The Porcelain Maker

The Porcelain Maker by Sarah Freethy 384 pages

 

There is a plethora of World War II novels on the bookshelves, and I expect a plethora more to appear as 100 years start to creep up on us. One hundred years since Hitler rose to power, one hundred years since he invaded Poland and the list goes on and on. The way time flies for me anymore, 2045 will be here in a week.

 

Many of the WWII books I have read center on the citizen soldier, the more formal Resistance the concentration camps, etc. with the goal of beating the Germans, Italians and Japanese. But The Porcelain Maker is different. It has a different tone and feel that made this novel. Debut novelist Freethy takes one item from the history books: the porcelain factory that was located near Dachau. The novel also has a structure that I so love: dual narratives.

 

It's 1993. Clara Vogel has never known who her biological father was. Now that her mother, the world-renown artist, Bettina, has passed away, Clara feels she can begin her search. Although she doesn’t hold much hope, she wants to try. Her mother refused to talk about the past, but Clara understands that there is a connection between Bettina’s art and the porcelain factory that I mentioned above. It’s all she has to go on.

 

The other narrative, 1925-1946, is Bettina’s story. A budding, talented artist, Bettina is making a name for herself in a Germany that didn’t know Hitler and his thugs. She falls in love with Max and the two begin to plan a life together. Max is an Austrian Jew who is also gaining respect from his peers around the world.

 

This book is about three voyages. Clara’s journey to learn her father’s name. Bettina’s is about to survive the war and keep her child safe, no matter what it takes. Max’s journey is also to survive the war and find his way back to Bettina so they can live they dreamed.

 

It’s also about faith, perseverance and the juxtaposition of beauty and unimaginable horrors. Readers will know the ultimate outcome of the novel before the end of the first chapter, but the journeys captured my heart. The Porcelain Maker gets 6 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

 

The Watchmakers: A Story of Brotherhood, Survival, and Hope Amid the Holocaust

The Watchmakers: A Story of Brotherhood, Survival and Hope Amid the Holocaust by Harry Lenga and Scott Lenga 352 pages

Scott Lenga interviewed his father, Harry, for countless hours before his death for more than a decade. Scott wanted to tell his father’s story, a story that cannot be made up or trivialized. It is the story of Harry and his two brothers escape from Hitler’s advancing armies and their survival through the Holocaust. This is not an easy read.

The first chapter gives readers some background from Harry’s birth in 1919 through his twenty-first birthday in 1930 in the Chassidic town of Kozhnitz (Poland). This chapter was slow reading for me as I struggled to keep all the members of the family straight, especially using their Polish/Jewish names.

In Chapter Two, the teenage years and learning to repair watches, the conversation is easier to follow.

As Hitler’s armies invade Poland, Harry and his two brothers know that as they ca stay together, everything will be all right. The men are sent to Warsaw and interred in the Ghetto. This is followed by the German Occupation, the Kozhnitz Ghetto, the Gorczycki Camp at Wolka, the Wolanow Slave Labor Camo, the Starachowice Slave Labor Camp, Auschwitz, the Death March, Mauthausen, Melk, Ebensee and finally, Liberation by the Americans.

Harry was the leader. They stayed alive by using their watchmaking skills to repair watches in the camps. But still life was hard. The bugs, the starvations, the beatings. Every time I think I have read every atrocity I think I can, I read of something much, much worse. It is amazing the brothers survived their ordeal.

 “The Watchmakers: A Story of Brotherhood, Survival and Hope Amid the Holocaust” receives 5 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

Annelies

Anneliesby David R. Gillham     416 pages

In David R. Gillham’s new novel, after “City of Women,” he asks the question: What if Anne Frank had survived the Holocaust?

A single answer would not be possible, since had this been true, there are a million possibilities. Every time I think about that question, my mind hums with scenarios.

In this work, Gillham spends a little over the first half of the book reimagining the Frank’s family life in Amsterdam. He gives us a fictional account of the family’s interaction and takes a long look at their life they had while they were in hiding in secret rooms of her father’s business. The fear they felt was palpable. When the family is betrayed, my heart broke again for those who endured the Nazi brutality. Readers get to tag along as the family of four, and their friends, endure the cattle cars that took them to their living hells.

