’t Heinz turned over to the Nazi party in Karlsruhe?
14. What story line were you drawn to?