Tag Archives: Holocaust

The Light After the War, by Anita Abriel

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The above synopsis is provided by the publisher, and can be found here.

Overall, the synopsis is misleading. I did expect a romance based on it’s description, but I also expected other elements too due to the narrative about the two main characters, Vera and Edith, fleeing Budapest during WW2. (Really Vera is the main character and Edith is her best friend that supports her throughout the story…but in some chapters, Edith is barely seen.)
Vera’s time during the war is expressed in flashbacks, and is limited throughout the novel. They are very short flashbacks. Most of the story revolves around Vera and Edith’s hunt to find love and make a home.
In the second half, I started counting Vera’s flashbacks; she has three flashbacks after 50% of the novel. And these flashbacks sometimes have little significance; for example one is her shortly recounting the time she saw a ballet.

I am not sure what exactly the plot was supposed to be, but the story is set during 1946-1950 and centers around Vera who is a 19 year-old that has escaped Nazi-Germany with her friend Edith. It bounced around starting with one path but then would abandon the path it was on and begin another: from romance to grieving back to romance to culture/society back to romance to family back to romance, so the direction and where it was headed was obscure for me.
I kept reading hoping the story would evolve, but there were no huge climatic plot elements. The characters were underdeveloped with little to no penetrating depth in the dialogue, and much of what happens to the girls is filled with happy coincidences.

If you like light romances set during WW2 with romanticized dialogue then you will enjoy this novel very much. The romance is very much stylized like an old fashioned cookie-cutter romance.

The other cover for the book that you might see depending on the region you live in.
Author, Anita Abriel. Visit her book’s page on Simon and Schuster.

Visit Anita Abriel’s website or follow her on Goodreads.

More about this:
There is a rich history for Budapest, especially during and after WW2. (Though it wasn’t strongly presented in this novel.)
Below is a picture of “Shoes on the Danube”, a memorial to the Holocaust victims who were brought to the edge of the Danube river, told to remove their shoes, and then shot.

Read about Holocaust victims murdered at the Danube.

Read about the Death March from Budapest and the Budapest Ghetto.

I received an advance copy of The Light After the War from the publisher through Edelweiss. Opinions are my own.

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The Words I Never Wrote, by Jane Thynne

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Two sisters, Irene and Cordelia, find themselves on different political sides of WWII. Irene, married to a high ranking Nazi official, resides in Berlin while Cordelia moves to Paris to work for a journalist reporting on the Nazi’s. Throughout the book, the two sisters periodically communicate through letters.

Underwood Portable typewriter like Cordelia would have used.

It starts out with a modern day character, Juno, in a typewriter shop during 2016. She finds Cordelia’s typewriter from when she was a journalist and purchases it because she also finds a copy of an unpublished novel Cordelia wrote in the typewriter case. Juno goes home and reads Cordelia’s manuscript. Juno’s POV does not pick up again until 59% (on a Kindle).

The first half of the book revolves around the evolving politics of the Nazi party as seen through the eyes of Irene who attends many parties and political events with her Nazi husband. She struggles to accept her role as a wife according to the National Socialist Guide and feels like she must yield in order to survive.

“If you’re going to fit in, you’ll need to accept the way Germans do things.”

Meanwhile, her sister, Cordelia, reports on fashion in Paris while working for a journalist and questions her sisters political allegiance and ethical behavior. Will the two sisters be able to reconcile after the war, or will their political views keep them divided?

“How could a person be dragged screaming into a police care on the streets of a civilized city and not even turn heads?”

Historically : There are lot of prominent historical figures involved in the story such as Martha Dodd, Janet Flanner, Joseph Goebells, Reinhard Heydrich, Sylvia Beach, Arthur Koestler, and Kim Philby. There is dialogue regarding gender inequality; Cordelia has to first work as a secretary because women weren’t seen to be fit as journalist working alongside men, while Irene had to follow the Nazi protocol for being a proper wife and running a household. Degenerate artists are also a considerable subject that are detailed through a character seen in the second half, Oskar Blum, a young artist who is a protege of Liebermann.

