Books Set in Europe: France and Germany

The Art of Resistance, by Justus Rosenberg (2020)

 

The author, Justus Rosenberg, was well into his 90s when his memoir was published.  He was born in 1921 in the Free City of Danzig, a semi-autonomous city-state that existed for about 20 years between 1920 and 1940.  He was immersed in both Polish and German culture.  His grandparents lived in Poland, but his parents had moved to Danzig.  They believed that the Jewish residents of Danzig would be insulated from the rise of Hitler.

 

At age 16, Rosenberg was sent to Paris to further his education.  The rest of his family remained in Danzig.  When the Germans invaded France, Rosenberg’s studies came to an end.  The blond-haired, blue-eyed Rosenburg didn’t “look Jewish” and soon found himself joining the underground resistance movement.  The fact that he was also fluent in Polish, German and English was a major asset to the underground.

 

Rosenberg recounts his imprisonments and escapes in vivid detail.  The book reads like a suspense story.  We know from the beginning, of course, that the author survives, but that doesn’t distract from the tensions of the narrative.

 

After the War, Rosenberg settled in the United States where he became a literature professor at Bard College.  He died in October 2021 at age 100.

 

4 Stars

 

Read: January 2022

 

 

Books Set in Europe: Hamburg, Germany and Africa: Liberia

Destined to Witness: Growing Up Black in Nazi Germany, by Hans J. Massaquoi (1999)

After a whirlwind romance with the black Liberian son of a diplomat, the Bertha Baetz found herself pregnant, and in January 1926, gave birth to the author, Hans Massaquoi (Jan. 19, 1926 ~ Jan. 19, 2013).  Although the diplomat’s son promised to marry Bertha, the wedding never took place.  Instead, he went off to England to pursue his studies.  Meanwhile, Bertha and Hans, were welcomed into the diplomat’s home.  For the first 5 years of his life, Hans lived a life of wealth and privilege.

When the diplomat was called home, Bertha decided to remain in Hamburg, Germany with her son.  Their standard of living dropped dramatically, as Bertha was forced to look for jobs.  Around this time, the political climate was changing in Germany.  Like so many German children, he was indoctrinated into Nazi propaganda and dreamed of joining the Hitler Youth, like many of his comrades.

Although his was often called names by neighborhood bullies, he was generally accepted by his peers.  His teachers, however, were another story.  Many of his teachers would single him out for his black skin.  When his was denied entry into the Hitler Youth, he begged his mother to plead his case for him, arguing that he was “German just like everyone else.”  His mother fiercely protected her young son.  Throughout this memoir, the love he has for his mother is evident on nearly every page.

Through his teachers, he learns that his is “non-Aryan”, thus there is no place for him in Nazi Germany.  As Nazi Germany begins its conquest of Austria, and the war begins, Hans and his mother experience the trauma of the war and their beloved city of Hamburg being bombed.  Although Hans has been informed that after the Nazi are “done” with the Jews, he will be next.  Despite this, the author makes only an off-handed reference to Jewish extermination or the concentration camps.  I found this to be troubling.  Perhaps, at the beginning of the war, he was too young to fully understand what was happening, and by the end of the war, he and his mother were simply trying to survive.

After the War, Hans hangs out among the docks of Hamburg and often passes himself of as an American GI.  He has dreams of one day immigrating to the United States, where some of his mother’s relatives moved before the War broke out.

While still in his early 20’s, he made contact with his father, now an important businessman in Liberia.  He felt that staying in Germany would be a dead-end for him, thought that moving to Liberia would lead him to a better life.  His relationship with his father, however, quickly turned sour.  After a few years in Liberia, his mother’s relatives eventually arranged for him to immigrate to the United States.  In 1950, at age 26, he entered the United States.  After being erroneously drafted into and serving in the Army, he earned a degree in journalism.  

His mother was finally able to immigrate to the United States, where the two were reunited.  Hans ultimately became a managing editor of Ebony magazine.  As a post-script, Hans died in 2013 on his 87th birthday.

Read:  April 3, 2021

4 Stars

Books Set in Europe: Germany: Bavaria

The Play of Death, by Oliver Pölzsch (2016)

In 1633, the Black Plague raged through Europe.  In the village of Oberammergau, 80 villagers died.  The people of the village vowed to put on a Passion play (the story of the crucifixion of Jesus) every 10 years if they would be spared.  The play was first performed in 1634.  This is the backdrop of this 6^th novel in the Hangman’s Daughter series.  We are once again acquainted with Magdalena Fronweiser and her family, which consists of her husband, Simon, her 2 sons, her father, Jakob Kuisl, the hangman, and her sister, Barbara.

