(Also mentioned: “Mein Kampf” by Adolf Hitler; “Those Who Save Us” by Jenna Blum; “Winter Garden” by Kristin Hannah.)
Just like so many things in life, I suddenly find myself in a rut with my books this summer. I am in a Bible study that turns into a book club during the summer and I am in a year-round book club as well. Between June and August, of the six books for both clubs, four of them were about the Holocaust. What in the world?! It seems to be a trend right now. A friend and I were just talking about this the other day and wondering if we have reached a time that enough years have passed where we can revisit that period of time and look at it from many points of view, many lives that were impacted but ignored, and stories that just have not been told yet.
Bible study’s book club summer selections: “Sarah’s Key,” “The Book Thief” and “The Tower, the Zoo and the Tortoise.”
Year-round book club summer selections: “Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand,” “Winter Garden,” and “Those Who Save Us.”
“Sarah’s Key” tells of the impact of World War II and the Nazis in France, “Winter Garden” focuses on the Russian story and “Those Who Save Us” is about the oppressed Germans (especially women and children) in that time. While the majority of our attention has been on Jewish people and the terror and tragedy (there never seems to be a good enough word to describe how horrific it was), stories about the others who were slaughtered, oppressed, ignored and suffered are starting to emerge. High schools are using books like “Sarah’s Key” and “The Book Thief” to introduce this time period to our students and give it a bit more reality and flavor than a textbook.
I was unable to read “Sarah’s Key” so I cannot give my own opinion. I will say that of all the women I have spoken to about the book (approximately 15 of them), half of them loved the book and the other half had no use for it at all. If I get to it, I will post my thoughts.
“Winter Garden” by Kristin Hannah – A dying father requests that his two daughters do all they can to coax their mother’s life story from her. The two girls, as different as night and day, focus on their withdrawn mother, a woman who they truly have never known even though she has always been present. Through the patience of time and many conversations, they strive to know this Russian immigrant and her secret past from the days of WWII. As the sisters hear their mother’s stories and learn about her pain and struggles, many of her habits and actions from their childhood begin to make sense and their empathy and grace toward her grows. Both sisters’ stories are also told, mostly how they relate to those around them and how their mother has impacted them throughout their lives. I know many women who love this book and the author – I was just ok with it, but the women who love this book >love< this book.
“Those Who Save Us” by Jenna Blum – This book is two stories pulled into one. The mother’s story follows her as a German single mother who suffers under the Nazi regime. The daughter is a college professor who specializes in German history and begins a project of collecting the stories of German women who were impacted by the war. The chapters switch off between the two and sometimes overlap, giving explanations and a rounder story. The author is an expert in this field so you know the stories she relays must have some truth to them – and they can be quite stark. The treatment of women and children in Nazi Germany is unsettling. The physical and sexual abuse can be stark and it lends a different side to the harsh Nazi lifestyle that has not previously been exposed too heavily. To see the story as a whole come together was interesting, but I was not in a place to read a lot of the sad, true and dark parts – it was a difficult read at times.
With all these books, I find that the need to tell stories is becoming more and more important. Many stories have been overlooked or told they are not as important, and books like these give credence and weight to the true lives around us. It is interesting that the two women in the stories who lived through WWII cannot discuss it, either with ease or at all. The darkness and lessons to not discuss their history must be so heavy in people who survived – I cannot imagine. It reminds us that writing and journaling and “talk-story” are very important and part of history.
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Now, I come to “The Book Thief” by Markus Zusak. I’ll just come out with it – I love this book. How much do I love this book? 1) I had that odd mix of “could-not-put-it-down but don’t-finish-it-quickly-because-then-it-will-be-over”; 2) I finished the book and wept – I am still not sure if it was because of the ending, or that I was finished or that I had been so moved that I just released it all when the book was closed; 3) I have owned three copies of this book – one paperback that I leant out and it did not return to me, a paperback to lend out, and a hardback that does not leave the house; 4) I have read it four times in two years; and 5) This book blog was named in its honor.“The Book Thief” is set in World War II Germany. Liesel, a young German girl, is sent to live with foster parents. Her desire to learn to read, and then just read in general, swirls around and through the book and the people she meets and loves and knows. One thing that often turns people off from the book immediately is that the narrator is Death. But it is not the long, dark cloaked figure with the scythe in hand – a caricature that gives Death a good laugh – but an empathetic, soft, gentle figure. The kind you wish gathered the dead in tragic places such as bombed-out homes and human ovens. During my first reading, I was halfway through before I realized I had been picturing death as a woman – a Death that gently carries, even mourns, but yet stoically does her job as it must be done and she is the one to do it.
