Tag Archives: WWII

The Traitor, by V.S. Alexander

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In 1942, Natalya volunteers as a nurse for the German Red Cross and witnesses WWII on the Russian Front. After her time volunteering, she moves back home to Munich where she joins the White Rose resistance group with her close friends. After the group is caught, Natalya must keep resisting but does not know who she can trust.

The inspiration for the novel is the White Rose resistance group. The main character, Natalya, does not join the White Rose organization until the very end of chapter three (or 20% on a Kindle). Admittedly, I was hoping for more from the first half of the novel which is mostly about her involvement in White Rose. It really moved slowly and was passive. (Her involvement in the White Rose ended about around halfway into the story; so about 20-50% is her direct involvement in the White Rose.) On the other hand, several of the characters circulating during this time were real members of the White Rose group. A tribute to the true members of the White Rose resistance group was requited through the characters Alex Schmorell, Hans Scholl, and Sophie Scholl.

Her journey after the resistance group was most interesting. This is the second half of the novel and was much more exciting. This includes court drama, a prison sentence, POW camp, and more that leads up to the end of the war.

The narrator, Natalya, was hard to connect with. I liked her, I just wanted more depth from her. When reading WWII fiction there is a level of emotion to be expected, but Natalya’s character did not evoke those feelings for me because her narration was often listless.

Because of the great last half, I enjoyed it.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy. Opinions are my own.

More on this: 

Hans and Sophie Scholl remain symbols of resistance
Read about the guillotine used for Hans and Sophie Scholl.

Hans Scholl (left), Sophie Scholl and Christoph Probst, leaders of the White Rose resistance. Photo taken from the Jewish Virtual Library.
Alex Schmorell, read more about him here.
Stadelheim Prison was widely known to execute its prisoners by guillotine. Main character, Natalya, experiences life in Stadelheim prison in the novel The Traitor.
Weiße Rose Pavement Memorial in Munich Germany. Bronze pamphlets in reverence to Hans Scholl, Sophie Scholl, and Christoph Probst. Visit the memorial here.

The Traitor is V.S. Alexander’s fourth novel. Visit author V.S. Alexander on Goodreads to view all of his books.

Follow author V.S. Alexander on Facebook.

View Publisher Weekly’s Review of his novel The Taster.

Visit V.S. Alexander’s author page on Kensington Books website.

(This author also writes under the name Michael Meeske.)

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The Whispers of War, by Julia Kelly

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Above is the book synopsis taken from Julia Kelly’s page.

The title explains the book; it is quite literally chatter about the war. There is a lot of dialogue and conversation among the three friends about war coming. There is nothing militaristic except a few mentions of a blackout, and the details of the Jews suffering is negated. The synopsis mentions internment camps. But again the internment camps is only chatter among the friends and it never goes beyond their conversation.

The plot itself transpires around the social transformations during 1939 and 1940 for the three friends Marie, Nora, and Hazel. With various backgrounds, the main drama ensues around Marie who is of German descent living in Britain. Marie is painted as the victim of anti-German sentiments during the onset of WWII. The friends circle around Marie to provide support while politics begin to intrude the homes of Britain and divide families.

I found the dual timeline unnecessary. Samantha (now/present) is to deliver her grandmother’s eulogy, so she travels from America to Britain to visit with her friend Nora in order to learn more about her grandmother (Marie) so that she can write a proper eulogy. There isn’t any puzzle piecing involved with the dual timeline.

Overall, this was an okay read for me. It was a lot of talking and not a lot of happening. There was also plenty of romance, which I don’t mind, but I didn’t find it very pertinent to the storyline.

Julia Kelly is the author of Light over London, a best-selling historical fiction novel.