The novel takes place in 1670.  The village of Oberammergau is preparing for their next performance, however, it is 4 years early for the 10-year anniversary mark.  This causes some of the superstitious villagers concern.  When actors in some of the key roles are found murdered, concern among the villagers heightens.

The first death was that of the actor playing the role of Jesus.  He was found murdered on a cross just as Simon Fronwieser, the medicus of Schongau, is in the village to bring his young son to boarding school of Simon’s friend and teacher, Georg Kaiser.  The village doctor has recently died, so Simon is naturally asked investigate the murder.  Meanwhile, Johann Lechner, Schongau’s secretary and town leader brings Jakob Kuisl, to Oberammergau because the village’s executioner has also recently died.  He, too, gets caught up in the investigation of the eerie murders.

While Lechner is out of Schnogau is out of town, other members of the town’s council decide to take advantage of his absence to oust him.  When Barbara Kuisl is accused of witchcraft she is thrown in the town’s dungeon and is awaiting torture.  With Lechner out of town, Barbara has no advocate.  Magdalena sneaks out of town to go to Oberammargau to seek Lechner’s assistance.  Along the way, however, she is abducted.

In the meantime, the people of Oberammergau are protesting the immigrant workers from Italy.  They are scorned and their children keep going missing.  Is there a connection between the murders of the actors in the Passion play and the missing immigrant children?

This book has multiple plot twists as it unravels the murders of the Passion play and the abduction of Magdalena.

As with the other books in this series, this book is based on historical facts, which is what I find must interesting.  I enjoyed this book as a light and easy read.

Read:  April 15, 2020

4 Stars

The Hangman’s Daughter; Book I / Read: June 1, 2013

The Dark Monk; Book II / Read: October 6, 2013

The Beggar King; Book III / Read: March 9, 2014

The Poisoned Pilgrim; Book IV / Read: December 28, 2017

The Werewolf of Bamberg; Book V / Read: July 21, 2019

The Play of Death; Book VI / Read: April 15, 2020

Books Set in Europe: Paris, France

The Paris Architect, by Charles Belfoure (2013)

Lucien Bernard is a young up-and coming architect living in Paris in the 1940s with his wife, and he has a mistress on the side.  He hopes for the next big commission that will bring him money and fame.  Germany has occupied France, and architectural jobs are dwindling.  He has an appointment with Auguste Manet, a wealthy industrialist, whom he hopes will bring him a lucrative commission.

Manet seeks to have Bernard devised a hiding place in one of his properties to hide one of his Jewish friends.  At first, Bernard dismisses the idea, but Manet teases him with a lucrative job designing a factory.  Although Bernard knows that the factory will be making armaments for the Germany, he accepts the challenge to devise a hiding space so he can use his creative talents on the factory building.

Bernard devises a hiding place in a non-structural column in one of Manet’s apartments.  He knows that if the Germans find the spot, and learns that he created the space, he will be killed.  The hiding place is a success.  The Germans ransack the apartment, but fail to find the hiding spot.  Soon, Manet asks Bernard to devise another hiding spot.  Bernard agrees, but says this will be the last time.  “Of course,” agrees Manet.  … Until the next time Manet must hide a Jew from the Germans.

While working on the factory, Bernard meets Herzog, a Germany officer who also has an interest in architecture.  They for a sort of friendship, which makes Bernard realize that he is in collaboration with the Germans.  Still, he continues to devise hiding places for Manet, knowing that his interaction with the Germans can come to an abrupt end should they discover his secret works.

I enjoyed this novel, however, I found the constant stereotypes of Jews to be disturbing.  

Read:

March 27, 2020

4 Stars

Books Set in North America, Europe and Asia

Edge of Eternity, by Ken Follett (2014)

This novel is the third book in Ken Follett’s The Century Trilogy.  The first two books are Fall of Giants and Winter of the World.  The trilogy follows the generations of 5 families, whose lives are all intertwined, spanning from the early years of the 1900s through the century.  The first book, Fall of Giants, focused on the Russian Revolution and World War II. Winter of the World focused on World War II.  This final book covered a host of social issues beginning with the Cuban missile crisis, the erection of the Berlin Wall and the American Civil Rights marches and ending with the election of Barack Obama.

We meet the later generations of the families from the first two books in the series in this novel.  We experience the Cold War through the eyes of the Franck family who lived in Berlin until almost overnight it became East Berlin.  Families were split – some members free to travel about in the West while other members stuck under the regime of the Stasi in East Berlin.  The novel takes us through to the fall of Communism of the1950s to its collapse in the late 1980s.