“Jew lackeys like Liebermann have a polluting effect. Our culture is cleaner without their entartete Kunst.”

Overall thoughts:  The scenes and descriptions are over-extensive and drawn out which made it feel longer than it had to be. It was slow in some places and a little under halfway through I started to feel eager for the story to climb. (It doesn’t truly reach climax until around 80% on a Kindle.) I enjoyed that the focus was before the war and what led up to it (1936/1937) and then the end of the war (1945/46) rather than what happened during the war. The ending was great and I really enjoyed it. I also loved the political climate that the author creates, and consider the topic of political influence dividing family as relevant today.

(Trigger- rape scene)
Thank you to Random House Ballantine for an advanced copy. Opinions are my own.

Kim Philby’s speech on becoming a double agent. (In The Words I Never Wrote, Kim Philby plays a big role in Cordelia’s life.)
Read about Martha Dodd and her relationship with Nazi’s.









From Jane Thynne:

Visit Jane Thynne’s website to learn more.

Enter the book giveaway for The Words I Never Wrote. Valid November 3-17, 2019.

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Once Night Falls, by Roland Merullo

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A November 2019 Amazon First Reads pick.

“Why did pain exist? Why did evil exist? Why had God allowed men like Hitler and Mussolini to come to power?”

Beginning with the reprisal killings at Piazzale Loreto, the story goes through Italy’s political and militaristic transitions during Mussolini’s dethronement by the king starting with his banishment/hiding at La Maddalena. It has graphic moments and incorporates a fair amount of history. It recounts the Nazi’s invasion of Italy (though brief) and describes the implementation of antisemitic laws and practices in Italy during WW2. The story runs through each character’s conflict (mostly at night as the title implies) and continues as does Mussolini staying hidden. Each character is connected in some way and wants to learn Mussolini’s whereabouts to either help kill him, help reinstate him, or help imprison him. In this fictional tale, Mussolini’s death is not featured since the story ends beforehand. Because of this, I cannot say that I completely liked the fictional ending. It seemed to stop suddenly and without closure for the reader. The epilogue does account for his death, though the epilogue is a statement of facts.

“Now the king has removed il Duce from power and hidden him away, and everybody is desperately trying to find him– the Allies to take him prisoner, Hitler to rescue him, our comrades to kill him.”

There are a lot of characters in motion, and they skip around quite a bit. The chapters alternate without pattern, and a new character is introduced all the way until chapter 12. This took some adjusting as a reader.
For example- chapter 1 Sarah, chapter 2 Mussolini, chapter 3 Frederico, chapter 4 Luca, chapter 5 Maria, chapter 6 Don Claudio, chapter 7 back to Mussolini, chapter 8 Silvio Merino, chapter 9 back to Luca, chapter 10, back to Sarah, and chapter 12 Otto.
There are not any indicators under or above the chapters such as the location, date, or character POV, so you have to figure it out as you go. Because of this, I do not recommend reading this book over a long period of time or it could be confusing to remember all of the various characters.

The characters POV include members of the Italian resistance, Benito Mussolini, priests, Nazi’s, Jews in hiding, Italians hiding Jews, counterfeit artists.
My favorite chapters were told from Mussolini’s POV and the Don Claudio (the priest) POV.

It is a good entertaining story. The writing is simple and easy to understand. There are traitors and secrets. I still really liked it even though I didn’t completely like the end and though it was hard to get emotionally attached to the characters though since there were so many. There is mild vulgar language and scenes that imply sexual acts.

This was taken from author Roland Merullo’s site.

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Citizen 865: The Hunt For Hitler’s Hidden Soldiers in America, by Debbie Cenziper

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Written in third person narrative, this might not be everyone’s preferred nonfiction writing style. It extends beyond the facts that cling to the title to explain the weather that day, what the person looked like, and other details that some nonfiction readers might not find pertinent to the main content. Before the book begins, the author explains in the Author’s Note that most of the dialogue and wartime journeys have been “reconstructed” by her through documents and interviews; the reconstructed dialogue and scenes could cause speculation if used for research purposes.

