Schindler's List

Schindler’s List

Thomas Keneally

Hodder & Stoughton; Australia,c1982

ISBN: 0340278382

Schindler’s List  is based on the true story of German industrialist and war profiteer,Oskar Schindler.

Confronted with the horror of the extermination camps,he gambles his life and his fortune to rescue 1,300 Jews from the gas chambers. Schindler triumphs as being one man who was able to make  a difference to mankind and, because of him, many Jews survived one of the darkest and most horrific chapters in human history.

Schindler’s List is a “ Documentary Novel “, based on the recollections of the Schindlerjuden
( Schindler's Jews), Schindler himself, and other witnesses, and is told in a series of snapshot stories."The book recounts the lives of the flamboyant profiteer and womanizer Schindler,his long suffering wife Emilie, the brutal SS Commandant Amon Goeth, Schindler’s factory manager Itzhak Stern, and several other Jews who witnessed the horrors and inhumanities at Auschwitz. The main protagonist is Oskar Schindler himself. He comes to Krakow, Poland, seeking his fortune and ends up outwitting the SS to protect his Jewish employees. The book explores the complex nature of virtue, the importance of individual human life, the role of witnesses to the Holocaust, and the attention to rules and details that sustained the Nazi system of terror.

Historical Fiction

           

           

          

The lost wife

The Lost Wife

Alyson Richman

Berkley Trade; 2011

ISBN: 978-0425244135

The Lost  Wife is a spellbinding love story and an accurate account of Prague before and during the Second World War.

Growing up in Prague in the 1930’s, Lenka has a happy childhood, but everything changes with the coming of war. With the imminent arrival of the Nazis, the future for Lenka’s Jewish family seems bleak and uncertain.

Just days before the Germans invade Prague, Lenka and Josef, her first love, decide to get married. Josef and his family plan to flee to America with Lenka, but when Lenka discovers that her family cannot get the necessary papers to escape from Prague, she decides to stay behind with them. So begins a journey that will keep Josef and Lenka separated from each other for decades.

When Josef is 85 years old, he and Lenka are reunited, giving them one more chance.

From the glamorous life in Prague before the Occupation to the horrors of Nazi Europe, The Lost Wife explores the power of first love, the resilience of the human spirit, and the absolute strength of memory.

Those who save us

Those Who Save Us

Jenna Blum

Canongate Books Ltd; 2005

ISBN: 9781920885540

Those  Who Save Us is the story of Anna Schlemmer, a young woman living in Germany in the 1940’s. Anna and her three-year-old daughter,Trudy, are liberated by an American soldier and go to live with him in Minnesota.

Trudy has never known much about her mother’s past, but fifty years on,  when she finds a photograph showing Anna, Trudy and a Nazi officer, the Obersturmfuhrer of Buchenwald, her curiosity is aroused and she begins to investigate the past and uncovers the dramatic and heartbreaking truth of her mother’s life.

This is the story of the relationship between mother and daughter, guilt, the will to survive, and the pain and suffering when remembering the atrocities of war and the Holocaust.

Historical Fiction

Once we were brothers

Once We Were Brothers

Ronald H. Balson

Berwick Court Publishing; 2010

ISBN: 978-0615351919

The story begins when 83 year old Ben Solomon points an unloaded gun to the head of Elliot Rosenzweig, an insurance magnate and one of Chicago’s most prominent citizens and philanthropists. The incident is witnessed by hundreds of people attending the opening of Chicago’s Lyric Opera.

Ben wants to expose Elliot as being a former SS Officer known in Poland as the “ Butcher of Zamosc ,“ but Elliot denies this accusation and protests that he is a Holocaust survivor himself and to prove it, he exposes his arm to show a concentration camp tattoo. Ben is charged with the crime and is represented by Attorney, Catherine Lockhart.

The story shifts back and forth from Chicago 2004, to Poland from 1936-1944 with vivid images from both eras. This is a story of hope and despair, of heroism and cowardice, of loyalty and treachery, and has an exciting and unexpected finish. The pace is good, and it is certainly a great read.

Historical Fiction

The Reader

The Reader

Bernhard Schlink

Translated by Carol Brown Janeway

Phoenix House;Great Britain,1997

ISBN: 0753804700

The setting for The Reader by Bernhard Schlink is post-war Germany between the late 1950’s and the mid 1990’s. It is an account, narrated by the main character in the book,Michael Berg, of the emotional and psychological effects of a relationship he has with a German woman almost twice his age.

On his way home from school one day,Michael,fifteen, throws up on the street.

A passing stranger helps him to her house, cleans him up and walks him back home.

Michael is diagnosed with hepatitis and after a long illness, he recovers and goes to thank the stranger. Her name is Hanna and they become lovers. Their sexual encounters are punctuated by his reading of beautiful literature to her .

Then one day she disappears and Michael is left confused and heartbroken.

Years later,Michael is a law student attending a war crimes trial and he is shocked to discover that Hanna is one of the accused.She is charged with allowing a group of female Jewish prisoners to burn to death in a locked church during an Allied bombing raid.He is torn between trying to help her or not,but finally decides not to get involved and Hanna is sentenced to life in prison.

Years later,Michael is still haunted by the conflicting guilt and desire he feels for Hanna. He doesn’t visit Hanna until her last day in prison. The next morning she kills herself and Michael is left to resolve his guilt by himself.

This is a powerful ,compelling and thought provoking novel.

Historical Fiction

           

            

The Book Thief

The Book Thief

Markus Zusak

Picador,Australia; Knopf,USA,2006.

ISBN: 978-0-375-84220-7

This is the story of a nine-year-old German girl, Liesel Meminger . It is 1939 in Nazi Germany and Liesel,along with her younger brother,Werner,are sent to live with foster parents, Hans and Rosa Hubermann. While on the way to their new home Liesel’s brother dies. After the funeral, she finds a book, “The Gravedigger’s Handbook”, in the snow near her brother’s grave. This is the start of a love affair with books. She is taught, by Hans, how to read and begins stealing books from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor’s wife’s library, and anywhere books are to be found. Hans Hubermann, Liesel’s foster father, works as a painter, and he and Liesel share a very close bond. Rosa Hubermann is Liesel’s foul-mouthed foster mother, and even though she rules the household with an iron fist and often swears at Liesel, she cares for her very much. Both Hans and Rosa are killed in the Himmel Street bombing.

 

Rudy Steiner is Liesel’s neighbour and love interest, and Max Vandenburg is a Jewish fist-fighter who the Hubermanns stow away in their home.

The narrator of the book is Death, who is sympathetic to mankind and hates the despair and destruction brought upon humans by War.

The Book Thief is a powerful and haunting novel. It gives great insight into Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. It is superbly written and author Markus Zusak has given us, without doubt, one of the most enduring stories of our time. The Book Thief is suitable for Young Adult and Adult readers.

Historical Fiction