My thoughts
Soraya M. Lane never disappoints me. Her books are always very realistic and heartbreaking. Touching and so emotional. To say she is a great author is an understatement. She writes historical fiction like no one else can. Her books will make you stop and think. Hopefully make you want things to be better. They always make me have so many tears…
This is the story of a family. Mainly two sisters. A family that takes heart in helping a family who is in grave danger. A strict German family who help a Jewish family. A hight ranking German Officer who helps this family.
How this family finally came together to help their friends made my heart soar. I was happy to read about a good and decent German family that helped. Even though I know that it was most likely the only family that the father and mother helped. The Mullers consisted of A father, mother and two daughters. Hanna and Ava. Hanna had already been doing a lot of work helping get Jewish children out of harms way. To safe places. The family they help, the Goldmans are the parents and their son David and daughter, Eliana.
Hanna was a nurse and also worked driving an ambulance. The perfect cover to help children. Ava had no idea what her family were doing until she found the Goldman family living in her childhood home in the attic.
Through a lot of horror these two girls manage to keep helping others. Once Hanna and her parents make Ava understand that they had all been so deceived by Hitler and what he stood for she was ready to help. Ava worked as a personal secretary to a very high ranking Nazi official. She’s also engaged to a strong Nazi. But she learns to hate him. With good reason.
How the people just turned their backs on lifelong friends always makes me stop and think. How do you do that. See them dragged out of their homes. Beaten, murdered. Women brutally raped. All of them treated less than animals. Many sent to camps never to be seen again. How do you justify that. I don’t believe I could. I hope I couldn’t. I understand fear can make you do things you would not normally do but still… Millions where murdered.
This book kept me on edge in quite a few places. Not like a thriller would but like horrific history does. It made me weep for people that I know who would probably do just this if they had too or some if they could. I never underestimate humanity anymore. I’ve heard things from people that I thought I knew that made my heart ache. But surely if it came down to it they could not. Surely they would have a conscience and heart. Surely….
Thank you #NetGalley, #SorayaMLane, #LakeUnion, for this ARC. This is my own true thoughts about this heartbreaking story.
Five huge stars.
About
From the bestselling author of The Secret Midwife comes a story of bravery, sacrifice and resilience in war-torn Berlin―and two sisters who will risk it all to make a difference. Berlin, 1943: Ava Müller is a proud supporter of the German war effort, working for Joseph Goebbels alongside her father, a high-ranking official in the Reich. With her sister Hanna, a nurse, braving bombing raids to save lives, they are a model Nazi family. Until Ava discovers her parents and Hanna are secretly working for the resistance… Returning to their country home, Ava is shocked to find her childhood friend Eliana Goldman and her family hidden in the attic. Suddenly she faces a stark denounce her family, as she’s been taught, or betray her country. She knows only too well what happens to traitors―but as Eliana’s story of terror at the hands of the Nazis unravels, Ava realises her loyalty to the regime has blinded her to the horrifying truth. Drawn into the resistance network alongside Hanna, Ava begins the dangerous work of undermining the Reich from within its own headquarters. Relying on each other for courage and resilience, the sisters must risk their own lives to save others, knowing that every day brings them one step closer to making the ultimate sacrifice… Heartbreaking, hopeful and thought-provoking, this is a powerful work of fiction inspired by those who chose to fight the Nazis from within Germany and the events that followed.
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The minute you said that a high ranking Nazi officer helped a Jewish family, it lost ALL credibility for me. I’m not saying that didn’t happen, but those who did (like Schindler) were extremely rare, and practically non-existent. The huge number of novels about “good Nazis” really disturbs me, because it makes it seem like the bad ones were the rare ones, and not the other way around. As a Jew, I find these types of books trivialize the Holocaust, and that disturbs me no end. I’m glad you liked it, but I’m afraid I won’t be reading this book. Sorry!
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This book was excellent. It was researched. You do not have to like it. But it’s not fair for you to put every book down either. You tend to say way too many negative things about the books I read in regards to historical. While we all have our opinions I think that since you have not read this one you should not be to negative. Read the author’s notes and you find out why this subject. Why this family.
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While I am sure she researched it well, right now, after October 7, reading books about “good Nazis” is triggering for me. Sorry for being so critical.
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