The twin sibling in the Russian Dvorkin are close but are on opposite sides of the political structure.  Dmitri gets a job as an aide to Khrushchev, while his sister, Tanya, writes for TASS, but sneaks the dissident writings of a political prisoner to the free world for publication (reminiscent of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn).

We experience the Civil Rights Freedom rides through the idealized eyes of young George Jakes, a young man with a black mother and white political father.  He later becomes an aide to Bobby Kennedy and watches the progression of the enactment of Civil Rights laws.

We move on to the music and drug scene in San Francisco in the mid-1960s.  We experience Vietnam through the experiences of a young naturalized citizen.  The characters in the families grow from idealized young people out to change the world into harden by life with some of their dreams realized, while others are left behind.  Nixon becomes President, then we see the cause of his downfall.

The original families depicted in the first book are the same throughout the series, one need not have read the first two books to appreciate this one.  This novel is cram filled with historical events and facts.  It is well researched and provides on of the best explanation of the Bay of Pigs and Cuban missile crisis that I have read.

The book is long (nearly 1100 pages), but it is a page-turner.  It kept my attention even though I knew the outcome of the historical events described in the book.  I greatly enjoyed this novel and felt I got to know most of the characters in the families living through these momentous events.

Read:  March 24, 2020

5 Stars

The Century Trilogy:

     Fall of Giants; Book I (Read: August 3, 2011)

     Winter of the World; Book II (Read: March 17, 2015)

     Edge of Eternity; Book III (Read: March 24, 2020)

Books Set in Europe: Germany, Bavaria

The Ludwig Conspiracy, by Oliver Pötzsch (2011).

I have enjoyed Oliver Pötzsch’s Hangman’s Daughter books, which are a historical mysteries that focus on Bavaria in the 1660s.  So, I though I would give The Ludwig Conspiracy a try.  It is a novel loosely based in King Ludwig II, the Mad King of Bavaria.  He’s the king who built the famous fairy-tale Neuschwanstein Castle.

Unlike the Hangman series, this book goes back and in the present and during the life of King Ludwig.  Ludwig died under mysterious circumstances on June 13, 1886.  His death was officially deemed to be a suicide by drowning, although there was no water in his lungs.  As a result, there have been lots of theories and conspiracies about whether or not he was actually murdered.  This novel delves into some of those conspiracies.

The novel opens when Steven Lukas, the owner of a bookstore that specialized in rare books finds that he has a journal, written in code, that explains how Ludwig actually died.  The journal was hidden in Lukas’ store by a professor, who, in the opening scene of the novel is killed by thugs after the book.

Lukas soon finds that these shady characters are after him for the journal.  Enter Sara Lengfeld, who claims to be the niece of the dead professor.  She, too, wants to find out the truth of King Ludwig’s death.  Together she and Lukas attempt to decipher the journal, all the while being chased by mysterious hooligans.

After Lukas’s bookstore is broken into and ransacked, he and Sara find themselves on the run from the police as well.  Unfortunately, there was too much in this novel that stretched the imagination.  There were car chases, shootings, murders, etc.  It read more like a thriller movie, than a good satisfying book.  The scenes narrated by Ludwig's physician, however, are more interesting.

I’ll stick with the author’s Hangman series.

Read:  Sept. 12, 2019

2 Stars

Books Set in Europe: Germany, Bavaria

The Werewolf of Bamberg, by Oliver Pötzsch (2014)

This is the 5th novel in the Hangman's Daughter series.  The year is 1668, and the Kuisl family has traveled from Schongau to Bamberg to celebrate the marriage of Barthalomäus, the estranged brother of the Kuisl patriarch, Jakob.  Until recently, his children were unaware that their father even had a brother.  A misunderstanding years earlier had caused a split between the brothers.

When the family arrives in Bamberg, they learn that the city has been terrorized by a series of murders.  Several elders of the city have gone missing, only to have their mangled bodies appear scattered around the city.  Rumors spread that the deaths are caused by a werewolf.

What I like about this mystery series is the careful research the author does in his novels.  In the afterward, he explains the history behind this mystery.  While the events seem supernatural to the citizens of this German town in the late 1660s, they actually have a basis in science.

I have enjoyed the other books in the series, and this one was no exception.

Read: July 21, 2019

5 Stars

Books Set in Europe: Bavaria, Germany

The Poisoned Pilgrim, by Oliver Pötzsch (2013)

This is the fourth book in the delightful Hangman's Daughter series, a series of historical fiction/suspense novels following Jakob Kuisl, his daughter, Magdalena and her "bathhouse" doctor, Simon Fronwieser.

