The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

My first experience with this book was via audio-book. When it was published I listened to this with my daughter over the period of a few weeks.

My children are trilingual, as am I, and German is the first language for my older children. So we both enjoyed the fact some of it was spoken in German, and most importantly it was spoken correctly with the right intonation.

The occasional Saukerl and Saumensch would make my daughter giggle, despite the seriousness of the premise. In its own way The Book Thief is quite witty even amidst all the tragic circumstances.

It tells the story of Nazi Germany from the perspective of a young girl. The reader experiences the world through her eyes,the emotions, the trials and tribulations. Simultaneously the book is narrated by the voice of Death. Obviously he is kept very busy during the Nazi regime. His pragmatic view and cold assessment of the situation. In his own way he is drawn to the story or life of this little girl, and follows her through the years via the death she is inevitably confronted with.

I completely identify with her book thief identity. Living in an era where it is a crime to read certain books and living in a regime that seeks to control all thoughts and actions. The books she acquires become her miniature universe, especially when she is taught to decipher the words and letters. Her anguish when she sees a mountain of books being burned and she endangers herself by saving one. Even the way Liesel establishes a relationship with Frau Hermann, by breaking in and stealing one book after the other from her library.

The other important aspect of this story is the way the family endangers themselves by hiding a young Jewish man in their basement.  Max and Liesel have a lot in common, especially the loss of their immediate families. Their relationship goes from mistrust, to wanting to keep him safe, to love. In the scene of 'recognition' it becomes clear just how strong their bond is, perhaps more so because he has become family. How important that is becomes clearer at the end.

It is a beautiful story. One that stays with you, and one you will probably come back to again, as I have.

Buy The Book Thief at Amazon UK or go to Goodreads for any other retailer.

Ostland by David Thomas

This is quite an exceptional read. One might think that is due to the nature and content, which is only part of the reason way.

Books about the Holocaust tend to be full of emotional triggers and are heavily laden with distressing images and graphic details.

What makes this one slightly different is the fact David Thomas has chosen to approach the subject from the flip side of the coin. The life of one of the perpetrators, and the view of the Nazi era and his crimes.

Thomas has constructed his story around facts, historical evidence, eyewitness statements and then added small elements of fiction to it. The end product leaves the reader pondering quite a few things.

Let me be clear on one thing though, the author in no way attempts to diminish the deeds or question the guilt of those involved in the Holocaust.

The main character is Heuser, and this actually is his story. We follow his progression and rise in the ranks to an officer of the murder squad in the German police. As most Germans during that era he was also affiliated with and had risen in the ranks of the SS.  He actually helped to apprehend a serial killer, who raped and killed many women during the Nazi era.

The obvious comparison is then how Heuser becomes exactly the type of murdering monster he helped to catch as a policeman.

How does the normal law abiding ambitious civil servant turn into a man who shoots children in the back of head, a man who rapes women and then turns them over to the highest bidder, and a man who is responsible for the deaths of over 30000 innocent people.

That is of course one of the most compelling discussions in the aftermath of the Holocaust. How did a nation of normal citizens become notorious for the planning, execution  and extermination of millions of people?

The reader steps forward in time to 1958 when Heuser was arrested for his part in the atrocities during the war. By that time he had risen to a high ranking police officer in the newly divided West Germany. Thomas goes on to make two very important points.

Proving the  crimes committed during the Holocaust was difficult. The Germans and their many collaborators had destroyed most of the evidence, which includes eradicating the many living witnesses during the last months of war. In Heuser's case they actually had special troops come in to dig up the mass graves, so they could burn all the bodies, ergo getting rid of forensic evidence against them. Throughout the last months of war the focus was on destroying documents, gas chambers and survivors.

The trials of Nuremberg and all other subsequent Nazi war trials were often found to be lacking when it came to justice. They lacked physical evidence and eyewitness statements to convict. So despite knowing that those on trial were guilty, it was hard or impossible to convict them legally. It is important to say at this point that the legality of the procedure didn't sway into the same vigilantism or illegal criminology seen and experienced in the Nazi regime.

Unfortunately this also means that the majority of the war criminals were never brought to justice or convicted of their crimes. Heuser received 15 years for his part in the Holocaust, however he only served an unsatisfactory number of years.

In the years after the war the opinion of the German population was 'that they had no desire to take over the ashes of the past or face the truth of what lies beneath the ashes', which explains the complacent attitude towards the Nazi criminals living amongst them.

I highly recommend this fascinating read, which offers an insight into the mind of a criminal of circumstance, as they are often called. It is also a harsh and necessary reminder that we should never let this history repeat itself, especially when you consider the rise of the far-right political parties, fascism, Nazi's and anti-semitism in the 21st century.
I received a copy of this book via NetGalley.

Memorial to the Jews of  Minsk