It starts off with a young Jewish man, Feliks, running. His story comes back much later in the book. However, he has no connection to Citizen 865 or the other men that were on trial in the book, so I was a little confused about the correlation with his story in the book. The only connection I could make is that he was running from the Nazi’s, so the connection is very loosely done.

Most of the first half of the book focuses on OSI members, lawyers, and historians searching for information regarding the men at Trawniki. It specifies the historians and OSI travels, how they found the documents, and the conflicts they had to overcome in order to obtain information for a considerable amount of time in the book. Their research goes through documents and archives that detail the Warsaw ghetto, Polish Home Army, and the Polish Underground. A lot of information concerning Lublin is disclosed including the Lublin ghetto and the Jews of Lublin. The focus on Citizen 865 is not a point of concentration until the second half of the book, specifically during Part 4. Notably, as stated in the title, it is about various Nazi’s in America that a group of OIS agents and lawyers attempt to find and put on trial. They only Nazi’s they look for are “Trawniki Men”.

Organization: Part 1 Occupied Poland 1941-1943 (3-13%), Part 2 United States 1978-1992 (13-49%), Part 3 Poland and the United States 1941-1951 (49-63%), Part 4 United States 1996-2013 (63-88%), Epilogue 88-89%, Notes/Prologues (Bibliography organized by chapters) 91-100%

3.5 stars rounded up because I really enjoyed the court room scene against Citizen 865 at 66-81%. Thank you to NetGalley and Hatchette Books for an advanced copy. Opinions are my own.

More on this:
HISTORIAN PETER BLACK DESCRIBES RESEARCHING EVIDENCE FOR AN OSI CASE

‘Get the Nazi out of New York.’ The secret operation to deport the last living Nazi defendant in the U.S. was a rare success.

How the Nazis Got to New York: Immigration Fraud

Eli Rosenbaum, Nazi Hunter
Eli RosenBaum, former Director of the U.S. DOJ Office of Special Investigations
Peter Black, Senior Historian at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum who worked on the Citizen 865 case
Peter Black, Senior Historian at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum who worked on the Citizen 865 case
description
In 2001, Jakiw Palij confessed to U.S. Department of Justice officials that he was a guard at Trawniki. Click here to read the full article.

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Children of the Stars, by Mario Escobar

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Falling somewhere between an odyssey and a saga, this is a tale of exile reminding us that kindness and humanity will radiate in the season of sorrow.

1942: The parents of Jacob and Moses have sent the boys to live with their aunt in Paris since the war is getting worse. On the streets, the boys get swept away in the Velodrome d’Hiver roundup in Paris. Choosing to escape, Jacob and Moses return to their aunt’s home, discover old letters from their parents, and decide to go find them.

Through Jacob and Moses’ journey to reunite with their parents, we see an assortment of people with their own ethnicity, history, ideals, and stories. The variety of people they encounter leave you seeing the variations of WWII through an array of lenses.

I really enjoyed that it centered around the viewpoint of children; two boys holding on to what remains of childhood. The relationship between Jacob and Moses is so sweet and childlike though war attempts to blockade their innocence.

“Observing the happiness of others always makes the world make a little more sense all of a sudden, makes suffering a little more bearable, makes grief a little less suffocating.”

“When you’re young, you dream about making the world a better place, overturning injustice and inequality. But within time you just settle for getting by.”

“Don’t ever change. Sometimes the world can turn us into something we shouldn’t be.”

“Humans are nothing more than the sum of their affections and the connections they make in life. When those ties break, loneliness destroys what little is left in an uninhabited heart.”

The author confirms the brothers, Jacob and Moses, are fictitious. However, they represent the real children who traveled across Europe as refugees during WWII. Historically, Mario Escobar gracefully blends facts with fiction. He addresses areas in Europe that are commonly suppressed amid a defying WWII history. Several authentic historical characters are involved that include Andre Trocme, Daniel Trome, and Edouard Theis.

4 out of 5 star rating explained: While tender and touching, there were some implausible situations and cliché conditions. Also, their voyage to find their parents continued relentlessly, so I always knew what to expect to happen…they would keep going to find their parents.