Visit Julia Kelly’s website to learn more.

https://youtu.be/HXsNOLyaDms

I received an advance copy of The Whispers of War from the publisher via NetGalley. 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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All the Ways We Said Goodbye, by Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, and Karen White

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I would describe this as primarily a mystery of family lineage with the thrill of untangling the relationships of the characters in the past set over three different time periods. Secondly, I describe this as a romance. Each of the main characters has their own romantic relationship that is flourishing.

Summary: In 1914, heiress Aurelie seeks to restructure her future while war breaks out. In 1942, Daisy joins the resistance though her husband works for the Nazi’s. In 1964, shortly after her the death of her husband, Babs decides to find someone code-named “Le Fluer” who was part of the resistance during WW2 but had an alleged relationship with her husband.

Historically: The focus is not on the resistance, their fight, or the war. The reader does see a bit of resistance occur, but it is short-lived because the focus always turns back to the budding romance. The story revolves around their relationships. It very briefly mentions a few things that other novels have included such as Coco Chanel and the Velodrome. The Jews and their suffering are not detailed. The setting is historical, but historically nothing new is learned.

Chapter Organization : Each chapter alternates between three main characters: Aurelie, Daisy, and Babs. This takes adjusting on part of the reader. Each chapter is not short, so when a new chapter started, I often found myself having to internally remind myself which character that was and their background before beginning.

Overall Thoughts: There were a lot of scenes in Babs chapters that I found hard to believe. The story moved at a moderate pace until around 83% when the missing pieces of the lineage and relationship puzzle start to come together. (However, it was easy to predict most of these pieces.) This is a romantic mystery that takes place in the past. Overall, I kept reading to confirm my suspicions about the mystery concerning the relationships set in the past.
Thank you to NetGalley, Edelweiss, and HarperCollins for a copy. Opinions are my own.

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The Secret Messenger, by Mandy Robotham

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1944, Venice: Stella, a member of the Venice Resistance Central Brigade, takes a job working in Nazi headquarters to help pass information to the resistance. Stella, an anti-fascist, risks her life daily by working among Black Brigade fascists and Nazi’s where she helps type and translate documents for them. Working for the enemy, Stella is asked to translate a document that will change her future and cause her to choose between her country or her family.

2017, Bristol: Luisa’s mother dies and she begins to go through her things. She unearths a plethora of artifacts that relate to her grandmother in her mother’s attic. Luisa seeks to find answers about who she is and the roots of her maternal family.

Historically: This is one of the stronger novels that pays homage to the women involved in the movements of resistance. The Jewish ghetto raids, the Bloody Summer of Venice, the bombing of Guidecca, the Riva dei Sette Martiri tragedy, and many others made a detailed appearance in this fictional account. The Nazi reprisals in Venice that were witnessed by Stella really struck a chord with me. The Ca’Littoria and Santa Maggiore jail are mentioned several times in this novel, though never any harrowing details.

My technical notes: Out of forty chapters total, fourteen of those chapters took place during modern day with Luisa’s character in 2017/2018. Luisa’s chapters in 2017/2018 are notably much shorter. Most of the story centers around the past during 1944 in Venice with Stella (26 chapters to be exact). A romance is involved and does play a large role in the story; however, I felt like it did not detract from the historical elements. I felt the romance complemented the story well. No vulgarity and no sexy details.

I really enjoyed this novel and learned a lot about Venice during 1944. I enjoyed the mystery behind Stella’s job and co-workers, which kept me trying to figure out who Stella could trust and who she couldn’t. Sometimes there were too many descriptions of the scenery concerning Venice that caused me to feel disengaged. I did not specifically look forward to Luisa’s chapters until the second half of the book. I appreciated that most of it focused on Stella rather than Luisa. The ending was fast paced and I blew through it. Overall, it really caused me to think about how we measure valor and it was a good read. Lovers of WWII historical fiction will enjoy The Secret Messenger.

Ada Gobetti, a central member of the Italian resistance movement. (Very briefly mentioned in the novel.)
An original vintage 1940S OLIVETTI M44 typewriter. Similar to the one Stella would have used in the story.
The site for the “The Seven Venetian martyrs”.
This image was taken from a travel guide and can be found here to learn more.