While no book set in World War II Germany is without its sadness – could it be possible? – there is such hope in this book. There is death and suffering, but there is life and hope. Do not let the subject matter or narrator turn you off. When I talk about this book with people who also love it, everyone has a favorite character and they truly love them – Liesel, Rudy, Hans, Rosa, Max, the mayor’s wife, Death. If you ask someone who they enjoyed the most, they will go on and on. I find myself drawn to someone new each time I read it.
My book club read this book a good year and a half ago and afterwards we visited the Illinois Holocaust Museum in Skokie. (http://www.ilholocaustmuseum.org/) I highly recommend a visit, but would not suggest anyone less than 14 years old attend. Between the book and the museum, I kept thinking about Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf.” It is a book we all have heard of and yet who has read it? My father was fascinated by World War II and Nazi Germany and I remember a copy of the book on our bookshelves, but I didn’t even want to touch it. When I thought about how this is one of the most powerful books of the 20th Century (of all time?), I thought to read it. Well, easier said than done. It is nearly 600 pages and Hitler was not exactly a talented writer. He was a very gifted orator and his words obviously changed the world, but his book was not immediately a hit. His publisher knew that if he was going to take charge of Germany – and try to eventually take over the world – he needed money. The publisher pushed the sale of the book and made Hitler quite rich. At the time, it was the second best-selling book, following The Bible.
The book followed Hitler’s rantings regarding his youth, his disgust with Germany’s performance in World War I and his deep belief that all men were not created equal. The book is not filled with practical information – chapters do not include “So, How Does One Go About Ruling the World?” – but the spirit of the book is where its importance lies. It is filled with slogans and words that insight national pride but also deep hatred (“We shall do away with them radically” is a typical saying). He writes about a national problem and the needed change – things Germans would read and say “he’s right! Now what do we do about it?”. Somehow he inevitably connects the problem to the Jewish people and how they are to blame. He states that the Jewish race is manipulative, controls the media, versed in propaganda and insidious. A country that is suffering and just wants to be in control of themselves and perhaps others would find this all interesting and, obviously, eventually persuaded. Not surprising, most of what Hitler accuses the Jewish race for, he himself is guilty of – propaganda, misusing the press, targeting groups – and also states the need to get rid of the “weak, half-man” so that the forceful “strong-man” can take the world as rightfully belongs to him, and yet it is documented that Hitler was physically ill and in no way resembles the perfect Arian race he backs. For goodness’ sake, the title of the book translates to “My Battle” or “My Struggle.” Oh, the sick irony.
My understanding is that “Mein Kampf” is still available in Germany today, but it is only published for scholarly purposes and with extensive commentary. Should you read it? It is dense and meandering, but if you can get your hands on it, flip through it and look at chapters that catch your interest (for example, “The Strong is Strongest When Alone,” “Personality and the Ideal of the People’s State,” “War Propoganda” and “The German Post-War Policy of Alliances”). When I couldn’t find the book on the shelves at my library, I asked the librarian and when he brought it to me, he looked at me for a long time. There is a certain “what in the world??!!” that goes along with it, so beware.)
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Back to “The Book Thief” – if you are an audio book reader, let me recommend that you read the actual book. Death often has small asides in bold print and there are a few hand-drawn books within “The Book Thief.” If you do not see these things, you will miss out on some of the more beautiful parts of the book.Zusak is an amazing writer. I hate to use words like “poetic” or “lyrical” to describe his writing because they are overused and trite phrases, but the way he phrases sentences have a beauty to them. I continually stop reading and reread his words – thinking about how he described someone or something – and frankly, I am more than a tad envious that he writes so well.
The author’s descriptions of people are marvelous:
“The only thing worse than a boy who hates you: A boy who loves you.” (p 52) (A year or so, Noa was lamenting that a boy in her class liked her and everyone knew it. I read her this line and she muttered “don’t I know it.”)
“She was the book thief without the words. Trust me, though, the words were on their way, and when they arrived, Liesel would hold the in her hands like clouds, and she would wring them out like the rain.” (p 112)
“’When death captures me,’ the boy vowed, ‘he will feel my fist on his face.’ (p189)
“’Look at the colors,’ Papa said. It’s hard not to like a man who not only notices the colors, but speaks them.” (p87)
“—An attribute of Rosa Hubermann – she was a good woman for a crisis.” (p211)
“The Book Thief” is considered young adult fiction but adults can easily read this book. In fact, the people I know most moved by this book are adults. I would recommend it for anyone high school and older.
It is one of my all-time favorites…if you couldn’t tell by now. I hate that this sounds schmaltzy, but it truly touched my soul. And for someone who reads as much as I do, that is saying a lot.
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