Overall, it is a feel-good novel that takes you across Europe with two children during war.There is a lot of historical content and I found myself Googling a lot of the names and places. There is mild violence, no vulgar language, and no sex. I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

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More on this topic:
Andre and Magda Trocme
Le Chambon-sur-Lignon
Phillipe Petain and the Vichy puppets

Jewish children hidden in Le Chambon
Jewish children hidden in Le Chambon.
description
Jewish and non-Jewish refugee children sheltered in Le Chambon.

Mario Escobar is the author of many novels including Auschwitz Lullaby. This title, Children of the Stars, was originally published in Spanish under the title Los niños de la estrella amarilla.

The German House, by Annette Hess

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Eva is navigating life as young adult while trying to balance newfound independence. Accepting a new job translating at a trial, she is torn between her career and her boyfriend, Jurgen, who wants her to be a stay at home wife. Eva then learns that her own family does not agree with her involvement as a translator in the trial either. Translating for the Polish victims of the Holocaust, Eva is met with stories of horror and bravery. But as the trial progresses, she can’t help but feel there are secrets her family is hiding. 

This is a book that grows on you as you read. Having said that, it took time to get to know the characters. They felt out of reach at first, and it was hard to get to know them for almost the entire first half of the book. The beginning was slow to start, and it wasn’t until around 40-50% of the book that I felt like I was getting into it. This was primarily because the plot was slow to develop, and the characters were distant. It takes a while to get used to the writing style as there are no chapters and it skips around a lot. 

The story presents a lot of tough questions to the reader. It tests the waters of human nature speculating the condemnation of one alone for the killing of millions. 
I would have liked to have heard from other characters perspectives more. Specifically, Walther Schoomann, Sissi, and David Miller. In the end, I felt left with unanswered questions about some of the characters.

The courtroom drama and the trial were my favorite part. Halfway through, I could not put the book down. The last few pages of “Part 3” were very powerful and moving. Many thanks to Edelweiss and HarperVia for this advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

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In the Warsaw Ghetto, by Glenn Haybittle

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This is one of the most dramatic historical fiction novels I have read this summer. It is a quick read because of the intensity and it does not hold back! 

Through Ala and Max, the reader is thrown on a wild ride in the ghetto of Warsaw. The authenticity of the characters in this novel is unparalleled, and their thoughts throughout the entire novel are real and meaningful, yet heart-breaking. The graphic and gory scenes experienced and seen by Ala and Max punctuates the scale of the nightmare endured by those living within the ghetto’s walls.

Through the perspectives of Ala, still a teen, and Max, in his late thirties, the reader is quickly immersed into the relocation of Jews moving into the ghetto. As part of the high-class society, family members of Ala and Max swiftly cling to their prominence by joining the Judenrat where the reader sees corrupt behavior, nefarious lawlessness, and deceit among Jews. Ala and Max struggle to adapt and survive the inhumane conditions of the largest Jewish ghetto of WWII while seeking to maintain their sense of humanity. “The awful thing is I feel shame and compassion every day but it doesn’t fundamentally change my behavior.” Both Ala and Max continue to examine that the plight of survival has exposed the most unsavory things about themselves. Meanwhile, the Jewish political parties pull for Ala and Max to join their cause eventually leading to the bloodbath of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising. 

There are notable sexual situations and thoughts embedded in this novel. But, why not? The sexual instances were outwardly used to reveal that not only were these characters very much human with human feelings, but that principles and integrity were still accounted for even when the world around them was crumbling. It lent credibility to the circumstances; teenagers were probably still thinking about it, and people were still having it. Examples of these scenes: “Firstly, he couldn’t believe the size of the man’s organ…Secondly, he had never heard of a woman putting a penis in her mouth.” “Ala pictures herself dancing naked for him.” “Most of Ala’s secrets are related to sex.” 