Mandy Robotham is the author of The German Midwife, her first novel. The Secret Messenger is her second novel.

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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 Last Train to London, by Meg Waite Clayton

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This novel is based on the organization and implementation of the real Vienna Kindertransport that was led by Geertruida Wijsmuller. This fictional story occurs prior to 1940, and primarily happens during 1938. 

We see a Dutch couple, Truus (Geertruida) and her husband Joop Wijsmuller, who are childless. Truus is a brave and outspoken woman who risks her life countless time to seek refuge for helpless children. We also see the rich Jewish family of Stephan, who is stripped of everything once the Germans invade Austria. There is the family of Zophie (Stephan’s best friend), whose mother is a journalist reporting the true crimes of the Nazi’s and eventually is on the run. And, there is also Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi in charge of ridding Germany of its Jewish population through emigration.

Beginning in 1936, we see the pre-invasion environment of Austria through the eyes of Stephan and Zophie. The “re-culturing” that Hitler aimed to achieve is a common topic of discussion in Stephan’s household among his parents and family members who are strong admirers of art. Soon after the Nazi’s have began assaulting their culture, German soldiers in their brown shirts with swastikas march in while Stephan and Zophie rehearsing a play. How will Zophie, an Aryan, react when Stephan is treated with brutality by Nazi’s? Meanwhile, after invasion, Truus plans to transport a large number of children in danger to London. 

It was hard for me to get invested in this story. There were too many characters in motion for me to get attached and emotional. With the chapters being so short, it also took a long time to get to know them. There was too much dialogue between Truus and Joop that was about everyday things which overcrowded their character. It felt like too much information was included about the planning process and mundane arbitrary paperwork that went into Truus’ operations rather than focusing on her “in action”. While the information was appreciated since lending to authenticity, it took away from the story and the characters. At times, they felt so far away from me because I felt clustered and weighed down in intentions, ideas, and procedures. I wanted to be in my feelings, but it didn’t happen.
The story was at a dull but tolerant trot until 65% (on a Kindle) in which the plot starts to build and the story starts to take flight…but it’s almost over at that point.

During the pre-invasion, there are details in this novel about degenerate art and artists. For more information regarding this topic, I would highly recommend the nonfiction book Hitler’s Last Hostages: Looted Art and the Soul of the Third Reich by Mary M. Lane.
Many thanks to HarperCollins, Edelweiss, and Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Geertruida Wijsmuller:

WijsmullerMeijer1965.jpg

Adolf Eichmann:

Adolf Eichmann, 1942.jpg

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Where the Desert Meets the Sea, by Werner Sonne

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The book is told chronologically and the dates are vastly important in order to comprehend the extend of what happened in so little time to each of the characters. The characters are concentrated around a young Arab woman, Hanna, and a young Jewish woman, Judith, with every character in the story being connected to either Hanna or Judith. However, it is told from many of the characters POV (not just from Hanna and Judith). I especially enjoyed the different character viewpoints and found the author did a great job describing the Middle Eastern conflict of Jerusalem through many different sets of eyes.

The author shows a variation of answers to the question–Who does Jerusalem belong to?–through these different points of view. It doesn’t singularly revolve around just one or two characters. That is probably the most spectacular thing about this story, is to experience the Middle Eastern conflict from different angles.

This book is filled with a lot of history, but also language and culture. The author incorporates Hebrew, Arabic, and Yiddish words/phrases. Because of this, I recommend reading it on a Kindle so that you can translate quickly.

This is action-packed. So much so, that sometimes certain details were left out that help move the story along. Things such as sensory imagery and directional surroundings. Because there was so much action, things like this were left out quite frequently. It sometimes caused the flow of the story to be broken. There was so much information provided that literary devices were left out. This also caused the first part of the book to be difficult to get through. 

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