The second third of the story takes place after Anne is reunited with her father, Otto (the only true survivor of the atrocities). Anne is seventeen and very angry. This section of the book takes place mostly in 1946 as Anne, Otto, Otto’s new bride, and the friends who hid them try to adjust to life after the war.

Anne is very sensitive to and conscious of the number tattooed on her forearm. She covers it with powder and long sleeves. It’s hard to watch Anne as she feels the guilt for having survived when her mother and sister did not.

Through it all, Anne writes.  She writes before the Nazis arrest and deport her family to the concentration camps. She writes when she returns to the liberated Amsterdam. The betrayal that she feels when she learns that the thin sheets of paper she had been writing before the arrest and been found and saved by one of those who tried to protect her family.

Then the story jumps to 1961. Readers get a small glimpse into her life, but mostly that section is Anne answering fan letters from young girls.

I was extremely disappointed in this novel. I expected Gillham to imagine the adult Anne and what she may have done with her life. Instead, most readers’ basic knowledge of Anne’s history is rehashed. The writing and plot are well done, but since Gillham didn’t deliver on his promise, “Annelies” receives 2 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

 

The Violin of Auschwitz

The Violin of Auschwitz  by Maria Angels Anglada   109 pages

This succinct novel reveals and chronicles Auschwitz prisoner Daniel’s skill as a crafter of fine violins and subsequent creation at the demands of this captors. The camp’s two most dangerous men make a cruel wager: If Daniel can build an acceptable violin within a certain number of days, the Kommandant wins a case of the finest burgundy; if not, the camp doctor, a torturer, gets to do with Daniel as he pleases. Without knowing how much time he is allowed, driven only pride of workmanship and fear of failure, Daniel tries to recapture his lost art to create an exquisite instrument against all odds.

Although this novel is brief, the emotion is evokes is no less poignant that any tome about World War II. I can’t say it better than the book jacket: “Written with lyrical simplicity and haunting beauty—and interspersed with chilling, actual Nazi documentation—The Violin of Auschwitz is more than just a novel: It is a testament to the strength of the human spirit and the power of beauty, art, and hope to triumph over the darkest adversity.”

Refuge Denied: The St. Louis Passengers and the Holocaust

Refuge Denied: The St. Louis Passengers and the Holocaust by Sarah A. Ogilvie and Scott Miller   224 pages

 On May 13, 1939, the German passenger ship, MS St. Louis sailed from Hamburg for Havana. Aboard were 937 German Jews trying to escape the rise of Hitler’s Third Reich. All had landing permits for Cuba and many had waiting numbers for the United States. Before this voyage, the St. Louis had been a luxury liner. Captain Gustav Schroeder insisted that the passengers was no different than any other passengers.

Fifteen days later, the St. Louis reached Havana. Much to their surprise, the Cuban government denied the passengers entry. Negotiations lasted several days. Cuba continued to refuse, and Schroeder set sail for America. Pleas were submitted to President Roosevelt. Without hearing from him, the ship anchored in the waters off the coast of Miami. They were so close that the passengers could see Miami’s lights. With no word from Roosevelt, Schroeder has no choice but to return to Germany. I can’t imagine the fear the passengers experienced.

When the ship returned, the passengers were dispersed to four countries: England, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands.

The years passed. In the United States, the Holocaust Memorial Museum was constructed. Two employees, Sarah Ogilvie and Scott Miller began to wonder what happened to those 937 German Jews. Were they swept up in Hitler’s determination to rid the world of Jewish people? Did any survive the concentration camps? Did any make it to America?

So began the research project that became this book. In 1996, Ogilvie and Miller began the arduous task of tracking down 937 people. It was a daunting task considering WWII had been over for more than 50 years.

Ten years in the making (that’s how long it took to track down all 937), this book is filled with tales of death, survivorship, research, dogged determination and sometimes just plain ol’ luck. What affected me the most was the passenger list and the photographs from the boat. Pictures of people without names makes them less personal. When you sit down to read this book, be sure to have a box of tissues handy.

