Those Who Save Us

Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum, 482 pages

I have a fascination with anything pertaining to World War II and this was some of the best historical fiction about it I have read. Those Who Save Us tells the story of Trudy, a middle aged German history professor, herself born in Germany during the war, and her mother Anna, who has come to live with her after a fire destroys the farmhouse of Trudy's childhood, where Anna was still living. Trudy has always had a strained relationship with her mother and she has never been told the story of what led up to herself and her mother coming to live in America with an American soldier.
The book alternates between present day, which is the late 90s, and the late 30s early 40s, when Anna was around the age of 20, living in Nazi Germany.
Trudy embarks on a project for work in which she interviews Germans about their experiences during the war. Her goal in the project is to see if any Germans feel any remorse or responsibility for the tragedies of the Jews.
Trudy learns much in these interviews, including things about herself and eventually, the details from when she was young.

*One of the fun details of this story was that Anna worked in a bakery in Germany when she was young. Many delicious sounding German cakes and breads are mentioned, and the mouth waters just reading about them.