Those Who Save Us
by Jenna Blum
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Book Summary Information
Author: Jenna BlumEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2005-05-02
ISBN: 0156031663
Number of pages: 482
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780156031660
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of Those Who Save Us
Book Review: "Who among us is not stained by the past."
Summary: 5 Stars
Jenna Blum's powerful debut novel deals with a subject most people do not want to think about let alone discuss - the role of German civilians in the Holocaust. Whether these Germans chose to look the other way, as millions were marched to their deaths, whether they pled ignorance of the greasy, foul-smelling smoke that poured out of the chimneys of Auschwitz and Buchenwald, whether they were amongst those who turned Jews in hiding over to the Gestapo, they are all, in my mind, war criminals. There are some "good Germans," however. They are honored in Israel and elsewhere. In Israel the title "Righteous Among the Nations" has been awarded to more than 22,000 people who helped Jews escape or survive during the war. Many of these righteous people are German civilians. Ms. Blum explores this controversial topic with great sensitivity. She also reflects on the nature of guilt in all its subtleties and dimensions. "Those Who Save Us" asks, "What would you have done?"
The narrative flashes back and forth between the story of Anna, a German girl living in Weimar, Germany, during WWII, and Trudy, her daughter, who lives in Minneapolis with her mother in the late 1990s.
Anna breaks the 1935 "Nuremberg Laws" which excluded German Jews from Reich citizenship and prohibited them from marrying or having sexual relations with persons of "German or German-related blood." Anna falls in love with Doktor Maximmilian Stern, a Jew, who has been prohibited from practicing medicine on non-Jews since 1933. Fittingly, Anna brings Max her sick dachshund to heal. He is allowed to treat animals. They have a love affair and she becomes pregnant. Shortly afterward Max is taken away during a Nazi "Aktion." Anna is racked with guilt. "What if, despite her caution, somebody has seen and reported the Aryan girl visiting the Jewish physician's house? What can be done for Jews taken into custody? If only she had paid more attention to the rumors whispered around her during her daily errands?" Anna, finds living at home unbearable because of her father's Nazi sympathies. She moves in with Frau Mathilde Staudt, a baker who works the young woman hard from dawn 'til dusk. But the older woman is actively involved in the resistance and recruits Anna.
Trudy, Anna's and Max's daughter, is born. Meanwhile, all Jewish residents of the area are interned in a nearby camp, Buchenwald. When Mathilde dies, Anna takes over the bakery. An SS officer, an Obersturmfurher, enters the shop the same day as the funeral, and tells the young woman he has not come for bread. Thus begins a sadomasochistic affair which will last until the war ends. Aggression and total submission is the name of this vicious man's game. And Anna will do anything to keep her daughter alive...anything! The officer, Horst is evil and relishes his work at Auschwitz, Buchenwald, and other camps. He believes he is doing his duty for the "Vaterland." From this time on, Anna's capacity for love is blighted. "Her heart is now a sick and limping muscle."
In Minnesota, during the 1990s, 56 year-old Trudy, lives with her mother, who married an American soldier after the war when Trudy was 3 years-old. He has since died. Trudy is a professor of German history who is working on a research project to record German memories of the Nazi regime. Anna has never discussed the "past" with her daughter and has repeatedly told her, "the past is dead, and better it remain so." "Anna has taken the burden of silence upon herself. It is her decision not to speak of the things she has done, valient or otherwise. It is, in fact, her prerogative as a hero. And in another way, whether she is a hero or not is immaterial. Each person has this choice to make about how to live with the past, this dignity, this inviolable right." One can only think that Trudy's project is motivated by this secret past, which she vaguely remembers.
Anger, guilt, hurt, responsibility, pride and so much grief are the emotions which fill Anna and Trudy. These two are such well developed characters that one feels their angst and has so much empathy for the two women. A Jewish survivor whom Trudy interviews tells her, "I do not deserve to have this - I am not meant to be this happy".
This is not an easy book to read, but it is a page turner and extremely well written. I applaud the talented Jenna Blum for tackling such a controversial subject and look forward to her next book.
Jana Perskie
The Kommandant's Girl
The Diplomat's Wife
Anne Frank - The Diary of a Young Girl
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