The novel is set in 1666 in Bavaria.  Magdalena and her husband leave their home town of Schongau to participate in a religious festival and pilgrimage in nearby Andechs.  Almost as soon as they arrive in Andechs, two monks are found dead under mysterious circumstances.  Simon examines the bodies and discovers that one of the victim's, who ostensibly drown, was probably a victim of murder.  When Jokob learns that his old friend, Brother Johannes is arrested, joins his daughter to investigate the events occurring in the pilgrimage town.

Two of the monks are experimenting with the phenomenon of lightening and electricity, while the rest of the town considers this witchcraft.  There are several plot threads in this novel, which make for a very suspenseful and exciting mystery.

From the first book in the series, The Hangman's Daughter, we learned that hangmen and their families are disrespected.  The hangmen, however, are also learned men in medicines, so are a necessary component of the medieval villages.

The author is from the Bavaria and there was a hangman in his family's history.  This makes the novel really come alive.

5 Stars

This is the fourth book in the Hangman's Daughter series.

Read:  December 28, 2017

5 Stars

Books Set in Europe: Germany

Stones from the River, by Ursula Hegi (1994)

This is a novel about a small town in Germany in the years leading up to World War II, the war and its aftermath.  We follow Trudi Montag who has dwarfism, who feels left out and longs to be tall.  She has a talent for eliciting peoples' secrets and of knowing what will happen to people in the future.

Her mother was mentally ill and died when she was four.  Leo, her father, raises her.  He runs a pay library and Trudi works there with him.  From her position in the library, she gets to know all about the other townspeople.

As events lead up to the War, she sees how people react to Hitler.  Some immediately become followers, others are silently supporters and there are those in the opposition, or who are just silent.

Things change after Kristallnacht.  The townspeople become fearful and watch as their neighbors, for the Jews, then those who protest, are taken away.  Trudi is aware that her dwarfism could trigger her disappearance.  She and her father, however, opt to hide Jews who are trying to escape.

What is interesting about this book is the fact that the author ties in the aftermath of the war and people's reaction.  This is the first novel that I have read where this subject matter was addressed.

I read this book because it was on my mother's reading list.  I thought of her all the time I was reading this book.

Read:  December 5, 2017

5 Stars

Books Set in Europe: Germany and Austria

The Nazi Officer's Wife, by Edith Hahn Beer (1999)

This is a memoir by a young Jewish woman whose family was from Vienna, Austria, when the Gestapo forced her into a labor camp in the early 1940s.  When she returned to Vienna, she went underground.  A Christian friend helped her by letting her use "lost" identity papers, thus emerging in Munich as Grete Denner.  She met Werner Vetter, a Nazi party member who fell in love with her.  She eventually tells him her secret ~ that she is really Jewish.  He was not concerned and the two married after his divorce to his first wife became final.  Werner had a violent temper and expected his wife to keep their apartment spotless, have dinner ready and be available to him on demand.  Edith readily agreed and adapted to this life to protect her life.

She eventually has a daughter.  Werner wanted a son and is a distant parent.  Eventually, he was drafted and sent to the Eastern front.  He became a Russian prisoner of war.

After the war ended, Edith was able to return to her real identity and procured a job as a judge in Germany.  (She had gone to law school, but was not awarded a degree because she was Jewish.  After the war, she was able to get her credentials and practice law).  She begged the Russians to assist in getting her husband home from the prison camp.  He was thus able to be released, but was unable to adjust to an "overeducated" wife with a well-paying job.  He was violent with her and she eventually divorced him.

The book was an interesting slice of life and survival, but was not particularly well written.

3 Stars

Read:  December 22, 2015

Books Set in Europe: France and Germany

All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr (2014)

I am probably one of the few people who did not absolutely love this novel.  I found it too choppy.  Each chapter was only a few pages long and the story line jumped between Marie-Laure, a young blind French girl and Werner, a young German soldier.

3 stars

Books Set in Europe: Germany, Bavaria

The Begger King, by Oliver Pötzsch (2010)

Third book in The Hangman's Daughter series.

5 Stars
Read: March 9, 2014

Books Set in Europe: Germany, Bavaria

The Dark Monk, by Oliver Pötzsch (2009)

Read: October 6, 2013

Books Set in Europe: Germany, Bavaria

The Hangman's Daughter, by Oliver Pötzsch (2008)

Read: June 1, 2013


The Dark Monk, by Oliver Pötzsch (2009)

Read: October 6, 2013