Many thanks to Cheyne Walk, Glenn Haybittle, and NetGalley for allowing me to read this advanced copy in exchange for my review. 
The emotional depth involved that the author captured is astounding. I’ll be looking for more from this author.  4.5 stars

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The World That We Knew, by Alice Hoffman

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I have to admit that I was ambivalent about the description of this novel, but I was completely swept off of my feet. From the first line, you are pulled into the world painted by Alice Hoffman. Yes, this is historical fiction with a splash of magical realism; and yes, it is awesome. This book is filled with insightful quotes, and will saturate you with sensibility and nostalgia. 

From the involvement of the Huguenots, Jewish resistance groups, Operation Spring Breeze, etc., I was blown away by the amount of history she incorporated. I would say that there is more history surrounding the characters in this novel than fantasy. While this novel does bare magic, the story revolves around the setting in history.
The fantasy advances the internal conflict within the social setting of Germany and France itself while magical realism vividly paints this picture over the atmosphere of WWII that have never been put into words before. Beasts, angels, and fate contribute to the blanket of symbolism and metaphorical environment of Nazi occupied territories. 

I did not enjoy when the golem is made in the beginning. The creation itself seemed to unnecessarily drag on and it almost made me want to stop reading. However, it was only for a chapter, although a tiresome long chapter. This was minute and not enough to take off a star. 
If you like WWII novels, I recommend adding this to your list.
Thank you to NetGalley, Simon & Schuster, and Alice Hoffman for giving me the opportunity to read and review this novel. The opinions in this review are my own.

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Wunderland, by Jennifer Cody Epstein

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My biggest dislike was the historical accuracy of the novel. Many dates were off, among other things. For example: In 1935 Ilse is part of the BDM but has not experienced or succumbed to any racial propaganda, which is largely unlikely. The Nuremburg Race Laws were started in September of 1935; but before that time they already tolerated violence against Jews and that year in particular was a violent one.


The story reasons Isle joining the BDM to feel like she is part of something. Yes, the feeling of being part of change and being something bigger was appealing, while the monetary value was also substantial to those effected by the recent depression shortly before. Everyone had their own reason for joining, but antisemitism was prevalent and very much understood–especially with BDM leaders and it is ignored in this novel until later in 1938. Among other things during this time, they were indeed taught to identify Jews as the enemies. The novel does not accurately reveal these thoughts or ideals for youth members until years later.
In another chapter set during 1936, it talks about British Boy Scouts coming to participate with the Hitlerjugend. This seems highly unlikely since Hitler’s Party banned the Boy Scouts in 1935.

I didn’t enjoy chapter for Ava as much as I did the chapters for Renate and Isle. Some parts of the chapters for Ava almost seem like “fillers” and unrelated.
There is an attempt to connect the story to Alice in Wonderland, but it is done so loosely and poorly. The transitions and timing of this connection are not smoothly made and are awkward for the reader.

However, I did enjoy the ending to this novel and the overall relationship between Isle and Renate.

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Doctors from Hell: The Horrific Account of Nazi Experiments on Humans, by Vivien Spitz

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The information is provided through the author’s first hand account as a court reporter of the Nazi doctor’s crimes at the Nuremburg trials.
She presents the chapters through the different Nazi experiments on humans. For example, there is a chapter on freezing experiments, another chapter on sterilization, another chapter on mustard gas experiments, etc… Because the chapters are divided in this manner, it makes it easy to use for research purposes while for the common reader it allows you to easily obtain the information.

The facts are explained through the Nuremburg testimonies as reported by the court. It is not the entire report, but only the pertinent information for the purpose of the book. The reports account for dialogue between both the prisoners, Nazi’s, judge, witnesses, and prosecutors. The author explains the court reports before and after exposing them to provide background information. She uses language that is understandable for the common layman to comprehend. Photos are included throughout this book.

Keep in mind that this is a memoir, which is considered literary nonfiction. So, there are moments when she does recount her thoughts and feelings during this time. Ocasionally, she will discuss her life in Germany while working as a young reporter; this adds to the setting during this time since her and other reporters had no warm running water etc…as a result of the war.

I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the facts during the Holocaust, specifically the atrocities committed by Nazi doctors to innocent civilians in Germany.

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