 

I give Refuge Denied: The St. Louis Passengers and the Holocaust 6 out of 5 stars

 

 

 

Hitler’s First Victims: The Quest For Justice

Hitler’s First Victims: The Quest For Justice by Timothy W. Ryback, 273 pages

This was a fair account of Hitler’s earliest years in power and the people who were involved with getting the first concentration camps started.  We find out who the first four men who were killed in the camps were, along with several other casualties of the camps before the war started.  Josef Hartinger kept an account of these men who were killed and he was instrumental in the Nuremberg Trials after the war, bringing some of these people to justice.  Unfortunately, I felt like this was a really dry account.  There were parts that were interesting but I expected, based on the subject material, that it would have held my attention more than it did.  I found my mind wandering more than once while I was trying to read it.  I can’t say that I would recommend this book to anyone but hard core enthusiasts of holocaust and World War II information.

The Butterfly and the Violin

The Butterfly and the Violin by Kristy Cambron   330 pages

Present day Manhattan: Art dealer Sera James saw a beautiful painting as a young girl. She has made it her life’s work to find that painting, which has been missing for decades. The painting’s subject is that of a young female violinist with a shaved head and a number tattooed on her forearm. In my mind’s eye, I see a black-and-white painting with the girl’s eyes in color. Her assistant, Penny, gets a lead on the painting. It’s owned by a wealthy San Francisco family, and Sera rushes to try to obtain the painting. 

That’s one story in the complex novel.

1942-1945 Europe.  First in Vienna. Adele is Vienna’s Sweetheart. At sixteen, the young woman is a violin prodigy. She plays the most beautiful music Austrians have ever heard. It doesn’t hurt that Adele is also a beautiful young woman. Her father is a high-ranking Nazi, and Adele is often called upon to play for the upper echelons of the Third Reich. She has fallen in love with one of her colleagues, Vladimir Nicolai, and has embraced his mission to help a Jewish family flee the city. Once it’s know that she’s been involved with Nicolai, she is arrested at her family’s home and sent to Auschwitz. Second, Auschwitz. Adele struggles to survive the harsh realities of the concentration camp, but she is housed in a special musical group. 

That’s the other main story line.

The Butterfly and the Violin is one of those stories that weaves back and forth, which I like. The thing that struck me the most is how Adele was forced to play a violin, not only to stay alive, but as the concentration camp inmates were marched in and out of the camp, some to work, some to die.

The story lacked an overall tension, and wrapped up much too quickly. I give The Butterfly and the Violin 4 out of 5 stars

Last Man in Russia

The Last Man in Russia: The Struggle to Save a Dying Nation by Oliver Bullough, 255 pages

This is the story of Russian Orthodox priest and dissident Fr Dmitry Dudko, the story of twenty-first century Russia, and the story of author Bullough's quest through the latter to understand the former.  Or maybe it's the other way around.

Today's Russia faces a declining population, staggering levels of governmental corruption, and epidemic rates of alcoholism.  The origins of this situation lie in the nation's seventy year experience of communism, which sought to crush the Church, the family, and the individual human spirit.  Fr Dmitry fought against the state on all these levels, becoming one of the leaders of the Russian spiritual revival of the seventies.  He fought for community and communion, for faith and trust.  He did so even though the hierarchy of his own church had been suborned by the communist government.  He fought against enemies of flesh and blood as well as against principalities and powers.

This description may suggest an inspirational story of one man's triumph over a totalitarian state.  The story of Fr Dmitry, however, is a tragedy, and his tragedy is Russia's.  Bullough does an incredible job of telling the story of a man and his country, and the suffering, horror, and betrayal they shared.

Auschwitz Escape

 

The Auschwitz Escape by Joel C Rosenberg

468 Pages

This is the story of Jacob Weisz and his experience through World War II and the Auschwitz concentration camp.  When Jacob is swept up in the genocide of the Germans during World War II he becomes involved in a plot to escape Auschwitz and let the world know of the atrocities taking place.  

This was recommended to me by a patron and the best way I can described the book is it is as if James Patterson had written a book about Auschwitz.  While it is based upon an array of true stories, you don't get emotionally invested with any of the characters and Rosenberg fails to convey the true horror of the situation.  It becomes a thriller set during World War II.