I took this book on the plane and back to Salt Lake City, Utah where I attended a genealogical conference. I was so worn out each evening I hardly read any of it at night and ended up finishing it when I returned home.
The book is based on the facts of the period and actual quotes and known activities of Hitler. It tells the story of the relationship between him and his half-sister's daughter, Geli, or Angelica. I found it difficult to read as the evil henchmen surrounding Hitler and the monster himself are described as weird, sad people with inflated egos and strange personal habits instead of the calculating leaders of the genocide of WWII. I'd not known that his niece died in his home where they lived together, an apparent suicide that the author gives a different twist. Not recommended.
Published: 1999 Read: February 2016 Genre: Historical Fiction
Showing posts with label Nazis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nazis. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 17, 2016
Monday, December 21, 2015
City of Women - David R Gillham
This novel was the suggestion for one of my reading groups for December. It is a thriller that tells the story of the mostly female population left in Berlin at the end of WWII and how they struggled to survive.
There is a lot of detail on the city of Berlin, impressing me with the research that the author apparently did to be authentic to the time. It became tedious as the book went on, however.
There was not a character in this book that I really liked. The main character, Sigrid, is a middle aged woman married to a German soldier with a nasty mother-in-law and suspicious neighbors. Everyone is reporting and turning on each other. Sigrid befriends a young woman in her apartment building who turns out is assisting with smuggling Jews out of the country and enlists Sigrid in the effort. Sigrid is taken in, partly due to her passionate affair she'd had with a Jewish man she meets in a theatre.
Our group had a long discussion on the effects of war and the mentality of a population that would allow the annihilation of a people. It was instructive to discuss how the economics of Germany after WWI paved the way for the hatred and fear of Hitler's regime. I was impressed with the need to understand history in the long term perspective. Most of all, I found myself asking, "What would I have done?" Would I have been brave? Would I have tried to stay uninvolved? Would I have resisted?
Published: 2012 Read: December 2015 Genre: Historical fiction
There is a lot of detail on the city of Berlin, impressing me with the research that the author apparently did to be authentic to the time. It became tedious as the book went on, however.
There was not a character in this book that I really liked. The main character, Sigrid, is a middle aged woman married to a German soldier with a nasty mother-in-law and suspicious neighbors. Everyone is reporting and turning on each other. Sigrid befriends a young woman in her apartment building who turns out is assisting with smuggling Jews out of the country and enlists Sigrid in the effort. Sigrid is taken in, partly due to her passionate affair she'd had with a Jewish man she meets in a theatre.
Our group had a long discussion on the effects of war and the mentality of a population that would allow the annihilation of a people. It was instructive to discuss how the economics of Germany after WWI paved the way for the hatred and fear of Hitler's regime. I was impressed with the need to understand history in the long term perspective. Most of all, I found myself asking, "What would I have done?" Would I have been brave? Would I have tried to stay uninvolved? Would I have resisted?
Published: 2012 Read: December 2015 Genre: Historical fiction
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)